MiddledAgedGuy

@[email protected]

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Is Ubuntu deserving the hate? (lemmy.ml)

Long story short, I have a desktop with Fedora, lovely, fast, sleek and surprisingly reliable for a near rolling distro (it failed me only once back around Fedora 34 or something where it nuked Grub). Tried to install on a 2012 i7 MacBook Air… what a slog!!! Surprisingly Ubuntu runs very smooth on it. I have been bothering all...

MiddledAgedGuy,

Ubuntu is a tough one. I don’t like it. I don’t like snaps, but more than that I don’t like their direction in general.

But I have some respect for them too. I think they played a pretty significant role in Linux being as popular (relatively speaking) as it is, and I don’t feel like they have any ill intent.

So I don’t personally care for it but I’m glad it’s around I guess is my point?

YouTube screwing itself with adblockers again

I use Firefox and uBlock Origin. Not sure what kind of experience anyone else is having with YouTube, but recently my home page has been empty because I “don’t have watch history turned on”. Okay, fine. I won’t be able to browse suggested videos, and I’ll spend less time on their platform....

MiddledAgedGuy,

The YouTube adblocker battle is going to be a constantly moving target, so take this with a grain of salt as who knows when it’ll break.

I use Firefox with ublock origin and watch directly on YouTube. I don’t sign in, and I track the content I follow via rss. No ads, no nags, no issues.

Piped and similar as well as yt-dlp are also great and are better options for giving YouTube the middle finger, which I fully endorse. Just giving another option.

MiddledAgedGuy,

My guess is you have an nvidia card and are using the nouveau (open source) module instead of the nvidia (proprietary) one.

Assuming that’s correct, here’s Ubuntu’s documentation on that. ubuntu.com/server/…/nvidia-drivers-installation

MiddledAgedGuy,

Oh I totally misread, Ubuntu was what you had in the VM.

If you open the Nvidia settings and it sees your GPU(s), then it should be working, if you hadn’t already come to that conclusion.

Fedora is a solid choice!

MiddledAgedGuy,

I hope they don’t ruin it, but I find myself cautiously optimistic.

  • Since Kojima is involved, I think there will be an attempt to do it well, not just a low effort cash grab
  • The Last Of Us TV series shows that these adaptations can be good.
MiddledAgedGuy,

I don’t agree with your exact reasoning on the middle ground, but I think there’s truth in the underlying sentiment.

I do think that users that are are competent with technology but unfamiliar with Linux are pretty likely to get frustrated with it. I had this discussion with a friend just yesterday. They want to try out Linux because of frustration with Windows 11’s restrictive hardware requirements. But they also want to ease in to it. I think that’s wise. In this specific case, I think if they tried to dump Windows in it’s entirety and try to use Arch right off the bat, they’d get frustrated and give up. But if they tried a user friendly distro on a secondary piece of hardware? I think that has a good chance of creating a new Linux user.

I guess the point of that rambling paragraph is that that type of a user is a challenge, but there is middle ground to be had.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I had (my opinion has changed) what I imagine is an unpopular opinion that people with dependants should be taxed more heavily (except in cases where they’re already under the poverty line), not less. I’m from the US but a quick search indicates that Canada works similarly. Feel free to correct this ignorant American if that’s inaccurate (not /s)

But I’m also incensed by this article. I realize that this is greed of the rentee and not government taxation. But still, going after a couple financially for wanting to start a family rubs me the wrong way. So my opinions need adjustment, I think.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Overpopulation is a genuine concern of mine, and I would probably focus on that point if I were explaining it to someone face to face so as to hopefully not come across as an asshole.

But there’s a selfish reason as well. I get taxed pretty hard, and it occurred to me that people with dependants consume more while contributing less per person (assuming similar income levels). Which frustrated me. But like I said, I’m rethinking this. I want a more socialist society, and that line of thinking does not fit.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Yeah, they do. I’ve thought this for… years. But I’ve never actually put it to words. Now that I have, I feel like a self interested asshole. But I’m capable of change.

And that said, CCB seems like a pretty good system. It makes me think of earned income tax credit here. Not the same thing, but it’s fairly sizable tax credits for those with low income and dependents.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Sorry to have caused you stress! I hope for more breathing room financially for you and yours.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Those are great points and well stated. I hadn’t looked at those things from those perspectives. In particular these hit home:

is it better to tax parents less (so they have to work fewer hours and can take care of their kids)

Taxing families and single parents more effectively robs them of time with their kids. I don’t want that.

And the general idea behind your overpopulation statement. Punishing those that have or want children financially isn’t the way. Making societal changes is.

MiddledAgedGuy,

You’re right.

My income is higher than average for my area (not by a lot), and so of course my tax contribution is higher. That makes sense and is how it should work. That in general never bothered me.

I’m trying to think of what triggered my irritation specifically for tax breaks for those with dependants in the first place and I’m coming up empty. Regardless, I was wrong to think that way.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I’m not personally familiar with PopOS, but in reading up real quick it looks like it’s selling point is baked in proprietary drivers.

If you want a “just works with my hardware” distro, that sounds like a solid choice. But, since you’re technically inclined I might suggest avoiding it. Proprietary drivers come with their own problems and I think there’s value in having to consciously choosing to use them, which will make you more able to handle/remove them if needed. There is some personal bias in this I admit. I don’t care for proprietary anything if I have a choice.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I don’t like helping non-tech people because they don’t want to learn. They just want it fixed. I understand the mindset and I’m that same way on other things. But I don’t want to be their “tech guy”.

I do like helping in the FOSS community though because people generally do want to learn.

MiddledAgedGuy,

/c/[email protected] seems to be more active. Might be a better choice.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, and there’s a good number of responses so maybe I’m up in the night, but it seems to me Manjaro’s philosophy is somewhat counterintuitive to Arch’s. Arch pointedly obfuscates system internals as little as is reasonable to “keep it simple” from a system perspective. Manjaro simplifies things for the user but creates additional obfuscation. I can see some people who value Arch’s approach being less than amenable to that.

But that’s not a reason to not use it. If Manjaro’s approach appeals to you, use it.

BTW, I don’t use Arch (at the moment)

MiddledAgedGuy,

I’ve thought about putting a distro sticker on my laptop, but I’ve been on a distro hopping kick so that seems unwise. Perhaps good ol’ Tux should go on there 🐧

I use linux for the same reason I wear fuzzy socks and sweaters

My understanding of the history of fashion is that back in the 1950s America it was expected that you wore a suit/dress at work unless you had a different uniform. There were a bunch of very boring people who thought that we should be wearing office job garb all the time, because they wore suits so much it was their default...

MiddledAgedGuy,

I appreciate the not your office OS commentary. I have the use Windows for work. I do this mostly via RDP to a work provided laptop, as well as a win10 VM for MS Teams. And I take great pleasure in shutting those down at the end of the work day.

The last tolerable version of Windows for me was XP. I find myself fond of Windows 98, but that’s probably just nostalgia speaking.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

It’s hyperbole, sure. But it’s not inaccurate. Any given police offer, and I want to believe a large majority mean well. But on the whole there’s truth to it.

Edit: A few, but notably more positive phrasing towards individual officers.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I don’t agree with that. Anything they can do can be circumvented as long as there’s people willing and able to do the work. And because YouTube is so ubiquitous I see that continuing.

They could certainly be more aggressive though. I think their pace is elaborate. Boil the frog slowly.

MiddledAgedGuy,

The article suggests they’ve tried this:

YouTube employs a wide variety of techniques to circumvent ad blockers, such as embedding an ad in the video itself (so the ad blocker can’t distinguish between the two)

Though a low effort search on my part just now couldn’t corroborate that. But even if current adblocking software can’t handle it, real time commercial detection software exists and could, I assume, be applied here.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Oh, yeah. Hadn’t thought of that. Or maybe it’d just blank out the ad while it was playing and you’d just have to wait. Either way, annoying.

I got to thinking you could crowdsource it, like sponsorblock. But that’d probably only catch popular videos, and YouTube could just randomize what ads and when.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I think we’ll continue to see an uptick. Speaking specifically of Linux it’ll probably be mostly from the steam deck, but I believe we’ll see an increase in PC gaming as well. As Linux game support and ease of use increases, and Windows becomes increasingly user hostile. I’m not talking about a mass exodus or anything. Most people don’t know, won’t care, or dislike Linux. But maybe we can tack several more percentage points on there in the next few years.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I have my password database synced multiple places and I use two yubikeys (one as a backup) to unlock said password database and for OTP. This protects me from losing access to anything as a result of a lost/broken device.

It doesn’t help in the case of being unable to perform those functions yourself for whatever reason. Perhaps give instructions on how to access all of that to someone trusted?

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I’d recommend against any of those choices.

  • Puppy Linux: It’s a solid live boot environment but it’s not really ideal in comparison to the major distros on a permanent install.
  • Alpine Linux: Since it uses musl instead of glibc, you’re likely to run into problems
  • Linux from scratch: Going through LFS is a great way to get a solid understanding of Linux, but unless you want to spend more time maintaining your system than using it, it’s going to be a frustrating experience.

Try one of the distros others have suggested.

Edit: I checked the specs on that hardware and yeah that’s going to struggle. Maybe Alpine would be ok. It’s fairly easy to spin up and might be fun to play with on that hardware. You’ll probably want a fairly large swap if you’re planning on using a desktop environment.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I symlink the AppImage. It’s still a manual process in that you have to recreate the symlink but feels like less of a hassle than updating the desktop file.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I want Space Engineers, but better.

Building vehicles, ships, and bases block by block as your character is mechanic I enjoy that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I also like the resource gathering. But I would like better physics, better enemy interactions and AI, and water instead of just ice.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I haven’t. I just looked at it and it looks great! And pretty inexpensive. I’ll check it out, thanks!

MiddledAgedGuy,

I hadn’t heard any of this. I have very little trouble believing it though. I’ll have to educate myself.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I think most of us FOSS folks will agree that GIMP is pretty unintuitive.

MiddledAgedGuy,
  1. I’ll follow a search result to reddit, but I don’t actively browse it.
  2. Never used either. I created a Mastodon account somewhere once upon a time but never used it.
  3. My friends use Discord, and aren’t interested in moving. So I use it.
  4. I don’t post or comment on YouTube, but I do follow a handful of people. Not signed in, just using rss feeds.
MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

Highly regarded VPN service.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I agree. I don’t use Arch (I have in the past) but I use Arch Wiki heavily.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I just distro hopped to nixos. I was unaware of it until I came to the fediverse. The declarative system, once you get over the small learning curve, I feel is very easy to understand and configure. Creating and being able to roll back system configurations is a great feature too.

Previously I was using void. I quite enjoy it too and am sure I’ll revisit it. It’s a light (no systemd) rolling release distro with an emphasis on stable packages.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I think “lost it’s soul” is a great way to put it re: Ubuntu.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I appreciate what he’s done for the FOSS movement.

I’ve read up his commentary about underage women, choosing to form my own opinion. And yeah I find it pretty gross.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I get that it’s probably a joke. But I would absolutely go out of my way to get small bills to buy basic grilled sandwiches from this person complete with, what I assume, is barely hospitable service.

I feel like that’s kind of a hipster thing? I don’t care for the label, but I can’t argue it sometimes fits.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I can’t argue with that!

I enjoyed the all too accurate description.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Random article I found said about 26% of people in the US use adblocking services. Working on the assumption that’s reasonably accurate, that’s a pretty big chunk of ad revenue.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I’m not much of a fan of Discovery, as seems to be the case for many Trek fans. It’s alright though. But this aspect I found myself enjoying. I liked the whole mycelial network angle.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Water cooling feels unnecessary and expensive. Like most of my hobbies. I don’t get this particular one, but I can appreciate why people might.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Bad behavior in Windows article up on the Fediverse for four hours and no one telling us how their Linux laptop doesn’t have this problem?

My Linux laptop doesn’t have this problem 😁.

Sounds like it’s a combo of bad Windows behavior and buggy implementations, but had to deliver the joke first.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Is there a specific benefit that you’re expecting from dual booting? That tidbit might help us talk you out of it 😁

Seriously, I think a VM is almost always the better solution.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I have no great solution to games that don’t work. Thankfully it’s increasingly rare. And I get wanting to do something just for curiosity’s sake.

There’s PCI-E pass through to hand direct control of your GPU to the VM if you aren’t already familiar, but my two cents is dual boot is less of a pain.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Starfield. I know people are polarized about it, but I’m enjoying it.

Also Valheim.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Just :s/x/w/g on every bit of source code and recompile wscreensaver.

MiddledAgedGuy,

$$$ > $$

MiddledAgedGuy,

I love Linux, but I’ll admit what you say has some credence.

Linux has a lot of polish now. Most big distros are going to have an easy to use GUI installer, and there are several mature very usable desktop environments.

But, for example, if a new user has an nvidia card it’s probably going to be a poor experience for them and they won’t understand why or how to fix it. So there’s shortcomings there. I blame nvidia for this specific issue, but your average user probably doesn’t care about that. They just want their video card to work well.

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