The stability of Arch/Cachy updates is not just about time between updates (more often is generally better) but also about accumulated old configs files with deprecated options that have been ignored and reading about breaking changes.
I updated 4 machines at the same time earlier this week (pacoloco for the win). One is a cachy/arch hybrid that started life as arch. The one with the oldest continually updated installation (it is a ship of theseus, I don't believe it has any of the original hardware) couldn't get to a graphical login and it took me a few minutes to replace an obsolete config file with a pacnew and get it back up.
This might have been a show stopper for someone coming from Windows or Mac. Perhaps even for some Linux users. But I am decades into this and it is how I like it. I ran slackware for years and Debian Sid. The loss of time to breakage from upgrades is absolutely trivial to me compared with the advantages of a well packaged and up to date system. If people aren't into that there is no shame in using an immutable distro. The diversity of distros might be confusing but it is a huge advantage because there is something out there for everyone.
Most of the people who are going to leave for Linux right now were probably going to leave anyway once Linux provided what they needed (eg Proton support for most of their game library). Linux has always been a lot of fun for serious tinkerers. Curious types would already have at least tried linux in a vm or dual boot but were being held back my some app or game.
My family has grown up with Linux desktops and gaming and is very comfortable using Linux for boring normie stuff but they aren't power users. They use what is installed and what is installed is Linux. But when they have Windows installed on their school computers they don't seem to care. It does all the same things, just differently. One of my kids had several keys not working on his laptop keyboard and just put up with it for ages without telling anyone. Makes no sense. They are my only window into the Microsoft world and what I see is complacency. I think most people have a huge capacity to put up with annoyances before they will take action and power users and enterprise can disable a lot of the shittier features.
Microsoft can probably go a lot further extracting revenue from their users through dark patterns, additional paid services, marketing, sales of data etc. They are a for profit company in a time when it is not just normal but expected that companies will cannibalize their long term potential for short term profit taking. I suspect Windows 11 will get a lot worse but if you walk into a store to buy a new laptop its still going to be the only pre-installed option outside of Apple or Chromebooks for years to come.
We have three windows laptops in the house. All for use in schools which were always heavily pro-Microsoft here. I haven't paid much attention to Windows 11. The last time I used Windows other than setting it up or fixing it for someone else was probably XP. All three users of those laptops come home from school/work, put them on a charger then head to a linux machine to play games, edit video etc. They know they have linux support and they have grown up with Linux. Not one of them has asked to upgrade their laptops to Linux yet.
Perhaps Microsoft isn't annoying regular users as much as the tech press and tech users think they are. Remember people still use shit like Facebook not just willingly but in some cases enthusiastically. We are a diverse lot. Some people, probably the majority, will put up with the same shit every day and not think to change their environment. I don't know whether it is too difficult or they are scared of change or they don't realize it is possible or perhaps they simple aren't bothered by the same things. Possibly all of the above.
Libreoffice puts my docs where I tell it and they get synced to my other machines. Don't understand why people store docs on other people's computers. The business world is full of dumbarses leading dumbarses. You can't tell them though.
I wish you were wrong. Occasionally societies hit huge decision points when something outrageous happens and they have an opportunity to rise together and overcome adversity and become their better selves. And the world looks on with awe and respect.
The US had this opportunity after Columbine. And every month or so after for decades. After each outrage to parents and society so horrible you think surely they will act now. But they never do.
That is how you know they don't have what it takes to stand up to authoritarians. If they did they would have done what any decent society would have done years ago. They don't have it sadly. They are waiting for Superman or Captain America to save them. Mythological heroes are the only sort they have now.
Discover socialism. Not commie tanky left authoritarian bullshit. Just the moderate basic human decency stuff.
Old fashioned people caring about each other. Workers supporting each other. Vets supporting each other. Women supporting each other. Families supporting each other. Neighborhoods supporting each other. Inclusivity. Opportunity. Holding out a hand to the less fortunate. Redistributing wealth so people can have dignity and hope.
Start with taking back schools as safe places from gun massacres. If you can't do that you can't do shit. It's a basic litmus test for a functional society. Take back streets for pedestrians. Take prisons and hospitals away from corporations. Get rid of tipping in favour of a fair living wage. Take a fucking holiday occasionally. It won't kill you.
The problem is Americans are kept ignorant about what is possible. In place of knowledge all they have is lies. What is the point of change if you don't even know what you want. You will just end up with more of the same.
Often we see people being demonised and dehumanized for political purposes. Americans basically dehumanize themselves.
As a parent I can't think of anything much more traumatic than losing a child to a gun massacre. It makes me furious. Watching Americans passively do nothing about this for decades has gone from infuriating to blame. I can't relate to them anymore.
I didn't make them sub-human by questioning their race or religion or politics. They made themselves sub-human by ignoring the most basic moral and ethical requirements of human society and family. Watching them kill each other won't bring me joy but it doesn't outrage me as much as watching people in war torn countries being massacred in conflicts over which they had no control.
I shouldn't call it abandonware. First thing I found was Plants vs Zombies came up under EA in one of my kids libraries - sort of thing that runs well on his under powered school laptop. Think I mixed it up with Bad Piggies and all those old Rovio mobile games that basically got abandoned as publishers moved to adware and pay to win crap.
When I think of EA titles I think of Sims and sports and battlefield - which we don't really play. I found It Takes Two and a few really old titles like Mirrors's Edge that nobody plays and I don't think are installed anywhere. Wasn't sure about their relationship with Crytek. Not going to go too crazy removing stuff but its a good reminder to have a think about game sandboxing.
Podman, docker etc are all linux namespaces, cgroups, seccomp, capablities etc underneath. You can get similar restrictions with systemd or flatpack/flatseal(bubblewrap) or firejail or other solutions. It could be built into Steam or wine or via flatpak. Podman/docker isn't very friendly for gamers coming from windows but its good for more advanced users. Something like distrobox. Ideally focus all the effort on flatpak and make it great for everyone else.
I was going to proudly mention we don't have any EA titles on our families steam libraries, thinking of their biggest names.
But then I found some abandonware like title in one of my kids libraries. So now I need to do more digging (oops, found more). Ofcourse all our machines run Linux (do I need to mention the distro? I feel I do but you can probably guess) so kernel mode access isn't likely. But I think I need to pay more attention to sandboxing and isolating games.
Massive increase in black market tobacco in Australia as well. The government tried to reduce smoking by making it increasingly unaffordable and it got to a point that it became worthwhile for organized crime to step in. The obvious solution is to reduce taxes so the margins are not there for criminals but keep them high enough to deter new smokers. But that would be far too logical for politicians.
Agreed. Infantile and basically a slur on people because of their dietary choices. Part of a pattern of language that is basically alt-right bait for young insecure and disaffected men.
Edit: Adding a link to an article I saw on the orange site. The Four Dark Laws of online engagement are a nice little cheat sheet for the patterns you see repeatedly online. Negatively biased language that targets an out group has a virality amongst this audience: https://www.derekthompson.org/p/all-the-sad-young-terminally-online
Part of the reason for its disruption is that Chromium is open source (BSD licence), built on Webkit that was open source, which was built on khtml from the KDE project which was open source. That is how we got to Microsoft Edge also running on Chromium.
If it wasn't for the monoculture aspect and the actions of some of the companies using it, khtml->Chromium would be a great open source success story.
The US should be a lesson to all of us about what happens when electoral systems are left to wither and die.
We all need electoral reform. UK and Canada need a more democratic upper house with proportional representation and powers more like Australias. Once they are democratic they might as well be allowed to introduce legislation as well as review it.
Then preferential voting for their lower house.
Australia should do something about parties that consistently get far less seats in the lower house than their proportion of votes by introducing extra seats for them. Perhaps mixed member proportional or similar. So the two party system gets a shakeup and new parties can emerge when one is doing poorly.
No. Fascists are not the same as conservatives. You can dislike both but it is dangerous to mix them up. People do all the time. Conservatives have fucked up a number of times and thought they were allies against socialism only to lose control and deeply regret it. They have some surface level similarities in attitudes to traditions and social conservative values but that is as far as it goes.
Fascists are looking for a route to absolute power and the complete destruction of democracy. They don't care if you are a conservative, a Christian, an alt-health hippy, or someone who has has had a fight with the family court, tax department or traffic fines. They don't care if you are a union member. It doesn't matter. If you are pissed off and nobody is listening they will promise to help. Because if they can't take power with force they will take it with the votes of the disaffected.
Worse than not on, they remake shows with cgi and different voice actors.
Watching tv with kids is great. The first time I heard my oldest laugh was watching Shaun the Sheep with him. The last one we had moved into the time when everyone had their own idiot screens and it wasn't the same which I regret. I didn't know Bluey existed until she kept nagging me to play games. Bandit is a tough act to follow.
I can imagine Bluey and Bingo going out one Saturday with Chilli and Bandit and they arrive at their school slightly confused because it is the weekend. And there are lots of people there going into a hall. They find some friends and play with them. Bluey wants to see what the adults are doing so goes in with Bandit and watches him give his name to be checked on the electoral roll then he puts some numbers in boxes. She grabs a free pencil which she thinks is awesome. They get some sausages and all agree it was a great day out.
Then the American kids watch and ask their parents why they never go and vote like Bandit and Chilli. And their parents say they couldn't be bothered and it doesn't make a difference.
The stability of Arch/Cachy updates is not just about time between updates (more often is generally better) but also about accumulated old configs files with deprecated options that have been ignored and reading about breaking changes.
I updated 4 machines at the same time earlier this week (pacoloco for the win). One is a cachy/arch hybrid that started life as arch. The one with the oldest continually updated installation (it is a ship of theseus, I don't believe it has any of the original hardware) couldn't get to a graphical login and it took me a few minutes to replace an obsolete config file with a pacnew and get it back up.
This might have been a show stopper for someone coming from Windows or Mac. Perhaps even for some Linux users. But I am decades into this and it is how I like it. I ran slackware for years and Debian Sid. The loss of time to breakage from upgrades is absolutely trivial to me compared with the advantages of a well packaged and up to date system. If people aren't into that there is no shame in using an immutable distro. The diversity of distros might be confusing but it is a huge advantage because there is something out there for everyone.