* Posts by Boothy

1271 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jun 2011

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Even Linus Torvalds can have trouble with autocycle … autocracy… AUTOCOMPLETE!

Boothy
Pint

Ah the joys of autocomplete.

Just last week one of my neighbours sent me a text asking if I was going to be at home the following day, so that I could take in a parent for her, as she was going to be at work!

She of course meant parcel. :-)

Icon, well why not?

Does this thing run on a 220 V power supply? Oh. That puff of smoke suggests not

Boothy

Re: "built to survive minor accidents"

Back in the 90s I worked in an electronics lab (well, a couple of brick rooms). We built and repaired custom electrical and electronic systems (think custom control systems for industrial systems).

We had a bad batch of electrolytic capacitors at one point, and they would randomly pop during burn in testing!

We ended up making a case and lid for the test bench, to literally keep the lid on.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

Boothy

Re: Linux for a heavy gamer

Just my experience, but I'm a Linux desktop gamer here, and a VR user, both on Linux. Although can't comment specifically on the Oculus side of things (Index user here).

I have a couple of desktops...

Desktop 1: None VR system. My main gaming rig: AM4 5800X3D + 6900XT, and an Ultrawide 3440 x 1440. Using Mint Cinnamon, with dual boot into Windows 10.

Both CyberPunk 2077 and GTA work perfectly. In fact in the early days of CyberPunk, when lots of people were complaining about performance issues, crashes etc. Mine was working fine, performance was a little poor (like everyone at the time), but I never had any of the crashing other people seemed to be having.

The only game I can't run reliably is MS Flight Sim (2020/4th anniversary edition), hmm, I wonder why! This is currently the only game I boot into Windows for.

Latest game to play has been Assassin's Creed Mirage (via Steam), no issues, and that uses the annoying Ubisoft Connect launcher.

Desktop 2: Dedicated VR system. Also AM4, using a hand-me-down 3800X CPU + 7800XT with a Valve Index.

(Dedicated as my office where my main gaming rig is located is quite small, so this set-up lives hidden in a cupboard in the open plan dining/kitchen area, as it's the biggest room in the house!).

This uses Arch Linux (same as the Steam Deck), specifically EndeavourOS. This was done due to issues I had under Mint when using VR on my main system (this before building the dedicated VR rig).

As this was a new system, I thought I'd try Arch first, as that's what Valve are using for the Steam Deck, with the backup plan being to install Windows if really needed.

So far everything I've tried has just worked. That includes for example The Gallery, The Lab, Beat Saber, Space Pirate Trainer, Half Life Alyx, Helblade (VR version) etc.

I was planning on making the system dual boot, so Arch and Windows, but so far haven't bothered installing Windows on the VR system.

Notes:

Almost everything I play is via Steam, so Linux support is built in.

Also I'm using AMD GFX in both systems, and I've heard that AMD makes things easier, as their Linux driver support is much better than say NVIDIA.

The bottom line is, I'm not going back to Windows on a personal system.

Boothy

Re: Linux is best for servers, not good for desktops

Similar experience when I installed Mint on my home built desktop system a couple of years back, plus updates since then have all been smooth. (Now on 22.1).

This system has wifi, bluetooth, LAN, wireless gaming mouse etc. All that just worked.

The only single bit of hardware that didn't work out of the box on initial install was the back-light RGB control on my keyboard (an old first gen Corsair Strafe I've had for years now). Although the keyboard itself worked fine, and the back-light did switch on, it was just using defaults, with no control.

A quick search, and I found Ckb-next listed in the software manager, installed, and the RGB control now worked fine.

Boothy

Re: Linux is best for servers, not good for desktops

Most of the above can either be reworded and equally be applied to Windows, or seem to be a skill issue on your part.

Give someone who has never used a computer before, a Windows system, and ask them to do all those things, and you'll have all the same type of issues.

As an example, spaces in path names, oh look, I have a directory called 'Calibre Library' in my home dir, opens terminal, types 'cd Ca' hits tab (autocomplete), hits return, done. Alternately you can just escape the space, so for 'Calibre Library' you type 'Calibre\ Library' (without the quotes). Not exactly difficult stuff. Similar for shell scripts, just put quotes around any variables you might be using spaces within e.g. "$mypath", this is just good practice anyway.

For file sharing, for me it's just right click on a directory icon, and select 'Sharing options', (this uses Samba), although for me personally, I do all filesharing via a NAS (also Linux), not directly on my desktops (I just browse on the desktop to the network shares, then bookmark the ones I use regularly).

Erm, you do know FreeBSD is not Linux??

Quote: 'Where are my programs installed?' why do you care? You could ask the same for Windows, has it gone under 'Program Files', 'Program Files (x86)', 'Program Files\WindowsApps', or has it been hidden somewhere under AppData, or some other custom location? But again, who cares, does the program work?

Display drivers updates are built into the software manager, and just work, have for me anyway for years now. No fighting required. Easier than Windows.

Boothy

Re: Gaming on Linux

I think the Steam Deck launch (almost 3 years ago now!) was quite critical.

Games that previously needed some tweaks, don't anymore, plus most devs now aim for deck compatibility (including big studios and indies), which also automatically means desktop Linux compatibility.

2+ years ago, I was doing more tweaking (wine/proton tricks to install runtimes etc.), and had a few issues with games that used custom launchers (2K, Ubisoft etc).

The only thing I do now is...

1. Add 'gamemoderun %command%' to the launch options (completely optional, but can help game performance a little sometimes). Really wish Steam had the option to just set this globally!

2. I also install GE Proton, (simple unzip the .tar.gz to a dir under Steam (e.g. .steam/root/compatibilitytools.d) and restart Steam, GE proton is then selectable under Compatibility (globally or individually per game)).

If a game doesn't work with the default Proton from Valve, I set Compatibility to GE proton instead for that game, and it just works. Typically only needed for brand-new releases,

Note, I don't (apart from one *) play competitive games, so whilst I'm aware of some multiplayer anti-cheat systems having issues, this hasn't impacted myself.

* War Thunder is the only competitive game I play (occasionally), and it's Linux native, so no Proton needed.

Boothy

Gaming on Linux

Quote: ' if you're really serious about games, why are you on a desktop anyway?'

Erm, because I'm serious about gaming!

More seriously, this is horses for courses, consoles are easier and cheaper, but are also more locked down, with more platform exclusives etc. (Which is a bad thing).

PC gaming is far more flexible, and I'd argue for many games, such as strategy games and FPS games, mouse and keyboard are king. Plus for those games that a controller is better (driving games, 3rd person games like Assassin's Creed etc), you can just plug one in anyway. Also many big strategy games are just not available on consoles, or when they are, they are cut down limited versions, due to lack of resources in the consoles..

Ultimately, one is not better (from a usage point of view) than the other, as it depends on your use case, what games you play, if you prefer K+M over a controller etc. So play on what you want, on what you want!

What I will say though, is I've been gaming on Mint Cinnamon for over two years now, and the only game that I had real issues with was MS Flight Sim (the 2023 version), which is of course from the MS XBox studio!

Intel pitches modular PC designs to make repairs less painful

Boothy

Re: If they were

Same here. Also built a AM4 system back in Aug 2019, with a 3800X (was on offer, so same price as the 3700X at the time, so why not), plus a hand-me-down RTX 2080 which was in a old i7 system (from the days before i9 was a thing).

Popped a RX 6900 XT into this (again it was on offer) in July 2022, then a 5800X3D into it back in Sep 2022. So for CPU, it's basically as fast as it's going to get for gaming, and I don't need 16 cores for productivity on this machine.

I'd like to swap the GFX out at some point, but I'm not in a rush, and have no currently plans to switch over to AM5, as I can still play at Ultra or High settings, and maintain typically 100+ FPS anyway for the games I play.

Linux Mint 22.1 Xia arrives fashionably late

Boothy
WTF?

@ mark

Quote 'But it does mean its only for Linux newbies as I have been daily driving it since 2012.'

I'm guessing you meant 'doesn't' rather than 'does'? As you state it's only for newbies, but also used it as a daily since 2012, which are at odds! :-)

PS: Also a daily Mint user.

UK prepared to throw planning rules out the window for massive datacenters

Boothy

Re: Possible gains that almost certainly won't happen

There is still a district based system in London, in the Square Mile, it provides heating, electricity and cooling to residential and commercial properties, including the Guildhall, the Barbican Centre etc, apparently 60 sites in total.

It's called Citigen (implemented by e-on).

Blurb: 'Using a modern tri-generation system with internal combustion engines, Citigen provides district heating, electricity and cooling to this highly populated part of London with ever-growing and changing energy needs.

The network covers over 6km of heating and over 4.5km of cooling to commercial and residential property from the Guildhall to the Barbican Centre, providing heating and cooling for the equivalent of 11,300 homes. Citigen is a key part of the solution for the City of London’s environmental targets.'

The ultimate Pi 5 arrives carrying 16GB ... and a price to match

Boothy

Quote: 'and he still wasn't able to play video's back at higher resolution / frame rate.'

Sounds like a driver issue perhaps?

I'm using a Pi 5 as a media player (LibreELEC+Kodi, no plugins/extensions) plugged direct into my TV (old model LG 4k), and it plays back 4k 60fps files (from a NAS) just fine for me.

PS: The downvote wasn't from me.

How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software

Boothy

Re: floppies

In case you don't know, web based version of Space Cadet:

https://alula.github.io/SpaceCadetPinball/

Left/Right mouse for paddles, hold middle mouse and release for the ball.

Christmas 1984: The last hurrah for 8-bit home computers

Boothy

Re: Don't forget the Oric !

I remember my neighbour getting an Oric for Christmas in 1982 (or 83?) when I was 12/13, he was maybe 2 years younger than myself and had no real idea what to do with it! I figured it out, and ended up basically being kicked out of their house to give him a chance to use his own computer! Chuckle.

I then pestered my parents for one relentlessly for months and months.

The following Christmas arrived, and there was a brand new ZX Spectrum 48K and my disappointment was immeasurable, where was my Oric!!! What's this weird rubbery keyboard thing!

This feeling lasted maybe a few minutes. Loved that machine, oh happy days.

Boothy

Re: Well...

Completely agree, author seems to be almost a decade out.

I had a ZX Spectrum from new (48k rubber keyboard), upgraded it to a '+' via a DIY kit (after wearing out the rubber keyboard, and I mean the actual electrical membrane, the text on the keys had long since gone!). I then moved to a +3 (floppy disk version) around 1988.

I did switch to 16bit, with an Amiga 500, but this was a 2nd hand one, perhaps around 1990?

I was also one of the first ones amongst my friends to move to 16bit, so at least 6 years after 1984! (Also had no interest in consoles).

I got an Amiga 1200 (32bit) in early 1993, this time new (actually had a real job by this point!). I also picked up an Amiga 4000 2nd hand a couple of years later (a 68030, but I got hold of an 68040 board).

Still have the Amiga 1200 and 4000, although the 500 and the Spectrum were sold long ago, back in the 90s.

Boothy

Re: History....

Quote: 'S41 Newbold area of Chesterfeild[sic]'

@ spireite : Ah, now the username makes sense :-)

Small world! This speaking as someone who lives in Chesterfield, on Spire Heights to be exact! :-D

PS: For anyone that doesn't get it, Chesterfields footy team are known as the Spireites, they had a new football ground built in a new location over a decade ago, and new housing was built on the old site (it was basically in the middle of a residential area), with 'Spire Heights' becoming the new name, as a homage to the old site. There is also an art 'installation' commemorating it's old use.

British Army zaps drones out of the sky with laser trucks

Boothy

Quote "... with additional provisions for dedicated power sources to ensure sustained operation."

So that to me looks like they can only ensure sustained operation when using additional power sources.

Which in turn likely means using the vehicles power system only allows for non-sustained, operations. Likely charging something up, then fire, then wait to charge again.

But if you want sustained fire, time to get the extension cord out!

Not really an issue, as this is only a demonstrator anyway.

Badass Russian techie outsmarts FSB, flees Putinland all while being tracked with spyware

Boothy

Re: "Always keep a second passport"

Quote 'I would venture that, in every country that delivers passports, having a second one is against the law.'

Can't comment on other countries, but certainly in the UK you can have more than one British passport, these are known as 'additional passports' and you have to provide a valid reason for wanting one.

Valid reasons include things like being a frequent business traveller, if you need visas, as often you need to send your passport to a embassy or consulate to get the visa, and this can take time, several weeks, meaning no passport for that time, and if you travel every week or two, or even just monthly, this can be impossible without a second passport.

Another reason is incompatible countries, having stamps for some countries can make it difficult to get into others. A friend of mine years ago was a language teacher, and did volunteer charity work overseas, sometimes to countries that were not all that friendly with each other, or the West in general. The charity suggested getting a second passport, and to use his original one for the West and West friendly nations, and the second one for some of the less friendly ones. This wasn't just a case of getting into the other countries easier (as it was obvious where he'd come from of course), but more about getting back into places in the West, such as the USA, without having a passport full of visas and stamps from places like Libya etc.

Windows 11 market share falls despite Microsoft ad blitz

Boothy

Another Mint user here, and I'm a gamer, mostly via Steam. Almost 2 years now, no regrets.

A few tips for anyone new to gaming on Linux...

Steam is Linux native and can be installed from the distro software manager.

Steam uses Proton (Valves tweaked version of Wine), to run non native games.

Once up and running, go into Settings > Compatibility and turn on 'Enable Steam Play for all other titles'.

This will enable the Install and Play button for everything. (Otherwise it only enables for games certified to run).

If you have specific issues with a game, you can check Proton DB, although I've not needed to do this for many months now. ( https://www.protondb.com )

Proton GE is a forked version of regular Proton, and is more cutting edge, so can be useful for new released games. It's use is completely optional.

Personally I just use GE all the time, set under the same Settings > Compatibility menu as above, so Steam just uses it all the time. GE download: https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases

To install, grab the tar file (e.g. GE-Proton9-20.tar.gz) then extract to ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/ including the directory (e.g. so you end up with ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/GE-Proton9-20)

Restart Steam and GE is now available to select.

You can also set individual games to a specific Proton if needed, just open the games settings/properties from inside the Steam library, go to Compatibility, and you can select a specific Proton version and force the game to use that. You can also use this option to force a native Linux game, to run the Windows version via Proton instead, if needed.

Check if your distro has 'gamemoderun' installed. If it does, add 'gamemoderun %command%' without the quotes to the games launch option within Steam. This sets some temporary (while the game is running) optimisations, which can (although not always) improve the performance of games.

Lutris can be used to run other game stores, like Epic etc.

Are Copilot+ PCs really the fastest Windows PCs? X and Copilot don't think so

Boothy

Re: Hang on a minute

I think they were referring to the 'Sinclair ZX80', which used the Zilog Z80 CPU.

It was supposedly the first personal computer for under £100, thus not the first actual PC.

The Register takes AMD's Ryzen 9800X3D for a spin

Boothy

I've got a near identical set up to yourself, same 5800X3D, 6900XT, 32GB Ram. Only diff is I'm on a 3440 x 1440 ultrawide @ 144Hz.

I built the system originally back in 2019 with a 3800X and a RTX 2080, and 16GB RAM. (card was a hand-me-down from an earlier i7 system).

Only upgrade I'm considering is a GFX card upgrade, but I'm waiting to see what AMD release next year. Don't really care for nVidia, and I'm on Linux these days, rather than Windows.

Steam cuts the cord for legacy Windows and macOS

Boothy

Go for it.

I've been using Linux (Mint in my case) as my primary game rig for almost 2 years now. Set it up as a dual boot, but honestly haven't even booted up the Windows 10 drive for hmm, 6 months I think at this point. Don't miss it at all.

There was some rough edges when I initially started, the odd tweak here and there to get something new to run, but for older titles (RA2, C&C Generals etc) they honestly (for me anyway) worked better under Proton than I ever got them working under Win 10. Less crashing etc.

But even the tweaking isn't really needed these days, and new titles just work out of the box!

A recent example (very recent, as in just a few hours ago) 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl' just released on Windows, brand new today, Windows only. It works fine under Linux, and judging by forum posts on Steam, quite a few people on Windows are having issues! (Does need some optimisation, but that's nothing to do with Linux).

The one exception I would say for competitive multiplayer games. Although this depends on the game. Some of these contain kernel level anti cheat systems that don't always play nice via Proton. But I don't really play those games, so haven't had that issue myself.

The only multiplayer game I play occasionally is War Thunder, and they have a native Linux client anyway (Tip: don't install WT via Steam, it messes with settings every time it updates, grab it from the distro software manager, or via the web site).

Check out the protondb site if you have any specific games in mind.

SuperHTML is here to rescue you from syntax errors, and it's FOSS

Boothy

Re: I dunno. . .

Thanks, wasn't aware of this version, and a quick look and VSCodium is in my software manager (Mint 22), so will give this a go.

Boothy

Re: I dunno. . .

Quote "Just for example, show me an IDE that will allow me to split a window vertically or horizontally so that I can look at two (or more) parts of the code at once or pop an entirely new window if need be and I'll be happy to look at it."

Visual Studio Code lets you do this, just right click on the tab for an open file and select 'Split <direction>", options being Up, Down, Left or Right. You can do this multiple times, so could have the same file open in multiple sub windows, 2, 3, 4 or more times, each one having it's own scroll bar etc.

Grab any of these tabs, and pull it off the main window, and you now have an independent window, you could then drag this over to a 2nd monitor for example. (and yes, you can split this now separate window).

Fake reviewers face the wrath of Khan

Boothy

Review hijacking

I noticed some "review hijacking" last year on Amazon. The first time I saw this was when I was looking for some USB thumb drives (for ISO boot images, and BIOS updating).

I'm in the habit now of not just looking at review scores, but actually checking out some of the reviews themselves.

On reading, the reviews didn't make much sense at first, until I realised they were all talking about a kids sticker book!

UK ponders USB-C as common charging standard

Boothy

Re: DC power distribution reliability/risks of USB-C

USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) rev 1 was released in 2012. 3 years before the first Type C devices came out. So yes, USB PD did work with USB-A (and USB-B).

USB PD rev 1 did need a PD aware USB cable, so you couldn't just drop in any old USB cable. This wen't up to 100W (5A at 20v).

This was also separate from the earlier USB battery charging spec.

The Type-C Specification 1.0, came out in 2014, with the first devices to get USB Type C coming out in 2015. i.e. 3 years after USB PD had been in use.

USB PD Rev. 2.0 came out in 2016, (as part of USB 3.1), and this added Type C.

Smart TVs are spying on everyone

Boothy

Re: PiHole!

By default it just sets up DNS, you then have to either manually update your device settings to use the Pi-holes DNS, or update your router/modem DHCP to use the Pi-Holes IP as the DNS, assuming you can even change that setting, which often you can't if it was supplied by your ISP. (Or of course manage DHCP with something else you can change yourself).

But the Pi-hole does come with it's own DHCP service built in, so you can just enter your desired IP range, set the gateway to the routers IP, then enable DHCP in the Pi-hole and disable it in router, and now you have control.

EV sales hit speed bump as drivers unplug from the electric dream

Boothy

Re: I was considering an electric car but...

Same in my Cupra Born (i.e. the ID.3 in a different dress), range seems spot on when I periodically test it out.

Now the rest of the software...

Gamers who find Ryzen 9000s disappointingly slow are testing it wrong, says AMD

Boothy

Also sitting this out for a little bit longer.

Built an AM4 system back in 2019 with a 3800X.

Looked at AM5 when it released, but switching at the time, which would have needed new CPU, motherboard and RAM, and this just wasn't financially viable in my mind with cost vs the performance bump (no AM5 X3D out yet at that time, and the new RAM was very expensive back then).

So I dropped a 5800X3D into the existing AM4 system in Sept 22 instead. Which is what I'm still using now and so far in no rush to switch to AM5.

I might have a look again when the 9800X3D (or whatever they call it) drops. But I think my next purchase will be replacing the GFX card anyway (RX 6900XT atm, which is decent enough for now).

AMD spills the beans on Zen 5's 16% IPC gains

Boothy

What 'completely new models'? It's the platform that is key, not the individual CPUs.

AMD have gone out of their way to provide platform longevity.

AMDs AM4 platform came out in 2016, and is still supported. AM4 provided support all the way from the original Zen, through Zen+, Zen 2 and Zen 3, and AMD are still releasing new Zen 3 CPUs even now, which is perfect for people who don't want to just shift to AM5 yet (or some other platform). For example the 5700X3D was released in Jan this year, and the new 5800XT and 5900XT are due out this month.

AM5 came out less that 2 years ago, and AMD have stated they will be supporting the platform till at least 2027, they actually state 2027+ so it is quite likely to be beyond 2027. So that's a minimum of 5 years of support for this platform, but more than likely 6 or 7 years of support.

There is also no one forcing people to upgrade a CPU, it's not like an old first gen Zen 1 1800X has suddenly stopped working just because a new CPU has come out for the same platform! And even if they do upgrade, it's typically a BIOS update and a drop in replacement. No other changes needed unless switching platform.

And no one really needs "the new hotness", it's there if you want it, and some people may have valid use cases to keep up with the latest and greatest, but those are a very small minority. Most people (based on friends, colleagues at work, and forum discussions), generally just jump over several CPU releases anyway. Being say 10-20% faster per CPU generation just isn't that noticeable in the real work, if you wait say 3 generations, you're going to see something like a 50%+ uplift, which is noticible.

Anecdotal, but I've seen a lot of people in comments, forums etc, when talking about their systems, who went out and bought the 5800X3D for their AM4 platforms, to basically max out (for gaming) their existing AM4 platform, meaning they don't need to switch to AM5 (or Intel etc) for another 2-3 years or so.

Speed limiters arrive for all new cars in the European Union

Boothy

Re: Not ready

The lane assist is really annoying for me too. From what I understand, the inability to switch off permanently is a requirement for NCAP (assuming you're in the UK/EU etc), you can turn of temp, but it has to be back on next start, otherwise they loose a star in their NCAP rating.

I've got a VW (~18 months old), the lane assist is basically suicidal. A few things it's done for me:

Note, I'm in the UK, so on the left.

1. On right hand bends in the road, it regularly tries to steer me over the centre line, into the oncoming traffic.

2. It regularly tries to steer me away from the left (curb side), on straight roads, even through I'm already at a proper distance from the curb, and any further over would push me too close to the centre line.

3. As you mention above, trying to stop me from changing lanes to the left, after for example completing an overtake, unless I indicate, even though this is not a requirement in the UK.

4. This is a longer one, but it always without fail happens in this same spot every single time!

Leaving the M62 West bound, at the M606 junction, the left lane is a dedicated slip road for a short while, so runs parallel to the motorway before starting to head off to the left. At this point, the car will insist on going straight on, rather than following the lane I'm in, which is now moving to the left pulling away from the motorway, it is basically trying to carry on down the M62, even though it's a the hard shoulder ahead of me!

The side lane markings to the left are peeling away to the left at this point, moving away from the motorway, with the markings to the right being the line between the slip road and the now new first lane of the M62. My only thought here is the car is for some reason not looking at the correct road markings, i.e. it's trying to follow the line to the right, which is the dotted line between the main road and slip road, rather than follow the line to the left, which indicates the left side of the actual lane.

Be curious to know if anyone out there has similar issues?

One thought I had, is that many cars are designed, built and tested in right hand drive countries, so perhaps the software favours right driving over left driving in some brands?

Boothy

I've got a ~18 month old VW, same system, knows the speed limit even when signs are obscured (which atm a lot are in the UK due to councils not cutting the vegetation back). So I'm assuming it using GPS here, as it still changes the recognised speed in the car, even with no visible signage.

The issue is when there is signage, as the car basically picks it up from anywhere, car parks at the side of the road, side streets, works traffic in road works, private access land adjacent to the public road etc etc.

So I regularly get told it's 60, when it's actually 30 (side streets that are national speed limit), or 20 when it's 50 (motorway roadworks), 10 in a 40 (private access road running parallel to the main road) etc etc.

Thankfully you can turn the audio notifications and haptic off (and it remembers it for the next drive)!

Boothy

Or just have it auto calibrate from GPS, assuming it has GPS of course, which most cars other than the cheapest options seem to do these days.

Boothy

Re: DO NOT WANT

Got that feature in my car as well, and had all the above (well except the Norwegian tunnels, I'm in the UK :-) )

Similar to your 'other carriageway picked up', I've also had things like speed limits for works traffic being picked up. A specific example that's happened more than once is going through roadworks with lane closures, where works traffic are using those closed lanes. So I'll have say a 50 mph limit for my lane, but the car thinks it's 20 mph due to tiny little speed limit signs inside the roadworks.

Side streets is also a bad one, I regularly drive on roads that are say 30 or 40 mph, and the side streets are country side roads at UK national speed limit (so 60 for a car), so I'm in a a 30, but the car now thinks it's 60!

As such the car (VW) simply cannot be trusted to manage it's own speed, as I'd end up at 20 on motorways, or 60 in residentials!

Thankfully you can turn off all the audible and 'nudge' haptic stuff. But I left the onscreen warning on out of curiosity, just to see how often it gets it wrong, which is a lot. The dashboard always shows what it thinks is the current speed limit (often wrong), and puts a red line through it if it thinks you are speeding.

And don't get me started on lane assist!! (It literally tries to kill you!).

Beijing says state owns China's rare earth metals

Boothy
Mushroom

Re: Ah the resource wars

Hopefully not Boeing, otherwise the doors are likely to fall off!

World's top AI chatbots have no problem parroting Russian disinformation

Boothy

Dictionaries don't define the meanings of words, they document them.

It's the usage of the words (in the press, books, papers, common usage, blogs, news articles etc etc) that define the meaning, so dictionaries are updated to reflect those changes over time.

Sometimes this can be a complete change in meaning, such as the word 'decimate', which used to mean 'to kill one in ten', but now simple means destroying a large portion of something.

Other times it can be adding further clarity to an existing meaning.

Windows 11 tries to escape Windows 10's shadow with AI muscle

Boothy

Re: If they weren't removing the choice no one would bother changing

Also just to mention, setting up the same printer in Windows was a pain.

Windows would not recognise the printer at all without downloading drivers (something not needed in Mint).

The drivers for my Samsung are now on the HP site, they have multiple drivers and software packages, with no clear instructions as to which ones you actually need. I recall having to plug it in via USB to get Windows to see it, set it up initially, then switch to WiFi afterwards!

Boothy

Re: If they weren't removing the choice no one would bother changing

Granted this is just my experience, and just one printer, but for what it's worth...

I've got one of those all-in-ones, a Samsung laser with scanner etc (M2070 to be specific), which I've had a while. (I think HP bought out their printing business years ago now).

It connects via Wi-Fi. When I ran Mint up while building the system, I turned the printer on, just went to the built in 'Admin>Printers', clicked 'Add' and followed the instructions. Job done. It prints from everything so far, and the built in scan software picks it up as well (although it takes a few seconds before the device shows in the device list).

I'd suggest a live CD, or a install into a VM, then see if it works (Linux Mint in my case).

For gaming,....

Yes Steam is amazing. It was pretty good 18 months back, and has just gotten better since then. So many games are Steam Deck verified now, which means it'll be fine on desktop Linux as well, and even if it's not deck verified, I haven't found any recent games on Steam that didn't just work.

Of course a huge part of this is Proton, Valves tweaked version of Wine and used on their Steam Deck, and is built into the Linux version of desktop Steam. Valve are fairly fast at updating and bug fixes, but if it's a brand new game release, it can sometimes have issues (basically the same as needing a day-one Windows driver updates for a specific game). GE Proton is usually a little ahead of Steams Proton, a bit more cutting edge, but you can have both installed at the same time, and multiple versions of each at the same time. (Steam has a global Proton option, but can also be set to a specific version per game if needed).

The only other issue I had for gaming was the MESA (GFX driver), I use Mint, which goes for stability rather than cutting edge, so MESA was always a bit behind. This was fine for like 95%+ of games, but sometimes a new release would crash, hang, or just exit. Switching to a different MESA build (in my case kisak-mesa), resolved these issues.

One thing I have heard, is that AMD GFX has less issues than nVidia. AMD also seem to be a bit friendlier towards open source, Linux etc.

Good luck if you decide to jump!

Boothy

Re: Meanwhile ...

Another Mint user, 18 months and counting, no regrets.

Boothy
Go

Re: If they weren't removing the choice no one would bother changing

Apologies for the rant!

I jumped to Linux about 18 months ago now on my main driver at home (still stuck with Windows for work, but they provide that gear, so meh).

All my docs and media are on a NAS (with separate backup and cloud sync), so very little local that needed to be moved, so that made switching easier, for me anyway.

I didn't quite fully commit, as I set up a dual boot, with my existing Win 10 install on one drive, unchanged other than doing a clean up (uninstalling/moving stuff around to fee up other drives etc). Then a separate drive with Mint (as I was already familiar with Mint, other flavours exist). I set up Mint as the primary drive, with Windows as an option via GRUB. But I found, other than booting into Windows to grab some settings or something like that on the odd occasion, that I quickly just stopped using Windows. (Also helps that you can mount NTFS drives as read/write with a single click in Mint (and I assume other flavours), so if all I needed was to grab a file, I can do that from within Linux anyway).

I've been using Mint now for ~18 months, I really can't imagine ever going back to Windows on any personal machine. I don't miss it at all.

A few things I don't miss :

Random slow boot times.

So called background updates or tasks that hog your system for a while (I kept a reasonably clean system).

System updates that seem to take forever even though it's a quick system [*]

Reboots required after even small updates.

The 'update and shutdown/restart' thing, that even when told to update and shutdown, still carries on patching at the next boot up! Time to go get a coffee I guess.

Ads in the Start menu.

Really bad Start menu search system, that keeps pushing Internet results and ads on me (again!). (I turn it off, it then comes back after an update!).

Suggestions, of any sort (it's like Clippy all over again!)

Applications/programs having to be manually updated (I love having a common Software manager and update system now!).

I could go on!

I hadn't realised until I switched, just how many things that are just a normal part of using Windows, are just not a thing, or are less of a hassle, under Linux. To some extent, I hadn't realise just how bad Windows had gotten, until I took that leap, and looked at it from the outside!

Obviously different people will have different use cases, different software needs etc. So millage may vary!

The point is, for me anyway, I have no regrets in jumping to Linux.

And just to be clear, Linux isn't perfect. For example I switched to a different Mesa (GFX driver) as the version in the Mint repo is a bit behind (they go for stability, not cutting edge), and so some newly released games just crashed on start, and this took a bit of digging, and a couple of attempts to get working!

Oh, and I'm also a PC gamer, playing a mix of legacy (C&C, Sword of the Stars, KotoR etc), and newer titles (Horizon Forbidden West, Fallout 4, Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077 etc). All work fine on Linux (sometimes better, especially for older titles such as those written for Win 7 etc).

For ref:

* System: Ryzen 5800X3D, 6900XT, 32GiB RAM, 3 x NVME M.2 drives, one for Windows, one for Mint, and one for my Steam Library :-)

Want to keep Windows 10 secure? This is how much Microsoft will charge you

Boothy

Re: gog/linux

Have a look at Lutris (grab from your distros software manager, personally I'd avoid the snap/flathub versions).

It has built in GOG support (as well as Humble, Epic, EA etc). On launch, hit the little 'person' (account) icon next to GOG on the left, and log in with your GOG account. Any games you have in GOG should show up, and can be installed by just clicking the Install button at the bottom after selecting a game.

Lutris uses what it calls 'Runners' to launch the games in, so for example Wine for Windows games, DOSBox for older DOS games etc. These are selected automatically based on the game. If a runner is needed for a game, but not installed yet, Lutris will just prompt you the first time you launch a game that needs it, and you just hit Yes and Lutris does the rest. After that you can just launch the game as is.

I can't really comment on compatibility etc, as I almost always use Steam on Linux, and only have a few titles in GOG. (Such as the old Populous 1 & 2 games).

Also note: The Wine runner in Lutris can also be configured to use Steams Proton (their tweaked version of Wine), instead of regular Wine (Preferences > Runners > Wine > Gear icon, then change 'Wine version' ). So if regular Wine doesn't work, try Proton instead.

This also means the protondb.com site (as mentioned by another poster above) is also somewhat valid assuming specific GOG games are also available on Steam of course. i.e. If it's a decent rating for the Steam version of a game on Protondb, then there is a good chance the GOG version will also work fine under Lutris.

Happy 20th birthday Gmail, you're mostly grown up – now fix the spam

Boothy

Re: Mark of the unprofessional

I do the same, plus add businesses that use a antisocial media address as their primary web site.

I don't mind this 'too' much if it's just someone doing a bit of a hobby type business on the side, nor do I mind if this is a secondary location to push the business to those platform users, but if you're a proper business driving around in a van with a company name and logo splashed all over it, please use a real domain (and the same one) for both the web page and email!

Tesla power steering probe upgraded after thousands more incidents reported

Boothy

"Not only frequent..." Citation needed.

Studies (the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and Australia’s Department of Defence (EV FireSafe) for example), both show EV fires are far less likely than fires in petrol or diesel cars.

Quote: "....3.8 fires per 100,000 electric or hybrid cars in 2022, compared with 68 fires per 100,000 cars when taking all fuel types into account."

Quote: "...found there was a 0.0012% chance of a passenger electric vehicle battery catching fire, compared with a 0.1% chance for internal combustion engine cars."

The only reason EV fires appear to be common, is they end up as a headline story, whereas petrol or diesel car fires are so common, they are not news worthy unless the fire takes out a whole building, or a ship. There is also a lot of misinformation, where fires have been attributed to EVs, but then found out it was not the case.

Resent examples being the Luton airport multistory car park that turned out to be a diesel, and the Fremantle Highway car transporter ship, where all 498 EVs that were on board were driven off with only minor damage.

"...extremely difficult to put out."

This I'll agree with, but only when it's thermal runaway of the battery pack.

Windows 11 24H2 is coming so we can all shut up about Windows 12 for another year

Boothy

I went dual boot over a year ago now, Win 10 + Mint, with GRUB set to load Mint by default.

A good chunk of what I do on this machine is gaming, almost all my games are via Steam, and use of Proton is basically transparent to the end user (unless you want to tweak).

Steam on Linux has been native for many years of course (2012), but the last two years has seen big leaps in Steam game compatibility thanks to the Steam Deck being launched (Feb 2022), with its OS being based on Arch Linux, and also uses Proton. This has meant many developers and publishers pushing to get Steam Deck compatibility for their titles, which basically means Linux compatibility.

I've also noticed some old Windows titles, such as those written for Win 7 and then never updated for newer Windows, seem to work better under Proton, than they do under Windows 10, even in compatibility mode. (KotoR II being one example, which just crashes on me after a few mins on Win 10, but is rock solid for me on Linux!).

Virgin Media comes top of the flops for customer complaints

Boothy

Ah VM broadband. I'm with them, have been for maybe 10 months, as it was the only option in my area that enabled over 80Mpbs, all other options being vDSL based.

A couple of weeks ago, Monday, my broadband went down (and TV of course). Visits by different 'engineers' every day afterwards, and it took till Friday to fix!

Turned out some contractors pulling cables in for a neighbour on Monday, managed to break the main fibre feed!

Of course no prizes for guessing who the contractors worked for, VM of course, they were fitting the outside fibre cable for a new sign up a couple of doors down from myself, and managed to take out everyone on VM at my end of the street at the same time!

Note: Here all the telco/broadband/fibre cables are in a shared duct under the pavement. So you get VM, Openreach, sub contractors etc, all working in the same ducts.

White goods giant fires legal threats to unplug open source plugin

Boothy

Interesting replies. My old machine (the one with the stupid hidden warning lights!) came with the house (the house was new). So I just figured I'd leave it till it broke.

It was an Electrolux (shudder), so colour me surprised when it managed to not only live past normal warranty, and the 'free' extended warranty, but managed over 10 years! (I was really surprised!!).

But, it was an Electrolux, so all hail the new Bosch :-) (lets see if this one last 10+ years!).

I got the new Bosch about 2 months ago. Same space, same hidden controls behind the matching door front. (Fitted it myself, so what could possible go wrong!).

But I now get a little projection on the floor, showing a remaining count-down time, hh:mm, plus it flips to an icon every few seconds showing the stage, Wash, rinse etc,

All rather cool, but I realised, unless you're desperate for something inside the machine while it's running, it's all rather redundant! Either plan the wash better, or buy a 2nd of whatever it was you needed :-)

Boothy

My old dishwasher was was one of those built in units, so all the buttons and lights on the inside of the door, only visible when opened.

One of those lights was a door open warning light!

X looks back at year of so-called 'engineering excellence' under Musk

Boothy

Re: Going the way of Dodo bird

Or AltaVista

Take Windows 11... please. Leaks confirm low numbers for Microsoft's latest OS

Boothy

Re: Hoping to get rid of Win 10 soon

Worth having a look on Proton DB if you are switching to Linux for gaming. Basically Steams game compatibility with Steam Deck and Desktop Linux. With tips from users to get things working.

Steam Deck is based on Arch Linux, so if it works on the Deck, it works on Linux.

Also, whilst you can use nvidia gfx, AMD gfx is generally easier under Linux.

I switched back around Jan this year. I dual boot with Win 10, but perhaps use Windows around 5% of the time now.

Good luck and have fun.

NASA wants to believe ... that you can help it crack UFO mysteries

Boothy

Re: Cunning Plan

Tin foil?

Scientists trace tiny moonquakes to Apollo 17 lander – left over from 1972

Boothy
WTF?

A furlong is 201.168 metres long, so your comment doesn't even make sense!

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