I think it's one thing if the pharmacist just quietly handed off the task of providing the prescription to someone else who was there to keep things moving, but what seems like the attempt to deliberately obstruct was well over the line.

I mean they could add a diff thing, like how AUR helpers do it. It's not much, but it's something.

Not really true. You don't necessarily need open source drivers for Linux to play well. There was actually a period where NVidia was the better option on Linux because their proprietary drivers were better than the alternatives. If the company cares to manage those drivers they will work well. That said, it looks like AMD has embraced FOSS and NVidia finally opened their other drivers, so things are looking up at least. Having binary blobs for certain shit is not ideal either, but I'll take it if it means more people will move to Linux and everything else will still be open.

Do stable, use Flatpaks for anything you need to be newer. It works well.

Used to be Arch, now I shill for Debian.

Depends on what you mean for security/privacy. You can use Tails or whatever and have everything encrypted and then just be logging into your Facebook account on Chrome without an ad blocker.

Most Linux distros are secure enough for the average person who isn’t being targeted by some crazy state level actor. If you’re particularly concerned stick with a distro that has a security team like Debian. As for privacy that has more to do with the sites you browse and have accounts with but obviously avoid Google (I just use Firefox instead of Chrome) use an adblocker like ublock origin, along with maybe something like decentraleyes.

Non free firmware specifically, since it's a really bad user experience for new users to just not have things work because they don't have the option to choose to use non-free firmware.

Nothing really. Arch is still great, I just kept having stuff happen where I’d suddenly find out there was a new bug in something at inopportune times. Just the nature of being bleeding edge. Nothing broke severely, but like if you want to join a Zoom call or play a game with friends or something, having something break randomly that you have to fix, even if it just takes a quick search or 5 minutes of troubleshooting can get tiresome.

Also, all of the customization stuff that Arch allows is not as appealing to me anymore since my skill level with Linux has reached a point where I can get super granular with pretty much any distro. Add to that flatpak reducing my need to depend on the AUR, and there you have it.

Idk, on the one hand I could see the argument against organizations dodging the Red Hat fees by choosing free downstream, but then again, like, everything that RHEL does was always available? The reason you'd pay is for the support you'd get from them?

To be honest I never really understood why you'd specifically want something like CentOS over say, Debian - I mean, outside of I guess, .rpm packaging?

Yes, and?

Also I cannot have systemd without binary logs.

This is literally just false.

I would say the exact opposite if you're playing competitive FPS. Xorg tears and is super jittery like a motherfucker. Wayland is the only thing that properly drives my 240hz monitor.

Business as usual considering their history of Unity and Mir, so.

Uh, yeah, Debian is about being stable. Being conservative is aligned with that. When you're a cornerstone distro, you want to be sure about the changes you're making, especially when they are likely to have long term, far reaching consequences.

Pretty sure they are absolutely relying on Red Hat. Red Hat provide the system plumbing for most linux distros, under the lgpl, and are heavily integrated into RHEL, Fedora, Rocky, Alma, Cent, Wayland, Pulseaudio, Pipewire & Gnome development.

Yes, and? If those things went closed source tomorrow, the previously open source would not disappear. People could continue to build on it.

Debian would not have had the most publicly painful year I’ve even seen it go through with the systemd debate and Lennart would not have issued Gentoo with a wakeup call from Red Hat.

There was a strong community discussion because a lot of people didn't like systemd. After a public democratic decision making process, a decision was made. If something significant happens, another discussion will happen. I don't understand why you're talking about disagreements as if they're the end of the world. "Publically painful"? What does that mean? Debian isn't a politican. Lennart issuing 'wake-up calls' to people is just him being a dipshit. It means nothing for Linux and it's usability.

I started using linux regularly around 2011 and the communities I joined then were concerned about Red Hat’s future plans and putting safeguards in place. Pat Volkerding, Daniel Robbins, Gentoo, Void, Crux and many others are better prepped to manage Red Hat going postal as they have been cautious of their approach for a decade or more.

Cool, the system is working as intended. Debian can swap Red Hat's technologies for the other ones. Do you think that it's not possible to run systemd free Debian, or use KDE instead of GNOME?

If Linus goes postal, not to worry, it’s foss, we can just fork the kernel, write a new one or get hurd feature complete over the weekend.

Yes. The decades of work on the kernel will not magically disappear, and people can continue that work. A new one wouldn't be necessary. Linus barely writes the majority of the kernel code any more. The kernel has shit loads of developers working on it regularly.

This is just FUD bullshit written by someone who doesn't understand how Linux has been working for the past decade.

No package manager, no thanks.

Slackware seems so tedious to me.

Debian.

Played through most of the System Shock remake, currently playing through Deus Ex (the original).

Debian is solid. You probably don't want to have to fuck around on a laptop that you're using primarily for getting shit done. Flatpaks can handle most of the extra shit you'd want to use. That said, I used to be an Arch guy for years too, and if you're comfortable with it, it's fine to use, but you'll run into the same kind of annoyances. Not true breakage usually, but eventually I got tired of having new surprise bugs in shit that was working fine before.

Also I can't be sure, but I suspect Wayland is probably better on energy draw since it should be more efficient. Maybe try sway for your twm?

I’ve been on KDE for a while now. Doesn’t feel as heavy as I guess it is. That said, if you want Wayland you’re kinda stuck with GNOME or KDE (if you want something traditional). I’ve been enjoying KDE since the switch, though. I’m hoping it’ll get more resources from Valve.

Debian has always had support for non-free firmware, just not by default, which has changed with Bookworm

I mean, that much more stable than Debian enough to justify the lack of convenience though?

Good ‘nuff.

I was probably saltier than I needed to be but I hate it when people just say shit, and it becomes a n unquestioned truth.

Nobody's "relying" on Red Hat. You guys are being insanely dramatic. It's FOSS software. If Red Hat loses their minds, systemd will just be forked, or there will be a discussion on where to move to next.

Good god.

Pretty much this. Got one for my girlfriend, and I've ended up playing games a lot on the couch next to her instead.

Also, strangely I've found it easier to play certain games this way - it feels like less of a commitment when you just power on the deck with the TV on in the background. As opposed to like, sitting down and being like 'I'm going to play this game.'

Link proof when you make accusations or shut the fuck up.