ProtonBadger

I find it bloated if the system have things I don't need are noticeably using up RAM and CPU. I couldn't care less about extra unused packages on disk, they're dormant. I don't care about a few daemons or resident apps I don't use either if they're idle all the time and use minimal RAM. Bloat for me is something that noticeably affects my running system.

Well, those of us who care all say that but I for one have to access government and banking websites in several countries, if they implement this I have no choice. This abomination must be prevented in the first place.

Yeah also I think we should be careful about calling anything we find annoying Enshittification, otherwise we'll dilute the concept and it loses all meaning. I see this happening with hyperbole all the time, for example one of the strongest words in the dictionary "hate" have almost no meaning as people use it for even the mildest dislikes instead of utilizing a richer vocabulary. Let's reserve Enshittification for Xitter and friends.

The appearance and how you use it is a very important part of a browser, also there are things like sync of history/bookmarks/etc. and "send a tab to Firefox on another device" functionality.

A few decades ago I got a letter (snail-mail even) that my domain was expiring soon and asking if I wanted to continue. I signed into the link given and paid a small amount, only to realize I hadn't even registered my domain with that registrar in the first place. I locked my domain to prevent a transfer, but obviously the money were lost.

Yeah and I'm not convinced a soldering iron is something everyone should have :)

and suffer subpar virtualization

Meh I can get a Win11 guest that interacts well and conveniently with the host and its peripherals and if all I'm doing is running tax software, office365 or compile my Rust app to test it cross platform - vbox is perfectly fine. I'm not running anything demanding.

I'm not taking a stance against KVM it's great, but rather saying that for some of us it's not that big of an issue which solution to use, it just needs to be convenient.

Neon is bleeding edge showcase for Plasma, might not be good for beginners.

Yeah, I am comfortable with most DE's, I'm flexible but I prefer KDE+Wayland.

Dolphin is poorly threaded though. For example: If I drag a large file from a network share to the desktop I can not drag another one to the desktop until the first copy have completed. If I connect my VPN or just an away-from-home wifi, Dolphin freezes, probably because it can't find the local SMB connections in the "Remotes" group.

I'm also watching COSMIC, it has a very well thought out architecture though I suspect the first version will be too simplistic in terms of features - for example vs Dolphin.

And much time is saved from debugging. It makes a lot of sense that we let the computer/compiler keep an eye on lifetimes, allocations and access so the code is much more correct once it compiles.

I feel like my old colleagues and I have spent a far too large part of the last 20 years chasing memory issues in C++. We are all fallible, let the compiler do more.

Yeah, I also had apps like Steam native break once or twice due to library updates (such as Mesa) - the downside to rolling distros. However, the Flatpak version continued to work so now I only use that. I don't use mods though.

I'm now gravitating towards treating my rolling distro a bit like an immutable; more Flatpaks, avoid user repositories.

It was not a joke, I've worked on Windows and Linux for decades and I've worked on Symbian OS and Android as an OS engineer. With the right hardware and stable drivers neither crash. Anecdotally (which admittedly proves nothing) my gaming PC's only ever crashed because I had bad RAM, which i diagnosed with memtest86.

It's not the operating system. This is the weakness of Windows/Linux - the many many vendors of PC components and badly written drivers. It's not the operating system's fault as such, unless you count the OS' fault for not running a microkernel with drivers in a less privileged ring like Symbian OS did.

Now, the UI freezing and having weird random slowdown that's another thing and one of the reasons I prefer Linux. I'm very grateful for Valve/Proton that I have been able to ditch Windows completely now.

Yeah, I’ve used Linux in some capacity since the late nineties and know my way around. I can’t be bothered to fiddle with an Arch install, I’ve moved on, I got better things to do. So I decided to try out EOS on my new laptop. A few clicks and it was running with proprietary NV drivers by default, which are updated as needed by yay. I was playing games within 20 min from my Steam Library preserved on another ssd.

Only thing I had to do was install btrfs-assistant, plasma-Wayland and whatever apps I need.

The most laborious bit was configuring various apps to use Wayland but that didn’t have to happen immediately.

Windows is rock solid and doesn’t crash unless there are problems with a 3rd party driver or hardware like RAM. That’s why custom rigs can sometimes have problems because it’s not all controlled by one company.

I prefer Linux though. I find Windows annoying.

I'm a bit confused, OS upgrades are free... I've been back and forth between iOS and Android a few times, I avoid lock-in to either ecosystem by using 3rd party cloud services like Bitwarden, Signal, Dropbox free (10GB), etc. I can switch over in half an hour. Most recently they started supporting the open standard Matter so they can use same smart home things as Google or Home Assistant.

As for "bloat", well there's a few apps I don't use, most can be uninstalled, if not it only takes up a bit of disk space, not RAM/CPU so they don't impact performance and I keep my phones for many years. Right now I got an iPhone 13, it runs like new, it'll last for a long time.

Are we upset about what they call support staff? All companies do weird marketing stuff, it matters not.

I don't use a Mac, I run Linux on my gaming PC. If I didn't game I'd be equally happy with a Mac, the new hardware is great and the OS doesnt get in my way. In contrast with Windows where one feels like a hand-puppet.

It's very exciting. It fixes a number of bugs that exist on Intel and AMD as well and has a lot of polishing and features. It'll be the defining Wayland experience for DEs and gaming.

Yeah, when I saw the update I canceled, logged out and ran zypper dup from a tty. Rebooted and logged into a Plasma 6/Wayland session. Went swimmingly.

I think this kind of update is where "atomics"/immutables really shine. Install the update on a new separate snapshot and activate it at boot.

We get tribal over everything. Countries, gangs, skin color, sexuality, religion, even bloody brand of smartphone makes us bicker or call the other person dumb. And the budding optimistic globalism that was happening have totally reversed in the last few years, it was an illusion.

I've stopped watching/reading news. I can't take it anymore. I lost hope.

Maybe in the extreme future but right now we've just barely started as a species, will we exist long enough to grow up?

EndeavourOS on my gaming laptop. I do productivity, Rust programming and gaming, mostly GuildWars2 and various RPGs. Waiting for Baldur Gate 3 !

Meh, if just wanting a lightweight laptop that's fast even when unplugged there's people who would be OK paying $700 for a M1 MBAir or a bit more for a 16GB version. They're great laptops, the Rust compiler is very fast on M1/2 and with no fan noise. If buying Apple Refurbished they're like new.

First start the process of getting a new wheelchair, my current one is 13 years old and leaves a trail of nuts and bolts.

I’ve been using OSMC on two of my TVs for years. First on RPis, then on Vero boxes. They connect via SMB to my NAS for content. OSMC/Kodi can play almost anything without needing wasteful transcoding. I use them daily.

For Netflix/Prime it’s either built in on the TV or running on a Firestick. Interestingly one can sideload Kodi on a Firestick, so an OSMC device isn’t necessary in that scenario.

Was a student, couldn't afford CDs.

Nowadays I

1. don't want to subscribe to too many streaming services, each just having a few things I want to watch. Also I broke my neck and I'm now on disability, there's no budget to waste, at all.
2. Like to watch old shows and "rare" movies that aren't available anywhere.

Resistance is futile!

I loved that period where WWW was buzzing with naive excitement and USENET was still popular for having conversations, it was a good time.

One doesn't have to use the feature and it's not like it's going to be felt, nor noticeably use any resources when not in use.

Read up on .pacsave/.pacnew files, the distro might still work if an update creates these but if you don't diff/integrate them manually your OS might slowly "rot". So watch out for these when running an update. You'll see them less often if you don't change stuff much yourself.

Consider using BTRFS and test how to rollback, in case you need it.

Hassleback potatoes with butter.

Pretty close to default. Using SF Compact Display fonts and Newaita reborn icons. Most of the time I have a bunch of windows open and I rarely see the desktop, except when I start the day :)

Ah well, I've used Virtualbox, Vmware and KVM and I found them all useful for my purposes. Vmware is very slick and has an edge on easy Gfx acceleration for Windows guests but since they're now owned by Broadcom that might become a problem.

I'm happy with Virtualbox on my desktop and KVM on a few servers. I don't really care to take sides.

I don't have a mac but I do know some of the history as I used to: macOS used to be around $130 but macOS Snow Leopard (2009), Lion (2011) and Mountain Lion (2012) were around $20-$30. Since Mavericks (2013) onwards it has been free.

Libreoffice is available, you can install any application you want on a mac provided it's built for macOS, just like you can on Windows and Linux. You don't have to install it through the Store either, you can just download it from wherever it is available and install it.

Business model for the mac is that Apple sells hardware, they also have a few applications one can buy such as Final Cut Pro.

The business model for application developers is up to them.

There are tools/package managers for compiling, installing, and upgrading open-source software on a mac, MacPorts and Homebrew.

You can't run AMD64 Windows applications but there are both free and paid virtual machines (Parallels, UTM) that can run Ubuntu for Aarch64 and Windows Aarch64 in a VM. Funny enough ARM Windows has a translation layer so it can run AMD64 applications. Don't expect great graphical performance running Windows in a VM. You might also be able to run older AMD64 operating systems (Windows 7) within UTM but it'll be slow.

Superstition by Stevie Wonder.

You specifically only asked for one but I’ll be a rebel and give you Cover You in Oil by AC/DC as a bonus.

I use stuff like Rustup, in a Distrobox dedicated to the work area.

150Mbps advertised, 170Mbps in reality. 15Mbps up @CAD50/mo.

I had 1Gbps before but I monitored my usage: playing MMOs (<1Mbps, latency is important not bandwidth), watching Netflix (<10Mbps in HD, ~25Mbps if 4K) and minor stuff like Skype. iOS or Linux SW updates run in the background anyway and many servers were limited in their end. Only things that could very rarely max it out were bittorrent which I usually am not in any hurry with anyway, my BT machine runs 24/7. Most of the time my connection was almost idle.

So I downgraded and saved money for more important things. My building is getting a second fiber provider soon but it still starts at CAD70 for 500Mbps, so I'll pass.

(Posted in response to Virtual box and VMware)

What? Is there some new controversy going on ?

I use it too, it’s great. I’ve been using Linux for decades and I know it intimately but why waste time fiddling with installing when Endeavour OS can do it with sane defaults while I brew a coffee ‽ I recently got a new laptop and I was ready to play Baldur’s Gate 3 from the old SSD in 20 min.

I did spend a minute installing btrfs-assistant and btrfsmaintenance though, it’s nice being able to boot a snapshot from grub just in case. I could probably have grabbed Garuda Linux instead but I’m happy with Endeavour.

I always wondered whether it's flora and fauna dependent to some extent, so some people have bacteria that don't damage the teeth and other have the nasty ones and have a constant battle.

I used dd-wrt for a few years, but I realized I didn't need it as my new router have the functionality I want. I also realized my router had much better throughput with the stock firmware.

Yeah, hybrid graphics is a blessing. I have an Intel iGPU for Wayland/VA-API and Nvidia offload for Steam and it's great.

Same, I heard about Digg but never went there. Usenet->Slashdot->Reddit.

I still have a low 4-digit Slashdot account I never use. I felt sad when it got sour. In the the beginning when people announced passion projects on Slashdot the comments were "That's so cool, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Not something I'll be needing but I wish them the best of luck.". In late stage Slashdot it would be "Why! What a waste of time. They should all focus on what I use". Unfortunately that self centered type of negativity is everywhere these days.