Posts by Boothy 1359 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jun 2011
Quote: A Department of Commerce release cast the agreement as a "massive reshoring of America's semiconductor sector."
Erm, America's semiconductor sector is still in the USA, small and far behind in comparison to Taiwan's.
The semiconductor sector in Taiwan, is Taiwan's, nothing to do with the USA other than they are the biggest customers for Taiwan's industry.
Almost identical path to myself.
Bought my first Windows machine with 95. After that first machine I upgraded or built the systems (desktops) myself from components.
I went 98 then 98SE
Tried Me, back to 98SE
Then XP
Later on to Win 7 (I still have my dual DVD box for Win 7 Home Premium, with the separate 32 and 64bit disks inside).
I avoided the 'upgrade' to Win10 for quite some time, applied the upgrade in situ (for the 'free' upgrade), and it broke my install (lots of driver issues, and the installers/uninstalls would not run under Win 10!). A fresh install worked afterwards.
Nothing about 11 has ever been appealing, and plenty of things to keep me away. So I purposely checked that TPM was disabled (provided by my 5800X3D CPU), and also turned off Secure Boot, to stop Win 10 from updating itself to Win 11, but also so I could install Linux without messing with secure boot stuff.
I dropped Mint onto a second M.2 drive, in a dual boot setup (boot loaders on separate M.2s so Windows wouldn't mess up my Linux install). I gradually wiped my other non OS drives (another M.2, and two SATA SSDs) swapping them from NTFS to ext4 (mainly game installs from Steam, so don't need anything fancy there).
This was 2 years ago now, I used to switch regularly initially, but I think I've booted into Windows once in the last 6 months, and that was only to check something.
After updating my NAS a little while back, and getting a couple of 6TB externals for redundancy (and off site (i.e. my Mums house) storage), I plan to do one final boot into Windows and back it all up, then a wipe and stick Linux on that drive as well. Might try out CachyOS for a change.
So time to say goodbye to Windows, you won't be missed.
Thanks Liam. I followed the link and then did a search, seems other people had also noticed the same issue during earlier upgrades a few days to a couple of weeks back.
Initially here under Cinnamon (now closed): https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/13312
But copied over to here as a Mint issue (Open): https://github.com/linuxmint/mintreport/issues/110
One of the comments in the 2nd link states:
In short, vainfo needs to be added to the depends list. This seems like something that should be done prior to Mint 22.3, so that the full capabilities of mintreport can be used from the installation medium as well.
The 2nd Open issue hasn't been assigned to anyone yet, so perhaps needs a few up-votes or 'Me too' comments adding to the thread to get it noticed.
Just in case anyone else notices this change and wants to revert it.
Previous Nemo showed a tree view for directories/folders in the main right hand window of Nemo, via little arrows that you click on the expand the view into the folders. For some reason after updating Mint, the tree view was now disabled.
Personally I quiet like this tree view, such as being able to look in more than one directory at the same time in the same window. Without it, you have to double-click folders, and can only view the contents of one at a time (in the same window).
Turns out it's an option (of course it is!): Edit menu > Preferences > Views > List View Defaults > Tick box: Show folder expanders
Also just updated here, and so far I like the changes, nothing too radical, and everything still intuitive. Plus the update itself was quick and painless (a few seconds to run in the background, then a restart that was as fast as a normal restart).
The only (minor) issues I found so far was while looking in the updated System Information panel, specifically on the new GPU tab, the Name entry is blank for some reason, despite showing 9070 XT on the first System Information tab, and the GPU>Hardware Acceleration section showed Video Playback as being disabled and in Software mode, which I was sure was not the actual case.
A quick DDG and it seems the new System Information has a soft dependency on vainfo, which is not included in Mint by default (no idea if this is different now with a fresh install).
A quick...
sudo apt install vainfo
and a relaunch of System Information app and GPU>Hardware Acceleration>Video Playback now shows Enabled (VA-API) as it should.
Seems without vainfo installed, it just assumes Hardware Acceleration is disabled, rather than showing an NA or similar!
Edit: Clarity
Similar, been on Mint for just over 2 years now, dual boot into Win10, but I haven't booted up Windows now for months, and the last time was just to run updates.
I game, browse, watch or listen to media, do a bit of Python (learning just for the fun of it), and a little bit of CAD for 3d printing, so don't need anything professional, plus BambuLabs support Linux natively (one of the reasons I picked one of their printers).
The only competitive multiplayer game I play is War Thunder, and that's native Linux, so for myself, the kernel level anti-cheat stuff isn't an issue (and I wouldn't wan't those games on Windows ether, keep your mitts of my kernel!).
Currently thinking of wiping the Win 10 drive and dropping CachyOS on to it (I have 3 x M.2 NVME drives, one for Windows, one with Mint, and then the 3rd is an ext4 mounted under Mint for game installs, with the OS drives having their respective boot loaders only on their own drive, so Windows doesn't mess with Mint etc on updates). I also disabled the CPU based TPM and secure boot, in order to stop Win 11 for being installed on the sly, like MS did with my Win 7 to Win 10 install years back!
Even drivers haven't been an issue for new hardware, I got an AMD 9070XT at launch, and the updated firmware and drivers had already been released before the hardware was released (although as I'm on Mint, I did have to manually do a few changes there, but that wouldn't be an issue on something like CachyOS or Bazzite.
Even their web site is poorly implemented.
The login requires an extra ID (NS&I number) in addition to the username and password, so using a built in password manager doesn't work (by default). Not that much of an issue, as I store the details in a separate KeePass file anyway, but still.
But worse the initial login always (for me anyway) just drops you back to the login page, no error, no indication of why, and you have to put the details in again!? 2nd time it will get in fine.
They do not have the option of any sort of proper MFA (e.g. code generator etc), and as far as I can see, they force the use of SMS for one time access codes, which are used if you log on from a 'new device'.
And I say 'new device'. because on first access from an actual new device, it goes through the SMS process to add it as a new trusted device, but this doesn't really work properly. Not sure how they are fingerprinting the device/browser, but it only works for a short while, like days, after which you have to go through the SMS process again, even though I'm on the same machine using the same browser.
Even their secure messaging system is unreliable. first few unread messages you read, remove the 'unread' status, but after that, they stay at unread, even after being read! I have to log out and back in and read the messages again for the status to be updated.
And don't hit page reload or the back button at any point, as they'll just log you out!
Most of the 'new' desktop CPUs just seem to be binned versions of the existing range, that clock a little higher whilst at the same TDP. (Perhaps yield quality improvements?). So these likely just scale linearly with the clock speed increases, so single digit % improvements.
The only one of the new CPUs I'm curious about, and not mentioned in the article, is the 9950X3D2, which is basically the 9950X3D but now has 3D cache on both CCDs, rather than just one. Giving the 9950X3D2 a total of 192MB of L3 cache (96MB per CCD).
Currently for the 9950X3D the scheduler will favour either the 3D cache CCD, or the slightly faster none 3D cache CCD, depending on workload type.
With the 9950X3D2 both CCDs have 3D cache, and run at the same speed. but using both CCDs would likely incur a latency penalty (due to using the Infinity Fabric), compared to just using one CCD at a time (for things like gaming etc). But the brute force of another 8 cores with 3D cache could likely overcome that penalty.
Article states 14 posts, but only two visible for me currently, both from 3 hours ago (it's 17:13 UK time as I write this).
Plus a post I made earlier is not visible, not even under my own 'My posts' link! Tried multiple browsers, including from my phone via 5G, bypassing my local network, just in case it was my Pi-Hole or other stuff.
Anyone else have the same issue? Assume this post ever shows up of course!
Seems gamers have moved over a bit faster, at least according to Steams HW survey (just updated with Novembers data) *
My guess being gamers will typically have more modern hardware on average, that a regular non gaming user, and no business or operation impact to worry about.
Note, % figures are <u>all</u> OS share, not just Windows. (and are rounded to 2 decimal points by Valve, so likely don't add to 100%).
Win11 now at 65.59% (up 2.02% from last month)
Win10 now at 29.06% (down 2.08% from last month)
Also a tiny amount still on Win7 at 0.08% (down 0.01% from last month).
If you note, the total down for Win 10, is more than the up for Win 11. Add the drop in Win 10, and that's a small (0.07%) migration away from Windows overall.
OSX was also down by 0.09% (now at 2.02% share) but Linux was up 0.15% (now at 3.20%).
* Worth noting that Steam HW surveys are a random sample of users each month, and it's opt in, so data fluctuations do happen.
You don't even need AI for this!
Audit what software you have, (i.e. perhaps just the ones that you pay an invoice for each year, especially the expensive stuff), then send out a questionnaire each year. Perhaps with options for 'Never/Occasionally/Regularly'. Please tick one.
It's it's overwhelmingly Never, then let everyone know and don't renew!
If it's Occasionally, but a bit pricey, then get someone to look at alternates.
Similar here. I've some older titles that either don't run in Windows 10 (and presumably 11 as well), or are a bit crash happy.
Examples:
Sword of the Stars Complete Collection - Crashes under Windows, hates Alt+Tab, insta crash. No issues under Proton, including Alt-Tab.
Command & Conquer™ Generals Zero Hour - Regularly crashes under Windows 10, still happens sometimes in Proton, but nowhere near as often.
STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II: The Sith Lords - Regularly crashes under Windows 10, no issues under Proton.
Worth noting, I'm on an AMD CPU and GPU, and AMDs drivers are pretty good for Linux (first class support by AMD).
Hardcore gamers are a small minority. The Steam Machine is aiming at the mid point, and sits bang on the current most common hardware configuration.
41% of Steam users are on 16GB RAM, 27% are on 6 core CPUs, 33% have 8GB VRAM.
The most popular GFX card is the RTX 3060, which is years old now and only a little more powerful than a PS5, and the Steam Machine GFX hardware estimates seems to put it also a little faster than a PS5, although not as fast as the Pro.
Also 53% of Steam users only have a 1080p display, with 4k only accounting for 4.65%, and a similar number on Ultrawides. So most users don't need a powerful PC anyway.
So as currently specified, the Steam Machine basically matches the majority of the Steam user base.
About 18% of Steam users have less than 6 CPU cores, about 33% have less than 8GB VRAM, and around 12% have less than 16GB RAM. So for those users, the Steam Machine would even be an upgrade.
I could image even hardcore gamers buying one of these to compliment their exiting rig. Main rig on a desk with keyboard and mouse in one room, whilst having the Steam Machine plugged into the TV in the living room for more controller type games, and either playing less demanding games directly, allowing for local multiplayer, or run more demanding games on the main PC, and stream it to the Steam Machine.
What will be critical is the price. Too costly and people will just build their own.
Not sure how static things will be, although I suspect this incarnation of the Steam Machine will likely set the base level.
Valve are apparently talking to other companies about making their own versions (like they tried, and failed, years ago with the first attempt), which will likely be more powerful devices. Although Valve being Valve, they are not even hinting at who these companies are, or what spec any other machines might have.
I'm kind of curious now that they have Steam OS running on ARM, if any Steam Machines might also be ARM based?
I'd also like to see a regular ISO for Steam OS, that could be installed on any regular PC, laptop or desktop.
Regarding your game porting comment, Steam OS is Arch Linux based, but few companies are writing native games for Linux. So most of the games in use in Steam OS (or Linux in general) are the Windows versions of the game running via the Proton compatibility layer (a customised version of WINE).
So for things like PS5 games, you still have to wait for the publisher to bring out a Windows (or Linux) version first, before you'd see it available on these machines. On the plus side, some previous PS exclusives are now available on Steam, such as the Horizon games, The Last of Us games, Ghost of Tsushima etc.
You also have things like the 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection' already in Steam (Reach, 2, 3, ODST & Combat Evolved).
Some individuals may have abandoned it, but the market is still growing each year. A quick quote from a Business Insight article written just a few weeks ago:
The global virtual reality (VR) market size was valued at USD 16.32 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow from USD 20.83 billion in 2025 to USD 123.06 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 28.9% during the forecast period. North America dominated the VR market with a market share of 35.53% in 2024.
Source: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/virtual-reality-market-101378
On the money side, Steams net revenue was around $10.8 billion in 2024, with profits of around $1.2 billion, Valve only employs around 350 people, so that's about $3.5 million in profit per employee (higher than Amazon, Google or Microsoft). Apparently Steam (the platform) accounts for something like 90%+ of that money, but only about 80 of the employees work directly on Steam itself, the rest doing game dev. hardware etc.
So they are not short of money! Also Valve Corporation (the parent company) is privately held, with majority ownership by Gabe Newell, the founder. So no pesky shareholders to get in the way.
Not mentioned in the article, but the Steam Frame, as well as being able to run things locally on ARM, is also designed to act as a wireless VR headset for any other PC running SteamVR (including the Steam Machine, or any other regular PC with Steam on it), so you're not just limited to the GFX performance of the headset itself.
Also no lighthouses this time like with the Valve Index etc, tracking is done from the visor using four cameras.
The new controller also includes the same VR tracking tech as the VR controllers that come with the Frame, so if playing something better suited to a regular controller (flight sims, driving etc), then you can see the new controller in VR, so no lifting up the visor, or using the external cameras, trying to find the thing.
If you look at the Steam hardware survey (i.e. gaming sector), Intel are even lower at ~57% and AMD at ~43%, and it's a steady shift in AMDs favour going back 18+ months at least.
I also saw some discussions with retailers in the USA, EU and the UK, they all basically said they are constantly restocking AMD, whereas they are only selling budget end Intel CPUs, and the top end Intel parts are just sitting on the shelf, almost no one want's them.
Seems as people refresh their systems, they are gradually shifting over to AMD. It's just the better options right now, and I'd say has been for a while now.
It doesn't help that Intels previous couple of generations had stability issues on some systems (voltage issues damaging the CPUs), so that burned a few people, and then when the new generation came out, such as their flagship Core Ultra 9 285k, it was slower that the previous gen i9-14900K! (In gaming), so leaving Intel users with no real upgrade path if they wanted to stick with Intel.
AMD have some astoundingly good CPUs currently, especially the X3D versions for gaming, and they keep their platforms for much much longer.
AM4 came out in 2016 with original Zen, then it went Zen+, Zen2 and Zen3, and AMDs last CPUs to be released (so far) for AM4 were the 5500X3D and 5600F, which came out in June and September this year! That's 9 years of platform support so far.
AM5 came out in 2022 with Zen 4, followed by Zen 5 last year, and AMD have confirmed Zen 6 due late next year, will also be AM5. The rumours are that Zen 7 will also be AM5, although that's from leaks, not confirmed by AMD yet, as far as I know, but if true Zen 7 is expected around 2027-2028, so that's potentially 6 years of support so far for AM5.
Still on AM4 myself (Started with a 3800X then swapped that to a 5800X3D), just not seen the need to jump to AM5 yet, maybe next year (give DRAM prices time to come down again!).
Crap software in modern cars just seems to be the tend currently!
I've got an almost 3 year old Cupra, part of VW group of course.
I also have to turn lane-keeping off every trip, otherwise it tries to steer me into either the side of the road, or into oncoming traffic, depending on its mood! The worse one is the M62 West bound exit for the M606, as you come off the M62 onto the slip-road on the left, the car is absolutely adamant it's going to just keep going straight on instead of following the slip-road off to the left, which would mean cutting across the right hand slip road lane and going straight onto the hard-shoulder of the M62!
The collision warning seems to hate parked cars, especially on bends where the parked car is basically directly in front, and the car just doesn't notice I'm already following the bend, so not even vaguely getting close to the parked car, but nope, big red warning on the dash and hits the brakes!
Speed limit detection is also terrible. There is a parkway I drive along regularly (think small bypass around a housing estate), this is a single carriageway road, three proper (i.e. not mini) roundabouts one at each end and one in the middle, and about 2 miles long total. It's 40 mph along the entire length, no change of speed at all, with the occasional 40 repeater signs along the route. The car on the other hand thinks it's 30 at some points, then back to 40 (the repeater signs) then back to 30. One of these times is by the middle roundabout, as the left side exit (that I don't use) does drop to 30, so I suspect the car is picking this up in error (still not an excuse). But at no point on the rest of the road is there any change in speed, or any other side road with a different speed sign, or any other speed signs other than the 40 repeaters! I've even checked Street View! So I've no idea why the car thinks it keeps changing to 30! Google Navigate or Waze (via Android auto) on the other hand show 40 for the entire length! I have to keep my foot on the gas ready to push forwards, otherwise the car will brake on it's own down to 30!
I just checked my own library, I've been on Steam since it launched (over 2 decades ago!) and have 100s of games (some AAA games, I also buy lots of smaller indie titles, and often wait for sales, especially for the AAA titles, let them fix bugs and performance issues before I buy!).
79% are Platinum or Gold, so run out-of-the-box (Platinum just works, Gold usually needs a small tweak [*] and then runs perfect afterwards)
13% are Silver, so might have minor glitches, but otherwise still works fine.
2% are Bronze, so typically have issues, such as crashing, and might need more tweaking to get to run stable.
1% Borked.
The remaining ~5% are games with no reports (typically very old games no one plays anymore).
Note, I do not play many competitive multiplayer games (War Thunder being one exception, and that's native Linux). So nothing in my library has the kernel level anti-cheat.
Of the borked games, none of them were current, or even vaguely recent. 2 of them were very early VR experiences (e.g. NVIDIA VR Funhouse). 2 were multiplayer games from years back, where the companies have shut down and the servers are long since gone (Marvel Heroes Omega for example), another 2 are de-listed titles (e.g. Age of Empires Online) and 1 was an open beta which ended back in 2015! The only Borked slightly more recent title is a VR video player called 'GizmoVR Video Player', which is free, and seems to have been abandoned about 5 years ago, although seems to still work in Windows.
Of the no report ones, most of those seem to be things like discontinued expansions/DLC, such as 'Sword of the Stars: Argos Naval Yard Expansion', as this was rolled into a Complete Collection version years ago.
* Note, any needed tweaks are documented in ProtonDB for that game, so generally no searching forums etc needed, and typically require either some command line parameters adding (in Steam for that specific game), or might need a specific run time installing, which is typically managed via protontricks.
Chuckle. Who knows, I suspect it's difficult to predict currently until we start to see some longer term trends.
The gamingonlinux site has a tracker for Linux market share (based on the Steam hardware survey), so shows the trend over time. : https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
Basically it hit 1% around mid 2021
2% around the start of 2024,
Now 3% in Sep 2025
So:
~2.5 years to go from 1% to 2%
~1.8 years to go from 2% to 3%
There seems to have been a marked uptick in just the last 6 months, with around 2 thirds of that increase to 3% being in those last 6 months.
If the last 6 months trend continues, we could see 10% in less than 5 years, but this could just be a short term trend due to Win 10 EOL, and things might settle down again.
Oddly, if you look at English only Steam users (last chart on the above page), the % for the Linux share jumps to 6.61%, seems Linux is way more popular with English speaking users for some reason!
Looking at some absolute numbers, based on Valve reporting they had 132 million active monthly users back in 2022 (very likely higher now), that means an estimated 4 million plus active Linux users each month (based on the 3% number).
I never said remove anticheat, the thing is you don't need kernel level access for anticheat, this is a choice the devs for specific games have made. There are plenty of multiplayer games out there with anticheat that don't touch the kernel.
These devs might not have much choice in the future anyway, as Microsoft have stated they plan to remove kernel level access, thanks to issues like CrowdStrike.
The likely best long term way to identify cheaters is to monitor behaviour from the server side, rather than trying to detect cheat software on the client side.
is an increase in coverage of gaming on Linux (excluding Steam Deck) on popular YouTube (and other sites) tech and gaming channels, that previously only ever covered gaming on Windows desktops (or laptops).
No big shift over yet, but the fact that it's being talked about at all on these quite large channels (millions of subscribers) is a big change from just a year ago, plus the comment sections are full of people who've either already switched to Linux, or people curious about giving it a go. Some channels like Gamers Nexus (2.5m followers) are talking about adding in Linux benchmarking.
A common theme in discussions seems to be many people just hating the direction Windows is going, and looking for a alternate path.
Also likely helped that it hit mainstream tech news sites (such as Toms Hardware) recently that someone on YouTube got hold of a ROG Xbox Ally (an official XBox, aka Microsoft, handheld gaming system that runs a slimmed down Windows 11), and stuck Linux (Bazzite) on it, and got Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to run at 32% better FPS than Windows. Most other games didn't get the same boost, but had apparently a more consistent FPS (smoother game play) in Linux than under Windows. Also sleep mode (enter and exit) was basically instant under Linux, but took around 40 seconds to sleep and 15 seconds to resume in Windows.
As far as I'm aware, the only anti-cheat system that don't work on Linux are the kernel level ones, and to be honest, not sure I'd wan't to be installing those on Windows anyway! (Not that I use Windows for home use anymore anyway).
Granted this does mean quite a few of the bigger multiplayer games won't work on Linux, unless the devs change how this works, something that they might have to do if Microsoft go through with their supposed intention to remove kernel level access.
Not trolling, just curious.
For myself I used to use Hibernation (in Windows) years ago when it meant a faster boot from cold than a regular true cold start (I'd full shut down on Friday night, but Hibernation Mon to Thus).
But with faster SSDs and CPUs I gave up using it, as Hibernation caused occasional issues (hardware sometimes not initialising correctly, memory fragmentation etc), that a reboot would fix. The then newer and faster systems would boot up in less than say 10 seconds anyway, so my use of Hibernation to me just wasn't of much use any more.
If I want to save state (such as having lots of application/programs open that I want to continue with the next day), I'll just sleep/suspend, which sips very little power these days and gives you an instant resume. I could see the hybrid approach being useful for people working on the move, so might have a lack of available power, but I mostly WFH, and sometimes on client sites, so I've always (baring a power cut!) got power.
For non $work related use, I am on Linux (Mint) as my daily driver, but I always just full shut down each day, using Hibernation has never actually crossed my mind, hence being curious about why other people might find this useful?
This site is also quite nice for UK leccy: https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/live
They currently show the UK as being 12.2% Renewables, which they only include Solar, Wind and Hydro. Biomas comes under 'Other' and Nuclear under 'Low Carbon'
51.3% currently coming from Gas!
Another nail in the lid for Win 11 as far as I'm concerned.
For home, I use a home built Desktop as my main and have a Laptop as a hardware backup just in case.
The laptop was never going to get Win 11, it barely ran Win 10! It's an old Intel Centrino (Core 2 Duo) and came with Win 7 originally, so that ages it a little. It now has Mint, and is fine for browsing etc. Just don't try to use it if not plugged in to the mains!
Desktop is dual booting with my old Win 10 install on the original and faster M.2 (from when I first built the system back in 2019), and Mint on a 2nd M.2 (not quite as fast, added later originally as a location for Steam games). Been using this set up for almost 2 years now, and have almost exclusively been using Mint for the last year, so Windows just not needed any more (for me).
Been doing a final clear out of the old Win 10 system, and plan to wipe and install a fresh copy of Linux to this faster M.2 and it will become the new primary OS. Perhaps a move to CachyOS this time, as half my time on this system is gaming, Mint works fine, but it needs a bit of tweaking (nothing difficult) to use newer drivers, firmware and Kernels. Whereas CachyOS covers this out of the box.
Obviously not everyone can escape Windows, typically down to specific software (Adobe, games with Kernel level anti-cheat etc), but I don't use any of these.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with Win 11 for my corporate provided $work laptop, so I can't escape completely!
Yup, seems the regular transmissions from services like Starlink can be filtered out, as they are predictable signals, but these same systems apparently constantly leak other RF frequencies, from things like the on board electronics, and these are less predictable so harder to deal with.
Seems there are no regulations currently on leaking other RF signals for satellites, so no requirement to add shielding, or a Faraday cage etc, to block these errant signals, as that would add weight and cost, so companies like Starlink simple don't bother.
I just double checked, it was a Logitech G7, circa 2005. 20 years ago, jees I feel old!
A quick search and apparently the first ever optical gaming mouse only launched the year before in 2004 (the Razer Viper), so the G7 was very early gen for a optical gaming mouse, let alone a wireless one.
I would image the poor (by modern standards) battery life was that this was an early model, so likely not a very efficient silicon, plus laser, plus low latency/hi refresh, all focused on gaming. It also had a muti LED charge indicator for the battery, which were constantly illuminated when in use (so that you could pre-plan to swap before it went flat).
I've got a modern Razer DeathAdder v3 Pro, and this lasts days even when gaming, no battery swapping, and just uses a very flexible and light braided USB-C lead to charge (although half the time I forget to unplug again and just use it wired!).
My favourite Logitech mouse, from years back now (long since dead), was a wireless gaming mouse, which had a quick release battery.
It came with two Li-ion batteries (proprietary, about the size of a small matchbox, but half as thick) and a separate USB charger that sat on your desk.
So you'd have one charging, with the other in use, and just hit an eject button under the mouse, and slot in the charged one. Quick enough to do even mid game.
Battery would last a full day for normal use (browsing etc), and perhaps 2-3 hours of constant fast moving gaming (Unreal Tournament etc).
Where I am (US corp, but I'm in the UK), they have an internal hardware store (keyboards, mice, chairs, desks, headsets etc).
The only keyboard and mouse offering is a Dell pro set, which is a wireless mouse and keyboard combo (shares the same USB dongle, and is not Bluetooth). No wired option is available (and it's been this way since at least 2021).
A quick check, and similar Dell sets seem to be around £35 in the UK, and I would guess $work would have got a bulk buying discount.
Ah, that reminds me, I bought a Solar Casio fx-451 back in the mid 80s when I went to college, I still have it, and it still works.
My only concern is the spine [*] is quite stiff, so I worry that it might crack if opened too far. But I don't actually use it, I just kept it for nostalgia reasons, so it rarely gets opened.
* For anyone not familiar with the model, it's a folio type case, i.e. opens like a book, and many of the scientific functions etc, are on the inside of the case itself, which connects via a hidden and rather thin membrane type ribbon to the main body.
Similar here, $work provided a Keyboard and Mouse combo to go with the Laptop back in mid 2021, DELL branded, chiclet, with a shared USB dongle.
Keyboard runs on 2 x AAA, and the mouse has a single AA. I don't recall ever changing these, so I just checked, and all three batteries are still the original Duracell OEM branded ones (i.e. the ones that state not for retail sale), so are the originals that came with the kit.
According to the Dell software, the mouse is at 40% and the keyboard at 57%, I have no idea how accurate this is!
So that's 4 years and 4 months so far, and I rarely use the Lappy without them as I work from home with an external monitor, laptop stand etc. Even if I travel, I usually take them with me.
I've written a lot of documents/emails/Teams chats over that time!
Out of curiosity I've had a look on Android.
The only one of yours I have is Uber, which is 362MB here.
Not aware of any functional difference between Apple and Android Uber apps, so why another ~142MB on Apple!?
Nearest I've got to NatWest and Revolut are:
HSBC - 520MB (how big!!)
Starling - 242MB
For ref, this is on Android 16 (the current latest) on a Pixel 6, which started life on Android 12.
The only disappearing icon I've had (so far) was for Windows Explorer on the taskbar! Which is just, well odd!! Why would an MS update, remove their own default shortcut, to their own OS explorer? Just odd! Easily re-added via the Start menu (i.e. Hit Start, find Windows Explorer, launched it, and just pinned it, so its now back).
I've ignored the Virtual Desktops so far, I have plenty of real desktop space, don't really need anything virtual there, and I gave up using Notepad years ago (before they added *NIX end line support, otherwise I might have used it longer) in favour of Notepad++. So far, I've never even seen the updated version in Win 11.
I'm curious as to how much the corporate world has been pushing out Win 11?
I currently work for a large US corp (>100k employees world wide), although I'm based in the UK.
We've had the option to switch from Win 10 to Win 11 (Enterprise) manually for maybe 6 months or so (via Windows update, or a downloadable USB fresh install image). Which of course I ignored.
They started pushing the 'upgrade' onto people, with no option to defer, only about 3 weeks ago. Which of course hit myself. Showed up like a regular Windows update, and I got the usual 'Your company requires you to restart within x days'. The only thing that stood out as unusual, was the number of days tends to be 2 or 3 at most for normal patches, before being forced to restart, this time I had a month!
So I left it to the end of the week (I sleep the machine mid week), and restarted Friday after work, and sure enough, welcome to Windows 11 at some point later in the evening! (I WFH, and just walked away and left it to it, no idea how long it took).
Granted this is a sample size of one US corp, but if others are doing the same, that could be millions of potential users, that have only just started switching over to Win 11.
PS: Hate it (which I knew I would!). Only plus so far is logging in now takes a few seconds, when it was talking multiple minutes previously (the time from entering account details, to having a usable desktop). No doubt corporate and other crud building up on the old Win 10 image (and likely a wipe and re-image of a fresh corp Win 10 image would have resolved it anyway, so I doubt that was specifically a Win 11 fix).
PPS: Outside of $work I use Mint (and other flavours of Linux depending on use case).
Also a Mint user, although only just got the 22.2 notification, and I'll be waiting a little while before I update my main machine,
Just on the VM side, don't know if this would work for yourself, but I switched from Virtualbox to KVM (my host also being Mint), due to Virtualbox repeatedly stopping working after host Kernel updates.
After this happened a couple of time, I had a look at KVM (via the 'Virtual Machine Manager'), and no real issues (*), so far KVM has just worked (for me anyway)!
* The only minor annoyance is snapshot lists, but this is a Virtual Machine Manager issue (i.e. the GUI). rather than KVM itself, as they don't order by time, which to me would be the most sensible option, but rather by Alphanumeric order! So as long as you name them something like 'yyyyymmdd <something>' it's fine.
Similar (in my experience) with some legacy Windows games.
I've had issues in Windows 10 with games like KotoR (1 & 2), Sword of the Stars (1st version), CnC Generals etc. They either don't run at all in Win 10, require tweaks to get them to run (like hunting down ancient runtimes or dll's), or they run but then have glitches, or worse are a bit crash happy.
But under Linux, via Proton (which of course is a Valve (and other contributors) modified version of WINE focused on gaming), and they work fine.
Quote: "On the other hand I wonder: are consumer CPUs really meant to operate at very maxiumum load for prolonged times?
There are workstations CPUs and server CPUs for a reason."
Just in case your not aware, but AMD CPUs for Desktop, Workstation and Server, have all used a single unified CPU design since Zen came out, the CPU die's (typically known as chiplets). These (currently) contain 8 CPU cores (16 threads) *[1], and it's the exact same CPU die's/chiplets used in Desktop, Workstation and Server (not sure about Laptops, as I don't care about that as a platform). You just put more of them into the package to get higher core counts, up to 2 for Desktop/Ryzen (max 16 cores), up to 12 for Workstation/Threadripper (max 96 cores) and up to 16 for Server/Epyc (max 128 cores) *[2]
*1 Some Desktop versions also come with 6 cores, with 2 of the cores disabled/none functional.
*2 This is regular Zen 5, there is also a compact version, Zen 5c, which increases core count to 16 per chiplet.
Yup, it's the 2nd most expensive desktop [*] part from AMD, with only the 9950X3D (i.e. the 3D cache version of the same CPU) being more expensive, at another $50 or so extra to go from 64MB to 128MB L3.
* There is also the workstation parts, aka Threadripper, and these go up to ~$12k for the 96 core versions!!
The 9950X is an AM5 part, i.e. a (top end) Desktop part, and as it's a 16 core part, that means three chiplets/die's, one large IO die to one side, and two 8 core CPU die's alongside each other at the other side.
The heat spreader (top of the CPU) is basically a square shape with some offshoots, basically 8 'legs' sticking out, one at each corner and another in the centre of each side.
The screen shot of the heatsink is still showing the imprint of the heat spreader, i.e. it shows what was in contact as being off to one side, when it should be dead centre. You can clearly see the imprint of 5 of the 'legs' with 3 being missing.
It looks to me like perhaps 20% or so of the heat spreader was not in contact with the heat sync itself, this should really be closer to 100% contact, at the very least the centre square part should be full contact, the little offshoot legs don't really matter too much.
Can't tell from the image, but it could be that the side not in contact, was the CPU side of the die, ergo icon -->
Don't know if it's what you are seeing, but there are different ways of transmitting subtitles, for example it can be embedded in the video stream (hidden data off screen, basically the old way), or in a separate parallel data channel. Perhaps the Freesat box only sees one of these?
PS: Been a long time since I looked at this, so things may have changed since then!
Those were the days, my first HDD was a 80MB also on an A1200!
Of course for perspective, this was the age of the Floppy disk, with Amiga 3.5" disks (A1200) having 1.76MB per disk, so you could install the entire Amiga OS onto that 80MB disk, and still have space for around another 40 Floppies worth of data or installs.
I even partitioned mine, one with full Amiga OS with a few other extras, which I used for productivity (Deluxe Paint, Wordworth etc), plus another with a cut down OS, to keep memory usage to a minimum, which I used mainly for a few specific games.
Had all four of the above at one point or another.
The A500 was a 2nd hand unit, bought in my late teens to replace/supplement an ageing ZX Spectrum 48k [*].
Later on got a A1200, new from a shop in Leeds (UK). I had some money by this point!
Got a CD32, such a shame it never took off.
Got a 2nd hand A4000/030, later on found someone else who'd upgraded from an 040, so bought the old 040 board from them for cheap(ish). That was interesting to upgrade, it was not a simple plug-and-play, needed a newer ROM (good idea to do this anyway), plus several jumpers had to be set correctly for the new CPU to work. But so much faster than the 030!
Also got a Village Tronic Picasso IV board for it.
A500 was sold a while after getting the A1200.
Still have the A1200 and A4000.
Don't recall what happened to the CD32 (it's not in the loft (no damp in my loft), I just checked!).
*: The Spectrum started as a regular 48k rubber keyboard, I modified it to create a universal joystick, that could be used to emulate any keys pressed (via jumpers). I wore the printing off the keys with use, no problem, I'd memorised the keys by that point (and I mean all of it, not just A-Z etc, but POINT, CAT, PEEK, POKE, IN, OUT etc). Then I wore the membrane out! By that point + (Plus) conversion kits were available, so it became a + and I got an micro-drive for it. Had one of those cards that can dump the memory to a micro-drive, so much nicer than tapes! This is currently also in storage. Bit of a hoarder!
So far my only experience of using Linux in a work desktop environment, was a very positive one.
This was a few years ago now, I was working in a UK government office (as a consultant), along with a small team of Java developers (also from the same consultancy). Can't say which uk gov department, or any specifics of what we were delivering.
We'd been brought in to do some software development, specifically Java, I was acting as lead dev/designer (plus help with things like building local scripted/automated test environments for unit testing).
When we got there, we were supplied with client provided laptops (nothing unusual there), but it turned out these all had Ubuntu installed, which was a first for us!
I was already familiar with Linux myself, I'd used various flavours at home for years (including Ubuntu), desktop, servers, header-less etc, and I'd cut my teeth on AIX boxes years earlier, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. But it turned out no one else on our team had ever touched Linux desktop before, or even command line on servers etc. (We were almost entirely Windows back then, including servers).
But it seems the client had pushed adoption of Open Source. So all Laptops and servers were Linux, all tooling (build/deploy/manage etc) was OSS, although they did still use Outlook for email (this MS usage was gov wide, whereas OSS was specific to just this department). Outlook etc was via the web versions.
I became the defaco Linux SME for the team, and walked them through the differences compared to Windows etc. (It's also how I ended up doing all the automation side of things, as I was already familiar with things like shell scripting etc).
Within a few days, the whole team had adapted to using Linux, with the devs realising that many of the tools they'd used via a bit of a cludge under Windows, were just native under Linux. Even the IDE the team used (one of the Eclipse based ones) was also Linux native, so no learning curve there.
About 6 months later, when the project came to a close, the team were actually sad to see their Linux laptops having to go back!
This is so far, unfortunately, my only experience of Linux desktop in a professional environment, in over two and a half decades!
Quote: "the way it was *way* too trigger-happy to reboot after installing updates"
That was one of the things I hadn't really thought about until a few weeks after switching to Linux as my main driver (Mint in my case).
Updated Windows, reboot needed, update some 3rd party drivers (GFX card, control software etc), reboot needed, updates even to some applications/programs, reboot needed! FFS, you're a games launcher for a specific publisher, why the heck do you need a reboot!!
I'd fresh installed Mint (about ~19 months or so ago), was told a reboot was needed after running the initial updates after the first boot. Okay, fair enough I thought.
It was only weeks later, perhaps 2 months, that I got another notification, stating a reboot was needed for the change to take effect. This was after updating fairly regularly, at least once a week, and I use this machine daily. Not once for weeks was I asked by the system that a reboot was needed, until that point! It was only then I realised just how bad Windows is for updating!
The other related thing I also then realised, was that Linux (Mint) never does the Windows type 'Installing updates, please don't power off your system' screen, locking you out of your system like Windows does! This can sometimes take multiple minutes in Windows, even on a fast system! Locking you out of your own PC during that time!
Updates in Linux just install while you are logged in and using the system (desktop), not during shut down or start up. Kick off the updates (when I want) and just carry on using the system as normal.
The other thing is when you do the reboot in Linux when asked, is there is no patching phase like Windows, there is no slow down to the shutdown or start up process, just the same as any regular reboot and you are back up and running in seconds.
It was, and still is (as I have to use Windows for $work still), one of my pet peeves with Windows, that I can hit the power button on a Monday morning for a cold boot, and be greeted with an 'updating' screen! FFS, do the updates while I'm using the system, or at least at the end of the day when I shut down and I've done with the machine, or give me a 'skip for now' button! For years now I hit the power button, then go get a coffee.
Edit: Typo.
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