the entire reason I switched to Linux – back in January I asked myself “if I have to fight my operating system to make it work right for me anyways, why pay for the privilege?”

like sure updates break things on Linux too occasionally but at least they don’t reinstall spyware I had to spend a day ripping out after the last update.

article is shitwalled 🥱

Conservatives are happier? Since when?

Like, I can disprove that by turning on Fox News for two minutes. It’s nothing but 24/7 anger porn and rage bait.

Sir this is a Wendy’s

I air gap my shit

that’s an interesting claim, how do you use online multiplayer games and discord while “air gapped”?

and again, your “tangible benefit” is rendered largely moot by the fact that you can absolutely get around kernel anticheat. All it really does is keep the skids releasing free cheats on UnknownCheats and MPGH out.

“I’m OK with companies using incredibly shitty, intrusive software practices because I don’t think they’ll affect me personally” is such a shit take for so many reasons, to name a few:

1. giving software kernel access, especially when it does not or should not need kernel access, is a security risk, and does open the door for malicious actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities even if the software is not malicious in and of itself

2. occasionally, intensively intrusive programs like this do break things unintentionally, which can lead to all sorts of fun issues. StarForce DRM is a good example from years past.

3. just because you do not have anything on your PC that you consider sensitive, does not mean that applies to everyone.

4. Kernel level anticheat can be bypassed. It’s usually not cheap/easy, but it can and has been done. Meaning, for all of the above concessions you make, there is no real benefit.

these are just the few I can think of immediately.

Mint is the distro of choice for people who want to work on their computer, not work on their computer.

Like I’m glad for all the nerds who change distros as often as they change pairs of pants and enjoy fiddle-fucking around with their setup, but some of us only want a computer that just works and doesn’t give us shit.

Because as we all know, being a gamer means you can’t also be a fucking moron.

… Wait.

One experience with other people on Xbox Live voice chat can disprove that.

you can essentially already do this with TrackMeNot and AdNauseam

I’ve had no significant driver issues with Mint and a 2080, myself. I switched back in February, and most things – games included – just work. The few that didn’t, were easy to fix with some searching on stackoverflow and reddit (about the only thing that site is good for now).

if an idiot like me can do it, so can you.

I usually hook my Steam Deck up to my TV via a USB hub and HDMI, and then fire something up on Plex, which I keep running on my desktop.

Bonus: Make it a wireless HDMI dongle (which I’m too cheap for but are a thing), and now using it from the couch is even more convenient.

the wildest thing they admit to finding on character.ai is a murdered girl

Wait til someone tells them about chub.ai, then you’ll see some real crazy shit.

Yeah, I have a Steam Deck, and it’s literally just a PC in the form factor of a Switch. It has a BIOS menu, you can install Windows on it (but you really shouldn’t), you can install a different flavor of Linux (I recommend Bazzite) – you can even install and play pirated Windows games through Proton, more or less fine, though you have to work for it a bit more.

They developed Proton so that they could get Windows games working on the Deck, and the reason they didn’t make the Deck run Windows is they wanted greater control over the OS than Windows affords. Proton has benefited all gamers on Linux. More recently, they’ve officially partnered with Arch as of a few days ago (which is what SteamOS is built on): https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/the-arch-linux-team-is-now-working-directly-with-valve-steamos-and-arch-should-both-benefit-greatly

and just to gush a bit more: the Deck is the only thing I can remember pre-ordering in the last 10 years and being genuinely happy that I did.

it’s nice to see I’ve never had an original thought in my life

I’ll bet a little, pocket-sized center punch would kill them right quick.

not by the time it’s done compiling, it’s not

honestly, Timeshift + btrfs was a big part of the reason I was willing to try switching to Mint from Windows in February when I read about it (the other big part being Proton and my experience with my Steam Deck), and I’ve been rather happy with it since. I still dual boot for the odd thing, but 90% of the time I’m in Linux and it just works; and on the single occasion I’ve had an update bork something, I just used Timeshift to restore a snapshot, tried updating again, and it worked fine the second time. Took me 10 minutes. I remember the heady days of the early 2010s when I first tried Linux, and that would’ve normally kicked off an entire evening’s worth of troubleshooting. (And, indeed, it was shit like that that pushed me back to Windows whenever I’d try Linux)

I’m really hoping more semi-computer-literate people start taking the plunge, it isn’t nearly so awful an adjustment to make as it was just ten years ago and Microsoft clearly needs the competition to encourage them to make not-shit products. I still wouldn’t give a Linux machine to your grandmother, but your average technically competent nerd who can use Google can actually use Mint nowadays without having to fuck with it too much; as opposed to having to almost become an expert on Linux and get up into its guts to make it work right for you (which, Windows is increasingly requiring itself, if you don’t want Microsoft knowing everything you do and serving you ads in your OS), and Timeshift is a big part of why, IMO. It’s not quite there to “perfectly suited for general use by your average idiot”, plenty of programs that don’t yet play nice with it; but it’s so much closer to that ideal now than it’s ever been before, and it’s still getting better.

I know, wrong community, y’all like to get up into its guts, poke around and tinker; but I and many others would rather work on our computers, as opposed to work on our computers, if you get my meaning.

This is your daily reminder that Firefox and its derivatives exist and should be used wherever possible if you care about Google not having a monopoly over the internet. There’s even a Firefox-based version of Discord called Datcord.

yet another item on the list of things I blame the French for