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MudMan, to linux in "Help me choose my first distro" and other questions for beginners
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I'd agree that can be an issue, but my guess is that trying to resolve those preemptively just adds to the perception of flamewars and drama around the platform. I'm a big proponent of not bringing stuff up to newcomers unless it's very directly in their way.

Ultimately a new user moving to a new OS needs two things: for everything that used to work for them to still work AND for at least one thing that didn't use to work to work better.

A useful guide for newcomers should drive to making those two things true, IMO. Sitting there choosing the nicest looking UI is a great passtime for tinkerers, but newcomers need exactly one option: the one that works. They can get to the fun customization later.

To me at the moment this reads less like a welcoming introduction to a exciting new alternative and more like a cautionary tale of why I shouldn't try. Oh, so my Nvidia hardware is a no-go, most of my apps may not work, I have to choose from a bunch of stuff that all looks the same to me and apparently there is a crapton of drama about things I have never heard about or understand, but that people seem to have very strong opinions about. Well, I guess my old printer no longer being supported on Win11 is not that big of a deal...

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I'm saying this constructively. Experts have a tendency to underestimate how lost newcomers can get and to misunderstand what the real roadblocks and churn points are. I'm trying to provide a perspective on those.

MudMan, (edited ) to linux in "Help me choose my first distro" and other questions for beginners
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

I am always amused by how "Linux newbie" guides are consistently tons of pages of choice paralysis and esoteric concepts but they all take a stop at "well, the UI looks kinda like Windows on this one, so that will probably help".

Look, I'm not particularly new to Linux, but also don't daily drive it. In my experience the UI is not the problem. Ever. Compatibility and setup are the problem. Every Linux distro I've ever seen is perfectly usable, nitpicks aside. The part that will make a newcomer bounce off is configuration. Especially if they're trying to mess with relatively unusual hardware like laptops driven by proprietary software, with MUX switched GPUs and whatnot. Only people deep into the ecosystem care about the minutia of the UI and the package management.

MudMan, to linux in Based KDE 🗿
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Who in the world celebrated that?

Like, I get the self-reinforcing bubble that Linux communities exist in and all, but... nobody did that.

The vast majority of Windows users are random people that never touch anything beyond the Start menu in their entire computing lives. What segment of the Windows userbase is out there celebrating any features, let alone command line anything? This is not a thing. At least not in numbers large enough to matter.

Sorry, I try not to get involved in these arguments. Frankly, grown adults taking sides on operating systems of all things like it's Sega vs Nintendo in a 90s playground seems very strange but I don't begrudge people finding communities wherever. It's just... you know, come on.

MudMan, to memes in Title
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

This. There is zero chance of creating change by voting for a third party selectively in a FPTP system.

Electoral systems are known to be extremely stable because all the power is in the hands of people who benefit from the current system, again by definition. Crucially, it doesn't matter WHO they are, if they won with this system, they are for this system.

To get electoral reform you need those who benefit to find it either ethically important or politically expedient to enact reform. Right now is actually a good time to start bringing up that issue, because one has to assume there is a growing realization in Democrats and at least a segment of semi-reasonable conservatives that the current system is exposed to very, very bad things in a short timeframe.

So if the US is going to get electoral reform done without going through the process of setting the country, and subsequently the planet, on fire you need a) a Dem in power, and b) a massive consensus and outright downpour of activist pressure for this on every level of government. Probably forever, seeing how the entire rest of the system is a mess, but baby steps.

MudMan, to memes in Title
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

I can't imagine anybody in the US would advocate for the nonsense in the OP above ruthlessly, relentlessly campaigning for this instead.

It's like they're cosplaying at politics.

MudMan, to memes in Title
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

How to make that relevant again: Get a time machine.

The fascists are already on the ballot, in case anybody missed that detail.

I swear, this stuff barely played back when it seemed like an idle concern of the politically inclined. Today it seems entirely detached from reality.

But hey, by all means, absolutely get the kind of reform that would make this make sense again. I want a world in which this thread doesn't feel like either disingenuous trolling, a conservative psyop or entirely delusional. I want a world where Americans can vote for multiple parties and get proper coalitions and stuff.

But seriously, until that point, just vote for whoever the Democrat is.

MudMan, (edited ) to risa in Ransomware
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Ah... ok, wow, that's a lot of relativity to explain from scratch for a non-physicist. There must be someone else...

Here, this one is a bit dense but it addresses Star Trek by name, so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTf4eqdQXpA

Bonus points for starting with the point that forget warp, subspace communication breaks causality already, so you don't even need to boldly go anywhere for any of it to be kinda busted.

If that's a bit too dry you can search for a similar subject line, there are TONS of explanations like this one out there.

Anyway, none of it makes sense, it's all for funsies anyway. Suspend disbelief, ye nerds, and enjoy your sci-fi.

MudMan, to risa in Ransomware
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Don't make me break out the spacetime diagram, young man. Because I WILL break out the spacetime diagram.

Anyway, doesn't matter. Star Trek has messed with time travel since TOS season 1. And that was after they started introducing magic men with god powers, which they did in episode 3. It makes zero sense to get nerdy about it. That's my point here.

MudMan, to risa in Ransomware
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

You should get back into it, though. It's all pretty solid, except maybe some of Picard.

I did bounce off on DS9, too. That was a rough time for the franchise. Glad people enjoy it retroactively, though.

MudMan, to risa in Ransomware
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Counterpoint:

Q

MudMan, to risa in Ransomware
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Wait, no they both do. Normal warp does. FTL as a concept does.

Hey, props to them for embracing it immediately and doing time travel nonsense right away.

MudMan, to risa in There is another
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, right. Like Riker hadn't tried that already on the first day he got access to a holodeck.

MudMan, to privacy in Next smartphone I buy, which one do you recommend?
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

Nope. Honestly, I stopped tinkering with that stuff altogether ages ago. It's a candybar that gives me text messages and takes photos, I don't need to make it my own.

MudMan, (edited ) to privacy in Next smartphone I buy, which one do you recommend?
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

I have a Xperia 1.

It has a flagship SoC, but it also has a SD card slot, a headphone jack, no notch or cutout, front firing stereo speakers and a nice blocky look without a massive camera bump.

The downside is software support can be a bit spotty and the cameras are made for manual use, as opposed to being AI-driven point-and-shoot things. That last one could be a positive depending on your preference, though.

But overall? I'm very satisfied, and I went there specifically because I was tired of the ongoing Apple-ification of Samsung in the first place. You may want to consider coming to the dark side and incentivizing Sony to keep making a phone with a feature set, instead of copy-pasting Apple's or Samsung's playbook.

MudMan, to memes in Work, work
@MudMan@kbin.social avatar

See, for me it's often the other way around. Wtih the usual suspects we're often just in each other's ears for a while and moving around to get a coffee or even just pacing up and down to stretch our legs. It's the outside-facing stuff that requires the face time.

That depends on your business, I suppose. Either way the audio only stuff is definitely the better choice IMO.

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