Posts by hedgie 174 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Mar 2023
Oh nice. I haven't used it in years, even using KDE almost daily. I'm glad that things are getting much nicer for users, not just non-technical people, but even overall convenience and comfort. I'm always eyeing certain developments in the hope that eventually I'll at least have the option to ditch the Cupertino cult without sacrificing too much.
I haven't used Kubuntu for years, but did find while the CLI package manager was pretty solid, the gui one leaved much to be desired. That is definitely a quality of life issue, particularly for less technical issues, but not inherent to Linux. SUSE has long had a "one click install" option, that will automagically add repos and integrates with its package management system, and *is* the sort of thing other vendors could do.[1] It's little different for the end-user than running an installer .exe on Windows or a .pkg on Mac. Personally, I haven't been using the CLI for anything but convenience's sake for quite some time. I read here that they're getting rid of YaST, but there will be other GUI configuration tools to make life easier as well, which makes a lot of that stuff more accessible. And in many ways, the reason I did initially switch distros was that, at least however many years back, Kubuntu specifically had a few things that bugged me going on.[2]
I think that your point regarding "something simple that works" is much more of (and please excuse the pun) a root issue with using Linux daily. There seems to often be a lack of cohesiveness in overall user experience; the KDE folks do a *lot* of work to attempt that, and provide an integrated DE and set of apps, but not quite 100%. In some ways, it's an "uncanny valley" situation. It's most jarring for me when I open up and run any GTK stuff. I don't know how much Windows users would notice, however. My primary machine is a Mac,[3] so I am rather accustomed with, say, the menus of nearly every application following a consistent pattern and other small touches.
[1] Some might have something similar. I'm not much of a distro-hopper and am content to not fuss with things that I don't have to.
[2] Although that PC was my first Linux box, I was already fairly familiar with KDE, having buit/run it with Macports on the G5 that it had replaced.
[3] Where oddly enough, I'm forced to use the command-line for more things, because the GUI can be rather limited.
People in the next county over from me pay FAR less for power than I do. Of course, the big difference is that their provider is owned by the public, and the one I'm stuck with is a monopoly that keeps burning the state down by cutting corners so they can have big profits.
I certainly don't think that Linux will become the dominant OS, and I really don't want to see *anyone* in the kind of market position M$ is in now; look at what happened in the server space with Red Hat. I just want it to be big enough that it's a viable alternative for more people. On a more personal note, I'd like to just be able to ditch Apple. Not that I necessarily would, since despite their evil, I'm happy enough using their kit, but I want to be able to do so without losing things I need/want. There are a ton of Windows (and Mac) users who would like to not be locked-in, even if they're not actively planning on a switch any time soon.
We don't need for Linux to "Take Over the World", but to break the current shackles. M$ has a large enough market share where they really don't care about users, and keep pulling these sorts of stunts,[1] unless they lose the monopoly position. While Apple *does* care about user experience (because it helps them shift hardware), overall, they're bastards with being total control-freaks.
[1] I'm aware that the way markets work, they want to maximise profit, and investors want endless growth even when it's not really possible, but they also know they can get away with things that no one else can because of said position.
You're absolutely right, and I was careful to hedge my statement a bit with "most", and I do remember fighting with the Nvidia blob on a rolling release before, thankful that SUSE has a solid snapshot utility for rollbacks when the blob wouldn't even let X load. There are always use cases where using something other than Windows requires too many compromises. I mean, I haven't haven't ditched proprietary OSes (primary machine is a Mac[1]), myself. All I was trying to do is point out that more and more (ie, Linux being a viable gaming platform, Macs for a reasonable price, Chromebooks or tablets for people who don't need much, etc), there's less and less of a reason to remain tied to Windows. If it wasn't preinstalled on major computer brands, it'd be dying a much quicker death. As is, all these moves will push ever increasing numbers of people to find an alternative.
[1] Which I very much use because Linux doesn't run some things I need and I hate Windows. And it isn't the most obnoxious proprietary UNIX I've dealt with,[2] so there's that.
[2] Solaris was quite painful to deal with.
The main thing keeping on Windoze these days really is inertia and people having the Stockholm Syndrome of being "used to it", or "it's what I use at work". With Steamplay/Proton, Linux is more than viable for most gamers, and doesn't require a new purchase to move away from Windows. A new Mac Mini is a quite reasonable price for more power than the average user needs, and can run nearly all the same commercial software Windows does. And as another poster mentioned, for many home users, a tablet, phone, or Chromebook is all they need, at least for most things.
If people weren't so resistant to change overall, let alone with things they don't know well (computers), their eroding monopoly would have collapsed almost entirely by now. All this crap they're doing will bit by bit chip away at it until they either completely change the path they're on, or find themselves just another player in the industry.
That sort of thing is why I went back to private trackers from streaming services. I was quite content to pay for streaming, and even deal with the *occasional* rate increase. I'd only sub to two services at any time anyway. But when they now said they were going to inject adverts unless, on top of the ever-increasing sub costs, I'd have to buy another tier? Hoist the Jolly Roger.
It was interesting, and a humbling experience. Linux in general wasn't so user-friendly circa 2006, and all the CLI/UNIX stuff I thought I had learnt on OS X really wasn't enough to do anything interesting that I wasn't already doing on the Mac[1], so it was pretty but not entirely useful for daily computing. I suppose I could have moved all the IDS stuff over there and done more with running servers but it was still good for learning.
[1] Running an ssh/VNC server, IDS, and KDE 3 and its suite + Pan2 newsreader
OpenSUSE has been my distro of choice for ages, having played in the past with Yellow Dog on an old G4, and Slackware previously before using *buntu but then abandoning it because Kubuntu used up far too many system resources just running the desktop, and also played with Arch and Manjaro. Been using Troubleweed on my last couple of laptops almost exclusively, and headless on a couple of RasPi servers. In a lot of ways, I'm gonna miss YaST, myself, overall. If the replacement tools can provide all the same functionality for server/network stuff, though, I can live without it just fine, since YaST also bleeds over to settings that really should be dealt with at a user level, and its configuration changes can conflict (sound, mostly). And the Ruby dependency has broken it in the past for me. I guess, I'm left reserving judgment until I see how well the replacement(s) work. Splitting up the system tools like that *would* be technically going back more to the "UNIX philosophy" anyway.
I have love YaST just for its convenience, especially when learning a lot of the stuff (setting it up through YaST, then reading through the config files, both before and after many times).
I'm glad I ditched Microsoft entirely, and they've been moving this way for a while. Thankfully, finally made the move a couple of years ago to tell Adobe to sod off and went with the Affinity suite. Killed all my streaming service subs over recent years as well, as they not only increase the base price but try to foist adverts unless one pays even *more* than that. Only subscriptions I have right now are for an MMO, a solid VPN for torrents and an email provider, and I'd like to keep it that way.
This constant rent-seeking in order to deliver higher and higher passive income to a tiny number of people while the cost of even basic living, let alone any entertainment is just now out of control. Actual literal rents on commercial property mean that the cost of going out is even more prohibitive. There really isn't anything left for us plebs these days, is there?
Faking the string is easy enough, but the broken websites is more than just a problem with Linux, but rather one of two major parts:
1) Browser makers are not supporting standards in a consistent manner.
2) Lazy web developers who assume everyone is running either iOS and Safari or something Chromium-based on whatever platform, and think that instead of actually working something out, just barring anyone without the right UA string "works".
So in the end, Even on a Mac, I need to keep all three major browsers around just for dealing with work-related, banking, and medical provider sites. Sites A and B only work, under Vivaldi (Chromium), B and C work best with Safari, and for some odd reason D is only working properly with Firefox. And while the moves to force Apple to allow different rendering engines on iOS and iPadOS are overall for the best, that same problem is going to arise soon enough on those platforms.
I'd be more than glad to "get rid of passwords", but not like this. I don't allow passwords for logins for ssh into my devices and use keys, so the idea of that is sound, and it was easy enough to import my ssh keys into even my iDevices. But proprietary solutions and even more tracking nonsense (and especially biometrics)?
Count me out.
But then again, even in an "ideal" world where keys got standardised on GPG or similar, you're still reliant on some combination of the user knowing how to copy their private keys over to various devices, enough interoperability on part of the OS makers to do so securely, or a 3rd party providing that function.[1] In any case, I suppose you'd still better off than dealing with people who have a password of "password123", so a boon for security, but still far from ideal.
[1] In other words, 1 option depending on users being clueful, and two depending on trusting third parties for their security, none of which could be described as "less bad".
Even when companies (Apple, IBM, Oracle, even Microsoft) contribute quite a bit of money and resources to Open Source, it's like a Carnegie or any other Robber Baron getting into philanthropy. What they contribute is far less than the value they receive and said contributions are really only made for their own interests anyway (such as keeping a project going because the actual volunteers provide more value to them with free labour). One reason, I'm certain, why Apple sticks with *BSD licensed stuff, so they can grab what they want but only give a smaller amount in return. And here I'm bashing them on one of their devices and really need to charge the others.
Yeah. My current workplace is probably in danger of accumulating those with all of the growth we've had in the past few years. But what we really need is a few more manglers, I mean managers closer to the trenches, and even a couple more minions capable of passing the background checks to do my job (mostly sleeping through my shift, but for contractual reasons need people with squeaky clean recent records).
I cancelled mine for other reasons. I'd still like to get back into practice with Spanish, since even in California,[1] and properly learning German[2], but yeah. A lot of the app seemed to not cover important things, and expect that you knew odd bits of grammar that suddenly started popping up for the first time.
[1] I haven't used it in years beyond giving directions to strangers.
[2] Even fewer opportunities to properly practice.
There are probably layers of executives that could successfully be replaced by AI, and just imagine the savings! And since both are amoral, soulless, lacking in empathy, not capable of true thought or any creativity whatsoever, the only difference we'd notice is that machines could be programmed with an actual set of rules to follow even if they lack in proper ethics.
Perhaps it's time for major shareholders everywhere to get behind this move, since it'll mean more money for them.
And they pay telcos (amongst other subsidies) orders of magnitude more to do work that they *don't*, with no actual audits. I guess dole money is only for the super rich, and not some poor person who might have marked a piece of paperwork wrong because the document confused them or something.
The apparatus for it has certainly been building for 20-some years now. For ages, I've been asked "what are you trying to hide?" when I even mention anything related to privacy or don't use US-based data services whenever possible. And that was since long before the current maladministration. Back in 2019, I ended up going to dinner with a friend who is one of the most coldly rational people whom I know. She confessed that she wondered what I was hiding with near "tinfoil hat" level of an obsession with privacy, but was starting to think more and more that my position was the correct one all along.
In this part of the US, Fry's Electronics was that destination for me. If I needed the part or whatever (or wanted to physically see various potential items), I'd go there. The biggest problem I found was that the workers seemed to pay no attention to those of us who needed something specific out of a locked cabinet, and to get any assistance at all one had to wander around aimlessly with a large wad of cash clearly visible and preferably, blood dripping from a fresh lobotomy scar.
I'm afraid that you are 100% correct there. Critical thinking really isn't taught in school to most students, even in "good" schools. I was fortunate enough to take "Intro to Logic"[1], but it was my final year at school, and they were very selective about which students *could* take it, maybe 30 kids out of about 200 at that grade level. Now, 17-18 is a bit old to really start teaching critical thinking, and when it's an elective that only a relative few can even take, a mere 15% of students already privileged enough to have their tuition paid for[2] the percentage of the general population with such essential education is even more abysmal. The educational system, in the US at least, is largely set up to *keep* people stupid and ignorant, but perhaps with the skills necessary for entering the workforce.
I've certainly been called elitist for quipping that it's still September 1993[3], but there really were substantial changes a few years later when what was formerly the domain of nerds, academics, and military people with some degree of cluefulness became outnumbered thousands to one by pond life. Now, most places online are textbook examples of lunatics running the asylum, and overrun with what can no longer be called trolls, because they actually *believe* the shite they're spewing. El Reg at its worst is far better than most.
[1] Private school, and they had an arrangement with the local community college to have a teacher who worked at both institutions to do one daily course at the High School that I attended for credit at both.
[2] At least as a Catholic school, they did make arrangements with less affluent families to do community service in exchange for lower tuition.
[3] Shyness and being an early teen before then meant I wasn't really posting, but was starting to poke around and lurk.
Seriously. It's a good thing that I'm not one of T-Mobile's people there because I would be extremely tempted at the meeting to put a fake tower in the room and then point out that it's not even plugged in once the morons started faking symptoms. I'd definitely be a PR liability.
Perhaps I've been lucky with Apple support, with a quick chat solving my last software issue, and my one hardware disaster being largely self-inflicted.[1] PSU decided to go beyond blue smoke and I had to call the fire department just to make sure there wasn't anything still secretly burning in the chair cushion. Then I made the idiotic decision to take out my aggression on the offending part, only finding out the next morning that Apple wanted the original part back or was going to charge 5x the price on the replacement, and still didn't want to deal with me directly.
Oops.
I was fortunate enough to find a repair shop in Berkeley that was quite willing to lie on my behalf, saying that they'd have a certified tech install a new part and got me one for a far more reasonable price with a small markup for their efforts. But yeah, what you said seems to track regarding Apple. Trivial/easy support is fine, but if the rare "thing goes horribly wrong" incident happens to you, it's going to be an ordeal.
[1] I've lost a SCSI controller on a mac too, but it was a 3rd-party card.
Even worse. They're all trying to move people to wireless and neglecting existing networks in addition to failing to build new ones. 5G may be great for a phone or tablet on the go (or tethering when necessary) but should never be used for something at a fixed location if there are any other real options. I don't even like having my desktop machine connected to the LAN through WiFi, but the location of the router (and not owning the place so I can't just run a cable and drop it down through the ceiling[1]) for wired. Wireless anything is such a major PITA to troubleshoot, and that's not even getting into the security issues.
So yes, I have the "joy" of no higher-speed options in terms of wired service, on a network that they're trying to dump anyway, and the only alternative, Comcrap charges extortionate overage rates on anything over 1 TB monthly.
[1] Not the prettiest option, but would be the least effort and distance by a long shot
And TBH, a sophisticated enough bot *could* handle most requests. A sensible business could spend what they're currently spending on dumb minions on a smaller group of competent techs (and paying them well enough) to deal with what a bot couldn't handle. And skilled people aren't a money-sink, they're valuable to a business and, absent a monopoly, as is the case with much of the US ISP "market", essential in getting people to keep forking over cash. I'm still buying (or paying for services) from those companies that give solid support.
The main reason I still deal with Verizon for mobile, despite them being utter bastards I hate is reliable service and clueful support staff in my dealings. Granted, the last time I called them, the tier 1 tech couldn't do anything, but she quickly realised that the issue was beyond what tools she had available and I got escalated in about five minutes. Tier 2 tech fixed the problem immediately. And yes, the first tech I spoke to didn't have access to the systems to resolve what was ultimately an account issue. Thankfully, it has been years since I've had to call Apple about anything, but I've had nothing but good experiences with their support.
Sadly, I'm stuck left-pond. I was with Speakeasy while I was still on dialup, and before they got bought out, then a local ISP for broadband until I had to move somewhere where I'm currently stuck with AT&T. Hopefully, this summer I'll be able to move to Comcrap, which is, sadly, and improvement, at least in terms of support. No fibre options where I am, which I find rather amusing, since the affluent place with the University has maybe 1/8 of its area with fibre available and the "poor" town next door has it everywhere for reasonable prices comparatively.
When I was in Edinburgh (sadly, couldn't get the right visa to stay), I was with Demon, but IIRC they either shut down or got bought out and enshittified.
Then again, the half of the local ISP duopoly I'm currently stuck with has "support" so shoddy that a ChatGPT instance would almost certainly be an improvement. Even their own customer fora have numerous posts saying that the only way to avoid the blind following of a script is to talk to the cancellations department. I try to avoid dealing with them whenever possible, but sometimes calls are necessary. With gems like these, how could a bot be worse?
1) Agent refusing to proceed until I have replaced the ethernet cable from the tower to the router when pings to the router are fine, and traceroutes proceed to the first hop outside the LAN and then die.
2) Agent telling me to go into a Windows-specific panel, and telling me to get a Windows machine when I informed them that I run Linux and have no Windoze boxen.
3) Agent wanting to factory reset the router for an email (not mine, I use a real provider, but unfortunately, do not live alone) configuration/authentication issue.
I'm showing my age, but I got spoilt dealing with real ISPs and dealing with people who would actually listen to the described problem, along with the results of any diagnostics I had already run and steps already taken (although verifying them when necessary, can't really trust someone calling in).
I'm the sort who uses both, especially since the online storage for the critical stuff works for "off-site".[1] Paying Tresorit works well enough for sync, and works pretty transparently across Mac/i(Pad)OS and Linux so all my bases are covered there. I had at one point set up a NextCloud server on a Raspi, but the *extremely* limited upload speeds for residential service here in the US made accessing anything the sort of suffering that, were I wanting to torture myself, would be better inflicted by someone who looks good in a corset, so paid service it is. A lot cheaper than buying an old Mac Mini, throwing Linux on it and paying for a co-lo.
For local backups, yes, Time Machine really does suit my needs once proper scheduling is in place, and has saved my arse dozens of times. I really don't see the point of Recall at all except as a punching bag.And the egregious security flaws in what is already an Orwellian concept make it unfit for other purposes. Any decent browser already shows history and can restore a tab closed on accident, there are a ton of backup and sync solutions out there that are totally transparent to the user, and so on.
[1] A few friends and I have all talked about getting external drives, and being custodians of full encrypted backups for one another, swapping drives every month or so by sneakernet for that purpose, but none of us has yet done that so online it is.
If "stuff getting eaten" was a real worry, a backup utility like Time Machine[1] that does regular, and transparent to the user incremental backups and easy rollback or recovery of files would actually be useful rather than this hot steaming pile. Or any reasonable system for syncing designated folders, and the contents thereof with versioning.[2] And at least any decent backup system wouldn't leave a database easily accessible by anyone with juicy private information just waiting to be stolen, and can use encrypted drives.
Further, any decent browser can reopen recently closed tabs. So *what*, if not at least sending metadata to the mothership, is the purpose of this thing?!
[1] Although, its default behaviour itself (1x/hour) is unnecessary overhead. Of *course* there's no option in the GUI to change it, so actual scheduling has to be done with a command-line invocation in the crontab.
[2] Do that one too. One reason is to be able to mirror the critical stuff to my Linux boxen, and another is that after having dealt with catastrophic data loss, albeit self-inflicted, having multiple systems keeping copies of the important stuff somewhere safe is critical.
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