Quite the opposite. Use drives from as many different manufacturers as you can, especially when buying them at the same time. You want to avoid similar lifecycles and similar potential fabrication defects as much as possible, because those things increase the likelihood that they will fall close to each other - particularly with the stress of rebuilding the first one that failed.

Well, the US is involved in the war, even if indirectly, and considers Ukraine a strategic partner, so one could say he’s acting against the interests of the US.

The thing is, just like software subscriptions, you aren’t buying a piece of software, you’re buying the right to use it. You can be pretty sure that they have legalese in the eula that says that your right to use the software expires with non-use. I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even let it expire by simple deciding to no longer support it.

And what do you think will happen if their license servers ever go offline?

For the longest time I never bought anything digital, but I eventually caved to steam. I still blatantly refuse to join other digital platforms, except gog where I can download the software and it works without any remote server.

Same for music: I refuse to use Spotify. I buy from 7digital and the like, where I can download either mp3 or FLAC.

Hey, Tony, I’ll give you five bucks and a swift kick in the nuts for Sony. It’s the best offer I ever made for it!

As if any spyware worth it’s salt didn’t install itself as service with an innocuous name. Something like “Facebook” or “TikTok”.