‘One-sided game’ in relations with West has ended – Putin
‘One-sided game’ in relations with West has ended – Putin
The West has repeatedly betrayed Russia both with NATO expansion and resolving the Ukraine conflict, Vladimir Putin has saidRT
looking to migrate off gmail finally
I'm considering finally jumping off gmail. I'm not going to host my own email since I just don't have the skill to secure that thing well enough myself. Any mail server I set up would become a botnest within hours. So that has me looking at third party stuff.
Proton has a mostly good reputation, though their CEO's twitter post a while back praising the Trump regime makes me question if I should trust them with anything. I don't know enough about the entire situation to know if its just internet drama or a real concern, but anything involving Trump is a huge red flag for me.
Tuta looks pretty nice but I've read there are concerns about it being in a country that's part of the 14 eyes collaboration, so it might not matter what the organization wants if the government of the region they are in says fuck off and do what we tell you.
On the lower end of concerns, I am in the Apple ecosystem. (boo hiss I know). I like the clean and simple built in apps like email and calendar and how the notifications all work across my watch, phone, mac and homepods. I like how safari can just jump in and throw an email alias at things for me. I like how all my stuff is managed. But I also know Apple could piss me off at any moment and make wild sweeping changes I might not like, so relying on them too much could screw me over someday. I dont know, right now I really like their setup but portability does seem to matter more ultimately so this switch does seem like a better idea in the long run, even if I'm giving up features I may enjoy.
What are your opinions on the privacy email and calendar services in 2025? Should I even both with a cloud based calendar in the first place?
Proton and SimpleLogin are joining forces | Proton
SimpleLogin has joined Proton. Soon, the entire Proton community will be able to hide their email addresses.Proton
Un guizzo di segmenti e antenne rapide sul chiaroscuro. Benvenuti a cena, nell'Ade - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Un guizzo di segmenti e antenne rapide sul chiaroscuro. Benvenuti a cena, nell'Ade - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
È una faccenda nota che spostandosi abbastanza in profondità, il concetto di ciclo stagionale cessa di essere rilevante, portando ad un livello di temperatura stabile che resta sempre identico nel corso dei mesi.Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
Circular Microcomputers embedded and powered by repurposed smartphone components
Citronics, meet the world’s first Circular Microcomputers
Citronics is the only company in the world able to transform retired smartphones into circular microcomputers, at industrial scale.Citronics
Great idea, and love re-purposing stuff! Price/ram probably limit the use to always-on low-power cases. Not sure it can beat small sbc's at their own game, so not sure where it shines - except for re-purposing wasted resources oc.
Technical specification
Volume: 12.5 x 6.5 x 1.8cm
Weight: 99g
Power: 2 - 20W (5-60V input), compatible USB-C PD, PoE
Processing: 4x 2.26Ghz 32bit Cortex-A CPU, 1x 48Mhz 32bit Cortex-M CPU, 4x 578Mhz GPU
Memory: 2 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC, Ext. SD
Wireless (ext. SMA antennas): Cellular 2G/3G/4G LTE cat. 4 (µSIM), WiFi b/g/n/ac 2.4/5Ghz, Bluetooth 4.0
Communication: 4x USB 2.0, 1x Ethernet 10/100M, 1x Raspberry Pi Header (UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO)Practical info
!!! Launch offer: 150€ VAT excl. !!!
Not too long ago I broke down a the costs between Ableton and bitwig, and they are quite similar over time.
Ableton has the big #'rd updates where as bitwig you get all updates within a year from license activation.
Since BW will still run after the license runs out (you just cant update to any new versions) I don't always update until there is a new feature that I want to work with drops in an update.
I also limit purchasing licenses to sale periods as a license can sit on the shelf until you're ready to activate it - this significantly reduced the cost for me.
I think there are other ways to go about this though on the vast sea of the net if your sails catch the wind right ;). If you're making stuff for fun and not for profit I think everyone should have access to creative tools.
If you make money than it's worth considering sending some. money their way. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I haven't personally used Ableton ever but am a hobbying musician, and pro-audio is possible on Linux as well as running non-native applications via Wine. I found this just searching, there's apparently a Discord group also dedicated to this project.
Usually doing a web search like "xyz windows program+linux" will produce results, and putting in your distro name will produce better. Anyway, good luck on your journey!
GitHub - BEEFY-JOE/AbletonLiveOnLinux: A Repository for All Things Related to Running Ableton Live on Linux, part of the newly formed Ableton on Linux Discord Group.
A Repository for All Things Related to Running Ableton Live on Linux, part of the newly formed Ableton on Linux Discord Group. - BEEFY-JOE/AbletonLiveOnLinuxGitHub
There are a couple of solutions, I'm using Ardour myself, but LMMS might be more like Ableton
There is a more or less complete list here: wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/daw_a…
Dual booting is a hassle but afaik it's the least difficult way to go.
I am a hobbyist and was using ableton live before. As mentioned by others, unless you dual boot - try bitwig studio for similar experience. It is from people who worked in ableton. Have a trial, pirate if can't afford now.
Foss alternative - ardour is great, but you will have to bring your own plug in suit.
Yabridge tool can help you to run windows vsts on Linux, but not everything works. And beware - it does not work with flatpak version Bitwig, at least it did not.
I've heard that Ableton+wine works, not sure about all the plugins though.
There's also lmms, ardour, Bitwig and reaper with native Linux builds
To be honest, this was the dealbreaker that kept me using a Mac.
According to WineHQ, Ableton's compatibility with wine isn't stellar. FL Studio works quite well in it, but switching DAWs can be a pretty major undertaking.
For Linux native DAWs, Reaper and Bitwig are the two best options. Reaper is the most affordable at 60 bucks, with an infinite free trial.
I assume this is coming at some point, tbh
I personally reckon they're working on something YAbridge-esque to allow people to bring their VSTs to the push in standalone mode. If they can actually nail that, it's an absolute no brainer to then release a full Linux version of the DAW and finally allow people like me to make the switch
Every time I've tried to run Ableton on Linux over the years (most recently about Christmas last year), it's the VST support that lets me down. I've got hundreds of VSTs I've used in various projects over the past couple of decades and I can't switch unless I know they all work properly—projects not loading or sounding different is unacceptable. I need to be able to open anything I've worked on over the years and be able to get right into the creativity without tinkering, as that is what I already have today.
Until that day, I've got to begrudgingly keep windows around.
I can greatly recommend Reaper to you, in case Ableton + Wine doesn't work out.
I only recently got into music making as a hobby so my overall perspective might be limited, but other DAWs I tried included:
* Ardour
* Bitwig
* LMMS
* Zrythm
I settled with Reaper bc of it's customizability, freedom in workflow and cheap price without compromising in pro features. It's actually completely free as long as you are evaluating buying it, which is up to you for how long. And the customizability is off the charts compared to any other DAW.
But what really sold Reaper to me was the lack of hurdles that got into my way of learning to make music.
Have fun
Someone in here mentioned bitwig.
I started on abelton and moved to bitwig around 3.X and have been with it ever since.
I love all the different modules and the grid which has give me a lot more expressive control over my sounds.
they are similar yet different; I believe the core bitwig team were ex ableton devs who wanted to take things in a different direction.
I know it's silly but one of the biggest things that I like about bitwig is customizable shortcuts; this is especially good if you're coming from ableton because if your a shortcut key wizard you can easily remap similar functions.
if you've got an extensive VST collection you can run them with wine + yabridge.
Bitwig is not the only option, but coming from ableton if you want to run single boot it is the most similar (IMO) to Ableton.
Happy to answer any questions you may have about it as well.
There are several commercial options for Linux. The most-Ableton software out there is Bitwig Studio that has a Linux port. However, it's expensive. The cheapest commercial solution, with a bit of learning curve but powerful nonetheless, is Reaper.
However, if you want to go 100% open source, there's Ardour and LMMS (which is a lot like FL Studio). Ardour 9, which is expected by the end of the year, will be more MIDI-friendly than it used to be. LMMS latest git version (offered as binary on their site) has some good new features compared to their stable version, however, there's still no vst3 support.
I'm an visual artist and I used Photoshop for years to edit my hand-painted scanned paintings. When I moved to Linux, and Gimp3 was out, I was finally ready to leave Photoshop behind. Some features of Photoshop aren't there, but I was ready to leave them behind. Same with video, I used to have a rather popular blog about color grading with Resolve. I moved to kdenlive, which has none of these tools or plugins. It's a decision that I simply had to make. I wanted to use foss tools, and that was the price to pay. I'm cool with my decision.
If you gotta go commercial, go with Reaper. The people (a small team of 3 or 4 I believe) behind it are really cool, and they're doing it for the love of it, their profit is very small.
Another good free DAW option with linux compatibility is Tracktion.
tracktion.com/products/wavefor…
Tracktion Software
The world's best, fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.www.tracktion.com
I'd suggest no-one ever dual-boot Windows with anything. There are to many mishaps when Windows takes it into their head to fuck the bootloader.
Put the OS into a VM. If you only use Windows for one app put Windows into the VM. Otherwise put Linux into the VM until you find you're mostly using Linux.
Unless you have an old PC laying around ..
Focus on productivity and pleasure, so make the transition easier :
- try Linux without dual boot, e.g. distrosea.com/ (I made a 30min video discussion if you are curious)
- try Linux on a USB stick to get persistence and not be afraid of using private data
- try dual boot with default on Windows, your important data backed-up (e.g. music you created)
- try dual boot with default on Linux and Ableton or whatever you need on Wine, if it doesn't work in virtual machine
- try boot on just Linux with Wine
- try boot on Linux with Ableton FLOSS equivalents (few listed in this thread)
- try boot on Linux with e.g Ardour or LMMS but genuinely benefit from FLOSS by making and sharing your own plugins
The entire process must be risk free and fun!
Few weeks ago I have noticed that my Presonus account is offering me to download Studio One Pro 7, in deb or flatpak format. I use Linux desktop for everything except audio work (still use Windows machine for that) so when I checked my Presonus account from Linux box I was quite shocked.
Sadly, attempt to upload the image from the phone (using Boost app) doesn't work so I can't upload and can't be bothered to upload elsewhere then share URL, etc.
I couldn't get bothered to try installing it earlier since I don't want to run S1 on this box.
But just for the sake of it, I have now tried installing flatpak file and it completed.
I don't use flatpak much but trying to do...
flatpak run com.presonus.studioapp7
... failed with "Failed to connect to Wayland display".
I spent 0 seconds on reading about S1 Pro for Linux and have no intention to bother with it further but if you do use S1 on Windows you might have Linux download available as well. Give it a try if you are interested.
What exactly it requires to run, I have no idea.
But it is really surprising development.
Edit: hah, after i removed that flatpak i just installed, a notification popped up saying "Studio One is a Wayland application and won't run in X11 session."
The .wav format is actually very simple. You should be able to write a bash script to produce wavs without too much trouble. If you'd rather not work that low-level you can always use the DAW features in emacs.
/s
Like many others have suggested, you may want to try Bitwig. I understand that it's the alternative DAW that is the most similar to Ableton. The company was started by a group of ex-Ableton employees, so it's not a coincidence. Many people online feel that it's in general a better DAW than Ableton, so you may end up liking it. It supports Linux natively, even provides an official flatpak (or Ubuntu installer?)
It's not as expensive as some make it out to be, and it's on sale right now for a few more days. I just yesterday bought Bitwig Studio Essentials. They have 3 editions and Studio Essentials is the starter version, currently $79 (reg. $99). The next level up is Studio Producer, currently $149 (reg. $199), and the top level is just Studio, currently $299 (reg. $399). They also offer rent to own for $16/month for 25 months on Splice.
Kuwaiti academics call for boycott of Western universities involved in supporting Israel aggression on Gaza
Dozens of Kuwaiti academics have called for a boycott of Western universities involved in supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, explaining that the Palestinian civilians’ suffering in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, Quds Press reported.
The Association of Faculty Members at the Public Authority for Applied Education; the trade union body comprising academics working in applied colleges, explained in a statement that it was following with great concern the independent reports documenting crimes and violations against civilians in the Gaza Strip, amid suspicious international silence.
“Based on our academic and ethical responsibility, and in adherence to the values of human justice that uphold human dignity and fundamental rights, we express our growing dissatisfaction with the involvement of some Western universities, particularly British ones, in research or investment partnerships with companies that provide military technologies used directly or indirectly to support the ongoing aggression” the statement said.
For information only, gently presented without judgment.
gluttonous: excessively greedy
glutenous: a tenacious elastic protein substance especially of wheat flour that gives cohesiveness to dough
Russian Army Advances Leaving Ukraine With No Sources To Sold To The West
Russian Army Advances Leaving Ukraine With No Resources To Sell To The West
DEAR FRIENDS. IF YOU LIKE THIS TYPE OF CONTENT, SUPPORT SOUTHFRONT WORK: MONERO (XMR): 86yfEHs6pkoDEKCxc6MAnQX8cVHmzhYxMVrNuwKgNmqpWK8dDxjgGnK8PtUNJMA...Anonymous765 (South Front)
U.S. Used Up 15-20 Percent of its Global THAAD Anti-Missile Arsenal in Just 11 Days of Mid-Intensity Combat: Cost Over $800 Million
The U.S. Army has been estimated to have consumed 15-20 of all munitions for its globally deployed arsenal of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) long range anti-missile systems, after deployment to support Israeli air defences during the country’s 11 days of hostilities with Iran.
A highly specialised asset designed to intercept medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles, the U.S. Army fields seven systems across five air defence regiments, and is set to operationalise an eighth by the end of the year.
The systems are depended on to counter the arsenals of five potential adversaries including North Korea, China, Russia and Belarus, as well as Iran. Video footage has shown the launch of 39 interceptors to intercept Iranian missiles from June 13-24, although only a small portion of launches were captured on film partly due to the strict wartime censorship that was put in place in Israel.
Presuming at a conservative estimate that the filmed launches from THAAD batteries accounted for 50-66 percent of total launches, total expenditure of interceptors amounted to approximately 60-80 interceptors during the 11 day conflict.
U.S. Used Up 15-20 Percent of its Global THAAD Anti-Missile Arsenal in Just 11 Days of Mid-Intensity Combat: Cost Over $800 Million
The U.S. Army has been estimated to have consumed 15-20 of all munitions for its globally deployed arsenal of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) long rangeMilitary Watch Magazine
"Oh damn, we need to build much more of these then"
Right, the conclusion that the US can't resupply missiles fast enough is a fallacy unless you know for sure you can affect the supply chain invovled.
They only have that many because they don't need that many, but if you think you're gonna win a war by expecting the US to run out of ammo against even a swarm of cheap drones, you're in for a rude awakening.
I think only China could output higher production in full wartime scenario, and even they know it's not much of an advantage if their tech doesn't stack up.
What problems can I expect using Linux (Fedora) with an NVIDIA GPU?
I'm planning on getting a laptop within the next month which will be my daily driver for university, and it has a RTX 5060. I know people have lots of issues with NVIDIA on Linux, but I don't know of any specific issues. What issues can I expect running Fedora 42 (KDE) on this device?
I am not responding to most comments here, but I am silently taking them into account.
Certain videos won't play in any media player. Also occasional graphical glitches in Plasma for me. No issues with games oddly enough.
Edit: I'm using Arch but I'd expect these issues to be distro-agnostic. Though I'm fine with being wrong.
I had a 3060 Ti.
I couldn't game on Wayland for about 20% of my games (very frustrating), couldn't use specific Window Managers like Sway, experience constant screen tearing on X11 (which I often had to use, because the game would crash on Wayland) when gaming, and had a significant performance hit in some games.
CS:GO ran like a dream and actually better than on Windows, but with the release of CS2 my performance on Linux was about 20% worse than on Windows. My 1% lows were also crazy on Linux (median=190fps, %1=80fps). This meant, among others things, that I just couldn't play death match anymore — my FPS would make it unplayable. This was largely an optimization issue and I think some of the 2025 Nvidia driver updates of improved the situation a little for CS2 specifically. The screen tearing on X and the buggyness on Wayland were enough for me to switch though, even if eventual improvements might come.
I am now extremely happy with my 7900 XT, which I got for less than any available 9070 XT (in my region) and which amusingly actually has better performance in CS2 then then the 9070 XT on Linux. It's massively overkill though, I could have just as well gotten a 7800 XT or 9070 (non-XT).
I am still very, very pleased. Hopefully this will last me a few years, unlike the gosh darn 3060 Ti.
Alright, I'm done with my huge block of text. Hopefully this was helpful.
Running RTX4050 mobile on Fedora 41 (internet too crappy to upgrade to 42)
Works great!
Except for unreal 5 games but idk if that's a driver or a proton issue :/
A lot of the info here reads as outdated to me, I have a 40 series card and on bazzite with open drivers it works with zero issues on major titles like Cyberpunk, Horizon, etc. The open drivers have come a long way. It took maybe 5 months post 40 series release for it to work 100% with no glaring issues for me, but 40 series was also the first cards to be launched with the open drivers so it makes sense there'd be hiccups
The only issues I've had on Wayland are color related.
wyndham hotels leaks personal data....and is totally okay with it
I got a new phone number last year. The last person who owned this number just left all her accounts tied to this number and one by one I've been reaching out to the places tied to it telling them they have the wrong number and to stop using this one. Simple enough.
But there is one company that refuses to stop using this number. Wynhdam hotels absolutely refuses to do anything about this. They keep sending me notifications and check in confirmations for her hotel visits. Using just the texts they send me, I know her full name, email address, home address, her reservations at the hotel, which hotel she's going to and what days. Using past conversations with the other hotels she's been to (called in to tell them to stop this months ago), I know she's been kicked out for making a scene in the lobby or something. Looking online, I see she has a criminal record, and a history of child custody losses, drug abuse, and is apparently an "experienced college girl" on an escort site.
In my most recent calls with wyndham, they told me that they can't change the number out. I will need to contact this charming person and have her do it. I am absolutely not getting involved in that mess in any capacity. I'm still telling her johns and dealers this is the wrong number.
Once I explained to the call center supervisor I was escalated to this has gone on long enough and I'm willing to let an attorney deal with it, they put me on hold and supposedly took my number off the account. But the next day, I get another notification. It seems she is providing her services again and it's still making that my problem. So I call and get routed to a promotional department that said they have no idea why they got this call, but I should probably just sue.
I tried calling the number listed on the confirmation texts but it goes to a dead end line that just asks for a remote access code and then hangs up, so I can't ask the hotel she is actually at flag her down and say "hey, you need to update your number."
I emailed their privacy department yesterday but the notifications are still coming in. I can't change my phone number at the moment as I'm dealing with some delicate matters that are tied to this number so I can't risk changing the number at this time.
How can I get wyndham to take this seriously? This is a dangerous amount of information I was able to get off a recurring text they know is going to the wrong place.
To Wyndham this is her account and her information. Failure to update her information on your behalf doesn't constitute any liability on their part.
Regarding you, I would guess the best legal avenue you have would be something like telephone harassment or spam, but that sounds like a shakey case.
Hotels place a big emphasis on maintaining guest confidentiality in all regards except law enforcement. Front desk agents are trained not to disclose whether a guest is even staying at the property when requested. She would have solid grounds for a suit if she could provide evidence she attempted to change her contact information with Wyndham. Sounds like she didn't try though.
Personally, I would just get a new number again. However, if I was tied to making this work I would do this. Contact Wyndham's consumer affairs department. Tell them the lady has contacted me because I am receiving her information from you guys. She has mentioned she's considering litigation. Advise them to reach out to update her information.
Even that is a long shot because if she's a working girl she probably won't want businesses to have up to date info. Most likely she would ignore their email.
To some other commenter's points about them not caring about your issue. Kinda true, but it's not a feelings issue. , Wyndham has little liability in your complaint and it does not make sense to update an account because someone who isn't the account holder said to.
No, they aren't protecting confidentiality at all. They know the information is going to the wrong place. And yet, they keep sending me her full name, her email address, her home address, her reservation dates, the address of the hotel she is at.....
Imagine what someone could do with all that.
If she was telling them that they'd want to fix it to protect themselves from legal ramifications. But it isn't her. It's some stranger. That's all I'm saying.
If we let people make changes to account information based on stories then I could just lie and take over my ex girlfriend's capital one account or something, ya know. Your situation is unique, but just looking at it from the other side I could easily see doing what you're requesting turning into a phone call from the client asking why they're no longer receiving information about their reservations and me having to explain that somebody told us it was their number. Only to find out it was some enemy she has telling us to do that as a way to mess with her. Then I'm up a creek for removing the number without her permission.
It obviously isn't that, but there are risks involved that some companies are not willing to take. Making changes to account contact information in nearly all regards must be done by the account holder.
Not trying to say there shouldn't be an easier resolution to this. Just looking at as the guy on the other side of the phone.
You also told them you aren't the account holder. So that's pretty much the end of the call right there for any place I have ever worked... I understand your concern and the issue. It just doesn't work this way technically.
I currently manage a hotel and even as an employee there's some account information that I am not able to update on a guest's behalf. They have to do it themselves. The hospitality industry is ripe with fraud and scam attempts. I understand your situation isn't that, but it would set a precedent for the next situation that IS a scam.
If you really have all her account info and personal data then shit just call and be her. Ask to remove or change your number.
Not always true. Letting me from an account information TO something specifically is a risk, but simply demanding they remove MY data from an account that’s not mine is not a fraud concern. Thats the opposite of a fraud concern.
Moreover, I was able to prove I have that number in that I have all the information they gave me access to through that number.
If your in the US you can tell them you'll report them to the FTC and fcc as unsolicited spam text messages that have no means to opt out. They must provide a means to stop receiving text messages per can spam act. If they refuse you report them and then they face 50k in fines per message. You also get to have federal record at least that you didn't want the text messages. You could also file a police report. The cops may roll their eyes, but just tell them you just want something on record that the former number owner waa a shady character and want to avoid any potential legal issues in the future for having their number and getting weird calls or texts.
fcc.gov/consumers/guides/stop-…
ReportFraud.ftc.gov
WhatsApp rolls out AI-generated summaries for private messages
cross-posted from: rss.ponder.cat/post/215685
WhatsApp can now call on Meta AI to summarize your personal chats. As shown in a GIF, you can access it by tapping the button to unfurl all of your unread messages in a chat. But instead of showing your messages, WhatsApp uses Meta AI to generate a bulleted summary of what you missed.
The feature is rolling out in English in the US, with plans to launch in more countries and languages later this year. It uses Meta’s Private Processing technology, which the company claims will prevent it and other third parties from snooping on your messages.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, says its AI message summaries are optional, and the feature is turned off by default. You can also use WhatsApp’s “Advanced Privacy” setting to prevent users from using AI features in group chats. We still don’t know if WhatsApp’s AI message summaries will struggle with accuracy, which is something we saw with the launch of Apple’s AI-generated message and notification rundowns.
Over the past year, Meta has continued stuffing different AI features into WhatsApp, including a way to ask Meta AI questions from within a chat, as well as a feature that generates images in real-time. Some users have grown frustrated by the new Meta AI button in the bottom-right corner of the app that they can’t turn off or remove. Meta also sparked backlash with another change that brought ads to the app — something its founders said they never wanted to do.
The app’s Private Processing is supposed to conceal your interactions with its AI model by creating a “secure cloud environment,” preventing Meta or WhatsApp from seeing your summaries. Other people in the group chat won’t be able to see the message summaries, either.
From The Verge via this RSS feed
WhatsApp’s rollout of ads will change the app forever
WhatsApp is bringing ads to its status feature, a move that’s at odds with the brand’s identity as a “secure” messaging app.Emma Roth (The Verge)
I love that my global settings has a whole section labelled Privacy, but I can't disable this globally for all chats my account joins.
Instead I have to disable it for each chat individually.
What awful design WhatsApp (obviously on purpose so I'll forget with new chats).
Well maybe this is the push that those friends will need to move to Signal...
I need to have this WhatsApp BS as its the only way to stay connected with older relatives and work groups. I'm using RethinkDNS on my phone and have blocked as many Meta DNS and network links as I can find online. Exactly none of them show up on my firewall logs! The connections in/ out appear to be via "safe" routes, which if blocked then break wider functionality.
To use yet another completely unheard of home town phrases, "Bastards".
Alright fine I admit it, I want to learn Linux
I'm just so sick of Microsoft and Google.
But there's two things holding me back:
1) I wanna play Steam games on my PC
2) I am just an amateur hobbyist, not a tech wizard
Is there any hope for me?
One thing I'll say is that for a lot of distros these days you shouldn't really need to use the terminal much if ever. That being said don't be scared of the terminal. It's just another way to tell the computer what to do. It takes some learning but if you want to learn things with the terminal you might eventually find it easier/faster than using the mouse for some things. Go through some tutorials and you'll probably find out that the terminal is not that actually all that scary.
Most distros allow you to try them out before you install them. You can run them from a USB stick to let you try a few out before you settle on one. You won't be able to install any programs this way but you'll at least be able to get an idea of the interface and see if there are any you like more than others. Even still you can dual boot your PC with Windows + Linux and switch back and forth whenever you need. It's not an all or nothing ordeal. I still have windows 10 on my machine but I rarely use it now.
Gaming on Linux is better than it's ever been thanks to Steam coming with proton out of the box. protondb.com is your friend for figuring out what games you can run. That being said there are occasionally some rough edges that I have run into personally. I can run most games I want just fine but occasionally I have some issues. I'm just telling you this so you know it's not like a flawless experience. Then again I've also spent plenty of time trying to get games running on my windows PC in the past too so...
My recommendation for a first Linux OS is Ubuntu because in general it's the most popular and has the most support.
Best of luck!
Adding on to this.
If you don't know what a command does you can read the manual running the "man" command. Run "man" followed by the command you want to read about. It also works for some system files too!
Also if you fix something like a driver issue for a game that took a lot of research. WRITE IT DOWN. It WILL come in handy in the future.
So while techie absolutists stayed at Debian/Arch/RHEL,
the commons folks have gone to Linux Mint/Cachy OS/Fedora?
Can I tell you off from Arch Linux?
There are around three Linux families to choose a derivative Linux OS from,
some are more obscure ones and then some really obscure ones.
Choose one of the Linux family OSes and choose the most popular derivative of that one.
So for example Aurora is a derivative of Fedora, which is a derivative of RHEL (derivative-(in)ception).
The reasons to choose derative OSes and not one of the basic main three is that:
- The Linux derative OSes have bells and whistles build on top of the parent OS. This is especially true for the extremely bare bones Arch Linux, that will throw you back into 1985.
- And this is most important... community support! You will at some point have issues and a forum where developers and experienced users can help you out are a godsend. Derivatives tend to have better community support than the bare bone ones. I've experienced this with the Arch Linux community. I'm not sure if Debian or RHEL communities would haved fared better, but to me this community felt like having a conversation with a real life Sheldon Cooper. I am really thankful for the excellent expert level help I did get there, but I will not go there back again. And I don't know if I even can, because the last time I was there, I got banned for a third time.
I've had great experiences on the Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Manjaro communities. Other communities from less popular Linux OSes have been too small in my experience to get help on time.
For Debian, the most popular one right now is Linux Mint, a derivative of Ubuntu (derivative-(in)ception).
It used to be Ubuntu, but Ubuntu tends to take big moves and risks that don't always pay off.
Linux Mint I consider to be the safe option for beginners.
Debian is known for stability.
For Redhat it's Fedora. I haven't used it that much.
Redhat is known for good security.
For Arch it's Endeavour OS and recently Cachy OS.
It used to be Manjaro, but they fumbled a lot on security issues.
Arch is known for having the best documentation,
and the largest amount of software available,
especially made by fellow users,
and if I may add myself, having the best package manager.
I still use Manjaro myself, because I don't feel enough need to switch to a new one,
and I like the community there.
These folks are all giving great advice but also let us know when you're ready to really fuck around and have fun with your Linux superpowers 😀
You, in practically no time at all: "Nearly everything is working great! Now I want to make my desktop change it's background to NASA's picture of the day while also putting all my PC's status monitors on there. Oh! And I want my PC to back itself up every hour over the network automatically with the ability to restore files I deleted last week. I've got KDE Connect on my phone and it's awesome!"
Then, later: "I bought a Raspberry Pi and I want to turn it into a home theater streaming system and emulation station."
...and later: "What docker images do you guys recommend? I want to setup some home automation. What do you guys think of Pi-hole?"
"I've got four Raspberry Pis doing various things in my home and I'm thinking about getting Banana Pi board to be my router. OpenWRT or full Linux on it? What do you guys think?"
...and even later: "I taught myself Python..." 🤣
"I want to copy my root, home, and boot partition contents into a bigger drive I formatted with in terminal. Let's boot from it and see what breaks."
::: spoiler spoiler
/etc/fstab partition UUIDs needed to be fixed by hand. GRUB config needed to be updated to launch straight into bash and I needed to remount the root directly as R/W because GRUB was trying to protect me from myself.
:::
- before you switch, sort out your apps. Look at what you use on windows, see if it runs on Linux. If not, find a replacement that does and test it out.
- Most Linux distros can boot into a desktop from a thumb drive. You can play and test without touching your windows installation.
- in that vein, ventoy is neat. You can make a bootable drive and drop ISOs in a folder to boot from. No messing with etcher or whatever it’s called
- desktop environment matters as much as the distro. Check out gnome, KDE, and cinnamon.
If a computer is a car, then Linux(the Kernal) is the chassis. Mint (the distro) is the motor, and Cinnamon (the desktop environment) is the fancy interior.
KDE plasma is a fancy interior that works with tons of different motors.
Cinnamon is designed for mint and works best with it.
DISCLAIMER: All of this is analogy and isn't technically correct in a pedantic sense, but it works well enough for me. I'm sorry if my analogy isn't exactly accurate.
The desktop environment is all the stuff like the taskbar, the settings menus, the application launcher, the login screen, that kind of thing. It’s the system level user interface.
You choose which one by which distro you download. Linux mint uses cinnamon, Ubuntu and fedora use gnome. There are “flavors” of Ubuntu and fedora that use KDE. That’s why I suggested ventoy: you can download a few different ones and boot into them without making a new thumb drive.
If you don’t feel like bothering with any of that, just use Linux mint. It’s good.
Okay, so the Linux ecosystem is more modular than Windows. Windows is synonymous with its Graphical User Interface (GUI) for reasons I'll get into later.
With Linux, there are several GUIs available to choose from. These tend to fall into two main categories: Tiling Window Managers, and Desktop Environments.
Tiling Window Managers have minimal on-screen UI elements, usually they're meant to be used with keyboard combos with little usage of the mouse. A major feature is everything that is running is visible on the screen, when you open a new window, another window divides in half to give it room, "tiling" the screen. Some examples of TWMs include i3 and Awesome.
Desktop Environments are going to be more familiar to newcomers from Windows or MacOS. They're made more for mouse control, several have what you would recognize as a taskbar, start menu and system tray. Windows can be stacked on top of each other like papers on a desktop, exactly like MS Windows does. Some more closely resemble MacOS though none behave exactly the same way. Some examples of DEs include Gnome, KDE, MATE, and Cinnamon.
Cinnamon is a DE made by the Linux Mint development community, and the default/flagship DE for Linux Mint. It is designed to be familiar and easy to use for Windows users. KDE's Plasma DE is similar in many ways to Mint although it's based on different tech; KDE is based on qt, Cinnamon is a distant fork of Gnome and based on GTK. Some are designed to be more minimal so they take up less system resources, like xfce and LXDE, others are trying mostly to resemble MacOS, like ElementaryOS' Pantheon DE. Then there's Gnome, which I goddamn hate.
For a beginner, the choice of DE is going to present most of the differences you'll notice when trying out distros. It can be instructive to try, say, Kubuntu and Fedora KDE. Both ship with the KDE Plasma desktop, but the underlying OSes are different. Then try out, say, Fedora Workstation (with the Gnome desktop) and Fedora KDE. That exercise will give you a good understanding of distro vs DE.
Edit to add: It's kind of like launchers on Android. You can go in the Google Play store and install a different launcher on your phone, you can make a Samsung Galaxy look like a Google Pixel. Linux DEs work the same way, you can install KDE or Cinnamon the same way you'd install a normal app, you can have multiple and switch between them. It's not a great idea but you can.
Here are three variants of Linux Mint with different Desktop Environments: (click their example image to make it larger)
- Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) - the default, I'd use that until you have a reason not to
- Linux Mint (MATE Edition)
- Linux Mint (XFCE Edition)
All of those are Linux Mint, they use pretty much the same core tools under the hood, but the desktop environments change how you engage with them. Mostly the way things look, the way you organize programs on your screen, and the default apps (like which text editor it comes with by default). This can change your experience a lot, I think Cinnamon looks nice and is smooth, while MATE and XFCE are more lightweight and might be better for older computers or if you don't like something about Cinnamon.
Now, those are all somewhat similar, they have a program start menu in the bottom left, a taskbar on the bottom, the basics are familiar. There are some (not officially supported by Mint) which are more different, like GNOME (Ubuntu's desktop default) which has a different app launcher instead of a start menu and a different way of switching between programs. Then, as others mentioned, some people choose to not even install a pre-designed Desktop Environment and only install some of the more core components of a DE, like the Window Manager. People who really love the keyboard might use a tiling window manager, these tend to make you think "wow, this person's a hacker", where they'll rapidly switch between programs using keyboard controls, with the window manager automatically shifting and dividing new windows so that they tile together to fill the screen. Loosely speaking, the opposite of a tiling window manager is a floating window manager, where windows just float and you move them around with your mouse, just like Windows (well, apart from the tiling options in more recent Windows versions when you can drag a window into the corner and it tiles to fill the screen.) I think the "best of both worlds" midpoint is a dynamic WM? I'm not sure. hyprland is an example of that.
Ubuntu Desktop PC operating system | Ubuntu
Fast, secure and stylishly simple, the Ubuntu operating system is used by 50 million people worldwide every day.Ubuntu
TL;DR: Try installing some on virtual box, by all means try Linux mint cinnamon but also try Ubuntu and Fedora KDE.
Linux has some jargon and since you want to learn I'll give you a quick rundown of how a variation of Linux is composed.
"Kernel" is what makes Linux Linux. It's a way of interacting with the hardware.
A "distribution" or "distro" is a one of the many flavors of Linux.
They are usually "based" on a common foundation like Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Nix and whatever. These also work like an onion where Mint is based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian, all of which use some version of the Linux kernel.
A that's just a base will just get you a terminal (also called a shell or console) and is very useful to make a server for example.
What most people think of as an OS is the user interface (i.e. clickable shit). The terminology in Linux for that is "desktop environment" (DE).
You'll see a lot of distributions mix and watch between a base and a desktop environment such as Fedora with KDE, Ubuntu (Ubuntu with Gnome), Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), Bazzite (Fedora silverblue base with either gnome, KDE or deck DE).
You mentioned Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a desktop environment for Mint so a Linux Mint Cinnamon contains the code of the following:
Linux kernel, Debian, Ubuntu and Mint as a base and Cinnamon to interact with it by using a mouse and keyboard.
There are currently three bases that are really popular right now, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch. In the DE there are currently two that are most advanced, namely KDE and Gnome but Cinnamon is not far behind.
In all honestly, none of this matters all too much, just install a couple of popular distros on a virtual machine like Virtual Bok and do a vibe check.
Take a couple of these, install some programs and fuck around with the settings for a bit, install themes and whatever or watch a quick YouTube video on it:
* Ubuntu (gets hate for being corporate but is solid, uses Gnome)
* Linux mint Cinnamon
* Fedora KDE
* EndavourOS (an arch based distro that's supposedly easy, haven't tried it)
* Bazzite (weird way to install programs through the package manager but hard to fuck up beyond repair)
* Something with the Xfce DE just to see the "lightweight" look.
If your library is on steam, then there's nothing to worry about! Works natively on Linux. If your library is on other platforms, I'd honestly think twice about switching full time. Dual booting might be a better option. My library is split amongst multiple platforms and I decided that it wasn't working well enough for me. Steam games will work great though!
Many distros are easy enough to install and navigate as a newbie. My go to for years now has been Linux Mint! It's based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian.
oh that's cool. nope, whole library is on windows on one PC right now.
I was thinking about trying out dual booting to get a feel for it. my understanding was that many programs wont work with linux or require complicated fixes to get them running. so id hate to be left downstream without a paddle, so to speak
Depends which programs. Also, it's very possible that there are open source alternatives
But if you are dead set on using exactly the same program, appdb.winehq.org/ is a database of if and how to make them run on Linux. Wine's core focus is games, but many programs are covered there too
WineHQ - Wine Application Database
Open Source Software for running Windows applications on other operating systems.appdb.winehq.org
yeah adobe isn't something i use regularly. not sure whether you mean photoshop (never) or pdf viewer (which i use adobe for and also hate)
Um, on any given day I'm running Steam, VLC, and Firefox. yeah it seems that those are all better than fine
A lot of people here have already given good advice.
I shall add my experience, recommendation and some tips (may incidentally repeat some of them).
- If you play some games with kernel level anti-cheat (like Rainbow Six Siege, Apex, Valorant, LoL, Fortnite, Battlefield games, Destiny 2 among others), you will have to stick to dual-boot. Check on ProtonDB for compatibility of games.
I have 500+ games on Steam and pretty much everything I've played has worked so far.
In terms of other software you use, make sure you have alternatives that work on Linux.
- For Photoshop, there's Krita/GIMP.
- For Video editing, there's Kdenlive, DaVinci Resolve, etc.
- For browsing and office apps, there's LibreWolf and LibreOffice.
If you happen to have any software that you don't have a good alternative or that only runs on Windows, then you'll have to stick to dual booting.
- If you do end up dual booting, DO NOT use your external HDD in NTFS to run games on linux. It will work for a while, but you'll constantly have to 'chkdsk' or check disk on Windows every time your HDD is found corrupted.
Also, NTFS is Windows' proprietary filesystem. So, I've heard that using ntfs-fix (chkdsk equivalent on linux) might cause data loss. Not sure how far it's true, but be cautious of using that too.
But otherwise, I believe that just reading files from NTFS drive usually is not a problem.
- If you are NOT dual booting however, you won't have to face this mess. You can backup the data on your HDD somewhere, format it in 'ext4' filesystem for Linux-only use ('Exfat' if you want to share any data with others on Windows/Mac) and restore all your files back to this HDD in ext4. Hope you have extra HDD with enough free space to move your files while you convert disks to ext4. You can also probably use cloud services for backup.
- I've used Ubuntu, Mint, Arch and Fedora.
- Had faced a lot of issues with Ubuntu back in the day, and Snap Steam is a mess. So, avoid it.
- Mint is easy to use, removes snap from Ubuntu and just uses apt, has a great Desktop Environment called Cinnamon, and I'd usually recommend this to someone new, but I wanted to shift from X-11 to Wayland for security reasons and HDR support among others. If Wayland worked well with Mint, I'd still be using it today, but that was the only reason I moved away from it.
- While Arch is nice, it's certainly not for someone new.
- That leaves us with Fedora KDE, which would be my recommendation. It has good security features like SE-Linux out of the box.
The reason I suggest KDE over Gnome is so that you might have an easier transition from Windows to Linux. Once you have a hang of this, you can later use a pen drive to load other distro with other DE like Gnome, XFCE, Cinnamon, Cosmic, etc and test them out by live booting.
- Speaking of pendrives, make sure to always have one with Ventoy installed and the distribution you're using. This will be handy if you want to troubleshoot your system anytime.
And I say Ventoy over others because it makes loading distro easier. You can just drag and drop the ISO files instead of having to burn with Balena Etcher or Rufus everytime.
- Rufus is great, but if you're moving out of Windows, you don't need it.
- And I have seen a lot of people have trouble with using Balena Etcher. So, avoid it.
- Turn off Secure Boot in BIOS. (And maybe also fast boot).
- And if your disk is on RAID instead of AHCI, you might have trouble installing. So, you might want to set your SATA configuration to AHCI mode in BIOS if you face issues.
- If you end up choosing Fedora, you may want to follow this.
Fedora only comes with FOSS by default. So, you'll have to install Nvidia driver and proprietary multimedia Codecs separately by including RPMFusion repo.
- You can download the free and non-free repo files from the RPM-Fusion site(Graphical Setup) and install them through the Software Center. After adding the repo, you might have to enable them in the Settings of Discover Software Center.
Enable all of them except those containing the words 'testing', 'Test', 'Source', 'Debug' and 'google chrome'.
- After that, it's just a few lines you type in the terminal (Konsole by default) for installing driver and codecs. Make sure to update the system and restart first before doing these.
For Nvidia driver, type:
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
For optional CUDA support, type:
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
For Video acceleration support, type:
sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo
For Codecs, type:
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing
Steam is also included in the non-free repo. You may install it by typing:
sudo dnf install steam
- Other than these, most applications can now be installed directly from the store as a Flatpak. You can select them in the store between Flatpaks, Fedora managed Flatpaks and Fedora Linux app for a particular one.
- For flatpak apps, you'll see a tick next to the developer if they are verified. So, you can look out for that if necessary.
- Make sure 'Flathub' repo is enabled in the Settings of Discover Software Center for the Flatpak apps to appear.
NOTE: Every time the video driver updates, you will have to do a follow-on update for flatpak runtimes. You might see a bunch of 'Application platform' and 'Freedesktop' stuff which you'll have to install.
If you fail to do this, you might suddenly find flatpak applications not working properly.
- Troubleshooting tips:
- If Steam doesn't launch the first time, type:
__GL_CONSTANT_FRAME_RATE_HINT=3 steam
- If your system is frozen, try switching to TTY by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F3) and going back to GUI by pressing (Ctrl+Alt+F2)*.
*Could be F1 in some cases. - To check what errors you got during the recent boot,
journalctl -b 0 -p err
Apart from the driver installation and some troubleshooting, you generally won't have to use the terminal if you're averse to it.
- In terms of deGoogling, I'd recommend the following:
- Buy a pixel and install Graphene OS.
Switch to
- Tuta/Proton Mail for email,
- Proton/Tresorit Drive for storage,
- Mullvad (or i, proton) VPN or (Rethink DNS for firewall)
I am not sure if you can use both Rethink and VPN at the same time. I assume there is a way.
- OsmAnd for maps,
- Newpipe for youtube frontend(Grayjay on Linux),
- Bitwarden/KeepassXC for Password management,
- Aegis for TOTP
- Fdroid, Accrescent, Aurora for App store.
- Molly FOSS for Messaging.
Can't forget Zen Browser for best productivity browser. Also Ungoogled Chromium
OP if you want to use AI locally but privately then use Ollama with Open Web UI
Also HuggingChat is an AI Chatbot that can do all kinds of stuff with the 1-tap community extensions, models, and assistants avilable. Website is free with an account. Use as a web app for it to be even better experience
When you are more advanced learn distrobox to add apps only available on other distros natively to your laptop
If you have any questions feel free to ask me whenever
I'd suggest to stay away from Brave for any serious purposes 'cause you never know what shady things they might be doing.
Case in point, they had previously been changing regular URLs to include affiliate links on their own.
They also have that crypto bloat.
This is graat info. Didn't know about Ventoy before, it sounds really cool.
Just wanted to add that if you're running multiple monitors on an nvidia card, you may find that the second monitor has low fps/stutters on wayland (common on dual graphics laptops). The fix is as follows:
Add these 3 lines to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf:
options nvidia-drm modeset=1
options nvidia NVreg_UsePageAttributeTable=1 NVreg_InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations=0 NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0Add this line to
/etc/environment:KWIN_DRM_DEVICES="/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:01\:00.0-card:/dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000\:00\:02.0-card"You may have to modify the part that says
pci-xxxx\:xx\:xx.x-card with the appropriate values for your graphics card.Run lspci | egrep VGA to list installed PCI graphics cards and try to map the values from there
Disclaimer:
I don't know why this works but it does and it isn't malicious as far as I can tell. If anyone knows what exactly it's doing, I'd like to know please.
Thanks for that info.
I just want to add that the drm modeset is enabled by default ever since the 560 drivers. You only need to do that for the older ones, if I'm right.
Previously, you also had to disable nouveau yourself and Nvidia driver installation used to be a headache. Things have gotten better over the ages. I'm sure this multi-monitor issue will also be fixed soon as well.
Huh, this was definitely a fix I used on an older version that I just moved over to a new install with the new drivers so the drm modset line may not be necessary anymore yeah. I'll check next time I connect to my monitor.
And yeah, it's def gonna get better. I've already seen both wayland and nvidia improve significantly over the last 2-3 years so at this rate, things should "just work" pretty soon (insert meme about year of the Linux desktop).
I vividly remember struggling to get proprietary drivers working on Fedora 37 (or 38, it's been a minute) only to have them break on the next version on my previous laptop. It was definitely much MUCH easier to install on Fedora 42 on my current one and updates haven't broken anything for me since 40.
Well, it's just 4-5 lines that you're going to have to type and it's just a one-time thing. Surely, it's not that intimidating.
Bazzite seems to be based on Fedora Kinoite, an atomic desktop. Now, I haven't used atomic desktops. Although I wanted to, I ended up not doing that for the following reason.
From what I understand, you can't easily alter the base image of the system and everything else is a flatpak. This seems fine, but if you end up having to install an application for which there is no Flatpak, how would a non-tech savvy user do that? Still have to use the terminal at that point, I'd bet.
Case in point, even the other day, I came across this application called 'syncplay' for which there's no flatpak alternative and thankfully, Fedora repo had it.
I also hear that if you end up installing apps this way(Layering as it's called?), the update times become slower. You may shed some light on this.
Also, while it may not be as good as a snapshot system of the atomic desktops, the regular Fedora nonetheless shows the last two kernel installations on every boot so you could revert back to one if an update goes wrong.
I also have to mention that I always have my important files backed up on HDD or cloud that in the worst case scenario of losing my files on any update, (which hasn't happened so far btw), I can always restore them. In case of Steam games, it shouldn't be a problem if you have a fast internet connection. You should download them back in no-time.
That is another reason I can still live without having to use a stable atomic desktop.
New users find the terminal very intimidating, I've seen that come up time and again. It's kind of the whole point of Bazzite.
If you're already learning terminal to install software though, at that point you can use a distrobox, install whatever you want in it, and then export the application to your usual application menu. It'll launch the container in the background when you start the application, and shut it down automatically too. It's a little slower than a usual launch but it's still just a stripped down container so it's fine.
I tried two distros in the past week after your recommendation - Bazzite and Nobara.
Bazzite is just like you say and all's good most of the time and I'm getting used to an atomic distro too. The only problem I seem to be having is that my GPU Freezes very often even while just browsing and I have to force-restart to recover.
journalctl shows me this error.
[drm:nv_drm_gem_alloc_nvkms_memory_ioctl [nvidia_drm]] ERROR [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID ....] Failed to allocate NVKMS memory for GEM object
I don't know if this is because Bazzite uses a slightly older Nvidia (open) driver(570.64) and kernel(6.14.6) or because of something else.
However, I don't have this issue on Nobara and it uses the latest 6.15.4 and Nvidia (proprietary? akmod) driver (570.153).
Correlation is not probably causation, but this might be one thing to consider.
And I've had issues with nvidia-open drivers in the past, but surely a lot of them seem to have gone now.
Thanks. The downloader gives me an option to rebase, which I find easier to use. It shows me an option to download from ostree-unverified-registry, but I chose to do it from ostree-image-signed:docker instead. Don't know why the signed image is not shown on the downloader by default.
That said, after switching to nvidia from nvidia-open, the driver version still remains the same. Let's see if I get freezes again in the upcoming days.
Also, there are two applications that I use outside of flatpak - a firewall(Safing Portmaster) and another password manager, for which I have to install using the rpm installer.
The password manager has no problem installing using the rpm-ostree install <name.rpm> command. However, Portmaster installs, but won't work because of the following error which I found from journalctl.
<br />Jul 05 16:28:23 bazzite systemd[1]: Started portmaster.service - Portmaster by Safing.
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite portmaster-start[5786]: Error: failed to exec lock: open /opt/safing/portmaster/core-lock.pid: read-only file system
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite systemd[1]: portmaster.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite portmaster-start[5860]: Error: please set the data directory using --data=/path/to/data/dir
Jul 05 16:28:29 bazzite systemd[1]: portmaster.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.Someone has supposedly a work in-progress script to make this work, but I don't think I'm qualified to scrutinize if doing this brings down the security of the system in any way.
And I don't know if many other rpm installers have the same trouble installing in atomic distros because it's a read-only file system.
For now, I'll have to live without my favorite firewall.
Update:
Okay, I keep getting the same freeze again with the proprietary nvidia driver too. My suspicion is now heavily on Secureboot being enabled. Some Arch people kept warning me about this back in the day.
I'm going to use Bazzite without it and probably rebase again to open driver if there is no more freezes.
Update 2:
Unfortunately, even with secureboot disabled, I kept getting freezes. Got 3 freezes and I felt done with this. Replaced Bazzite with Nobara again.
Nvidia driver worked for a while. But, after I temporarily switched back to another atomic distro I'm dual booting on a completely separate drive(which requires secure boot for nvidia driver to work and it did work), Nobara stopped loading nvidia driver despite clearing all secure boot keys and installing the default one in UEFI/BIOS and turning off SecureBoot.
Apparently, the efi also has to be modified again. I didn't bother doing it and reinstalled Nobara again since that will reset the efi anyway.
Now, the driver is working again.
I swear to any seemingly non-existent higher power that I'll never use any distro that requires secure boot. Lol. I'm gonna reinstall Arch on my second drive now.
That said, I'd probably recommend Bazzite to anyone not having Nvidia GPU and it's a pretty impressive project. It even comes with Wallpaper Engine baked in.
My friend and I were having a hard time making it work on their system. We were trying some solutions we found on github and some C++ file didn't have a particular header or something. Took a while to get it work and it was kinda messy later on too with the plasma shell crashing cause of it.
Having additions like this would surely make life easier for regular users who would not want to deal with that mess.
People are afraid of the terminal because Windows has a shitty, unfriendly terminal. One of the things that brought me back to Linux was the cool-looking terminals. They make me feel like I'm Hackerman.
Linux isn't just a different operating system. It's a paradigm shift. Windows is always going to dominate as long as people are trapped in a Windows mindset.
I was you 18 months ago. It's certainly achievable, even with a crazy busy schedule. Highly recommended that you go for it.
Here are the unpopular opinions that attract downvotes:
* adopting Linux is painful. Stuff breaks. Stuff doesnt work. You will be battling uphill, but hopefully you'll find it worthwhile in the end.
* moving to Linux permanently wouldn't have been possible for me without AI. Now you can ask AI and it will almost always solve the problem for you. In the old days, you'd just have forum posts saying "just compile the driver and do a 10 step process with terminal that you need to figure out from the wiki....noob". But now, these previously system breaking problems are now easily solvable without spending the whole weekend on a single issue.
* don't let go of Windows to start with. Put Linux on a secondary machine. Do not dual boot, you will break your installation and won't be able to troubleshoot it and will have to do a full wipe (along with the time and data loss that comes with that).
* Don't get caught up in the distro wars. Pick Linux Mint, or a similar very beginner friendly distro. I prefer KDE desktop so I would recommend something else..... But don't go for anything with even moderate difficulty.
* Check protondB.com for the games you play. Some don't work on Linux (e.g. Apex Legends).
Yeah, this. In fact, going with hardware that's too-too new can lead to a different problem on Linux.
OP, if you're buying hardware, it's worth web searching to make sure people have tried it on Linux and are having good experiences with it. Since most manufacturers only care if their stuff works on Windows, it can take a little while for Linux devs to write drivers and get them shipped in Linux distros.
There might be a reason they are unpopular.
Stuff breaks? What breaks? I don't have stuff that breaks. Windows has been far more breaky to me over the last decade than Linux has ever been. What have you been doing? This may have been true 20 years ago, but not today.
AI? Look, I helped a friend fix a new install. It wasn't Linux fault, it was a setting in the bios that needed to be changed. But the AI had them trying all sorts of things that were unrelated, and was never going to help. Use with a grain of salt. You shouldn't really need to do much if you can get through the install anyways.
I am really curious what "system breaking problems" you have? My latest laptop over the last 2+ years has been so uneventful and boring. Never used a command line on it, but don't forget when you see people share command line fixes, it is because it is the easiest way to directly share information. Not the only way to do something. My desktop has had a few hiccups over the last 5, but that is what I get for running Arch on it.
Stuff breaks? What breaks? I don't have stuff that breaks. Windows has been far more breaky to me over the last decade than Linux has ever been. What have you been doing? This may have been true 20 years ago, but not today.
I've been trying to adapt to Linux Mint/Cinnamon as my daily driver and yes, stuff breaks. My sata and nvme connected drives kept disappearing every time I started my computer so I had to learn about mounting and auto mount (they are just there on Windows). My game and program installs on Bottles and Lutris kept going "missing" and losing their .exe's. I downloaded 70gb of Guild Wars 2 files at least 8 times because I thought each time I had fixed the "files missing" problem only to have them disappear on reboot. I still didn't figure out what was happening and am only able to play now because I found out how to use the provider portal on Steam. I can't make launcher short cuts from the actual executable, I have to go to the desktop and do it and when I do, it won't let me drag it to my panel for some reason. When I thought I had found a solution, I reactivated some launcher applets and ended up with three different instances of my panel launcher icons and still no ability to add new ones. My systems connected to the same ethernet used to show up in my network panel and I was able to access my shared folders and media files but they all stopped showing up a few days ago and I had to learn all about Samba share and minimum and maximum server protocols and still am trying to find a solution.
Yes, Windows breaks stuff too, but Linux is NOT a perfect product that works flawlessly for everyone and [@cRazi_man@europe.pub is right. All of their points are things I've been struggling with and would warn a Linux noob about. I personally would rather trust those random forum posts than LLM summaries (and have solved some issues that way) but otherwise I agree with each of their bullet points.
Yes mounting is different, but that is not a Linux issue. Same as when you boot into windows, but an EXT formatted drive will not appear AND it will never mount. Windows helpful choice is "unknown" and offer to format. These are just OS differences, not breakages.
Cinnamon might be part of your problem with shortcuts.....
Yeah SMB shares can be tricky. I have issues with them in Windows as well, not linux specifically.
I am not saying linux is perfect. All computers rely on a person being able to deal with them. I just find it much more stable then windows ever was. You add bottles and Lutris into the mix, and now it is a third party software issue: just like plenty of software in windows as well.
when introducing new people to Linux it’s best to acknowledge there may be some tinkering and adaptation needed to get things working as they should.
Depends on what "should" means. My printer for example will not work with windows. It works fine with linux. So.... that really is a printer driver issue. No matter which one it works with.
As for the OS out of the box, everything works on a fresh install of either - although linux is far more loaded with ready to go software, and windows requires you to add it. And any of the software you add to either can cause breakages, that is computing.
I noticed over the years that Linux works fairly well for people who did not start with windows first. Both have learning curves, but habits are habits.
I am going to take my linux laptop for an example: 2 years. No tinkering. There is nothing to do, it just works.
My other laptop (windows): damn thing need tinkering all the time: turn off this, regedit that, just to get the nagware and crap out. Won't allow remote desktop with the license, needs drivers to be updated, software that came with it is bloatware garbage.
I've been tinkering with my Linux machine for the past 8 months or so, and having random issues like the ones I listed and more besides that I've already solved. Meanwhile my old Windows 7 machine has been working flawlessly for about 8 years, no regedits or crap software issues. I think I had a driver issue with my mouse a couple years ago that I clicked a button and it fixed it. My laptop running Windows 7 also has been working flawlessly since about 2016 beyond prompting me to format media that I connect to it, but I press a button and that goes away. Recently I've been having compatibility issues with software because it's such an old OS but as you said, that's a 3rd party software issue, not a problem with Windows 7.
Glad your Linux experience is so smooth though. Must be nice!
This is a pointless conversation man. There are clearly plenty of Linux zealots on Lemmy. Noobs like me have had a hard time with Linux. I've never understood the argument that "my experience was different, so your experience is invalid". Once someone learns about something, they forget what it's like to have no knowledge of the thing.
The Linux community was reacting like this when Linus (from LTT) installed PopOS and tried to install Steam and it somehow wiped his desktop environment. Shit happens in Linux and the noob experience is brushed aside, while touting "the year of Linux". I really don't get it.
I agree with your overall point, as a long time Linux, Windows and Mac poweruser who has shepherded many into a new OS in the past. People who don't like to explore new/different technologies as a hobby get quite comfortable with whatever they're used to and the way that it works and then quickly lose empathy for those that are earlier in their journeys.
Just to clarify on the Linus Pop!_OS thing, he didn't read the prompt that said he was about to uninstall his desktop environment and then typed in "yes I understand this can break my system" or something like that, which had been added as a prompt to keep people from not reading the warning. Anyways people got mad that he did that because he literally ignored the warning and *the meaning of the words he had to type* that had been added to idiot proof the thing.
I'm glad it worked smoothly for you and it sometimes is a smooth effortless experience for some people; but if you want to "convert" people then you've got to be honest about the fact that people commonly face difficulties. I've commented about my Linux issues before and I can paste the comment again here to give an example:
One of the first issues I had problems with was figuring out what was wrong with Street Fighter 6 giving ultra low frame rates in multiplayer, but working fine in single player. It needed disabling of split lock protections in the CPU.
A recent update in OpenSUSE made the computer fail to boot half the time and made the image on the right half of the screen garbled. I rolled back to before the update and am using it without updating for a few weeks to see if the GPU driver problem gets ironed out (AMD GPU).
I installed VMware Horizon for my job's remote work login and it fucked up my Steam big picture mode and controller detection. I didn't bother trying to figure that out and just uninstalled VMware remote desktop.
I managed to install my printer driver, but manually finding the correct RPM file to install would not be tolerable for normies. Update: I'm using CachyOS now and the Brother website says Arch plainly isn't supported. When I install the driver from AUR that's specific to my printer, then it doesnt print and just spews out endless blank pages.
I still can't get my Dualshock 3 controller to pair via Bluetooth despite instructions on the OpenSUSE wiki. I've stopped trying to troubleshoot that and use my 8BitDo controller instead.
I still can't find a horizontal page scrolling PDF app.
Figuring out how to edit fstab to automount my secondary drives is not a process normies would be able to execute. I still can't figure out how to use this to auto-mount my Synology NAS.
Plasma added monitor brightness controls to software and these seem to have disappeared for me now, and I can't figure out why. It reappears intermittently, but then disappears when it feels like.
My KDE Plasma task bar widgets for monitoring CPU/GPU temp worked till I reinstalled OpenSUSE, and I can't figure out why they've decided to not work on this fresh install. System monitor can see the temperature sensors just fine still. Update: this seems to have fixed itself (maybe through am update?).
Flatpak Steam app wouldn't pick up controllers for some reason. Minor issue, but unnecessary jankiness.
My laptop fingerprint reader plainly isn't supported.
Trying to set up dual boot kept destroying (I.e. making unbootable) either the Linux install or the Windows install. I have up eventually as I couldn't figure out how to fix GRUB from the command line.
I've been trying to find a solution for keeping a downloaded synchronised copy of my online storage (Mailbox.org). Can't figure out rsync. I get an error with Celeste and it doesn't sync after the initial file install. Having a 2 way sync for online storage could be considered a pretty basic requirement these days and something Mailbox can easily suggest an app for in Windows.
People do not tolerate this amount of jankiness. And this doesn't include the discomfort with relearning minor design differences between OS's when switching. Linux is a bit of a battle with relearning and troubleshooting things that would never be problematic on Windows. I know we all love Linux, but allow people to be honest rather than being dismissive. I had over 2 decades of experience with Windows and it had its quirks and problems, but my preexisting familiarity with it made it much easier to use and troubleshoot.
Sure I know I'm a noob and not doing this right. But that's the point.....can someone with limited knowleddge still work this OS?
Not so much help but hope: I got rid of Windows 11 and switched fully to Linux Mint a few weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing but I tested things on USB and also on a very old laptop I had laying around before I made it my daily driver.
I'm not particularly a tech person. I own a small creative business and have a toddler, but I figured out what I needed to quickly. I don't game and didnt use Winsows exclusive software so have no opinions about that.
What I didn't expect: to actually be genuinely interested in my computer again for the first time since I was a teenager (which was not recent...). I love customizing my desktop. I love discovering new open source software. I'm learning more than I expected and it's just a totally different relationship with the tech I use every day, in a nice way. And no more BS ads / bloat when I'm just trying to exist on my computer.
I agree. Arch has been my current favorite distribution for several years now, but it's almost impossible to maintain without having to drop into the shell occasionally. I have EndeavourOS installed on my wife's laptop and she's been happily using it for nearly a year; bauh helps with software installs, but I still generally drop into a shell for the full -Syu upgrades, and you have to use the shell at least once just to install bauh as it's not a core package.
You might be able to avoid the shell to use bauh if you use the AppImage; I haven't tried that. bauh can apparently do system upgrades, but I haven't tried that yet and I need to see how it handles news; Arch is fairly cavalier about pushing out breaking changes that require extra user steps which need to be discovered by reading the news posts.
I agree that Arch isn't the best "first linux" distribution.
GitHub - vinifmor/bauh: Graphical user interface for managing your Linux applications. Supports AppImage, Debian and Arch packages (including AUR), Flatpak, Snap and native Web applications
Graphical user interface for managing your Linux applications. Supports AppImage, Debian and Arch packages (including AUR), Flatpak, Snap and native Web applications - vinifmor/bauhGitHub
There is hope lots of YouTube channels, articles by bloggers such as Its Foss, and guides to Linux all over
Especially for Linux Mint (Similar to Windows), Pop!_OS (Similar to MacOS), and Bazzite (Gaming-Productivity Distro, Similar to SteamOS)
The latter 2 work out of the box for gaming if that's your thing
You got this. Learn little by little each day and engage with community as much as you can. Maybe join some Voyager for Lemmy, Bluesky, Discord, etc communities
I'd say try Kubuntu. It's like Ubuntu but with KDE (Windows-like user interface) instead of GNOME (shitty Mac clone turned tablet like interface). It's well-supported and is easy to use. Also supports new technologies like HDR which Mint is lacking. Though you can install KDE on pretty much any distro (Mint included) but it's a good starting place.
Note to fellow Linux veterans: Yes, I know snaps suck but it is not something new users need concearn themselves with. Kubuntu is a great distro except for snaps which aren't going to affect OP's use-case (or most use-cases. Also sorry for shitting on GNOME so much. If you like it that's cool, I just don't think we should be recomending it to people coming from Windows.
Consider your library: most games will be able to run fine on Linux. However, if you predominantly play online multiplayer games which require anticheat you should check compatibility on ProtonDB.
Second, consider your hardware: if your GPU is AMD you're good to go. Nvidia might have issues (not sure if this has been resolved since I last had to look into it).
Finally, choose a distro: I'd recommend Ubuntu or anything Ubuntu-based. There's a lot of mixed answers in the Linux community and definitely a ton of hate for Ubuntu. However, as someone who has been running Linux for nearly a decade at this point, there are a few key points:
- Ubuntu is debian based, so it's extremely stable(but not as slow to update)
- Ubuntu is very beginner friendly, and you won't need to touch the terminal if you don't want to
- Everyone hates on snaps, but for you I don't think you'll run into an issue with it.
Personally, I steer towards debian based distros for my devices as well because I'd rather spend time messing with the software I'm running or other things NOT debugging why my config is suddenly shitting the bed
Distro: short for distribution. Linux is not an operating system. It's a piece of technology (specifically something called a kernel) you can use to create an OS. Those Linux based OSs are referred to as distros. We are usually not calling them "Versions" because the Linux Kernel is also frequently seeing updates and that would just cause confusion.
Debian and Ubuntu: Popular distros. Ubuntu tends to be a bit more user friendly than Debian and was the default recommendation for new user for a long time. In recent years its popularity among enthusiasts declined because of a series of unpopular decisions, mainly the adaptation of something called snaps which is not completely open source and takes a bit more time to launch apps than alternatives. Debian on the other hand really values stability. Updates arrive less frequently than on other distros but undergo really rigorose testing.
Lots of good advice here. I’ll add a bit about dual booting.
1) the problem with dual booting is when you use the same physical hard drive. Windows doesn’t play nice sometimes on the same drive. Just do yourself a favor and buy a second ssd. Then you can break linux six ways to Sunday and always have a windows backup. (And if you want to be extra safe - you can just unplug your windows drive during Linux install and you can’t f up and pick the wrong drive by accident)
2) dual booting is nice just in case something doesn’t work - you can easily switch back to windows.
3) dual booting sucks because there’s very few things that don’t work in Linux - it just requires a little elbow grease to figure out. But having a windows partition right there leads to many people giving up way too early with fixing their issues.
My recommendation is always to have more than one drive in your computer. It’s YOUR computer. Regardless of what you pick as your “main” OS, you always have another spot to screw around in. Distro hop, extra storage, set up a hiveos miner, whatever. Its flexibility and screwing around with other things helps you understand what’s YOUR computer vs what is Microsoft’s OS.
Hey, I'm glad that my Obviously Sprcial Idea of getting another ssd just for linux have legs. I decided this is my plan going forward to learn Linux as daily driver and gaming.
Now there's only the first step that I have to make.
Garuda is actually my daily driver these days, and I quite enjoy it. It does mostly just work, and I also like their desktop theming. The GUI installer is great for easy hardware detection and setup. But, that's coming from a more experienced old tinkerer who was initially looking for some lazy troubleshooting with NVIDIA graphics on a new gaming laptop, and liked the distro enough to end up switching over.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend any rolling release to someone completely new to Linux. The devs have done a pretty good job at making some things more user friendly, but we are talking about Arch with some extra tools bolted on. You'd better be prepared for things to break occasionally, and to need to do some tinkering around under the hood.
On the plus side, you ARE dealing with Arch with all the info resources/user community built up around that, plus the Garuda community tends to be pretty helpful from what I've seen. You are going to periodically need to figure out how to fix stuff, however--and better to be aware of that going in. Some people are going to be more fine with the idea than others, but it is liable to provide a steeper learning curve for someone just getting started with Linux.
I have 15 years of experience and do free infinite troubleshooting on matrix, feel free to add me. I recommend you go with aurora, because it is immutable, kde based, and well documented.
immutable means the base system is read only and updates are applied ontop of it, meaning you can easily roll back an update that went bad, and the apps are separate from the core operating system and thus can never break them (unless you try really hard).
kde is a desktop environment, it is most similar to windows and the rate of development dwarfs almost everything else, please whatever you do for your first system use kde.
aurora is a slightly modified fedora and fedora is one of the most commonly used options, the reason not to use base fedora is that aurora includes some QoL features, for example because of issues with patents twitch doesn't work on fedora but does on aurora.
Not who you asked, jumping in until they reply: Windows and most GNU/Linux distros are much further apart than most GNU/Linux distros are to each other. Unless you're doing a lot of manual meddling or using hacky tools, the biggest change between Mint (Ubuntu/Debian-based) and a Fedora-based distro, in my experience, was that apt is replaced by dnf, so if you install apps from the command line instead of a prettier software manager (I did lots of programming so this was normal for me) then the names of programs and libraries were a bit different. I'd also make a list of things you've installed (VPN software, chat apps, etc.) and look them up in the Fedora packages site or their own website and make sure they're all available. I would assume they would be, Fedora is popular enough.
The desktop environment (Cinnamon vs. KDE) will be an initial change, but they're both familiar enough with a program menu, task bar, like how Mint lets you carry over some of that same basic surface-level intuition that Windows taught.
That the worst linux distro would be vastly better than windows (not that mint is the worst, that'd be manjaro)
honestly it isn't much to learn but the returns are very diminished if you're already on a linux distro, I mostly make this recommendation if you're just starting out, if you're perfectly happy there isn't much need to switch, but more up to date software, kde over cinnamon, and immutability are huge advantages for many people.
like, just for an idea of why kde is better for beginners, the kde text editor alone gets more code changes than all of cinnamon combined per month, and by a lot. Kde is always rapidly improving.
basically on aurora you just use discover for all software and updates and don't even need the cli, it's pretty easy to learn honestly, and if something goes wrong that a simple google can't fix feel free to message me I do free infinite linux troubleshooting.
here's a copypasted post I made on mint and beginners "A lot of people are going to recommend you mint, I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon (the default mint environment) doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lxqt is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix."
This is the book that got me on the train. I have so many tech books but they all started with this. I'm a terminal afficianado now; this got me started. Anyway, good luck and I hope you have a good time.
Yes, ez one (if you have installed operating systems before and know how to paste an error passage into google )
-4hours and your done start to finish. (Given you have standard hardware and don't want to set up something crazy like dual boot with raid and nas)
Moderate complexity if you have never done anything like that, plan 2-6 evenings to get it fully working with everything you need
Also: consider your scopes. For most cases Linux will just work, you just have to get used to some different interfaces.
BUT: some things will not run under linux no matter how hard you try --> google if stuff you can't live without will work
(for me I still have a dual boot windows for playing league of legends and running my vive wireless adapter, as those will not run under Linux.
For games use protonDB
I may be oldschool, but for people not comfortable around terminals I would suggest Debian KDE as it never breaks and the transition from windows is easy. You can do everything from GUI (clicky button interfaces)
For the installation of steam you might need a terminal, but there are good guides online (and you really dont need to be a wizard for that) from where you can just copy paste (when searching just add your distro e.g. "install steam Debian", and once you've got that running you can just run every game from within steam.
Since Steam has done a lot of work with proton, most games just run under Linux. In steam: Install-->play
For nearly all games not directly running, you can just force them to run with proton. It will say:
"Game not compatible" in steam, you just click the gear icon on the right to open settings, go to "compatibilty" and tick "force use of compatibility layer" and select the newest proton from the drop down
The button where steam previously said "not compatible" magically turns into the blue "install" button we all know and love. And nearly all games run with only minor inconveniences (like showing keyboard hotkeys even when playing with a gamepad) or no issues at all.
You need to be aware that some games using kernel level anticheat (e.g. league of legends, valorant) can not and will never run on Linux, if the developers of the games don't add the possibility.
EDIT: for programs not related to gaming its often easier to use an alternative, if the program is not available for Linux. Most times its also more privacy foccused, open source and free
Adobe light room --> darktable
Microsoft office --> libre office
Adobe Premiere pro --> davinci resolve/shotcut
Paint/Photoshop --> gimp/davinci/dark table
Edge --> firfox
Notepad --> Kate
Fraps/relive/shadowPlay --> OBS
Etc. Pp.
GitHub - atar-axis/xpadneo: Advanced Linux Driver for Xbox One Wireless Controller (shipped with Xbox One S)
Advanced Linux Driver for Xbox One Wireless Controller (shipped with Xbox One S) - atar-axis/xpadneoGitHub
As others have mentioned, use Mint. Since you game, some games won’t run on Linux because of their anticheat, and to that I decided to use a dual boot system. I gave 500gb to windows, the rest to Linux. Anything that won’t run on Linux (some early access games, COD, Tarkov) goes on the windows partition. 500gb doesn’t seem like much when COD takes about 1/2 of that, but everything else I’ve played runs fine on Linux.
I also like the smaller partition because it makes me be choose what I leave installed, and if I’m not playing, I just uninstall whatever game needs to go
- As others have said, it's possible to play most steam games, but not all. You have to decide if you like those games more than you dislike MS and Goo. I find there's so many great games out there that I'll never get to all of them, so I'm ok with dropping some bangers that usually want too much access to my system.
- Here's a useful resource if you need to understand slightly technical linux foundations linuxjourney.com/ It might not be necessary but it does help to have a foundational understanding, and honestly, the command line is awesome, powerful, and one of my favorite things about linux. Beyond having a basic understanding (and maybe having one of the books the site recommends on hand), before going to an LLM as others have suggested, have official sources of various components bookmarked and go there first. There's so much BS out there now, I actually like the fact that I can read technical documentation, test it out, and know if it's true.
one other tip: I'd recommend some kind of personal knowledge management (PKM) system to take notes. Linux gives you a lot of freedom-- that's what's great about it-- it can be complex and have a learning curve at times. It's absolutely worth it though. It's a totally different paradigm than windows. After a while you can really start crafting the whole system to your needs as an individual. I'm 3 years in and was using my first setup that whole time, i didn't realize how customized I had made it until trying to set it up exactly on a new workstation. Now I'm writing a script so to automate my setup (os settings, program installs, configs) by running a single command. Then I can really start experimenting.
Everybody's different and with a little basic knowledge, everyone's setup can be tweaked to their individual needs a little better than other "user friendly/polished" operating systems. I hope you find as much joy and freedom in it as I do.
That's a big question, but I'll try my best to answer without getting too deep in the weeds.
I'll probably sound like a fanatic, but I use my PKMS for notes, logs, journaling, project and task management, snippets, and documentation. They all have their own structure and flow. It's a Gall's Law kind of situation where I started simple and it worked, so it was extended and slowly evolved to reach it's current complexity.
The beauty of PKMS over a notepad is the loose set of basic features (Wiki-links, tags, templates, etc) that be used in a personalized way to quickly capture, organize, and retrieve info that works best for you and no one else.
As a simple, but detailed example, in the context of learning linux, i might make a "linux" note and dump info there. I put everything in my own words unless I use md quotes (> quoted text) and I add useful links that I also bookmarked in my browser.
When the "linux" page gets bloated, I migrate clusters of info into new notes, wiki-linked in the "linux" note. For example a "distros," note which might have some high level comparisons. I favor making new notes over md headers so it's easier to find and open notes by name (a "quick switcher" hotkey as it's called in obsidian).
When I settle on a distro I might make a note for it to contain wiki-links of default components EG "apt (package manager)," "gnome (desktop environment)," "x (windowing system)" and dump relevant notes there.
If I try wayland, I'd make a "wayland" note but also a "windowing system" note that both wiki-links "x (window system)" and "wayland," and is wiki-linked in each of those notes.
It could get very meticulous, and some folks setup is too much for me, and I'm sure mine is too much for others, but start simple, experiment, find what works, and add to it. In the beginning I had dedicated time just to developing my PKMS. The important thing is quickly recording and retrieving info.
Sometime i do have crazy scrawlings where i just need a notepad to dump info during a deep dive. That would be loosely zettelkasten style with a time-stamped name, sometime with a few extra works for context/search. Sections could be extracted into their own note later. The note itself could be linked to more organized, related notes.
As a more complex, but shorter example, to show how similar tools can be used in a different manner: I'll make a note for a command line program, for example, cat. I have a CLI template with a Useful Flags (options) section. Kind of like a personalized tldr. I'll also have specific notes for complex snippets (AKA one-liners. Real note example: "list-and-sum-all-audio-file-durations") and if it uses cat, i'll tag it #cmd/cat. The CLI template also has a Snippets section that uses dataview to automatically list, in this case, all notes with the #cmd/cat tag. I also have a "command line programs" note that uses a dataview query to list all notes that used the CLI template. Also, a Snippets note using dataview to list all pages created with the snippets template.
There are tools specifically for snippets and personalized tldr, and I may migrate to those eventually-- especially after I have my install script up and running with linked configs-- but the simple tools in PKMSs are really adaptable and make it easy to customize and integrate. Plus it's all md files in a folder, so it's easy to sync and access on multiple machines, including mobile.
I hope that's not TMI. Starting linux can feel overwhelming and I don't want to add to that. Quiet the contrary. I started my PKMS right before my last, permanent switch linux and I think it helped it stick, and 3+ years later I still use [my PKMS] all the time. As I said before, the simple tools that turn a notepad into a PKMS can add a personalized structure to the insane scrawings, making it quick and easy to navigate, find, edit, and add info. You just have to start simple and take your time. I hope that helps. Good luck with the switch!
Just remember to turn steam play on for all titles in Steam -> Settings -> Compatibility.
As others have said, Mint is a great starting option. It looks familiar when coming from Windows, and almost everything works without having to touch a terminal.
AAA games with anti-cheat may not work, but just about everything else will. Check Proton DB for each game's compatibility.
You can add non-Steam games to Steam to take advantage of Proton. Lutris can also work for some Windows games.
If you want to try Linux distributions to see what they're like before committing, VirtualBox or other virtual machine programs can give you a risk-free preview.
Another option is a live preview. Install Linux Mint on a USB using Rufus or a similar program, then boot your computer from the USB. So long as you don't access your computer's hard drive (under devices on the left of the file manager) or run the installer, no changes should be made from your computer. You can simply reboot and remove the USB to go back to your usual OS.
If you are going to dual-boot, install Windows first. Windows has a habit of overriding or deleting Linux if it's installed second. If you just want to shrink your Windows partition to allow room for Linux, shrink it from Windows. Linux can move "unmovable" Windows files resulting in Windows not booting.
Always have a backup of everything you are not prepared to lose before you play with installing operating systems (and make sure it's disconnected from that computer). Data loss from software issues is rare, but mistakes are difficult (sometimes impossible) to reverse, particularly as a beginner.
Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way
Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy wayrufus.ie
You have received tons of useful responses, so I will not add more, except to tell you that the change is extremely worth it, easier than it seems and extremely entertaining.
I personally use Kubuntu (I love the KDE environment) and sometimes play Steam games by using Proton.
Good luck on your Linux journey!
thanks! right now the primary obstacle is arranging adequate backup before maling my first attempt.
I have a laptop with Win 11 for troubleshooting so I'm not worried about that. and I have most of my stuff on externals, so there's not much to backup. I just gotta figure out a good way to back up my C drive and a plan for reverting if necessary!
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:::
Oracle, OpenAI Expand Stargate Deal for More US Data Centers
Link without the paywall
Oracle, OpenAI Ink Additional Stargate Deal for 4.5 Gigawatts of US Data Center
OpenAI has agreed to rent a massive amount of computing power from Oracle Corp. data centers as part of its Stargate initiative, underscoring the intense requirements for cutting-edge artificial intelligence products.Brody Ford (Bloomberg)
Oracle Inks Cloud Deal Worth $30 Billion a Year
Link without the paywall
Oracle Cloud Services Deal Worth $30 Billion a Year
Oracle Corp. said it has signed a single cloud deal worth $30 billion in annual revenue — more than the current size of its entire cloud infrastructure business.Brody Ford (Bloomberg)
Oracle, OpenAI Expand Stargate Deal for More US Data Centers
Link without the paywall
Oracle, OpenAI Ink Additional Stargate Deal for 4.5 Gigawatts of US Data Center
OpenAI has agreed to rent a massive amount of computing power from Oracle Corp. data centers as part of its Stargate initiative, underscoring the intense requirements for cutting-edge artificial intelligence products.Brody Ford (Bloomberg)
Pro doesn't like this.
As the world grows more unpredictable, Australia’s defence should be focused on people, not purchases
As the world grows more unpredictable, Australia’s defence should be focused on people, not purchases
Activating real civic resilience could be a KPI for the prime minister’s progressive patriotism, rather than spending billions more on big, shiny machinesJulianne Schultz (The Guardian)
The article fails were most opinion pieces often fail. It assumes, in its argumention, that where Defence spending and other social responsibilites are concerned is an ‘either, or’ issue. Let’s be clear about this, it is not.
Beyond that criticism, the article makes some very good points. Australia has an over-reliance on volunteer disaster recovery workforce. In circumstances where too many sectors compete fot budget resources, the only way to address those needs is to increase the pie and this can only be done with #TaxReform. That is the problem which needs addressing. That is the issue which should be discussed. And that is the message that should be brought home to every Australian. IMO
Oracle Inks Cloud Deal Worth $30 Billion a Year
Link without the paywall
Oracle Cloud Services Deal Worth $30 Billion a Year
Oracle Corp. said it has signed a single cloud deal worth $30 billion in annual revenue — more than the current size of its entire cloud infrastructure business.Brody Ford (Bloomberg)
Tor + Clearnet Privacy chat app
This app has a clearnet version and tor version as well!
- Clearnet: shadowtalk.yuzukateam.io.vn/
- Tor: 74xhglgkx3yq5o5ibiehpfwoq4jxb62323ydzam56fvqbkuo6kd7tcid (hash)
- And it open source!!!:github.com/plsgivemeachane/Sha…
I really like to get some feedback. Have fun everyone!
GitHub - plsgivemeachane/ShadowTalk
Contribute to plsgivemeachane/ShadowTalk development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
pancake likes this.
“Il periodo PIÙ DIFFICILE della mia VITA” (il conto della sfiga by ADC)
Ultimamente Alessandrone ha iniziato veramente a spingere… non che non lo facesse da anni e anni, però con questi ultimi video si sta superando pericolosamente tanto. E questo che è uscito stasera penso possa essere interessante per tutti… probabilmente anche perché l’argomento non è lo studio, ehh vabbé. Che poi… da quando ha un giardino […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
“Il periodo PIÙ DIFFICILE della mia VITA” (il conto della sfiga by ADC)
youtube.com/watch?v=5_QCU4ngCW…Ultimamente Alessandrone ha iniziato veramente a spingere… non che non lo facesse da anni e anni, però con questi ultimi video si sta superando pericolosamente tanto. E questo che è uscito stasera penso possa essere interessante per tutti… probabilmente anche perché l’argomento non è lo studio, ehh vabbé. Che poi… da quando ha un giardino di terra in cui mettersi a scavare per chissà quante ore, praticamente a vuoto, solo per poter fare le scenette cinematograficamente metaforiche che ha deciso di inserire nel video? (Spero vivamente che nessuna creatura orribile strisciante si sia fatta male durante le riprese di questa robaccia.) 🤯
Il video parla del concetto di sfiga, e di quella che tecnicamente è naturalmente intrinseca nella vita stessa di ogni persona sulla Terra, semplicemente per motivi statistici, perché al mondo ogni giorno avvengono infinite cose che semplicemente avvengono per conto loro… e alcune di queste sono soggettivamente buone, mentre altre no, fine. Ovviamente, in questo senso, la sfiga come forza superiore dispettosa non esiste davvero, quindi tecnicamente la concezione popolare che se ne ha è di per sé sbagliata… e conseguentemente dannosa, perché porta a pensare le situazioni del caso in modi sbagliati, che puntualmente possono portare a sviluppare un circolo vizioso di risposte e pensieri negativi, mandando sempre tutto più in vacca, scavando oltre quello che è già il fondo. 😶🌫️
Niente di nuovo sotto il sole, credo… cioè, non l’ho trovato rivoluzionario questo video, e i suoi concetti non mi sono nuovi… forse perché io penso troppo (come ADC, in effetti), mentre l’essere umano medio no? Però le sue metafore sono comunque interessanti e, in parte, le strategie per rimettersi in piedi (a parte il fatto stesso di realizzare queste verità). Certo, io in realtà l’unica di quelle che davvero uso, personalmente, come si vede spesso, è l’autoironia… perché per il resto lo so che le cose scomode che accadono bisogna semplicemente accettarle ed andare avanti, senza scoraggiarsi. Io in realtà in questo sono un caso particolare, perché (come ho accennato altre volte) sono una creatura solo a metà umana, proveniente dallo spazio, piazzata sulla Terra a forza per volere di un’organizzazione intergalattica senza scrupoli, che ha architettato un preciso piano per farmi vivere con tutte le difficoltà che ho… insomma, sono una ragazza magica, e questo comporta cose molto scomode, eppure non posso dare forfeit; voi vedete un po’ che giustificazione logica trovare alla natura della vostra esistenza. 👾
Ad ogni modo, vabbé, il messaggio di fondo è comunque sempre condivisibile. È bene evitare di scoraggiarsi, di arrendersi, di mettersi a rottare solo perché qualche volta o di continuo si è vittima della sfiga suprema (cioè, più propriamente, di eventi per l’appunto soggettivamente negativi, magari anche tutti in un tempo ravvicinato e che portano ad accrescere una grande amarezza di fondo)… voi magari perché si ha sempre comunque qualcosa di buono sotto sotto anche dentro la merda, e io invece perché devo farla pagare a quelli che mi hanno trasferita sulla Terra. “Cambiando il risultato, l’ordine degli addendi non cambia“, come si suol dire! (Che sia questo un messaggio utile a coloro che sotto sotto ne hanno bisogno…) 🥰
#ADC #AlessandroDeConcini #consigli #lifestyle #sfiga #sfortuna #vita
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
The Government’s Astonishing Constitutional Claims on TikTok
The Government’s Astonishing Constitutional Claims on TikTok
The Justice Department is advancing a radical theory of presidential power, nullifying Congress’s foreign affairs powers whenever the president finds them inconvenient.Default
Bow Glacier Falls Banff National Park-Icefields Parkway, BC
Currently closed due to a tragic slide on 6/19/25
Moderate 6.1 mi out and back
1,027 ft elevation gain
Hiked 6/7/25
An incredible fairly short hike takes you away from the magnificent Bow Lake to the huge bowl beneath Bow Glacier. One steep climb between the two areas and then you will slowly ascend within the watershed towards the falls where the trail ends. Sweeping views back down the valley towards Bow lake.
Looking south across the vibrant Bow Lake, Crowfoot mountain is the large one on the right.
Bow Glacier falls with large patches of snow along the rock face under mostly blue skies.
The mouth of the creek flowing into the stunning Bow Lake. These affluvial dumps are great because there is such a distinct division between shallow and deep. Crowfoot mountain to the right.
A seasonal waterfall found along the trail with a very cool looking pocket cave formed beside it.
U.S. deports men from Asia and Latin America with criminal records to South Sudan after legal saga
The Trump administration said it deported a group of eight men convicted of serious crimes in the United States to the conflict-ridden African country of South Sudan, following a weeks-long legal saga that had kept the deportees in a military base in Djibouti for weeks.
Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the deportation flight carrying the deportees landed in South Sudan just before midnight EST on Friday. A photo provided by the department showed the deportees, with their hands and feet shackled, sitting inside an aircraft, guarded by U.S. service members.
A conceptual breakthrough has emerged for the Colorado River’s future. Here’s what it looks like.
Negotiators from the seven river basin states said in a series of meetings in recent weeks that they were discussing a plan rooted in a concept that breaks from decades of management practice. Rather than basing water releases on reservoir levels, it would base the amount released from the system’s two major reservoirs on the amount of water flowing in the river. The new concept would be more responsive as river flows become more variable.
A conceptual breakthrough has emerged for the Colorado River’s future. Here’s what it looks like.
After months of stalemate, glimmers of hope have emerged for consensus on a new plan to manage the shrinking Colorado River.Elise Schmelzer (The Denver Post)
Hegseth falsely cited weapon shortages in halting shipments to Ukraine, Democrats say
Reports indicate defense secretary unilaterally acted to halt shipment even as Pentagon suggested US arsenal is stocked
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to baseless concerns that US stockpiles of weapons have run too low, it has been reported.
A batch of air defense missiles and other precision munitions were due to be sent to Ukraine to aid it in its ongoing war with Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. The aid was promised by the US during Joe Biden’s administration last year.
But the Pentagon halted the shipment, with NBC reporting that a decision to do so was made solely by Hegseth, Donald Trump’s top defense official and a former Fox News weekend host who has previously come under pressure for sharing plans of a military strike in two group chats on the messaging app Signal, one of which accidentally included a journalist.
Nexus Mods to Enforce Digital ID Age Checks Under UK and EU Laws
The Law and Adult Content
We wanted to give you all a heads-up that over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be making some changes to how things work on Nexus Mods in regards to Adult content, child safety online and our ong...Nexus Mods :: News :: Site News
Programmation de posts sur Piefed
Pour celles et ceux qui utilisent toujours schedule.lemmings.world pour programmer leurs posts ou qui seraient intéressés pour en programmer: nous avons développé d'une initiative jlailutine une fonctionnalité sur Piefed qui permet de le faire. Encore en beta, elle facilite un peu le processus et son résultat est normalement moins aléatoire.
Vous pouvez créer un compte sur les deux instances piefed francophones administrées par destructeur de monde et tournesol, ou l'instance phare du logiciel:
- tarte.nuage-libre.fr/
- feddit.fr/
- piefed.social/
Dans les options à la création du post, vous aurez la possibilité de spécifier une date de programmation, une fréquence et un fuseau horaire/
Vous pourrez retrouver tous vos posts programmés et les modifier ou les supprimer dans le menu de votre compte > posts programmés.
De plus, les titres ont un système de gabarit permettant d'afficher le numéro de la semaine, le jour, le mois et l'année au besoin avec les tags suivants: {% week %} {% day %} {% month %} {% year %}
Exemple:#{% week %} Discussion du jour {% day %}/{% month %}/{% year %}
générera lorsque le moment sera venu: #27 Discussion du jour 10/09/2025
Tout retour ou suggestion d'amélioration est apprécié !
Only 3%* of US AI users are willing to pay a penny for it
Only 3%* of US AI users are willing to pay a penny for it
Venture capitalists Menlo Ventures have released what purports to be a survey: “2025: The State of Consumer AI”. That is, chatbots. [Menlo Ventures] The subtitle is: “AI’s Consumer Tipping Po…Pivot to AI
Rickicki likes this.
they look forward to turning chatbots into a sea of spam:We expect rapid adoption of advertising models, transaction fees, affiliate revenue, and marketplace models.
We're doomed.
In the last weeks Pinterest became unusable imo. The AI "sea of spam" is no joke. 7 in 10 posts are ads now. AI ads. Every one of them is a grotesque AI mimic of the content you're viewing, all words meaningless gibberish. The things on the thumbnails suggest, but you can't make things really out by just seeing the thumbnails.
So i clicked them a few times too much. First by curiosity, then by mistake, because Pinterest does everything to make an ad look like a post.
7 in 10 posts.
After all these years successfully procrastinating with Pinterest, it has become a dopamine blocking experience.
Error when trying to publish after editing a post
I've edited posts in the past, but now when I edit and click the "Publish" button, I get the following error:
Your edit was not accepted because 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'replace'
Sorry, access is denied
You cannot access this area.
Back
The post I'm trying to edit:
- piefed.social/post/1009378
like this
Oofnik, hornface, melroy, SolacefromSilence, SuiXi3D, FartsWithAnAccent, yessikg, PokyDokie, dandi8, xep, unknown1234_5, CrankyPants, Luca, imecth, Maeve, TheFederatedPipe, 100_kg_90_de_belin, adhocfungus e eierschaukeln like this.
I'd rather download some bicycles, but yes.
I wished, we could pirate food.
like this
ElcaineVolta e yessikg like this.
Dont let them catch you with your pink pineapples or you might get in trouble:
patents.google.com/patent/USPP…
Pineapple plant named ‘Rosé’
A new pineapple ( Ananas comosus ) variety of the Bromeliaceae family was developed, via genetic engineering of MD2, named ‘Rosé’ is provided.patents.google.com
Disclosure: I have been sailing the seas for years, but...
This logic does no justice to the objective financial harm being done to the creators/owners of valuable data/content/media.
The original creator/owner is at a loss when data is copied. The intent of that data is to be copied for profit. Now that the data has been copied against the creator/owners will, they do not receive the profit from that copy.
Yes yes the argument is made that the pirate would not have bought the copy anyways, but having free copies of the content available on the internet decreases the desire for people to obtain paid copies of the data. At the very least it gives people an option not to pay for the data, which is not what the creator wanted in creating it.
They are entitled to fair compensation to their work.
It is true that pirating is not directly theft, but it does definitely take away from the creator's/distributor's profit.
Devil's Advocate: Many pirates would have not paid for access to that media so to say it takes away from the creators profit isn't exactly true since one act of piracy does not equal one lost sale.
Devil's Advocate Part II: There is s significant amount of research that supports the notion that pirates actually spend more money on media than the average person.
I personally am an example of part II. I pirate a lot of music but I refuse to use Spotify because of how little it pays artists and I have also spent significant amounts of money buying music from artists I enjoy via Bandcamp or buying from the artist directly because I know they get a bigger cut of the profits that way.
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TVA, yessikg, xep e TheFederatedPipe like this.
Ditto on Spotify. I have big love for piracy of FLAC for my personal music server, but I also have a decent rack filled with physical offerings from my favorite bands.
My Bandcamp collection is also getting up there, since a few of my favs say they are treated well there, and it's FLAC friendly as well.
Physical media or merch directly from the band is absolutely the way to go every time if possible.
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yessikg likes this.
I'm having trouble finding a link to substantiate it, but I remember in the early 2000's a group of artists having to sue their record labels because of the lawsuits on file-sharing users. The record labels said they were doing it for the artists, but the artists had to sue the record labels to even ever see a penny from the fruits of those lawsuits. The record labels were just pocketing the money for themselves while saying it was "for the artists."
Anyway, long story short is that kind of behavior from the recording industry made me want to give money directly to the artists and cut out these selfish middlemen who did nothing but claimed all the profits.
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yessikg, xep e TheFederatedPipe like this.
Before piracy there were demos and shareware, which let you see if your machine could handle the game or content and give you a vertical slice, and let you show it to friends for word of mouth advertising.
Then, Steam put a two hour refund window with no questions asked, which helped a lot of "this crashes on start, I can't open this at all on a RTX 4090/high end PC, 15 FPS in the fog, etc".
Developers learned from that and they began padding/gating content behind two hours of gameplay, so you wouldn't know until 3-4 hours in that the game was grindy dogshit (SCUM, Ark, Empyrion, and countless other Early Access and sometimes full release titles like NMS on launch day for example).
So the correct thing to do, and it's what I do: Pirate the game, make sure it runs/works and is fun and there's no "gotcha" traps or hidden DLCs or other predatory mechanics involved, and THEN pay for the full title on Steam+DLCs and just continue the save.
My Steam Account has actually already been flagged over a dozen times for this because my primary savegames are like Razor1911.sav, and so far it's still in good status because I am actually spending a couple thousand/year on content.
having free copies of the content available on the internet decreases the desire for people to obtain paid copies of the data.
According to who?
I guess herein lies the potential fallacy of my statement.
Decreased desire is a Subjective observation.
One cannot draw a direct correlation, but there is data to conclude that not having a piracy option will boost sales of data initially, at least when it comes to games. (Hence why publishers continue to use Denuvo)
arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/10…
The true cost of game piracy: 20 percent of revenue, according to a new study
Analysis of Denuvo DRM cracking shows significant impacts on publishers’ bottom lines.Kyle Orland (Ars Technica)
Counterpoint: When Louis CK (prior to being outed as a sex pest) released one of his comedy specials on his website DRM-free for $5 he became a millionaire almost overnight.
boingboing.net/2011/12/22/drm-…
Price point matters, too.
It also jives with early Steam Sales when Valve would cut titles like ~~Left 4 Dead~~ Counter Strike down to 90% off, and they would sell so many digital copies that they were actually making more money off the lower price.
geekwire.com/2011/experiments-…
Now we did something where we decided to look at price elasticity. Without making announcements, we varied the price of one of our products. We have Steam so we can watch user behavior in real time. That gives us a useful tool for making experiments which you can’t really do through a lot of other distribution mechanisms. What we saw was that pricing was perfectly elastic. In other words, our gross revenue would remain constant. We thought, hooray, we understand this really well. There’s no way to use price to increase or decrease the size of your business.But then we did this different experiment where we did a sale. The sale is a highly promoted event that has ancillary media like comic books and movies associated with it. We do a 75 percent price reduction, our Counter-Strike experience tells us that our gross revenue would remain constant. Instead what we saw was our gross revenue increased by a factor of 40. Not 40 percent, but a factor of 40. Which is completely not predicted by our previous experience with silent price variation. …
Then we decided that all we were really doing was time-shifting revenue. We were moving sales forward from the future. Then when we analyzed that we saw two things that were very surprising. Promotions on the digital channel increased sales at retail at the same time, and increased sales after the sale was finished, which falsified the temporal shifting and channel cannibalization arguments. Essentially, your audience, the people who bought the game, were more effective than traditional promotional tools. So we tried a third-party product to see if we had some artificial home-field advantage. We saw the same pricing phenomenon. Twenty-five percent, 50 percent and 75 percent very reliably generate different increases in gross revenue.
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yessikg likes this.
Cool argument, except a huge quantity of pirated works aren't "owned" by the creator or even a group that funded it, but instead by parasitic companies that abuse capitalistic tools to actually steal value from those creators.
I have thousands of purchased games. 3 categories here:
1: obtained as part of a pack (humble gog etc)
2: purchased AFTER trying out via pirate copy to know if it is my kind of thing
3: picked up early access due to demo or general interest from being a known smaller dev/studio (hare brained for example)
With less and less access to shareware and viable demos, piracy is often the only conduit to prevent me getting ripped off of $80 for something that looks like a shiny sports car but end up being another "buy $800 in dlc for the full story!" Ford pinto.
Additionally, I now flat refuse to fund the likes of Denuvo, and wish that piracy actively hurt the bottom line of companies deploying that kind of anti-user shit.
or even a group that funded it
I noted I'm ok with investors.
I'm against parasitic groups that feed on properties and prevent money getting to the actual dev folks.
Places that buy other companies to dismantle or lay off large chunks of staff and take over IP with minimal or absent quality to show from it. Just maximize that investor dollar.
Microsoft, Disney etc.
The harm performed far outweighs any investment from a "toward the artists" I see come back.
This logic does no justice to the objective financial harm being done to the creators/owners of valuable data/content/media.
It does though, since no harm is being done.
The original creator/owner is at a loss when data is copied. The intent of that data is to be copied for profit. Now that the data has been copied against the creator/owners will, they do not receive the profit from that copy.
They also don't receive profit from not copying, unless there's a purchase made. By your logic, watching something on Netflix or listening to it on the radio is actively harmful to creators, which I think most people can admit is absurd.
but having free copies of the content available on the internet decreases the desire for people to obtain paid copies of the data.
You made this assertion, but don't really back it up. If you were correct here, being able to copy cassette tapes or burn cds would have killed the music industry decades ago. Piracy is the original grassroots promotional method.
At the very least it gives people an option not to pay for the data, which is not what the creator wanted in creating it.
That's a separate argument and doesn't relate at all to the supposed financial harm.
They are entitled to fair compensation to their work.
That's a loaded assertion. If I sing a song right now, what am I entitled to be paid for it? And you're ignoring that most of the "work" of being a musician (in most genres at least) is playing live performances, the experience of which cannot be pirated.
It is true that pirating is not directly theft, but it does definitely take away from the creator's/distributor's profit.
I don't think it's definite at all. Most of what musicians make these days is from merch and ticket sales, which piracy contributes to by bringing in new fans.
You have some very entitled opinions, if everyone thought like you no one would create digital media. You're free to not watch movies or listen to music but it's pretty asinine to take things without compensating the creator and claim no wrongdoing
Edit: I assumed it would be pretty obvious I was talking about digital media that needed a budget but apparently not.
Of course anyone can make digital media for free in their spare time but you'd need some kind of income to support that hobby.
FOSS is the same but you need some income to survive.
People do it for clout or for love. Sure, the Hollywood blockbusters would cease being made but that might be an overall social good IMO.
I agree with Brian Eno who describes how, if we had a universal basic income, we would see more artists creating content just for the hell of it. He also explains how there is no "genius", there is instead what he calls "scenius" where it is an entire artistic scene which breaks new ground but only one or two happen to go viral.
Artist Brian Eno just learned about basic income and loves the idea
Here's the podcast [http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-briefing/817/] where he is interviewed by Georgina Godwin for a special edition of The Briefing. He starts talking about basic income at around 18m30s into it.Scott Santens (UBI Guide)
With UBI that would change
You have some very entitled opinions
Nah, the entitled opinions are coming from the "pay me, but you can't own media" folks.
if everyone thought like you no one would create digital media
If everyone thought like me, people could buy digital media in convenient formats at reasonable prices, and buying media would probably still be a lot more popular. My Bandcamp library is in the tens of thousands and growing. I support digital purchasing more than most, when it's done well.
but it's pretty asinine to take things without compensating the creator and claim no wrongdoing
As the whole crux of the thread makes clear, no taking is involved. You might want to go re-read the OP again, speaking of asinine.
if everyone thought like you no one would create digital media
This is obviously incorrect.
Piracy is somewhat similar to vigilantism to me. My ability to consider it a negative is directly related to how fair I consider the legitimate methods available to be.
If similar efforts were focused on consumer protection laws as we do IP protection, I don't think pirates would have much leg to stand on, and they'd be seen in more of a negative light.
But since consumers are regularly fucked by corporations, all I see is two sides both doing bad shit and I'm not feeling all that charitable for the faceless megacorp. I also dislike pirates who pirate from small time creators. But that's about as far as I can care given the state of things.
We should be focusing on stronger consumer rights to truly fix the problem for all sides.
There is absolutely a connection between how shitty corporations are treating their customers with how likely those customers are likely to stop paying and start sailing.
Netflix in its prime was the GOAT, showing a very significant decrease in piracy. We're only seeing a rise now because of the proliferation of streaming companies. No one wants to pay for 4+ streaming services.
There's another comment further up about a statistic showing that people who pirate content are more likely to spend more money on content as well compared to people who don't pirate content. It seems that there's a correlation between people who pirate things and people who care about the ethical treatment of creators. Stuff like people who pirate music from Spotify and then spend money to buy the music from the band on Bandcamp.
In that context, I have an even harder time caring about people pirating from the megacorps when they're supporting creators at the same time. That's closing in on Robin Hood style activities at that point.
It's not a money thing for me, it's a lack of consumer respect, and I can't stand it. If I pay for a product, don't try to squeeze every last drop of profit you can off of me by selling my activity. It's why I use a paid Android TV launcher that doesn't have ads on the homepage, and I don't let it connect to the internet. It's why I buy all my music and stream it on Symfonium, another paid app, instead of a Spotify subscription. I'm just tired of having to set up all these self-hosted services just to get big corporations off my back.
Investors became investors by paying creators for their work in advance without knowing what they'd produce. It's incredibly short-sighted to say "hey, the creator already got their paycheck so my purchase makes no difference now".
Maybe it would help to think of it as paying the creator for their next game.
Thats a pretty story, but completely unconnected to reality. If it worked like that, id be okay with it.
Also, when you pay for stuff, abd like it, and want to revisit it later you usually cant. And that always makes me feel like a fool. I don't like feeling like a fool. I don't like paying to feel likeva fool. I don't like expecting a thing i like to be there then it not being there; that ruins my day. And the sheer fucking regularity of this makes. Me think it's going to keep happening.
When you steal it, they cabt steal it from you, 'cuz they don't know you have it.
Thats a pretty story, but completely unconnected to reality. If it worked like that, id be okay with it.
What do you think an investor is then?
the pirate would not have bought the copy anyways, but having free copies of the content available on the internet decreases the desire
Also, the person deciding whether or not they "would have" paid for it, has a strong incentive to kid themselves that they wouldn't. Imagine if cinemas worked that way, and you could just walk in and announce that you weren't going to buy a ticket anyway and since there's a seat over there still empty it's not going to cost them anything for you to sit in it. They'd go out of business by the end of the week.
Also also, either the thing you're copying has value that arose from the effort of creating it, or it doesn't. If it's of value, then it's reasonable to expect payment for it. It's it's not of value, then you shouldn't miss not having it.
The scale is a bit different, but the scheme works.
It might not work to support a lifestyle of AAA company CEO, and it might not work at pushing out hundreds of unimaginative boring microtransaction machines, but I would say it's just a bonus
Also also, either the thing you're copying has value that arose from the effort of creating it, or it doesn't. If it's of value, then it's reasonable to expect payment for it. It's it's not of value, then you shouldn't miss not having it.
Doesn't this contradict the whole rest of the argument? It either has value or it doesn't. It being available for free somewhere doesn't change the value. If it's not of value, then they shouldn't miss you having it.
it’s not blatant nonsense. jesus fucking christ you people lack a brain.
the art/media/fucking whatever intellectual “property” = no intrinsic value, worthless itself
the labor to create the art = valuable
the labor to distribute the art, be it through “legitimate” or pirated means = valuable
it’s that simple. there needn’t even be any long moral/ethical arguments. piracy is righteous because information deserves to be free. there is no way to enforce ownership of information without wanton violence from the state.
Again, the point is you were saying (or agreeing) that copies being available for free decrease the value. You then later say it has intrinsic value.
I'm not arguing that they don't have intrinsic value. I'm arguing that you undermined the point of value decreasing if it exists for free by admitting this. It doesn't. It's worth something no matter what someone else paid, and no matter what you paid.
A game decreasing in price over time isn't doing so because it's worth less (usually, with the exception of online games). They're decreasing the price to capture customers who don't agree with the original valuation. It doesn't change value to the consumer based on the price changing. The object is not suddenly less valuable when there's a sale and more valuable again after. It has a degree of "goodness" no matter what. The price doesn't effect this.
Adding on to say: no. It doesn't cost the creator anything when a pirated copy is made. They potentially miss a sale, but if their item wasn't in a store where someone may have made a purchase you wouldn't call that actively harmful, right?
In addition, most media the creators don't actually make money from the profit. Most of the time they're paid a salary, maybe with a bonus if it does particularly well. The company that owns the product takes the profit (or loss), not the actual creators.
Also, a lot of media isn't even controlled by the same people as when it was made. For example, buying the Dune books doesn't give money to Frank Herbert. It goes to his estate.
So a little more in depth:
So, a little more in depth:
Im poor as fuck. So the option isnt 'buy/pirate' its 'pirate or get nothing'. Fuck you if you think i should live without art.
The artists generally do not recieve profit when a copy is streamed/sold. It simply is not done; their unions are too weak. This is blatant corporate propaganda.
The entire mechanism to do that is fucked anyway, even if it were hooked up to something. I'm sorry, but i wouldnt deal with that shit show for free. Even new releases or classics have to be hunted down like cult films, and then even if i buy them, i lose them at some arbitrary later date. Music was the last thing i tried to pay on, and i just could not keep a cohesive collection together-at this point, if it's not on bandcamp, i assume the artist doesn't want money. And even bandcamp has disappeared tracks i paid for, reducing me to local backups. So fuck em.
I'm sorry. I really would love to support art and artists, but it simply isn't possible to do that systemically within capitalism. There is no clear systemic option. Just ways to lick corporate boot and waste your fucking time.
although
I bet i do actually pay artists-cast crew and musicians at least-more than you do. When i dine out, rare as that is, in los angeles, i tip ~30% in cash. So i am actually supporting the arts, while you, my boot licking friend, are not. Youre supporting the corporate ghouls who feast upon them.
it does definitely take away from the creator’s/distributor’s profit.
Oh no! Not the distributor's profit!! Oh holy Supply Side Jesus, I pray in your name- protect the profits of the Capitalists. Take the money I worked hard for and give it to the do-nothing rich, they clearly deserve it more than me. Amen
It's not my fault if somebody makes content at a loss and isn't able to recuperate their losses. It happens all the time, sucks for them. I mean that earnestly by the way, though it sounds callous -- it really does suck for them, and I feel bad for artists who can't turn a profit.
However, I just don't agree with you that "objective harm" is done when one pirates media. If this were true, you must admit that it's equally objectively harmful to the IP holder for one to not consume media at all. I just don't see how you can square that.
This logic does no justice to the objective financial harm being done to the creators/owners of valuable data/content/media.
"Financial harm" is a loaded term. People expected to make money and then didn't, but is that a bad thing?
What if the US president declared that it is now a legal requirement that every American subscribe to a new paid tier of Facebook, and that declaration was rubber stamped by the lawmakers. Anybody who didn't capitulate would be doing "financial harm" to Meta, but is that really a fair way to frame that? If a bully wants your lunch money and you resist, are you doing "financial harm" to the bully?
The way I see things, the initial copyright laws were a relatively fair trade: a 14 year monopoly on something, that could be renewed for another 14 years if the author was still alive. In exchange, everything after that term became part of the public domain. So, it would encourage people to produce writing, and the public would benefit because a reasonable amount of time later what was produced would be available to everybody at no cost. Modern copyright terms are a massive give-away to Hollywood, the record labels, etc. So, while it's true that infringing copyright does reduce the potential amount of money a copyright holder might hope to receive, morally it's closer to fighting off a bully than it is to theft.
The original creator/owner is at a loss when data is copied.
No, they're not. Not earning more is not the same as losing what you already have.
Yes yes the argument is made that the pirate would not have bought the copy anyways,
Yet studies have shown the opposite happens.
content available on the internet decreases the desire for people to obtain paid copies
Does your granny know what a torrent is?
not to pay for the data, which is not what the ~~creator~~distributor wanted in creating it.
There, FTFY
That assumes you were entitled to something that nobody owed you.
If the money was never yours, can you say it was stolen from you?
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tbf I did do this a week ago and nobody downdooted me lemmy.uhhoh.com/comment/118866…
as it is already
Copies of copyrighted works cannot be regarded as "stolen property" for the purposes of a prosecution under the National Stolen Property Act of 1934.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowlin…
This is an interesting argument. I don't think the two are completely analogous, and the whole thing falls apart once you go beyond consumer level usage due to piracy's inability to make new things like AI can. While piracy isn't going to get any game developers or musicians fired, AI image gen very likely will. The more it improves, the harder it will be for companies to continue justifying paying real artists.
That said, you do make a good point that many pro-piracy arguments can be used all the same to be pro-AI image gen. At least at the individual consumer level.
In Canada it's very hard to get into trouble for piracy unless you make a profit from your piracy.
Or well...until these LLM showed up. That's the part I take issue with.
It would be like if a publishing company took some book, removed random parts of it then replaced them to parts from other books, then sold that instead of paying authors to write books.
I for one would definitely download a car, if I did not already own one I really like.
I'd happily let's others download mine, if it didn't affect me or my car in any way.
Yeah, why the fuck not?
Obviously, something made in a specialized vehicle manufacturing plant will be better/more durable/whatever, but given the option between downloading a car vs spending a year's salary to buy one.... I'd rather download one.
Unless my wages get better (which they are not) or cars get cheaper (which they won't), I'll continue to have this opinion.
There's a nontrivial number of cars that cost more than a house did in the 80's and 90's. So it's entirely possible for someone to spend the same dollar value on their home, when purchasing it in the 90's, as they do 25 years later, buying a house in the 2020's.
Stupid.
I am 100% down for sailing the high seas. But let's not sugarcoat it, this analogy is always been kind of crap.
Somebody went to your mailbox took out your paycheck, made a copy of it, put the original back in your box, went to the bank and cashed it.
Theft still took place. You're probably still getting paid. Maybe it got taken up by insurance and everyone's premium goes up a tiny fraction, maybe it got taken up by the bank or by your business.
It's still an incomplete analogy but it's a little bit closer.
That's not to say that the vast majority of piracy isn't people who wouldn't pay anyway. And back in the day, you certainly got more visibility in your games from people who were pirating.
But now that advertising is on its toes and steam exists, I won't think they're getting any serious benefit from piracy and I don't think that they're not losing At least modest numbers of sales.
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I am 100% down for sailing the high seas. But let's not sugarcoat it, this analogy is always been kind of crap.
It's less an analogy than the literal legal definition of theft.
Somebody went to your mailbox took out your paycheck, made a copy of it, put the original back in your box, went to the bank and cashed it.
This analogy is crap. When they took your paycheck, that was theft. Even if temporarily, you didn't have the check. If they cash the fraudulent check, they're not copying the money; it's coming out of your account. That's also theft. Both cases, the original is being removed, whether it be the physical check or the money from your account. The only reason there might be a "copy" in your analogy is some sort of fraud protection by the bank, at which point it's the bank's money getting stolen. Still theft though.
Depriving owed earnings is also considered theft.
I mean, so is not doing anything... wait i better not give them any ideas.
hence why piracy is considered theft because there is a debt owed for the pirated media
This is objectively false in any meaningful way. It's certainly not considered theft (at least in the US), and there's absolutely no debt owed for pirated media (unless you count seeding it forward).
This is a horseshit analogy.
Stealing money from your account is theft, it's not still there afterwards.
The concept I think you might've been looking for is opportunity cost in that pirating deprives an artist of potential sales. Which is a fair point, but it is still not the same as stealing since it does not deprive the artists of their original copy.
It's also all done in the context of a system that is not run by artists and does not primarily benefit artists, but is instead run by and benefits middlemen.
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but it is still not the same as stealing since it does not deprive the artists of their original copy.
The artist has ownership rights to all copies, not just the original; it's literally in the word "copyright".
Yes, which is a distinctly different concept from stealing. It's copyright. Note how copyright violation isn't in the Bible. Note how the Bible itself would never have existed if copyright existed at the time given that it is a collection of passed down stories.
Copyright is a dumb as fuck concept. Its a scarcity based system, for stuff that is not scarce.
Capitalism itself is a scarcity based system, and it falls apart somewhat when there's abundance.
In capitalism, stuff only has value if it's scarce. We all constantly need oxygen to live, but because it's abundant, it's value is zero. Capitalism does not start valuing oxygen until there are situations where it starts becoming rare.
This works for the most part in our world because physical goods by and large are scarce, but in the situations where they aren't, capitalism doesn't work. It's the classic planned obscelesence lightbulb story, if you can make a dirt cheap light bulb that lasts forever, you'll go out of business because you've created so much abundance that after a bit of production, you're actually not needed at all anymore and raw market based capitalism has no mechanism to reward you long term.
The same is even more true for information. Unlike physical goods, information can flow and be copied freely at a fundamental physics level. To move a certain amount of physical matter a certain distance I need a certain amount of energy, and there are hard universal limits with energy density, but I can represent the number three using three galaxies, or three atoms. Information does not scale or behave the same, and is inherently abundant in the digital age.
Rather than develop a system that rewards digital artists based on how much something is used for free, we created copyright, which uses laws and DRM to create artificial scarcity for information, because then an author can be rewarded within capitalism since it's scarce.
Unlike physical goods, information can flow and be copied freely at a fundamental physics level.
The electricity and silicon required to make this happen are not free, on a societal or physical level. There is a tangible cost to this transfer, even if you're ignoring the social construct of copyright.
I think this issue comes from a misunderstanding of "free", possibly conflating it for "trivially easy".
Rather than develop a system that rewards digital artists based on how much something is used for free
Feel free to come up with such a system. I think you'll find that a rather difficult task.
The electricity and silicon required to make this happen are not free, on a societal or physical level. There is a tangible cost to this transfer, even if you're ignoring the social construct of copyright.
Completely irrelevant.
If I already have a computer and an internet connection then I've already paid the costs, prior to initiating that particular request.
I think this issue comes from a misunderstanding of "free", possibly conflating it for "trivially easy".
In the context of pricing resources, those are the same thing.
Feel free to come up with such a system. I think you'll find that a rather difficult task.
The model is the same one used by streaming services. It's one of reward and attribution rather artificial scarcity. Rather than having streaming and advertising middlemen you have a public system that lets everyone access what they want and rewards creators based on usages. Youtube without Google's exorbitant profits.
Copyright has no basis in human culture or history. Our literal entire history is based on a tradition of free remixing and story telling, not copyright.
Copyright has no basis in human culture or history.
It's exited before any of us currently alive, so that's a pretty absurd notion. Unless human culture and history ended ~300 years ago?
K, versus 2,750,000 years.
Here's 300 letter g's:
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
ggggggggggggggggggggHere's 2.75 million letter h's
<br />Oh wait, I can't paste that many because at 40 chars per line, it would be 68,000 lines long, or 1000x the Android clipboard's char limit.
You are literally describing a meaningless iota in the course of human history.
I don't get your argument. So because it's "new" according to your grand cosmic scale, it doesn't exist at all?
You can say "I think intellectual property is a dumb idea" and I'd love to hear your arguments for that, but to act like it isn't real just because we came up with the idea relatively recently, is just asinine.
,You can say "I think intellectual property is a dumb idea" and I'd love to hear your arguments for that,
Read the above comments then.
but to act like it isn't real just because we came up with the idea relatively recently, is just asinine.
Again, read my comments. I didn't say it wasn't real, I said it has no basis in human culture or history.
I said it has no basis in human culture or history.
Not only is this incorrect, it would be meaningless even if it was accurate. What point are you even trying to make with this claim?
It is 100% correct. There was no concept of owning a story or a song just because you told it first, throughout literally all of history until the copyright laws of the 20th century.
And my point is that the literal entirety of human culture is based on a tradition of storytelling, something copyright expressly forbids.
Copyright is not a system that aligns with our natural inclinations or the way we evolved. It's a crude, child like attempt to cram information into a capitalist mold that doesn't work.
There was no concept of owning a story or a song just because you told it first, throughout literally all of history until the copyright laws of the 20th century.
Brother, copyright has been around since at least the 1700s, you're literally just making things up right now. Read a book.
Oh, wow. I'm so impressed.
It's existed since the time of the transatlantic slave trade.
Surely that makes it something human and good!
Totally compares to the previous 2.75 Million years of story telling culture and tradition. Totally not just an exploitative artifact of the corporate age. /S
And go ahead and cite your favourite book on copyright. Maybe I'll read it.
Your argument so far has been "it's new (even though it's not) and I don't like it". If you wanna get extra pedantic, the idea of copyright has been floated since the 1500s, and the concept of owning art predates even that. It wasn't until the late 1700s that our current "modern" copyright system began taking form.
Regardless, none of that changes the fact that it's still a real part of our lives now. We don't live 2.75 million years in the past, we live now. Presumably, you wipe after defecating, don't you? Didn't you know that toilet paper is a modern invention that we didn't have a million years ago and only went to market 3 years before slavery was abolished in the US? It's bad and we shouldn't use it, right???
I still don't get what any of this has to do with anything we're talking about, though. I feel like maybe you've talked yourself into a corner by making up nonsense and then trying to defend it. This is dumb, just like every argument defending piracy; it uses sovereign citizen logic where you make up arbitrary rules and definitions that nobody else in society agrees with to justify bad behavior.
If you wanna pirate stuff, then pirate it. But just own it; don't make up silly defenses for why it's okay, because they don't hold up under scrutiny.
I've only been pointing out that copyright is dumb, not that piracy is wholly justified.
We got into this corner because you ignored the actual points I made about why copyright is dumb (read: a scarcity based system is not suitable for digital information since it is inherently unscarce)
and focused on the age of copyright instead.
Your other points amounted to little more than "I own my computer, therefore I'm entitled to your computer", and "free and not-free are the same thing", which are both equally absurd and not really worth dissecting further.
I thought perhaps you had an actual opinion on the matter that you've actually like... thought about, and not a reactionary one that seems like it was made up on the spot.
which are both equally absurd and not really worth dissecting further.
Try having a conversation without resorting to thought terminating cliches.
And if that's what you took out of it you missed the point. And given the number of dismissive thought terminating cliches you keep using it does not seem like you actually care to learn or are having a good faith discussion.
If you are, you've missed the point, which is that information, at a fundamental, physics level, does not behave the same way as energy and matter. Computers make it essentially free to replicate information infinitely. That is not true for any physical good. The differences therein mean that information should be abundant, except that copyright and DRM create artificial scarcity where there is no need for it.
information should be abundant
Perhaps so, but isn't that up to whoever creates the information? If you invent a story, why would you not be entitled to own it?
For much of human history, artistry of all sorts has been a profession, as much as a hobby. The idea of attribution and ownership over one's art has been a core part of why that has worked and allowed creators to thrive. I would argue that the alternative of having no such system at all would ultimately lead to less art and information being created and shared at all, if the creation process is unsustainable at an individual creator's level.
Perhaps so, but isn't that up to whoever creates the information?
No, what I'm saying is that at a fundamental physics level, information is inherently abundant in a way that nothing else made of matter or energy is. There is effectively zero cost to replicating it an infinite amount of times. That is fundamentally not true for anything made of energy or matter.
If you invent a story, why would you not be entitled to own it?
Why would you "own" it? If you tell a story what prevents me from also telling that story? The threat of you punching me if I tell my own copy when you're not around? That's not owning something that's unilaterally declaring that you own all copies of something and forever own all copies of it going forward. If I invent a white t shirt, should I be able to claim ownership of every white t-shirt that anyone makes forever? That's nonsense.
For much of human history, artistry of all sorts has been a profession, as much as a hobby. The idea of attribution and ownership over one's art has been a core part of why that has worked and allowed creators to thrive.
Completely and utterly wrong.
Because no, the idea of ownership of a song has virtually never been important to art. Professional artists, in the time periods where they have existed, have largely been able to because they would be constantly performing art in the era prior to recordings, and they would constantly be performing other people's songs that they did not write themselves or they would add their own twists to it.
A song like House of the Rising Sun can be traced all the way back to 16th century English hymns before eventually winding it's way through countless Appalachian and travelling singers, before being picked up by 50s era folk musicians, before being picked up by a British rock band called the Animals. This is how music has worked through literally all of human history until the abomination that is copyright.
Hell it wasn't until the classical music era, and the rise of sheet music that you actually started seeing real authorship granted to individual people, and even in that era you didn't own a song, if someone like Mozart could listen and transcribe it then they could also perform it themselves.
I would argue that the alternative of having no such system at all would ultimately lead to less art and information being created and shared at all, if the creation process is unsustainable at an individual creator's level.
Yeah, well it's a good thing there are lots of alternatives to copyright that aren't 'no system at all'.
Nah. That analogy does not work.
Piracy situation is more like you have made a cool statue and you charge people money for looking at your statue. Then someone comes, looks at your statue, and goes away without paying.
There's no thief, nothing was stolen at any point. The one how came looking without paying was probably never going to pay for an entrance, and the statue can me still be looked by anyone. Nothing is loss in the process, no harm is done. Some guy just looked at a statue without paying for it.
I wouldnt download a car, but that's only because im fanatically anti car.
Because cars are bad. There should not be cars.
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The amount of people that take these moral high roads is fucking ridiculous.
Well, the faceless mega-corp made it difficult to purchase or stream
I don’t like that I have to play the game on Steam
Akshually I’m just copying it, so it’s not theft
There are too many streaming services, so I shouldn’t have to pay for ANOTHER service
I’m not depriving the content creator or publisher from any money, since I wasn’t going to pay for it regardless
Just fucking own up to it. You are downloading content that you did not pay for. I don’t take some enlightened stance when I download a movie; I just do it. What I’m doing is not right, but I still do what I do. I don’t try to justify it with some bullshit political take.
We all have our line on what we deem acceptable or not. The only piracy that, in my opinion, could have a leg to stand on is when it is actual lost media. No physical copies available, no way to stream or pay for it. Anything else is just the lies we tell ourselves to justify our actions.
Just admit that you could pay for the content if you wanted to, you just choose not to, because you are a pirate. You are depriving someone somewhere from a sale or some other form of revenue.
Edit: I worded “Just own it” poorly. Clarified it to “Just own up to it”. That was the original intent, just an oversight on my part.
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This is a specious analogy. e-books from libraries are already heavily controlled and are usually quite expensive to provide. Physical copies have their own inbuilt limits to distribution.
You're treating copyright like it's some sort of hardline moral stance against consuming any media you haven't directly paid for, when actually it's more like a very long list of compromises to balance the conflicting requirements of creators' needs to be compensated for their work versus society's need to benefit from that work. This is why lending libraries, fair use etc are legal and piracy isn't.
Just admit that you could pay for the content if you wanted to, you just choose not to, because you are a pirate. You are depriving someone somewhere from a sale or some other form of revenue.
I usually can't, actually. Not immediately anyway. But that doesn't stop me from paying for it when I can. Done it with plenty of games. And if I didn't have that option, which I primarily use for games I'm not entirely sure I'll stick with, well... I just wouldn't buy it. Full stop. Wouldn't be a consideration at all. There is no lost sale here, only the potential to fall in love with it enough to buy it when I eventually can.
Not saying this is some moral high ground. It's not. But plenty of folks just can't afford to gamble on whether or not they like something and end up paying it forward when they can.
Why is no one mentioning here that the business model shouldn't exist? If a copy can be made basically for free, there is no reason not to make it basically free. We should be providing everyone with the means to live regardless of their ability to sell stuff. If everyone was free to do whatever they please because their existence was provided for, people would still make media, because people love making things like that.
Of course that might mean that in the short term, while we don't do this, pirating might mean that some things stop existing. I'd be completely fine if all Hollywood movies and other shit disappeared overnight. Maybe then people would finally come to the understanding that our current model of doing things sucks.
Especially if the creator(s) is deceased.
Are you suggesting only the wealthy are deserving of art?
Only the wealthy can afford art? Music? Movies? Graphic Novels? Video Games?
Are you being obtuse?
Eventually, yes. If everyone's needs are provided for, there is no requirement anymore to extract value from art, one can just make it and share it freely.
Copyright should be abolished.
How's the weather up there on that extremely high horse?
Just because you personally steal stuff you can afford to pay for doesn't mean that is what everyone else does. It's good that you own up to that, but don't project your failings onto others. If it's against your morals to 'pirate', quit doing it.
If you are unwilling to listen to or comprehend others peoples reasons, that's fine- just don't act like that makes us the same as you, because it doesn't.
I am not a Christian so I'm not beholden to their rules. Someone like you could claim I am a sinner and I should just own it. No, I don't have the same beliefs that you do so I am under no obligation to behave how you think I should.
Ok there buddy. There is no ‘high horse’ here. Piracy is piracy. People need to quit with their bullshit justifications. Just own up to it. I do. The fuck are you on about Christianity? There is literally no connection to religion/beliefs here.
People can’t afford to pay for it? Cool. It’s still piracy. One is still depriving the creator/studio/publisher/whatever of a sale.
But I can’t afford it! Therefore I deserve to have it for free!
Ridiculous.
There is no ‘high horse’ here.
🤣 Says the person actively judging others for their perceived moral failings, from their high horse.
People need to quit with their bullshit justifications.
You may not agree with it or understand it, and that's fine. I'm saying don't act like we all think that it's wrong like you do and are going against our own belief systems. You are the one doing that, not me.
The fuck are you on about Christianity? There is literally no connection to religion/beliefs here.
Oh but there absolutely is, and you put literally zero effort into putting any thought into whether it did or not, your knee jerked and you went right back to defaulting your YOUR belief system and insisting everyone else follow it. Sounds exactly like some groups I could think of, I'll let you puzzle that one out for yourself.
People can’t afford to pay for it? Cool. It’s still piracy.
You cant' afford to eat? Cool, it's still stealing when you nick a loaf or bread.
One is still depriving the creator/studio/publisher/whatever of a sale.
OH NO! You mean to tell me that I've deprived a billionaire of a couple of pennies?! I deserve to rot in hell.
Ridiculous
I agree. It's ridiculous that you are only able to look at it from one very specific, capitalist boot licking pov and not even consider other peoples point of view. Must feel good to be so righteous and holy.
Oh my lord you are so dense. I don’t give a fuck why people do the things that they do. But these justifications are garbage. Again, just say “I don’t feel like paying for it”. That is it.
Steal bread because one can’t afford it? That really sucks. It is still stealing. Does it make people right or wrong? Well, in this case I think most people would understand.
And no, stealing bread for sustenance is in no way shape or form remotely comparable to downloading a movie or song. Are we all entitled to the all of the things in life that help us get through the monotony of existence? How about independent documentaries, where every dollar counts to the creators? Are you entitled to those?
At the end of the day, someone/studio spent hours/days/years working on the art that you feel like you deserve to have because you cannot afford it or whatever bullshit reason you want to conjure. It’s still piracy, and is still wrong.
If someone were to download my music, that I’ve spent multiple hours and days creating and editing, without paying, I’d be justifiably upset. If I release my music on a site like Bandcamp, it is because I’d like to enjoy some sort of benefit for my hard work. I don’t care what someone’s excuse is for pirating my work. It is not theirs, they do not get to decide that I don’t deserve to be paid. If I wanted the world to hear it for free, I’d release it on a platform where it is free. That is my, as the creator of the art, prerogative. It just so happens that I put it on platforms where people can hear it, with ads or subscription, which I deem to be fair. But outright downloading it deprives me of streams and ad revenue. I don’t fucking care what the excuse is. My art is not free. I understand why some artists get upset.
Does this make me a hypocrite? I suppose it does. I am doing wrong as well. I just don’t try to hide behind some sort of bullshit excuse. Just own up to it.
Perceived moral failings
Fuck off. I’m not judging anyone. Just merely stating facts. Piracy is piracy, no matter what way someone wants to spin it. Is it wrong? Yes. Am I wrong when I do it? Absolutely. I choose not to justify it.
Does it make people right or wrong? Well, in this case I think most people would understand.
Most people sure. You though? You don't give a fuck why people do the things that they do, remember?
And no, stealing bread for sustenance is in no way shape or form remotely comparable to downloading a movie or song.
You are right, because in the case of stealing, the person has deprived the owner of that bread. If the hungry person was able to copy the bread and leave the original bread untouched for the owner to eat, it would literally harm no one. Even if that person owned the 'intellectual property' of that bread.
If someone were to download my music blah blah blah
You don't give a single fuck what someones reason is for doing what they do, yet you expect people to give fucks about what you value. It works both ways.
It’s still piracy,
No it isn't. Piracy is robbery or other serious acts of violence committed at sea. "Piracy" is a name some 'clever' lawyer or corporate exec coined to convince people that breaking copyright laws was equivalent to violent crime.
and is still wrong.
Who died and made you arbiter of 'right' and 'wrong'? Was it your 'lord'?
Does this make me a hypocrite? I suppose it does.
Of course it does, I thought that was understood. What it doesn't make is other people hypocrites for breaking your own personal moral code.
I just don’t try to hide behind some sort of bullshit excuse.
Who is trying to hide? I have not made a single excuse, and I wont because I don't believe it's wrong like you do.
Just own up to it.
Own up to what? To crossing Jessica's line in the sand? Sure, I'll own up to that. Fuck your line. I piss on your line.
I’m not judging anyone.
You clearly are lmfao. "What you are doing is wrong and nothing could possibly justify it, own up to it! QQ No judgment though" Fuck off with that.
Just merely stating facts.
Your own personal OPINION about the morality of copyright infringement is subjective. That isn't obvious?
Am I wrong when I do it? Absolutely. I choose not to justify it.
Sure, you happily break your own moral code and then judge others for doing something that is not against their moral code. Somehow you think the world revolves around you and that you are the arbiter of 'right and wrong'.
I don't subscribe to your ignorant beliefs about copyright- so I'm not under the same obligation to obey them as you are.
I don’t know how to say it any more clear. When someone says to you “leave me the fuck alone”, shut your fucking mouth and leave them alone. This is harassment at this point. I don’t give a fuck about your opinions, and your attacks on me are unwanted.
Leave me the fuck alone!
They're are a million wrong ways to come at the wrong conclusion. So why then would we be surprised when many of the people who come to the right conclusion still do it for a variety of reasons? Perhaps the initial premise of why copyright should exist is conceptually riddled with holes.
Owning an idea is inherently capitalist, but the average person who encounters a problem won't spontaneously become anti-capitalist. They just know something seems wrong about this, but don't understand why. So they make up a story to address their cognitive dissonance, like nihilism.
Agree!
If you want to pirate content, go ahead pirate it. But don't act like you're doing something morally right or some other mental gymnastics to tell yourself you're allowed to pirate content. The truth is, you're doing something illegal. If you're okay with that, then by all means go ahead, but don't tell yourself or others that it is somehow not illegal, because it is.
The problem with almost every pro-piracy argument like this is that they fundamentally require a significant percentage of the population to disagree with it. "People who can pay will pay and I'm not taking anything from them" only works for as long as both the general population and retailers regard piracy as wrong and keep funding all those games, movies etc for you.
Heck, all you pirates should be upvoting anti-piracy posts like this, we're the ones keeping your habit funded...
This seems to work as a model for YouTubers and podcasters. They usually have most of their stuff available for free, and people pay them money, and more often than there is no reward for the money, other than satisfaction of supporting the creator.
This is obviously one example, and it only works for periodic installments, but it is a working alternative to the system, where people who don't want or can't pay don't do that
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This seems to work as a model for YouTubers and podcasters
No, it doesn't. They're still being paid by YouTube/Spotify a flat amount based on the number of views - which are being paid for by ads and premium subscriptions.
Which means: people pay (one way or another) first, consume the content later.
a flat amount
Nope, the amount is anything but flat. For bigger youtubers the ad money start to be significant, and for bigger podcasters spotify pays something, but for the most, amount of money from ads is negligible.
Nah. Id pay artists if i could.
And in fact do tip them pretty well at the jobs they take to pay rent when im in LA.
What we need is for parasitic creativity destroying shit stain ip-troll ghouls to get the guillotine, so they arent parasiting on every fucking artist.
We need a society that values humanity and art.
Because as is, there kind of isnt a reliable systemic way to support them. Capitalism prevents it.
If they dont, they kinda don't get to do their art. It's a whole thing.
Id say 'or they starve/die on yhe street' but that's what they get service jobs for.
You forget the alternative mindset:
An active desire to see traditional ways of funding to disappear, and the media along with it.
Nobody is forcing you to consume any of the media you feel you need to pirate.
Just live beyond consumption. You can do that, you know?
Lmao imagine siding with corporations stealing creators in the first place.
Guess what, your money goes directly to investors who did fuck all. It doesn't pay the people who actually created art
The problem with almost every pro-piracy argument like this is that they fundamentally require a significant percentage of the population to disagree with it.
This assumes that people who are ok with piracy are also against paying for content. That's a nice fantasy and it makes anti-piracy people feel good about themselves, but it doesn't reflect reality.
People who can pay will pay and I’m not taking anything from them” only works for as long as both the general population and retailers regard piracy as wrong and keep funding all those games, movies etc for you.
This assumes that 'pro piracy' people are against artists getting paid for their work. Seeing as how pirates tend to purchase more legal content than the 'general population' that is clearly not the case.
There could be a million different reasons why someone might 'pirate' a piece of media, and simply not wanting to pay for it is usually pretty low on the list. That attitude also relies on the assumption that every single piece of content that is copied is something the 'pirate' would have paid for in the first place.
As an artist, my job is to inspire people, to make them feel, to share my experience with them. I have absolutely zero problem with someone who can't afford to pay for my work pirating it. I also appreciate the ones who do pay, but I would still be making art even if no one paid, because while the money is nice it's not the point of it for me. Id much rather someone copy a work of mine and enjoy it than not enjoy it because they couldn't pay for the privilege.
I understand that some 'artists' are in it for the money and that's fine. It doesn't mean I have to agree with them that they deserve to get paid for every eyeball that falls upon their work, regardless of the circumstance.
Heck, all you pirates should be upvoting anti-piracy posts like this, we’re the ones keeping your habit funded…
Have an upvote from me for being the hero we don't deserve and protecting the mega-corps bottom lines. Truly you are a modern day Jesus.
Study Again Shows ‘Pirates’ Tend to Be The Biggest Buyers of Legal Content
A new report out of the UK once again deflates the common narrative that pirates are exclusively looking to obtain free stuff.Karl Bode (VICE)
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The problem is that the producer's business model is based on making and selling copies. You're not taking an original work, no, but you're also not paying for the produced content.
Let's expand the pig analogy.
A farmer has a sow and any piglets that it has are for sale. You steal a piglet. You haven't stolen the original sow, but you have stolen the piglet you now have because you didn't pay for it.
The problem is that the producer’s business model is based on making and selling copies
This is all too vague to actually understand the effect of piracy. The economic impact depends how much piracy replaces actual purchases.
When I was a teenager, I would pirate a lot of music. At the time, I had very little money to spend. This copying did not replace any purchases. On the other hand, me not buying music right now is a lost purchase since I could spend money. That's why I spend some money every month actually buying music from bandcamp or whatever, which offsets the revenue that the musicians would otherwise lose.
Also, if the artist has other revenue streams, it doesn't matter as much. Musicians for example don't make a lot of money off of streaming nowadays, and a lot of their revenue comes from merch and concert tickets etc. So if you spend money there, copying doesn't really bankrupt the artist.
Of course each type of media has slightly different mechanics, but in general there are a lot of ways you can do piracy without really undermining the business model of the artists. And very rarely are the effects the same as for theft.
That analogy doesn't work at all because the Sow produces a finite (and rather small at that) number of piglets over a given timespan.
It's more akin to you getting a piglet/sow elsewhere. Now your piglet/sow need is satisfied and you won't buy anything from this farmer.
(Edit: And even then you took that piglet/sow away somewhere else, reducing supply there, which will make it more likely for this farmer to get a sale in the future.)
Your example is about physical goods.
Software is at its core just digital information a computer can use.
Knowledge/Information (that is not personal information) should be free.
You can make a argument that software developers still must sell copies of their code to make a living but if you look at the reality of software that appears to simply be some kind of bias. You can make software that is free and still make a living they are just not always related.
The software that runs the world’s infrastructure is increasingly FOSS, from critical cybersecurity to vending machines. Even big corporations are increasingly getting involved in using and making open source components for their proprietary fronts.
As a linux user everything i need can be done legally with free software, not only is it free is most of the times vastly superior then a paid product.
Ever needed software on windows to find the installer got bundled with spyware and then the final program turns out to be a trial before
Requiring a subscription? That is only because they need to make money.
On linux, you install it, it’s only the thing you actually need, and it works. No bloat, no
enshitification. Some person or group realized there was value to be created, created it and as a result the entire world won collectively.
I have a few products of my own that i hope to publish some day and i already vouched to never make them proprietary, My dad called me insane not to try to profit. I call it nothing but ethical to make the best value for humanity that i can. My very common office job provides enough liveable wage and work/life balance for my family and still find time to do such.
The only damage that exists from piracy is to the copyright holders profits.....
Since the copyright holder is usually a corporation that is owned by shareholders, the majority of which are richer than all of us combined, ask me if I give a shit and I will show you my field of shits to give, and you will see that it is barren.
Eat the rich. Or Luigi them... I don't care.
There's always the exceptions, but they're rare, and getting more rare.
The vast majority of works are owned by a few major corporations, even smaller, more indie games often get published through a major studio, which then retains a good amount of the profit. Almost all media, TV and movies, is owned by one of a handful of companies. Music is largely the same.
It goes the same way for so many other things too. It's not just games and media.
There are always going to be exceptions but on the whole, it's vastly more likely/common that the people profiting from something is a large, faceless organization, which only answers to their shareholders.
YoU WoUlDn'T dOwNlOaD A Car!?!?!
You're damn right I would; get me a 3D printer big enough...
Real pirates steal stuff. So-called digital "piracy" isn't piracy at all. This is just propaganda for the business model that the establishment is trying to hold onto.
It doesn't hurt IP holders to "pirate" their data. It is no difference to them whether you were to pirate it or to have never been born at all in the first place. Their profit is the exact same either way. Their business model is imaginary and they want to force it on everyone else.
These days (at least in my country) I can't own movies, games and watch or play them at my will
Companies like Netflix, Amazon are lending movies but not making them free for you. And then they wonder why piracy is rising
Tbh for a student like me, piracy is the only option. If buying isn't owning then piracy isn't stealing
Filesharing isn't piracy. It's filesharing.
Piracy is when you attack a ship and steal its cargo.
But, of course, it was difficult for the RIAA to have a war on sharing, so they had to use a different term with sinister connotations and implant it into the public consciousness.
And it worked! You never hear anybody talk about "filesharing" anymore.
Nothing is stollen because they would have no idea someone had a copy unless they check.
A.I. is a Religious Cult with Karen Hao
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon
Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 8-11. Much like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this means sales on lots of items on Amazon’s vast marketplace, and as such many people flock to the giant’s website to get sweet deals on everything from computers to small kitchen appliances and more. While many of us are feeling the financial crunch more than ever, I urge you, dear reader, to resist the allure. I don’t typically have strong opinions about where people chose to shop or how they decide to spend their heard-earned money, but in this post I hope to lay out a convincing case for why Amazon is full-stop evil, no caveats, and is undeserving of your money on a moral and ethical level no matter what your values are. Amazon needs to be stopped, and legislation will not do so. Only its loyal consumers – who keep the beast alive – can do that by taking their money elsewhere. No matter your political or personal beliefs, I'm certain Amazon violates them in one way or another, and you should vote with your dollar by buying from other places whenever possible. Here’s why.
The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon
Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 8-11. Much like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this means sales on lots of items on Amazon’s va...The New Oil
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The only reason you need - it's a monopoly. Fuck its all.
And I also hate with passion that 5 years ago you'd need AWS in your CV.
~~Owned by Amazon, FYI.~~
Turns out I'm full of shit.
Not owned by Amazon, but there's a big but.
Their source of income is from Amazon affiliates link. Whenever you follow the price of a product, if you click on the links on their websites or in their emails, they will earn a commission from Amazon.
Amazon recently started vetting their affiliates more. I'm 100% sure that camelcamelcamel now shows data in a way that doesn't hurt Amazon (e.g. they won't show sudden drops in prices, i.e. pricing mistakes) or even themselves (commissions are a percentage of the price paid by the user).
Russian volunteer legion captures Nigerian fighting for Russia on Zaporizhzhia front
Russian volunteer legion captures Nigerian fighting for Russia on Zaporizhzhia front
Fighters of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a unit operating under the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), captured a citizen of Nigeria who was fighting on the Russian side during assault operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction. — Ukrinform.Ukrinform
For those who don’t know much about the war that headline may be confusing.
The “Russian Volunteer legion” are fighting on the sides of the ukranians.
Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp.
The case for calling Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz' a concentration camp
Amid ICE raids, President Donald Trump toured a new immigration detention facility with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.Andrea Pitzer (MSNBC)
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How to Be Anonymous on Social Media
Using a pseudonym on social media can be an incredibly valuable way to reclaim your privacy online. In an age where digital footprints last forever, the ability to separate your online identity from your real-world persona is more important than ever.Maybe you're concerned about protecting yourself from online mobs that might target your job, your family, or your personal reputation. Maybe you don't want everything you say online to be permanently linked to your real name. Perhaps you have multiple interests or roles in life (professional, personal, creative) and want to maintain separate identities for each.
Maybe you simply value your privacy. Having a pseudonymous account can be liberating. It allows you the freedom to explore new ideas, revise your beliefs, and reinvent yourself without every past opinion you’ve ever expressed being etched in stone and forever tied to you.
But setting up a pseudonymous account on social media isn’t always straightforward. Your approach will depend heavily on the platform you're using. It will also depend on your threat model, which you can think of as whom you’re trying to hide your identity from, how private you need to be, and what’s at stake.
How to Be Anonymous on Social Media
How to protect your identity depending on whom you're hiding fromNaomi Brockwell (Ludlow Institute)
‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing
The car came to rest more than 70 metres away, on the opposite side of the road, leaving a trail of wreckage. According to witnesses, the Model S burst into flames while still airborne. Several passersby tried to open the doors and rescue the driver, but they couldn’t unlock the car. When they heard explosions and saw flames through the windows, they retreated. Even the firefighters, who arrived 20 minutes later, could do nothing but watch the Tesla burn.
At that moment, Rita Meier was unaware of the crash. She tried calling her husband, but he didn’t pick up. When he still hadn’t returned her call hours later – highly unusual for this devoted father – she attempted to track his car using Tesla’s app. It no longer worked. By the time police officers rang her doorbell late that night, Meier was already bracing for the worst.
‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing
Elon Musk is obsessive about the design of his supercars, right down to the disappearing door handles.Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
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The “Magabundance” Agenda Is Creating Strange Bedfellows
Supply-side progressivism is forging unexpected alliances between populist Democrats, business-friendly centrists, and MAGA Republicans around militarized growth. The result is a post-neoliberal politics that accommodates authoritarian populism.
The Ugliness of the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill, in Charts - The New York Times
Opinion | The Ugliness of the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill, in Charts
Steven Rattner reveals the ugly reality lurking within the “big, beautiful bill.”Steven Rattner (The New York Times)
Musk doubles down on creating new party after poll says nearly half of Americans would support it: ‘Encouraging’
According to a new poll, 57% of male Republicans say they are likely to support Elon Musk's "America Party"
Almost half of voters said they are likely to support a new political party proposed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to fresh polling.
A Quantus Insights survey released Wednesday found that 40% of voters said they would be likely to back Musk's "America Party," which aims to serve voters disillusioned with both Republicans and Democrats. Musk shared the poll's results on X, calling the results "Encouraging."
Musk first pitched a new political party in early June after he clashed with Donald Trump over the GOP's multi-trillion-dollar tax and spending bill.
Musk Doubles Down on Creating New Party After Poll Says Nearly Half of Americans Would Support It: 'Encouraging'
About 40% of voters said they are likely to support a new political party proposed by Elon Musk, according to fresh polling from Quantus Insights.Morgan Music (Latin Times)
US consultancy firm [Boston Consulting Group] involved in GHF aid scheme modelled plans to 'relocate' Palestinians
US consultancy firm involved in GHF aid scheme modelled plans to 'relocate' Palestinians
A consulting firm involved in the scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation entered into a multimillion-dollar contract to develop the initiative and modelled a plan to "relocate" Palestinians from Gaza as part of its work, a Financial Times inves…MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
The spy, private equity baron and ghost of a Trump donor: The revolving door behind a Gaza mercenary firm
The spy, private equity baron and ghost of a Trump donor: The revolving door behind a Gaza mercenary firm
The US mercenary firm overseeing a controversial Gaza aid programme is the creation of a bespectacled Chicago private equity baron and a CIA spy with old ties to a Donald Trump ally who participated in one of the Middle East's nastiest diplomatic rif…Sean Mathews (Middle East Eye)
The Rise of AI Is Making Life Even Harder for Real People in Gaza
The Rise of AI Is Making Life Even Harder for Real People in Gaza
Gizmodo spoke with desperate Palestinians who were accused of being AI creations.Matt Novak (Gizmodo)
Israel kills at least 42 Palestinians in Gaza overnight
Israel kills at least 42 Palestinians in Gaza overnight
Israel has killed at least 42 Palestinians in Gaza overnight into SaturdayLucy Jackson (The National)
Toyota ammira la filosofia "fail fast" di BYD
Toyota ammira la filosofia "fail fast" di BYD
Toyota e BYD si sfidano nell'automotive: tradizione giapponese contro innovazione cinese, tra velocità di sviluppo e tecnologie avanzateGiorgio Colari (Autoblog)
Garlasco - Episodio 4: Gli ultimi sviluppi - Sempio
Le incongruenze abbondano sul caso riaperto per l'estate senza yacht che affondano o sommergibili che implodono
La vacanza del fratello non si capisce se è stata fatta coi genitori o con gli amici
L'albergo del trentino che dice che il fratello non l'han mai visto (ovvio se era con gli amici)
L'alibi di Sempio è saltato perché si sono messi d'accordo male
Una gemella era in doccia o in piscina?
I genitori che vivono ancora in quella casa???
La gemella che dice di sapere e voler essere pagata milioni per dire tutto
Il tipo che vede la gemella in bici ma poi ritratta per la sua incolumità
L'amico del fratello che si uccide nel 2016 dicendo su fb che quella ragazza sapeva qualcosa di troppo
Cosa manca?
Episodio 4: Gli ultimi sviluppi
Puntata podcast · GARLASCO - Dentro il caso · 27/05/2025 · 24 minApple Podcasts
RNC Sues Arizona To Block Voting Access for Overseas U.S. Citizens
RNC Sues Arizona To Block Voting Access for Overseas U.S. Citizens - Democracy Docket
Republicans filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block a state law that allows certain U.S. citizens living abroad to vote in Arizona elections.Democracy Docket
Luouth
in reply to jackeroni • • •jackeroni
in reply to Luouth • • •thedruid
in reply to jackeroni • • •Yeah, dude, that's not what happening here.
This is Putin's mouthpiece to the world.
jackeroni
in reply to thedruid • • •Luouth
in reply to jackeroni • • •jackeroni
in reply to Luouth • • •Luouth
in reply to jackeroni • • •jackeroni
in reply to Luouth • • •thedruid
in reply to jackeroni • • •jackeroni
in reply to thedruid • • •NOT_RICK
in reply to jackeroni • • •rmuk
in reply to jackeroni • • •Well, I've got to say: I wasn't convinced by this argument at all until that diagram appeared. And now, wow, I'm sold. Holy shit. Looks, there's shapes and everything. Truly, if something is shown in a diagram it MUST be accepted as fact.
Edit: Oh, wow, look, I found another diagram:
m532
in reply to Luouth • • •