As the Windows 10 EOL date is close I was wondering what fellow Linux users thoughts about it are.
Are you helping open minded people making the switch to Linux? If yes, which distro are you using? Are you using resources like endof10.org?
Or are you using the the opportunity to get your hands on some cheap hardware for your homelab? Are you keeping an eye on special websites or just ebay (or your local equivalent)? Are you talking with local companies to get the hardware directly from them?
Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?
Whatever it is, we are very interested to hear your stories concering this interesting time.
Transitioned my moms computer to Windows 11, 11 months go. Pretty easy. Her computer was originally for Windows 7 and is still fully supported. Her computer will always be Windows as I'm not local and other people have to be able to support her too. It is also what she knows. I love Linux but it is not for everyone.
See, I run a stripped Windows for playing games that don’t run under linux. I update it regularly and nothing intrusive was re-added by updates. The other systems I use are linux and macOS, with each OS having its purpose.
In acknowledge that Linux is not intrusive and that you have to have PiHoles and other DNS sinkholes for a basic protection, which is hard for regular people. But in the end you have to look at peoples needs and if somebody insists he needs Windows, and you are knowledgeable in IT stuff, make it as secure and clutter free as possible.
have to have PiHoles and other DNS sinkholes for a basic protection, which is hard for regular people
mullvad's free dns. free for all, not just their subscribers. encrypted doh or dot only. a basic ad and malware blocking dns sinkhole is a fairly simple configuration away if your os supports it (win11 and android do.. those are what i've set it up on for others so far).
It's a once-off operation if you're willing to go the LTSC route. Microsoft likes to undo all your hard work debloating Windows with the semi-annual major updates on non-LTSC editions.
I had already dabbled in Linux on and off years back. I already wanted to switch, but I'm a moron at computer stuff, so Linux was always a bit out of reach. Too much to learn and memorize for the basic things I needed it for. (addendum: We're talking about 25 years ago)
But Win 10 annoyed the piss out of me. Like, to the point of breaking my laptop in a fit of explosive anger. I'm not usually a "throw-the-controller" kind of guy. But that shit got to me.
So around the time Win 11 was first announced, I decided to give Linux yet another shot. And lo and behold, I found Mint. Everything was setup and streamlined exactly for a moron like myself. It was literally easier and more straight forward than Windows.
And with a little bit of reading and copy/pasting commands smarter people than myself have written around the internet, pretty much any problem I've encountered have been solved within a few minutes.
So I recommend Mint to anyone looking for alternatives to Win 11.
It has been good to me.
And a big Thank You to all the glorious nerds that take the time to not on only make this, but also take the time to help us hapless dummies fix the small problems we encounter in the process of switching.
I've just installed Mint as well. I am, perhaps, slightly more nerdy, but I'm also short on time to tinker with things, so it's really nice to have a super simple setup process, with stuff like Spotify and discord just a click away. Now I just need to settle on a solution for graphic design/illustration software.
Moved family mostly to Zorin. I stay with Tumbleweed.
Keeping Windows on dual boot for some edge cases. For the app or two that doesn't run with Linux I keep Windows in a virtual machine (which sadly I need once or twice a day).
My hatred of Windows got so much in the past two years, when I abandoned ship last year for Linux (using Arch btw), I was ready to ditch software that was not available native, without even bothering with trying to run them through Wine. In the end I had to abandon three of my absolute favourite software, totalcmd, notepad++ and foobar2000. Luckily I was able to replace them with nearly similar quality equivalents in Krusader, Kate and DeaDBeeF. Bit less polished, but very configurable.
My work requires me to have a windows based laptop or a Macbook. They've told me that they've been trying Fedora workstation before, but supposedly the VPN doesn't work on it. I've checked and the VPN expressly supports certain distro, including fedora. But they've simply disabled VPN access from non-win/mac based systems since. I suspect there's either some skill issue or something fishy going on. I know they are monitoring incoming and outgoing files to the system via some tool, which may indeed be not supported on Linux workstations. However the way I use this laptop is simply by accessing it through RDP, and then share files between it and my personal desktop via SMB on LAN, and no one ever complained. I have the lid closed on it all the time. So in essence I just use it like a terminal, and only run work related webportals through a browser on it, like JIRA and shit. Most of my work related to our platform I'm running on my own desktop, because it's significantly faster.
Not sure what I'd do if I still had to run Windows or even VMs for stuff.
Linux is my only real love, but as much as I love it I am not ready for Arch. Therefore my estrogen after a month long trial sits on my shelf. Currently on Mint and confused as fuck. Any idea where I can get SERMs?
I hosted an endof10.org event at my local public library. Advertised like crazy, posting flyers around town, posting online, etc. I had over 30 USB installers ready to go with Debian 13. I was worried that I was advertising too much and wouldn't have room for everyone.
Only 2 people showed up, and neither were prepared to go through with an install. In a town with well over 70k people and a major university, I expected more.
Now I'm thinking an event like this would only be viable in a major metropolitan area.
In my circle of friends and family, I only knew of one person who was faced with the Windows 10 dilemma, and he chose to purchase new hardware (granted he's nearly 80 years old).
No offense, but this question is what is holding many people back that would otherwise be on the fence or ready to go.
If there were just Mac / Windows / Linux, it would be an easy sell.
But we have Mac / Windows / two million Linux flavors.
It does not matter which one you pick, it is bound to cause questions or issues. And once you've chosen a Linux flavor, someone asks you why you chose that desktop and not foobar9000 instead which everyone knows runs much better on your Linux flavor anyway.
I honestly think that Linux' biggest enemy is Linux. Sure, choice is good, but this is too much. Way too much.
While I agree with you, my question implied that Debian might not be the right choice for beginners. It's not that easy to use compared to Mint that comes with many quality of life features which makes it the perfect introduction to Linux.
All the important software is there, you have all the necessary codecs to play the most popular media files, you have an easy to use software store with a friendly interface, and you don't have any complicated concepts like immutable or atomic OS.
I understand your frustration. And I agree that choice is an impediment to adoption.
That said, I am not that comment deserved your reply.
As far as I can tell, the OP was only offering one option—Debian. So your concern does not apply there.
And the next comment did not suggest having more options or adding confusing choices either. I think they were ok with offering just one distro. They just wanted to know why the single recommendation was not Mint.
He was not asking a new user why they chose Debian. He was asking the Linux expert why he chose Debian over Mint. Your comment does not seem to apply.
There is nothing wrong with Debian so I certainly think it is an acceptable choice. That said, Mint probably would offer a less jarring transition than Debian for Windows users. Mint defaults to Cinnamon (very Windows like). Debian defaults to GNOME (a less familiar desktop metaphor). Mint also comes with just a few extra tools and touches that can keep new users off the command line (unless they want to go there).
And if you like Debian, LMDE gives you Debian with the Mint GUI and tools.
Honestly, it seems like a fair question.
If you are only going to give them one option, why not one more likely to work for them? Them being everyday Windows users.
And all that said…I do agree that keeping it simple is the most important thing and offering a single recommendation is the right strategy regardless of which distro you choose to recommend.
Yeah Debian is stable, but it also doesn't come with an easy to use app store or pre-installed codecs for multimedia.
The installation process isn't exactly user friendly either. And if you plan to use BTRFS with Timeshift for easy snapshot creation, you have to do some pretty technical stuff.
And finally, there's stable and stable. Linux Mint being Ubuntu based is already VERY stable, but you still get fairly recent packages. With Debian you have to wait much longer for the latest software.
Yeah nobody in real life really cares about this. Anyone techie enough has already replaced their system and runs Win11, or has already switched to Linux themselves.
Anyone not techie enough doesn't care and will continue using Win10 (or just follow the Windows nagging and buy a new PC from Best Buy).
The crazy thing is that Windows 11 may feel more foreign than Linux Mint would have. It depends what he uses his computer for. My guess is the web and maybe printing.
I'm still using Windows on dual-boot with Arch because of games, that's the only reason. I've Windows 10 LTSC IoT, which is the most debloated version available, plus I ran a debloater script, so the OS is basically raw now, no Microsoft account linked.
Unfortunately Windows still gets more performance, at least on my experience, I've a Laptop 16GB RAM, Hybrid GPU (GeForce 1650 4VRAM + AMD).
I'm still not prepared to give up from this little extra performance just to switch to Linux, it really makes a difference, and I pass the whole day dealing with Linux so at the end of the day I just want to boot into something that just works without major tweaks.
I know it's not Linux fault, but most games are made to run better on Windows. If and when W10 become unusable, I'll switch to 100% Linux without any doubt, it's my last Windows.
If and when W10 become unusable, I'll switch to 100% Linux without any doubt, it's my last Windows.
Depending on your usage, it may mean years, especially as it's IoT that iirc has longer update cycle.
Microsoft didn't lock anything meaningful behind w11 upgrade, like they did with DirectX versions, RAM limits etc. So as long as your software doesn't drop Win10 support (like Steam dropped Win7 just a couple of years ago), you'd be fine.
It would be pretty interesting to see where Linux would be by that time tho.
I got my new laptop back in April, had a Windows 11 preinstalled (I wish it wasn't the case, it would've been cheaper but it's very rare to find OS-less PCs in my country)
Anyway, I prepared a Fedora installation before the laptop got home, booted Windows once to make sure everything (regarding hardware) works, and the rest is history.
I've been dual booting since 2000 starting with Mandrake. Then Ubuntu and stuck with it or Xubuntu or Kununtu ever since.
I had been using win 10 a lot more when I eventually installed it. It was a great OS in my opinion. Until it wasn't because Microshits decided to make it bad. I was getting angry with that and learned last year that it would reach EOL this October. So I booted in Linux and started experiencing with Steam and Proton and Bottles and I was blown away by how easy it had become and how well the games played. So last December I wiped the disk, installed Kubuntu 24.04 and it's been a great experience ever since. Honestly it's insane how easy it has become. To think I had to recompile my kernel to have all the features of my hardware back in the early 2000s. LoL!
I tried to convince my GF to move to Linux but she can't due to her job. It's complicated.
installed fedora cinnamon on my grandparent's laptop a few days ago and got a friend turned from 10 to mint. been using mint on my gaming rig, server and media PCs for over two years. also wife requested mint on her laptop, so no windblows devices left in the house then
I switched to Linux about a year ago. I was a windows power user and now I'm a Linux noob, but couldn't be happier.
I hate to say it, but there's still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can't get away from.
For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won't or can't make the switch, which I'm respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.
People won't care until they have a reason to care. I'll still be around when they do.
For sure. There's a lot of software that's built for Windows only. I have some Garmin aviation software that only works on Windows or Mac. It's pretty shit software, but I have to use it, and since I can do windows in a VM, that's what I use. Similarly, there's another bit of software I use all the time that's only built for iPad. So I have an iPad for that app. There's not always a choice.
I went through the effort to guide some people (mostly my family n≈10) through distrochooser, but in the end most of them chose Linux Mint and two wanted to go with endeavour for gaming, but I installed base arch on it and we designed their basic workflows together. For now everyone is happy.
I've finally swapped over my main personal (gaming) PC 6+ months ago. Should've probably done that a lot sooner, but lazy. I knew I wouldn't upgrade my Win 10 to 11, and didn't wanna wait until the last minute, but have fallback options and time to distro hop if needed.
I'm not new to Linux at all, as most servers I'm running (personally or in my job) are Linux based. Debian, usually, cause servers. But I haven't used a Linux desktop in well over 20 years.
My choice fell on CachyOS, as I wanted something pre-configured for performance/gaming/wine, but kinda dislike fedora (rules out Bazzite, Nobara, and actual fedora). Also in the running was PikaOS, but I tried CachyOS first and stuck with it. I had no experience with Arch, but what a brilliant base that turns out to be for me. Love the rolling up-to-date-ness and AUR accessibility. I'm used to having to contort myself to get a more current version of software, possibly compiling from source and screwing with dependencies, but everything is literally just there and up to date. Critically, all games basically just worked. Everything just worked. EXcept all mail programs suck to an unexpected degree, but that is literally my only complaint.
I do use the EoL of win 10 as an opportunity to get people to move over or at least try it out. Depending on their use case, I usually still recommend Mint for non-technical people, mostly because searching for help from a Windows convertee likely finds appropriate solutions. The more technical ones get personalized recommendations, depending on context. For example I do have a colleague who spends half his day complaining about anything Microsoft, but still uses Windows at home, but that is mostly because of a single piece of software (and so far I haven't been able to get that to run, but haven't tried very hard yet either).
Unfortunately still have to use W11 for some anti-cheat games I play with friends 🙁
But being forced to update to 11 motivated me to come back to Linux on a PC. I already have a little homelab with all the flavors, but was wondering how it would game on my desktop.
Ultimately went with Debian + KDE on a second SSD, and it’s just awesome. Especially coming from WSL on my desktop, it’s just so seamless.
Had a little trouble getting Nvidia drivers for my relatively new card (Debian’s latest proprietary driver still didn’t support it lol), so I had to use the official Nvidia repo. And it was a little tricky signing it for Secure Boot, but other than that, awesome.
Need to run better side-by-side tests, but it at least feels like a 10% or so performance improvement.
Thank you Linux! And fuck Fortnite, release a Linux port already!
I would help if asked, but I'm not out there trying to convince people. This isn't the first Windows version to be EOLd, and Apple and Android have all but convinced people that a 2-3 year hardware replacement cycle is normal. I just don't think this is a significant consumer event at all.
Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?
Yeah, but I wouldn't say "switched" is the right word for me. I've been using a variety of OSes for personal and work for a long time. I worked in embedded software, and we had to support a variety of build toolchains for different host OSes and different target OSes. So the idea of using a different OS on my own computer is not a big deal. Over the years it's been Solaris, BSDos, Mac, Windows, and more flavors of Linux than I can recall.
Not the question you asked, but it was gratifying when Raspberry Pi really started to take off because it was the first time that developing for a different hardware arch and OS target was going mainstream. I would enthusiastically help people with that sort of thing. But even fewer ask. lol
I used windows 10 on my gaming PC for many years. I "upgraded" to 11, and it felt bad. The UI/ux was tolerable, but between the AI features and everything requiring a Microsoft account, it got on my nerves quickly.
I literally just wanted to upgrade the firmware on my Xbox one controller (so it'd work in Linux..) and that forced a login. At that point I logged in, upgraded my controller, formatted as ext4, and now I rarely look back.
Every once in a while a game will crash or not be playable on Linux, but I'd trade that for being in control of the hardware I've spent thousands on over the years.
Very happy with bazzite on my htpc and a kde based distro on my main computer. I pop over to my MacBook for casual computing, but for the real stuff I'll never use windows again (barring being forced by future employers)
Linux on all of my main machines, so I'm grabbing the popcorn. Got LTSC for all the remaining Windows use cases: VMs, beater laptop for Windows-only stuff, and a couple of computers from family.
Most of my friends replace their computers quite frequently, so they're living blissfully unaware on Windows 11 or MacOS. The ones who do have older laptops tend to be tech-savvy enough to have figured out LTSC or Linux themselves. On one occasion, a good friend of mine had an old iMac that wasn't getting updates anymore, so I installed Debian and themed XFCE to look like MacOS, taught them the basics, and they were impressed with the result.
As for family, they're usually very happy with the Linux Mint Debian Edition that I install for them, but some I know just won't use the computer if it doesn't have their familiar Windows-specific software, so I get them started with LTSC.
I frankly have an excess of unused hardware that's piling up, which won't be helped by my access to a good source of e-waste. Old computers have already been trickling in, but I'm excited to see what's next now that the Oct 14 date has come.
The EoL doesn’t affect me. I use Linux and Mac. My work pc is windows 10 but that’s their problem.
My roommate refuses to move on. I flat out gave him an old surface pro X with win11 and a spacious new SSD. I offered to migrate him to fedora and teach him how to use it. I offered to help him pick out a new pc if he wants. No, he’ll just keep waiting 20 minutes for his old crusty Dell to boot up, then another 10 to load chrome. For updates, he said he’ll just download hacks as people post them online.
I am a chicken, I could not make the switch for the home desktop and work computer, so I just downgraded to Windows 11. There are some financial apps that needs switching, damn.
Maybe I could convince people to let me use Linux at work..
It is just a computer. Don’t let us nerds intimidate you. Use what you are comfortable with.
That said, you could dual boot or even just boot of a USB stick into a live Linux session. That will let you play with it and decide if it is as scary as you feared.
Linux Mint can be written to USB and booted into a live Linux session I believe.
Macbook/Linux user here: People (And organisations/governments) who are reasonably skilled with technology will understand that on hardware which can't use windows 11, and is stuck with windows 10 without security updates need an alternative operating system. When institutions switch to linux, they will likely contribute to the opensource project, and overall bring the user base numbers up, which will make more software developers add support for linux.
But while this should happen, it might work in microsoft's favour, (Like when Netflix stopped password sharing) meaning people, who are used to windows will just buy new windows 11 machines, overall increasing microsoft's company value. Microsoft also supports the Israel military during the genocide, and Bill Gates personally supports Trump and had close ties with Epstein, so it would be best if the general public does an accident, or purposeful boycott. Personally I buy secondhand stuff and put linux on it, if you want new stuff either buy a mac, or buy one of those new linux machines from Lenovo?
Many users, especially businesses, will simply upgrade.
Some will pay for the ESU.
Some will sign up for cloud backups.
All these benefit Microsoft.
Some fairly small number will work around Microsoft’s plan by upgrading Windows 11 where they are not supposed to or finding a way to get the updates for free.
Sure, probably the biggest fraction of users will probably do nothing. But they were already doing nothing for Microsoft so nothing changes in this case. Of anything, the load in Microsoft servers goes down a bit.
So ya, Microsoft has little incentive not to charge ahead.
I've been using Linux for about 25 years. I completely stopped using Windows at home more than a decade ago.
I do some volunteer work for an organisation that refurbishes old computers and gives them to people who can't afford one. For the time being we're using Rufus to bypass TPM and other hardware requirements so we can install Windows 11 on everything.
We're willing to install Linux for people who want it, but unfortunately I haven't seen that happen yet. Most of our customers have no idea what an OS is. A lot of people also need Windows for education or work. There's a free course available that teaches how to use a computer and of course that is also Windows-only.
We helped one of our colleagues to install Mint on his old laptop, though.
For the time being we’re using Rufus to bypass TPM and other hardware requirements so we can install Windows 11 on everything.
Heads up, Microsoft has stated that they do not support machines that don't meet requirements and that those machines may stop receiving security updates at any time.
Get him to check out Krita. It has Photoshop style binds but they're missing a few things gs you'll have to set... But depending on what he does with Photoshop and how adaptable he is, it could be a viable solution.
I moved to mint about a year ago since my hardware is too old to run 11. I'm glad I made the switch and wish I had done it sooner. I'm never going back 😁
Never had Win10 in the first place. I did upgrade from 7 to 11 using the same product key. I would gladly run Linux but have yet to understand why no Debian live media would ever boot on my main laptop
Switched to Mint over a year ago from win 10 on my desktop and my wives laptop, we both love it. It was fresh, user friendly and familiar in the same time. To be fair we are pretty much average users without any specialized needs, other than gaming.
Later this year I built a new gaming pc 100% with Linux in mind. I am running Bazzite on it and it works absolutely amazing. Bazzite is currently my favourite distro. Im not a distro hopper or a big tinkerer myself, don't have time for experimenting, so not planning to switch. It just works perfectly.
Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?
Yes, that. As far as my circle of friends and acquaintances who are running Win10 are concerned, I've made the effort to advise them to switch to something newer for security reasons. They will probably switch to Windows 11, but that is their concern.
Believe it not, Steam even works on RHEL if you use Flatpak.
But you are probably going to want to go for something a bit more current. Fedora or Bazzite may work for you as they use the same core layout and userland as RHEL. Fedora is the test bed for the ideas that go into CentOS that becomes RHEL.
I’ve been using Linux and macOS since 2020. I shifted my main PC from Windows 10 back in April of 2020 right as lockdowns were hitting my locale, when I discovered how much Linux gaming had improved. I was curious to see if I could make it work for myself.
At that time, I had been interested in using Linux more frequently than on random old computers that I had lying around, but my opinions on Microsoft’s and Windows’ “quirks” were… less advanced. At that time I was unconcerned about Windows telemetry and advertising, but it also wasn’t as bad then.
It took me about a week to get everything set up and ready to go and to get settled. At first, I didn’t know if it’d end up sticking. Well, it did. I started with Ubuntu, and quickly went after Pop!_OS. I used that for a while, and eventually shifted to Garuda where I still am today.
Windows 10 end of life has almost no impact on me. My mindset has shifted dramatically since I first started using Linux on my main PC. When I used to not be bothered by Windows’ telemetry I find myself strongly off-put by it. Even macOS, which some say isn’t as bad as Windows puts me off and I’d rather not use it. Having had to set up Windows 10 for someone about a year back, I saw how much worse it got. It was insufferable.
Right now, my brother and sister in law still use Windows 10. They don’t see the problem with that. My brother specifically says he’ll just keep using Windows 10, because he “doesn’t have anything important” on it (I mentioned his Steam account has linked payment info). He’s also told me that he’d rather use Windows 11 (which he hates) than give Linux a try, a stance I don’t understand. It’s clear he doesn’t really understand the situation, and he doesn’t realize that Linux is not necessarily the difficult and unfriendly OS he thinks it is.
I’d rather him use Windows 11 than Windows 10, despite how awful I know it to be. At least there’s somewhat lower risk of nasty compromise there. I also know that he does play at least a couple games with anti-cheat that explicitly block Linux, so that introduces some complexity. But, I’m done preaching. I know how it makes me look, and I’ve tried in the past to change his mind but he’s unwilling to do so, so at this point the only way he’s going to learn is for something really bad to happen. Maybe his computer gets hit by ransomeware that took advantage of an unpatched vulnerability. That might be what it takes to finally make him do something.
I hate that it’s like this. I’ve tried to tell him about the risks. He doesn’t understand the full scale of it, and he dismisses me when I try to explain it to him. But at this point, what can I do besides say “I warned you” when something goes wrong?
I have used Linux for a good while around the early 2000’s. Good memories.
Fast forward to now. Bought a new laptop with W11. hated it.
(Just imagine a long list of frustrations about W11, because I’m not going to contribute anything new by saying it) -and finally, I want my data to be mine!
And so now I get to annoy my wife about how awesome Linux is. My dad is on the train as well. We both annoy our wives with Linux.
Most folks I know don’t know the existence of security updates or Windows 10’s EOL so they just keep using it. Even if I told them about the EOL their pcs wouldn’t run Windows 11 nor they’re interested in Linux
We're excited to announce that Loops now federates with the fediverse. After months of development, ActivityPub support has officially entered beta. Your loops can now travel across the open social web.
I'm sure it still has a ways to go and adoption is key but this just sounds like what the internet honestly needs to fundamentally exist
This isn't just about connecting platforms—it's about fundamentally rethinking how social media works. Instead of being trapped in walled gardens, your content, your followers, and your identity can move freely across the open web.
Fb does not work from my phone, it gets glitchier every year. They are too busy on their stupid metaverse and counting their money to fix those glitches apparently.
To be clear, the announcement has been made, but federation isn’t actually enabled yet, at least not on the official instance. Verified by searching for loops accounts from mastodon.social and vice versa.
For anyone else who was thinking of starting an instance, local storage is still a no-go right now
S3-Compatible Storage Required Currently, Loops requires an S3-compatible filesystem (like AWS S3, MinIO, or DigitalOcean Spaces) for avatar and video storage. Support for local storage is on the way but is not yet implemented. Please ensure you have S3 credentials ready before proceeding.
I donated sometime during the big fundraiser in January or so. It took a while but they did release server code a few months ago, and it's nice to see that it'll federate with other services soon.
did they fix the feed and algorithm issues yet? or is it still doing the thing where it shows you the same feed every time you open the app.
edit: just reinstalled to check. it doesn't seem to have been updated since February and the feed issue still persists. that is a shame. I hope they can fix it.
What exactly are Palestinians going to "continue" to do? Be slaughtered, starved, and otherwise eradicated by the colonialists?
Whether you intended it or not, saying "Israel and Palestine will continue" implies that there's anything resembling an equivalence between the actions of the genocidal apartheid regime and those of Palestinians.
Point 9 of the peace deal. means that Gaza will be controlled by Trump and Tony Blair, and will follow the guidelines of "Trump's 2020 peace plan"
amd Article 4 and 5 of the Palestinian statehood guidelines:
4 Take no action, and shall dismiss all pending actions, against the State of Israel, the United States and any of their citizens before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and all other tribunals;
5 Take no action against any Israeli or United States citizen before Interpol or any non-Israeli or United States (as applicable) legal system;
The only way to stop the genocide was by forcing them on pain of starvation (Article 7&8) to become a colony and are barred from seeking any legal justice.
Other people tell me that Catbox does not work for them so this makes it all very difficult. I usually try to upload sub1min stuff to Imgur. But I will try to include a catbox mirror in future posts
Indian textile exporters are seeking new buyers in Europe and offering discounts to existing U.S. customers to cushion the blow from steep U.S. tariffs of as much as 50%, industry executives said.
I wrote my thesis on Nike's unethical practices. I knew what happened in Pakistan and its just as bad in India (predictably).
All these fucking corporations need to be made to own and operate their own factories.
They outsource to other companies who are unbelievably abusive. I could link NGO researches if anyone wants.
This means they then take no accountability for anything.
From Uyghur Muslims in labour and reeducation camps to mass faintings in Indonesia and rape and sexual assault EVERYWHERE. Not paying labour for months in the pandemic. I actually remember it being years.
They don't necessarily need to own and operate their own factories imho, but we need transparent supply chains and laws to hold the brands accountable what happens in these supply chains. China is likely the country most opposing to such transparent supply chains, India is another one.
It is impossible to do so I tell you. They threaten to pack bags and leave if you dare take any action against them.
No government can control corpos. Hell they were using 'tax saving methods' that hurt the US, were in the panama papers. Also part of a dodgy scheme in the Netherlands.
I could go in detail but i can assure you that it is impossible to do so your way.
It's really the phone companies' fault for stagnating instead of innovating.
There is no reason at this point for most people to have phone numbers at all. We have the technology today to throw the whole concept out the window.
Replace it with something where a stranger couldn't guess how to contact a random person. Replace it with something where third parties can't easily share your contact info.
You could even have both technologies at the same time to help transition. And we do, as users, but we still need phone numbers because our carriers don't give us multiple options directly.
Phone numbers are based on requirements for a system that's almost 150 years old now. Back when the numbers really meant locations and before people realized how easy it could be exploited to steal old people's retirement money.
You still have to have some kind of unique identifier. What do you propose phone numbers are replaced with because I can't think of anything that isn't basically just the same but with a different flavour or actually is actively worse.
Your device and account credentials are unique enough to identify you on the carrier-level, SIM/eSIM as well. Ultimately, every time you share your contact info, it should be a unique code (QR would be convenient enough) generated by your cell provider. If it's ever leaked, you just notify your carrier to burn it, and give the contact a new unique code. No two people should be given the same contact, and all of the contacts are simply correlated to your device by the carrier. Additionally, when sharing contacts via QR, they could be modified on the device-level to include e2e encryption keys, thus further securing the transmitted information, not at the trust-me-bro carrier level, but at the user-verifiable device level. If the carrier gets hacked, reset the identifiers, associate the new one in your text app to keep conversations going, and move on like nothing happened. You'll still be better off than if your phone number was leaked. It's not perfect, but it'd be a hell of a lot more secure than what we have now.
In other words: What if a billion dollar company made Signal, but with cell towers, and not as good?
My friend, that is not convenient. Phone numbers need to be memorable, and need to be transmittable offline without relying on technology. Old people use phones...
Phone numbers need to be memorable. A disposable unique contact does not. You can print a QR code, easily save it to a device, transmit it via nearly anything with a connectible screen. Of course you would want to launch it with alongside phone numbers, not in place of it, but this is what should be the next 'innovation' in cellular communication. That said, it does pose the problem of contacting someone with a phone that isn't your own, perhaps from jail. I'm sure they would never suggest putting an emergency contact chip in your hand for your own health and safety. No government would ever suggest something so silly. /s
If I want to contact a business though I know I need to dial 555-123-4568, and I know that because there was a little jingle at the end of the advert. But if they just flash up a QR code then do I just have to wait until the ad is on TV again? There's a reason they don't really put QR codes on TV but they do on YouTube where you can pause it, and queue up the video whenever you wanted.
It's not an awful idea but it needs a bit of refinement. That needs to be some kind of way to associate a human readable identifier to the contact.
We use QR codes all of the time for websites but eventually that still boils down to a URL in plain text.
Businesses are a separate use case. Phone companies already handle separate use cases, where they use very short memorable numbers for specific purposes. They just need something similar, whether it's keeping phone numbers, or using something slightly different. Probably some sort of simple alias.
It's the phone companies that need to innovate, and the solution isn't very hard.
You say the solution isn't very hard but what you are suggesting is basically just obfuscating phone numbers. Surely the actual solution is to just make spam calling illegal.
Oh and just cut Indias data connection, because those guys are never going to fix their scam call centre problem because the government and police are corrupt.
You could argue that cryptography is nothing but a type of obfuscation. I was trying to explain things so that the very average person could understand it.
People don't stop doing things just because you make it illegal. You even know this because you mentioned India. However people actually do stop when you make it nearly impossible.
The solution is simple then. Allow businesses to maintain a phone number for people who watch ads on TV. Not like businesses getting spam calls is that big an issue. Though I'm certain they'd be very enthusiastic to have the unique contact QR feature available for tracking in web ads.
For those who ran their own mail servers it already did, via the +something notation.
Unfortunately the industry and the Internet in general went the other way.
EDIT: Oh, you mean temporary address. Easy. You have tracker nodes and receipt nodes. You publish on all tracker nodes you know your receipt node (by temporary address) every time you generate a temporary address. So those mailing you find it on trackers and post there. On that receipt node your temporary address is associated with some secret, allowing you to retrieve your incoming mail. The easiest way is that the temporary address is a pubkey and to confirm ownership you just need to sign a request for mail, or maybe it'll be encrypted with it and no good for anyone else. Or both.
In Tox you have a code on the end of the Tox address. One can do similar, but have different codes for different levels of acceptance. Default - ignore. Some other code - add to the list of callers without notification. Some other - with notification. Some other - for SMS, but not calls, or the other way around. And so on.
The problem with things being memorable exists, yes. Computers can make calls, meaning that there's no solution. A good secret required to call someone can't be memorable.
Sure you can have a unique identifier. That’s not the issue. The issue is that anyone can contact you via your phone number! This is not a problem with chat apps where people need permission to add you to their contact list. Why not have a system like that?
Same goes for credit cards. They should need to ask for permission to charge your credit card. Merely knowing your credit card info should not be enough.
But then you just get spammed with requests for connection. Just like spam email, the call coming through wouldn't be the point anymore it would be the connection request.
As today if I give you a phone number you have no idea who is the owner if you don't look up on some service. It will not change if instead of the phone number we use the IMEI or a UUID, somewhere you need to have a link between the owner and the something, if nothing else in your phone and at the phone company.
I intentionally was vague because there are many possible existing ways to accomplish each thing I said, and it is up to the phone company to innovate.
The simplest way to keep people from guessing phone numbers is to make them very long and sparse. If an autodialer had to dial 1000 invalid numbers before finding a valid number, it would make the endeavor that much harder. This is just a convenient example because the cryptography equivalent is harder to explain, but you could make contact info so hard to guess that it would be basically impossible.
Probably the easiest way to explain how to keep people from passing contact info is to imagine a two step process like facebook has. If I pass your facebook username to someone else, they don't automatically become your friend. The cryptographic equivalent would involve a chain of trust, but again, harder to explain.
Still not seeing how it would work. You're dropping random bits of the system and saying it would work but it's too complicated for you to explain, so there's really nothing to discuss.
not op but signal has basically solved this. users are not just randomly accessible by anyone. they can share a long URL that contains an ID, or make a short username they like and pass around to people. and even then the recipient has to accept being contacted by each other user
true that signal now relies on the phone number system for trust and safety, but that's not core to how signal works, it could be replaced if they really wanted.
At that point, you (well, not you per se) are basically suggesting to replace the telephone system with a Signal-esque system. Which would break a billion things in real life, for little to no gain.
any change would break a billion things in real life, so we could at least have a proper replacement.
the problem with signal here is that it's centralized, probably couldn't even handle the load besides other problems. but that's solvable, like look at simplex which is similar
Phone numbers are the equivalent of IP addresses. It's just that the accompanying DNS solutions are pretty badly broken and the firewall options are all iffy.
Federal political sources downplayed the seriousness of the issue, believing the issue was not related to a data leak or breach.
Sources noted the private contact information for politicians was often already widely available and known by stakeholders and members of the public they had interacted with. Some pointed out that politicians often kept the same contact details for years, from when they were more junior politicians who freely distributed their numbers on public documents like press releases or community announcements.
In Germany, it even used to be that your phone number, along with your name and address, was published in the phone book, by law. If you wanted to be delisted, you had to provide a valid reason, such as being stalked. Just because was not good enough. At every street corner was a phone booth with the phone book of your town with your name and address. At post offices, you could find phone books from other towns. (The phone system was run by the postal service, which was a government agency.)
Phone books were a bit of a plot point in Terminator. The terminator gets the list of Connors from the phone book and kills them in that order.
I doubt there's anywhere where the phone book wasn't digitized. In Germany, the requirement to publish your address + number was eventually dropped, though; maybe because the phone system was privatized.
I'm speaking of my experiences in the United States. Here, phone books tend to be separated into white pages and yellow pages. The white pages listed names, addresses and phone numbers of private lines, usually homes, and the yellow pages listed businesses. Taking out a listing in the yellow pages was the SEO of its day.
When the internet happened, the one thing that never really happened was a freely searchable database of the white pages. One thing the internet was never useful for as an upstanding citizen was looking up personal phone numbers.
Why do we still still use phone numbers for communication? It’s a terrible idea. One unifying piece of information that if anyone gets they can use. Bah.
We should have a communication method that both sides consent to before allowing the connection. Either side can kill that connection at any time by revoking permission on either side. The contact info shouldn’t be the same for everyone either, but something ephemeral instead. Unique. A burner phone number that’s different to each person and only useful if the connection originates from the one meant to have that number.
It’s 2025. We still have “you have been hacked, give me gift cards to save your Google Chrome” style shit going on.
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.
According to data obtained from the Ministry of the National Defense by Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), the number of voluntary resignations among officers and noncommissioned officers with 10 to 20 years of service reached an all-time high last year.
A total of 1,821 personnel in that category left the military in 2024, up from 960 in 2021. As of the end of September this year, 1,327 had already filed for voluntary discharge.
The number of officers taking leave has also increased sharply, from 2,252 in 2021 to 3,412 last year, with this year’s figure already at 3,401.
new data show that one in six bacterial infections globally are resistant to standard antibiotics
“Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Common infections are becoming harder – and sometimes impossible – to treat, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday, as new data show that one in six bacterial infections globally are resistant to standard antibiotics, endangering mi…
Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall accused Israeli guards of treating her and other prisoners with “extreme brutality” on Monday, including beatings and “threats of rape,” after being taken by Israeli forces from international waters while aboard the Conscience Freedom Flotilla.
In a video statement published to social media, Schnall – a Los Angeles-born photojournalist who had been reporting from the flotilla for Drop Site News – recalled the “extreme brutality” she allegedly experienced during her captivity.
“Any flotilla member who upset the Israeli guards was subjected to twisted and tightened handcuffs and some received beatings,” she said. “I was hung from the metal shackles on my wrists and ankles and beaten in the stomach, back, face, ear, and skull by a group of men and women guards, one of whom sat on my neck and face, blocking my airways.”
The journalist continued, “Many comrades, understandably, do not want their identity made public when recounting this treatment. During the evening, the men were tormented by guards with attack dogs and guns. The women were threatened with pepper spray. Our cell was awoken with threats of rape.”
Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall accused Israeli guards of treating her and other prisoners with "extreme brutality," including beatings and "threats of rape."
As long as her children are in one piece, and her bloodline still exists, it's an improvement. You have to rate God's chosen people on a curve. Though now that she's speaking up, she might get closer to that average like many others before her.
I don’t know if this was your intention, but you come across as being completely dismissive of someone who just went through really horrible and traumatic abduction.
It's like one of those comments you type out half-asleep on the toilet some mornings before stopping yourself and asking, "Why the fuck am I even saying this?", before deleting it and going back to lurking. Except he didn't delete.
Remember boys and girls, according to the Western Press these people were "detained" by Israel and were "prisioners", not at all "kidnapped" in an act of piracy in the high seas and held "hostage" - only Palestinian organisations kidnap people and keep them as hostages, whilst Israeli ones only ever do "detentions" and "emprisionment".
I think the play book from IDF apologists is to say: "she's a liar", "Israel never does anything wrong", "the people were punished this is a fringe case"
Not that this is a systemic fucking thing and what they do to anyone who doesn't agree with them.
Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall accused Israeli guards of treating her and other prisoners with “extreme brutality” on Monday, including beatings and “threats of rape,” after being taken by Israeli forces from international waters while aboard the Conscience Freedom Flotilla.
In a video statement published to social media, Schnall – a Los Angeles-born photojournalist who had been reporting from the flotilla for Drop Site News – recalled the “extreme brutality” she allegedly experienced during her captivity.
“Any flotilla member who upset the Israeli guards was subjected to twisted and tightened handcuffs and some received beatings,” she said. “I was hung from the metal shackles on my wrists and ankles and beaten in the stomach, back, face, ear, and skull by a group of men and women guards, one of whom sat on my neck and face, blocking my airways.”
The journalist continued, “Many comrades, understandably, do not want their identity made public when recounting this treatment. During the evening, the men were tormented by guards with attack dogs and guns. The women were threatened with pepper spray. Our cell was awoken with threats of rape.”
Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall accused Israeli guards of treating her and other prisoners with "extreme brutality," including beatings and "threats of rape."
For the early Zionists, settling Palestine meant settling the largest possible territory that vaguely overlapped with their biblical vision of the holy land.
Maps presented by the World Zionist Organization to the Paris Conference clearly show that Zionists sought to include in their territory southern Lebanon, including the Litani River and up to the coastal city of Saida - an estimated 60km from the current border.
Zionists, like all European settlers, were also keen to secure the most fertile land and fresh water sources. Eastern boundaries of the proposed map included large swathes of Syrian and Jordanian territory that fully engulfed Lake Tiberias and the Jordan River. French counter-proposals forced the Zionists to confine their activities after WWI to what is now referred to as historic Palestine.
Initial ambitions to colonise southern Lebanon were shelved but never extinguished. During this latest war, Michael Freund, who previously served as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy communications director, claimed that “historically speaking, southern Lebanon is in fact northern Israel”. He cited the Book of Joshua as mentioning “Sidon explicitly as being promised to the Jewish people”. Freund also listed several shrines in the south as Jewish and evidence of the right to the land.
The invocation of religious sites as justification for colonial conquest is an old and debunked Zionist trope. Freund was not alone in reviving it. One of Israel’s pseudo-archaeologists, Zeev Erlich, was embedded in the Israeli army during the recent invasion of Lebanon. Israeli troops burned and destroyed parts of the shrine. Before withdrawing, they demolished the surrounding historic buildings of the village’s old quarter, the very place they claimed as theirs.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition, led by former presidential candidate María Corina Machado, the far-right extremist who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, used the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as a lobbying platform, courting the Trump administration and sympathetic foreign governments to support a coup to depose President Nicolás Maduro. She has been part of multiple calls for US interventions in Venezuela, including to, in her words, secure the “total asphyxiation of the Venezuelan economy.”
The opposition organized demonstrations in front of the Secretariat Building to denounce Maduro and call for the world to intervene. Pedro de Mendonça, Press Director for Machado’s campaign, hosted a protest saying, “Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela, but the head of the Cartel of the Suns and the Tren de Aragua.” Mendonça called for “a free Venezuela and a secure West” through an “international coalition.” This is as direct a call for intervention as you could get. Machado retweeted it.
Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns
You always have to settle for second best every time there's a new milestone, but second best never comes, nor the rest, until the best you can do is just try to die in peace. We did it! 🥳
I said try, and really, it's more about institutions that know better but choose not to. Ya know, the second best time to start is now, but now keeps getting pushed further
Haha, I was just joking with my buddy the other day about how liberals only know how to ask for better institutions. When they form an organization, its purpose is to ask malicious institutions to become kinder. You won't be the people to solve this issue.
By the way, you don't use this reply guy alt account enough to make it believable. Are you getting too slow?
People who could positively impact this: "Awe, man, I go there on my yacht once a year. Anyway, those stocks still climbing? That boat needs some upgrades."
If we plateaued right now and did everything possible to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and oceans, it would probably take a few thousand years to get back down. The reasoning - we weren't the main CO2 contributor, we just were the extra catalyst to throw things off to begin the acceleration up. So now that things are off balance and feedbacks are kicking in, how can we reverse what we put into the environment AND counter the extra feedback outputs? It's like trying to stop the boulder that was easy to push onto the hill slope.
Humanity absolutely was and continues to be the main 'CO2 contributor'; coal, oil, and natural gas didn't just dig themselves out of the ground and spew themselves into the atmosphere. The immediate halting of worldwide pollution is necessary, but unfortunately unlikely to occur in a manner keeping to the Paris Agreement's goals, particularly while Big Oil has such a strong influence over American politics and countries worldwide continue to rely on and expand fossil fuel production.
My phrasing may have sounded like the "humans aren't the problem" climate deniers, but my point was that our amounts are only a percentage of the natural ebb and flow of CO2. The problem is that our addition was enough to tip the scales and cause an initial slow climb that has gotten faster and faster, and our percentage (which has itself magnified in the past few decades) is still a part of an increase from other natural sources that would have stayed dormant had we not started the process. Human activity was the catalyst of the reaction, and usually a catalyst amount required isn't large.
This is why I chose not to have kids. We're fucked. Our children will be proper fucked. Their children will probably not get to see old age. Thanks for all the fish!
Here in South Australia we are starting to see the effects and it's pretty chilling.
The algae bloom affecting many of our suburban beaches (which is most of Adelaide) and a lot of country ones are seeing huge numbers of dead marine life being washed up.
Anything from leafy sea dragons to fish, stingrays, and sharks. The foam created on some days covers whole sections of beach.
While apparently it's safe, there are warnings that you may experience breathing issues and rashes so your supposed to bring your inhaler and rinse off after you have been in. On windy days it can affect you even if your walking close to the beach.
As we head into summer the damage to local seaford providers (the seafood is fine to consume but people are wary) and cafe owners will be huge and is already starting to take effect.
Because our beaches are so close, people would go down after work for a dip or have a drink at the suburban pubs and cafes.
"Our analysis reveals three critical success factors: (1) higher carbon prices per capita are essential for carbon reduction, (2) the necessity of penalties on carbon price per capita from EUR 20–EUR 100, and (3) expanded market coverage maximizes impact. To address global disparities, we propose a Uniform Carbon Pricing Mechanism under the Global Carbon Resilience Framework (GCRF), based on carbon price per capita tiered pricing: EUR 100/t (developed), EUR 30–50 (developing), and EUR 5–15 (least-developed countries). This balanced system supports vulnerable regions while cutting emissions, proving that fair carbon pricing is crucial for climate goals and economic stability."
I think it's great that they're keeping their traditional garments. I wouldn't mock anyone with the cultural strength to do so. More cultures should have done it. (Edit: I know you're not trying to insult them in particular, I was making more of a "by the way" comment.)
I wanna poking fun at the breeze picking up at just the right moment to hint at what's really going on in this shot: Trump's back and broker than ever under a mountain of Putini pressure, but that sassy cowboy in an OG bigot dress (the KKK're so jealous) just can't quit him.
Australia's Queensland state government said on Friday it would run coal power plants at least into the 2040s, reversing a previous plan to pivot rapidly to renewables
Owners of diesel vehicles made by Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Nissan, Renault and the Stellantis-owned brands Peugeot and Citroen between 2012 and 2017 allege the companies cheated emissions tests.
The manufacturers are accused of using unlawful "defeat devices", which detected when vehicles were being tested and ensured nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions were kept within legal limits under test conditions.
Driven by economic and social pressures, tens of thousands of workers from China, mostly middle-aged men, are employed in eastern Indonesia’s nickel industry, which has sprung up in the last decade. Just as critical minerals crisscross the globe before they’re incorporated into cutting-edge products, so too do some of the people who make the world’s green dreams a reality.
[According] to more than a dozen of these Chinese workers and their family members, as well as Indonesian labor leaders who have negotiated factory conditions with top Chinese executives [it was found] that, even following fatal accidents at the smelters, efforts to improve working conditions have been slow, hindered by a lack of oversight from companies, governments, and international labor groups that were dependent on U.S. funding terminated by the Trump administration. We also obtained an internal company review of a nickel smelter expansion that shows facilities are likely spreading pollution and illness well beyond factory walls. Despite the challenges, new nickel processing plants continue to emerge in Indonesia and hire from China.
Before joining Indonesia’s nickel rush, most of these Chinese men had spent almost all their lives in their home country, working in declining steel factories. [...] they had never before owned a passport or boarded a flight. Their leap into the nickel refining industry has helped create entire towns on remote islands in Indonesia, and it’s made them an unlikely backbone of the world’s green energy transition.
[...]
Nickel is a crucial component of EV batteries and energy storage systems. More nickel in an EV battery pack means longer mileage and improved performance from a single charge.
[...]
Indonesian workers, the Chinese companies that run the nickel factories, and international labor and environmental organizations have been attempting to improve working and living conditions. But the few changes that have taken place have come slowly. And such efforts have been hamstrung by the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which terminated almost all international grants from the U.S. Department of Labor. Those grants funded various initiatives to improve labor rights, occupational safety, and health, including in Indonesia.
[...]
“Tsingshan [Holding Group, a Chinese metal and stainless steel giant Tsingshan that was among the first companies to set up production in Indonesia in the early 2010s] started to snatch up economically strained factory workers nonstop in droves,” said Jiahui Zeng, an anthropologist studying eastern Indonesia’s nickel belt at Tsinghua University in China. “For Chinese nickel workers, migration is pushed by family pressure, such as buying an apartment in a better school district for their children or preparing for a son’s marriage.” But these pressures make Chinese workers extremely vulnerable.
“Terrified of losing their income, they are reluctant to organize and wary of speaking out in Indonesia,” she added.
[...]
[Chinese migrant worker] Wong recalled the instructor telling them there were more than 40 accidents in the industrial parks [in Indonesia] each year that resulted in severe injuries and even deaths. [...] “I didn’t understand much at the time,” said Wong.
But before long, Wong had two close calls of his own. First, he burned the back of his right hand when metallic liquid from the furnace splashed at the exit of the waste tunnel as he was walking past. And one night after heavy rain, soon after he clocked out and left the furnace, Wong stepped on what he thought was a puddle, only to find out that it was a neck-deep pond. Not knowing how to swim, he was only able to save himself by grabbing a nearby pole and pulling himself out of the water.
[...]
Some workers he knew weren’t so lucky. An Indonesian colleague suffered severe injuries to his fingers after disregarding safety protocols to manually fix a glitch in the pouring chain. Another Chinese worker walked onto the top of an electric furnace in wet working boots and was instantly electrocuted into unconsciousness.
[...]
[A] review showed workers at the nickel-processing facilities, as well as residents nearby, were increasingly seeking care for respiratory diseases like tuberculosis, acute pharyngitis, and acute rhinitis. Despite the industrial park being operated by multibillion-dollar corporations, the villages surrounding it still lacked wastewater drainage systems and access to clean water. In six villages outside the complex, a quarter of the residents live less than 30 feet from polluted water sources, and 41% of the residents have symptoms of dry cough.
In 12 nearby villages, the number of children with signs of stunted growth due to malnutrition and gastrointestinal infections increased by 50% in two years. “Officials and agencies know about all this,” an environmental consultant and author of part of the report, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution at work, told Grist. Hardly any of the health and environmental risks were present before the construction of the Morowali Industrial Park [in Indonesia] they said.
[...]
Yet as eastern Indonesia’s nickel industry grows, Chinese migrant workers still don’t have a seat at the table in discussions about their careers and safety.
Over 30,000 Chinese workers travel to Indonesia’s remote islands to work in nickel smelters, fueling the global EV transition while facing dangerous conditions.
Ah yes the oil supporting Uproot Project of the Environmental Justice Fellowship...
Just because nickel mining is verifiably awful doesn't mean oil rig work is any better. The point most serious environmental groups make is that we shouldn't just replace fossil fuel based exploitation and environmental destruction with metal and rare earth ones instead.
We should focus on an overall reduction of consumption not just taking the over 1 billion cars and turning them electric but instead rethinking our whole relationship with nature.
The oil industry spends hundreds of millions a year trying to stop EV through propoganda. Any article that starts with "Powering the deadly EV boom" is helping that campaign, even if they mean well.
Actually fair enough - having read the whole article it does seem much more preoccupied with the dangers of nickel mining than the proven negative effects of fossil fuels and stuff like this is quite obvious pro-ff propaganda
It’s almost impossible to transition away from fossil fuels without nickel from Indonesia,” said Johnny Linghui Ni, a United Kingdom-based research analyst for Project Blue, a data provider on critical minerals. “And it may stay this way until at least 2030, if not longer.”
Still useful to learn about but compared to the landscape of positive oil rig articles this definitely doesn't pass the smell test - thanks!
The article doesnt talk about fossil fuels because it has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Everyone knows fossil fuels are bad, that doesnt give a pass to labor violations and the environmental issues with nickel mining in Indonesia.
Arguing otherwise is like saying that someone writing an article on the health issues of vaping and environmental issues with their battery waste isnt spending enough time talking about how bad smoking cigarettes is, or how bad cigarette butts are for the environment. Its like… the article is talking about completely different shit. Advocating for reforms in the nickel production industry doesnt necessitate opining on how fossil fuels are worse.
People have no media literacy anymore, for fucks sake. Fossil fuels propaganda would spend a ton of time saying “look how bad nickel mining is in comparison to fossil fuel production” which this article doesnt do whatsoever. The only secondary aspect of this article is about the collapse of steel industry in rural northern china has supplied most of the workforce to the nickel plants in Indonesia, and how those areas are contracting due to their workers being exported
I feel it's complicated - on one hand yes they are supposedly anti-fossil fuels and are saying to replace them with electrified alternatives - on the other the website has so many pro-AI articles that do have some anti-ff messaging but also an underlying "well it does suck but it's unrealistic to power them with anything else so whacu gonna do"
Some data centers have invested in transmission and distribution networks, at times increasing their investment by over 35% to connect to the grid. Still, concerns about the energy deficit and the impacts of fossil fuels haven’t affected new investments, Rivera Cerecedo said.
“We aren’t seeing a slowdown in the industry,” she said. “The effort that companies developing data centers are making to stay in Mexico is big.”
Idk I'm just saying that this may not be pro-fossil fuels but its still definitely pro-capitlaism and industrial exploitation under the veneer of neo-liberal human rights concerns..
“My goal is to change hearts and minds.” Sophie Schmidt, the founder of Rest of World, an Award-winning nonprofit international journalism organization focused on the impact of technology beyond the Western bubble. Brunswick's Kirsty Cameron reports.
The amount of people downvoting this very insightful and well written article is particularly inordinate. People just want to pretend that things have no consequences? Rarely, if ever, do market forces create happy-go-lucky stories about global production chains
I guess if it looks like something commissioned by the oil industry, people assume it is. The headline looks like something a bot would link me to try to convince me how "an electric car is the same as an f150 in the end".
Mining nickel looks like it sucks and there's some real consequences to it, but I feel like I'm hearing about it for an other reason.
"We can’t simply wait and assume that a potential Russian attack won't come before 2029," German intelligence chief Martin Jaeger said. "We’re already under fire today."
I mean this was true 20 years ago, it wasn't as obvious before they invaded Georgia in 2008 (let alone now), but multi decade research (including research that accounts for preference falsification) has clearly shown a consistent level of support among a strong majority of russian society for genocidal imperialism.
Russian society's genuine love for genocidal imperialism has nothing to do with propaganda (if that's what you were referring to).
Mind you, they are fully capable of change, they just don't want to and have no incentive to do (Westerners enabling and promoting their victim-hood narratives only contributes to this).
Russian society’s genuine love for genocidal imperialism has nothing to do with propaganda (if that’s what you were referring to).
Oh, I'd venture that propaganda is one big contributor to that sentiment, even if the sentiment has been present for a very long time (certainly since WW2). Old horseshit is still horseshit.
Look at American exceptionalism as another example of long-standing unfounded belief that's exploited by many factions of that country's ruling elite.
As I said, I don't buy the propaganda excuse. Independent information sources (in russian) have always been easily available and accessible by all (literally in under 10 seconds). Just look at the creation dates of the DW Russian or BBC Russian YT channels (or even their own TV Dozdh). By mid 2010s YT was widely available not only on desktop, but even on smartphones. Not to mention russians full well know what the KGB is like and how dishonest they are.
Let me give you an illustrative example.
You have Vladimir Kara-murza, darling of the west, went to jail for public opposition to the full scale invasion, western educated and with UK citizenship. And yet here is a recent statement from Kara-Murza:
There is another reason why the Russian Defense Ministry recruits so many members of ethnic minorities [to fight in the war against Ukraine]: as it turns out, because it is psychologically really difficult for [ethnic] Russians to kill Ukrainians. Because we are one people. We are very close peoples, as everybody knows. We have nearly the same language, the same religion, and centuries of history in common. But if it’s someone from another culture, allegedly it’s easier [for them to kill Ukrainians]. I hadn’t really thought about it before. I thought the reasons were primarily economic. But after what [a colleague who spoke about the Buryats] said, I started thinking about it too.
He said this in a speech to the French senate, no less!
We are not on people and I want nothing to with any of them, be it putin or Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Putin’s anxiety is understandable. The Kremlin knows that public opposition to the Ukraine war is much greater than what its propaganda would admit.
Is Vladimir Kara-Murza under the influence of propaganda while living in the west?
Agreed regarding the negative elements of American exceptionalism. But people in the US have a spectrum of views and the US has had a measure of dynamism in terms of social attitudes. The same cannot be said about the overwhelming majority of russians.
Julia Khazagaeva takes issue with Vladimir Kara-Murza's claim that Russia's ethnic minorities find it easier to kill Ukrainians than ethnic Russians do.
they couldn't and still can't handle their neighbor, so what makes them think they're now all the sudden ready for a new multinational conflict? what is Russian for spread too thin? reliance on their asset djt is helping them but is it enough?
Their state of being unable to handle their neighbour is that they are winning incredibly slowly.
They don't have the ability to conquer anyone else, but that's not the only hot conflict that there can be. Drone attacks? Border skirmishes? Missiles "getting lost"?
Europe has also not successfully increased its military production to cope with the increased threat, so much of Europe's ability to fight back is tied up in Ukraine
All casualties that Putin doesn't give a shit about, so why is that important, really? There may come a point where Russia's high casualty rate has significant domestic impact, but it is not yet. With control of the media, Putin is able to paint a much rosier picture at home, and when his military's ranks are swollen with convicts and North Koreans, the actual losses are of lower impact to begin with.
To put it another way: if Russia is currently losing, what would you call a state in which Russia stops advancing? What would you call a state in which Ukraine were able to take back - and then hold - territory?
People who talk shit about how Russia is losing, is idiotic and so on, I think still have the mentality most people did in the first months of the invasion, when Russia had just been shown to be a complete paper tiger relative to prior expectations. A war they were supposed to win in a few days is still going, and they haven't won it yet - a terrible humiliation for Russia. But the fact that they suffered a terrible humiliation, were ridiculously less powerful than most people believed, doesn't mean they're losing. "Slowly gaining territory at great cost" is not losing. Achieving a victory for Ukraine means a change from the current state of affairs; they need more weapons and support than they are currently receiving.
You haven't actually disagreed with any of the potential things I pointed at Russia being able to do, or at Europe's slow rearmament. Those were the substantive things.
All casualties that Putin doesn't give a shit about, so why is that important, really?
The Russians should put you in charge of signing up new recruits. LMAO
There may come a point where Russia's high casualty rate has significant domestic impact, but it is not yet.
Definitely put you in charge of the enlistment PR team. LMAO
With control of the media, Putin is able to paint a much rosier picture at home, and when his military's ranks are swollen with convicts and North Koreans, the actual losses are of lower impact to begin with.
That explains all the state controlled media encouraging all Russians to take lots of road trips. LMAO
To put it another way: if Russia is currently losing, what would you call a state in which Russia stops advancing? What would you call a state in which Ukraine were able to take back - and then hold - territory?People who talk shit about how Russia is losing, is idiotic and so on, I think still have the mentality most people did in the first months of the invasion, when Russia had just been shown to be a complete paper tiger relative to prior expectations. A war they were supposed to win in a few days is still going, and they haven't won it yet - a terrible humiliation for Russia.
At least you've correctly identified Russia's terrible humiliation. Special Military Operation. LMAO
But the fact that they suffered a terrible humiliation, were ridiculously less powerful than most people believed, doesn't mean they're losing.
Make that your first recruiting slogan. LMAO
"Slowly gaining territory at great cost" is not losing.
To learn more, contact your local Recriting Officer. LMAO
Achieving a victory for Ukraine means a change from the current state of affairs; they need more weapons and support than they are currently receiving.
Yeah, they've only been able to kill a smidgen over a million Russians with their meager resources. Thankfully, the Russians haven't sustained any serious equipment losses. LMAO
You haven't actually disagreed with any of the potential things I pointed at Russia being able to do, or at Europe's slow rearmament.
Sorry, I wasn't able to see any of your points through the field of one point one million sunflowers. LMAO
Most of your reply is just continuing down this nonsensical fantasy. Are you ok?
You still haven't replied to the points about European preparedness potential future russian aggression, and have now to top it all conflated casualties and deaths.
Lmao indeed. But I'm guessing you won't be laughing the next time a cargo ship registered conveniently in the Caribbean "accidentally" causes damage to Western interests. Will you then connect your complacency to what's happening?
You still haven't replied to the points about European preparedness potential future russian aggression, and have now to top it all conflated casualties and deaths.Lmao indeed.
Russians have treachery going for them, and that's about it. As far as military might is concerned, you can watch Russian soldiers, pilots, operators, drivers, vehicles explode in Ukraine. Up close and personal footage.
But I'm guessing you won't be laughing the next time a cargo ship registered conveniently in the Caribbean "accidentally" causes damage to Western interests. Will you then connect your complacency to what's happening?
Sabotage and treachery. This is what you do when you don't have the Might. Whatever master plan you're trying to spell out is an increasingly lame Hail Mary. If you want an accurate assessment of what they're capable of militarily, land, air, or sea, watch them bleed during the Special Military Operation.
Cool! And since "sabotage and treachery" are perfectly capable of dealing great damage to Ukraine and other European nations alike, we should not be gung ho about Russia.
Cool! And since "sabotage and treachery" are perfectly capable of dealing great damage to Ukraine and other European nations alike, we should not be gung ho about Russia.
Conversely, we can watch them hemorrhage abroad, while all their domestic refineries burn.
They are slowly gaining ground. If the war stopped today with the front line frozen they would have failed to achieve key objectives but would have succeeded in stealing vast amounts of territory with natural resources, people and industry (whatevers not destroyed), securing a corridor to Crimea, intimidating many small countries, and creating a bigger buffer between Russia proper and unfriendly countries.
Russia is using WWII equipment, Ukraine recently retook a big piece of land, Russia's economy is on the brink of collapse, opposition of the regime grows bolder day by day.
Yeah it's pretty ridiculous. The outcome is what matters, though.
Ukraine recently retook a big piece of land
I don't think this is true, and in any case, Russia is still advancing consistently. Go on DeepStateMAP and check the past few months (not every day - just once per month) and you will get the picture: no major breakthroughs, but grinding advancement.
Russia’s economy is on the brink of collapse
It's been massively weakened by sanctions but a quick google for russian economy "brink of collapse" reveals as many articles predicting this as dispelling the predictions going back at least two years.
Gaining ground isn't the same thing as winning, a lesson that the Russians should be all too familiar with, as it's how they beat the Germans in WW2 (though a more accurate point of comparison would be Germany's failure against the West in WW1; they held significant ground in France at the time of their surrender. It wasn't that their lines collapsed or that they were outmanoeuvred on the battlefield; it was their economy that could no longer bear the weight of the war). It is, in fact, an extremely effective strategy to slowly cede ground at a cost that is too high for your aggressor to bear, and that's exactly what Ukraine is doing to Russia. This doesn't mean Ukraine is guaranteed to win, but their success largely depends on the continued support of their allies in Europe and North America. Whereas Russia has no real clear path to success at this point.
Russian doctrine relies on punching a hole, moving and exploiting that gap to create a salient and outmanoeuvre your enemy. Ukraine has gotten too good at entrenching, and is creating deeply layered defences that the Russians have no way to break through in a decisive fashion, and Ukraine is being extremely careful with it's manpower, whereas Russian continues to waste theirs on pointless attacks and dispersed operations. We're seeing constant footage and reports of Russian sections consisting of only 2-4 men attacking over open ground with no vehicle support, and getting picked off as they come in by Ukrainian machine gun positions and FPVs. The Russian economy is grinding to a halt under the weight of the war; they held out a lot longer in the face of sanctions than anyone in the West predicted, but the choices they made early on to keep the economy flowing are now turning into major pain points (massive interest rate hikes to control inflation now turning into a serious lack of investment and consumer spending, dumped foreign currency reserves used to float the rouble now leaving them with no fallback for the hard times ahead, etc). Ukraine has developed new long range attack drones that can strike deep into Russia, opening up all of their industry, and particularly their oil refining capabilities, to attack. Russia is so big that they simply cannot defend all of it from aerial attack, and Ukraine's intel is good enough that they can continually shift their focus to wherever Russia isn't defending.
This is why Putin is eager to talk peace now. He would love to, as you describe, stop with their current gains. That would actually constitute a win. The longer this goes on for, the worse it gets for Russia, while Ukraine can continue to hold out for as long as we continue to stand with them and keep them supplied. Their manpower losses are serious, but manageable if they continue with their current strategies, and while Russia continues to hammer their infrastructure, Ukraine has superior - and more efficient - air defence and most of their manufacturing happens outside of the country where Russia can't hit it.
Russian doctrine relies on punching a hole, moving and exploiting that gap to create a salient and outmanoeuvre your enemy.
According to whom?
According to the actual battlefield, Russian doctrine relies on throwing wave after wave of poorly trained criminals and shanghaied DPR/LPR citizens into the machine guns, artillery and drones of the Ukrainians.
Don't get me wrong, there are massive weaknesses, and we may see Ukraine exploit them. But we aren't seeing that translate to battlefield success. Putin hasn't shown any eagerness to talk peace; only the same old "peace" meaning capitulation. He's been keen on that since the beginning.
Funnily enough, experts on Russian battlefield doctrine. The ones I talked to all work in the CAF, but you're welcome to search up your own sources on the subject. This guy was the commander of the US armed forces in Europe from 2014 to 2017, so I'd say he probably knows his stuff, and his analysis aligns with that of the experts I've spoken with;
If you're trying to understand the disconnect between their doctrine and what's actually playing out on the battlefield, it's surprisingly simple really. This is what happens when you have an inflexible command structure that relies exclusively on doctrine and rigid adherence to chain of command (eg, individual soldiers are basically just machines to operated by their superiors), mixed with a huge amount of institutional corruption and an unwillingness to report the basic facts of the situation on the ground because it's politically unfavourable to admit that things aren't going to plan. The doctrine says "Smash a hole" so they try, and fail, repeatedly to smash that hole. That leads to waves of men being thrown at targets to no effect because if you haven't smashed the hole you can't move on to step two, so you just keep on repeating step one.
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The Russian thirst for poorly trained conscripts cannot be adequately explained by corruption and poor reporting obscuring what's actually happening. At some point you have to accept the possibility that Putin knows what's happening and is ok with it.
Sure, it's possible that Russia hasn't changed its doctrine in 3 years, but it seems unlikely. Old doctrine is obsolete on a battlefield where all movements are immediately observed and armoured vehicles are more vulnerable due to a proliferation of anti tank weapons.
But throwing cannon fodder at the guns to reveal where they are, then shooting them with something else - that never stops working as long as you have cannon fodder.
I wonder if we're just arguing over whether this strategy is something deserving of praise, with you thinking that, since I characterise the balance favouring Russia, I think this is strategic genius? In case of that, I don't; it's stupid and wasteful. But it's also working in the sense that it's gradually pushing Ukraine back.
The Russian thirst for poorly trained conscripts cannot be adequately explained by corruption and poor reporting obscuring what's actually happening.
I'm really not sure why you feel this needs any further explanation. I've already covered how their doctrine is failing them, and it's resulting in troops being pushed into the meat grinder instead. If you're confused on some particular point, maybe try asking questions instead.
But throwing cannon fodder at the guns to reveal where they are, then shooting them with something else - that never stops working as long as you have cannon fodder.
75% of battlefield kills in Ukraine are made by explosive equipped FPV suicide drones. These can attack from any position and angle, and can loiter in an area for a long time, so the notion that they're revealing the position of enemy guns with these attacks does not hold up to the reality on the battlefield. It may be the belief of some of the commanders that that's what they're doing, but if so, they're wrong.
But it's also working in the sense that it's gradually pushing Ukraine back.
I covered this in my first reply in this conversation. If you're going to repeat arguments that I've already countered, without offering any additional counterargument or support for your claim, then I might as well try to have a debate about quantum physics with a toddler.
I covered this in my first reply in this conversation.
What you specifically said was "It is, in fact, an extremely effective strategy to slowly cede ground at a cost that is too high for your aggressor to bear" but then ignored the fact that Russia seems extremely willing to bear the cost it is paying.
75% of battlefield kills in Ukraine are made by explosive equipped FPV suicide drones.
Most FPV drone kills are not first strikes against moving troops. They are more often used to to prevent recovery of a disabled vehicle or to finish off someone who's wounded. There is a first-hand account of this here but if you're following the war and think back to videos you've seen of FPV kills you'll probably recognise this.
I’m really not sure why you feel this needs any further explanation.
Think of it this way then: if you can explain a phenomenon by a potential adversary as either a conscious choice or a blunder, attributing it to a blunder is risky, because you start to assume that party is incompetent.
Don't forget the context: I replied to a comment saying that Russia could never threaten another country because it was struggling so much in Ukraine. I don't mean that it's "slowly winning" to mean, "I am very confident that, without other changes, Russia will win, but it will just take many years." I mean that Russia is advancing, able to maintain an effective fighting force and remains a real threat.
There are very real reasons to think that Ukraine's war against Russia's oil economy will eventually provide the pressure away from the frontline that forces Russia to capitulate. But we can't be at all confident of this; economic collapse has, as I mentioned before, been repeatedly predicted and has not yet come to pass. That doesn't mean it won't, but it means that confidence about Russia's inability to threaten violence against other states is dangerously misplaced.
Ukraine's economy is only able to maintain its effort due to massive support from its allies. But Russia has powerful allies too: it would be a foreign policy loss for China if Russia fails; China wants the same "spheres of influence" thinking that Putin does (and Trump does) to prevail internationally.
If you want to say that Russia's slow battlefield progress is of little importance to the war in Ukraine I'd be inclined to agree with you, but if you want to stand by the original comment that Russia's struggles in Ukraine indicate its threats must be toothless I hope I've explained why I disagree.
In 2024 and 2025, I served for six months as an international volunteer on a first-person view attack drone team in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. My team
Thank you for clarifying. I think I have a better grasp of your argument now.
First, I'll try to offer a clarification of my own; when I talk about Russia's preference for rapid breakthrough operations, I've been using the term "doctrine" very specifically. What you're describing is not doctrine, but strategy. Doctrine is neither strategy, nor tactics, but it informs and guides both. I don't disagree that the current Russian strategy is one of disposable conscript assaults, but I suspect that strategy largely arises from the failures of their doctrine in the face of the realities of the conflict, and is not as deliberate a choice as you seem to think. I don't think there's really a way for either of us to be proven right here, as we'd need to be in the room with the Russian generals to say for sure.
Most FPV drone kills are not first strikes against moving troops. They are more often used to to prevent recovery of a disabled vehicle or to finish off someone who’s wounded.
I've read the linked account previously. It's an excellent and informative read, but it's value is deeply limited. Unfortunately, I can't provide many of the countervailing sources that I have access to, because I'm working from direct conversations with people with significant expertise and first hand knowledge, as opposed to documentary sources. I get that that's a claim anyone could make, and I'll freely acknowledge that I have no way to back it up. Trust me or don't, your call. But basically Jakub is speaking from a very limited, anecdotal view of the battlefield. His account may well be true for where he was stationed and what he was doing, but the broader statistics have shown that FPV drones have become the primary source of battlefield casualties, on both sides. This doesn't mean they're the primary mode of attack, per se, but they are the mode that is most consistent in creating casualties. This article from Kyiv Post covers it well, and while I don't consider them an unbiased source, the statistics cited actually come directly from the Russian MOD, and I can't see any value to them in lying about this; overstating the effectiveness of Ukraine's drones would, if anything, make Russia look worse here. According to Russian figures only 20% of battlefield casualties are caused by artillery, and only 4% by small arms. This pretty directly contradicts the claims Jakub makes in his account. I think it also largely speaks to how the war has more or less become a stalemate. Attacks from both sides are limited; even the Russian "human waves" aren't so much waves as very small groups of soldiers, as Gen. Ben Hodges describes in the video I linked earlier.
Don’t forget the context: I replied to a comment saying that Russia could never threaten another country because it was struggling so much in Ukraine. I don’t mean that it’s “slowly winning” to mean, “I am very confident that, without other changes, Russia will win, but it will just take many years.” I mean that Russia is advancing, able to maintain an effective fighting force and remains a real threat.
OK, so more broadly here, I think there's actually a lot we agree on. Yes, it would be deeply foolish to see Russia as a paper tiger, and yes, regardless of where we differ on Russia's state of play in Ukraine, the fact remains that they are certainly able to maintain an effective fighting force outside of that conflict, and would absolutely be able to prosecute additional limited conflicts (we'll get to that in a moment) while maintaining their position in Ukraine. But there are reasons for that that I think undermine some of your argument.
Basically, the problem for Russia is that they're not really able to fully commit to the war in Ukraine. This isn't a "total war" for them, and Putin lacks the ability to convince the Russian public that it should be treated as one. That's a key difference between Russia and Ukraine right now. The Ukrainian people will accept significant hardship if it means victory, because victory is the only path to survival. But for Russia, this war is Putin's nation building project, and maybe a chance to flex a bit and show off their prowess on the world stage. The average Russian isn't ideologically committed to the conflict, and isn't about to accept, say, food rationing in order to win this fight. Thus, while it's true that a significant portion of Russia's overall military capability remains at their disposal, that's because it is politically untenable for them to use it. Even their apparently endless manpower isn't truly endless; conscription waves come at a significant cost, both in terms of political capital (Russian elections may be a fraud, but dictators still only rule because people allow them to, as many kings and tyrants have learned throughout history; Putin is a keen student of history and painfully aware of this fact), and in terms of the economic impact of sending a generation of young men to die in a war instead of allowing them to contribute to your workforce. These costs are growing unsustainable for Russia, and as Ukraine's strikes on their gas refining capabilities continue to bite that will only grow worse.
While I agree that Russia could, in theory, commit significant resources to a wider conflict, there would need to be a reason for them to do so. This is why I say that Russia would have the ability to prosecute additional limited conflicts. That rules out almost every potential target they have at present; an invasion of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Turkey, or Japan would be a total war with all of NATO, and that's a fight that they would lose. Without the ability to conjure up some existential threat that would make such a war seem completely necessary to the Russian people, there's simply no way for Putin to move in that direction without facing down a full scale public revolt. Either in the short term or the long term it would guarantee the collapse of their government, either because NATO marches on Moscow or their own people do. I'm not saying this lightly; I have friends and loved ones who would likely be the very first in the line of fire if Putin did decide to open up a broader conflict. But I simply do not see a realistic version of events where a broader war with NATO is something that Putin can risk.
Yeah we're not actually that far apart, if at all 😀
The only way they're going to engage in violence anyone else is if they can be confident that it won't incur a response on the order of a NATO counterattack (or even much less). In the mainstream media this is often where the discussion stops, but it's worth considering how Russia and the West are already engaging in actions that could be seen as acts of war: cyber-attacks, airspace incursions from Russia; boarding ships (and presumably also cyber-attacks and airspace incursions our media just doesn't talk about) from the West. There are levels of aggression that will not be met with such a full-throated response, and Russia uses those acts to attempt to punish the West for its support of Ukraine already.
The scope exists there for more escalation, and that is where vigilance must be directed.
No argument on any of those points, I think you nailed it. My concern however is that we're seeing a lot of stuff in the media talking about Russia's readiness for another conventional war, and while that assessment is accurate, it needs much better framing than it's currently getting. When Zelensky is running around saying that Russia is gearing up for another invasion, that's just blatant bullshit. I get it, he needs to fearmonger to keep the weapons to Ukraine flowing, and I respect the hustle, but I worry that people are being worked up into this fear of Russian "escalation" that's going to actually lead to more people pushing for appeasement out of fear of what Russia can do.
Yes, they're not a paper tiger, and if pushed into a conflict with NATO, they could certainly make that conflict a brutal and bloody one (especially if the US sat it out), but that's not the same thing as "Putin will nuke the world if we so much as look at him funny", which is the message that people are getting from the current discussions around Russia's military capabilities. There needs to a better, more informed, more nuanced conversation about the realities of Russia's ability to prosecute a wider scale war.
And I think it is important to discuss the fact that Russia is currently losing this war, despite what their gradual battlefield progress would suggest. That matters because we need the average member of the public to understand that an end is in sight. Our continued support can see Ukraine through this, and there is a version of events where Russia is forced to capitulate and agree to at least somewhat neutral terms for an armistice. No, Ukraine is never going to be rolling tanks into Moscow, but that's not the only version of victory possible. We need people to understand that in order to justify the resources we're supplying to Ukraine (resources that are, it must be emphasised, currently allowing us to tie up and potentially defeat a major threat at a fraction of the cost of a conventional war).
Ukraine has developed new long range attack drones that can strike deep into Russia, opening up all of their industry, and particularly their oil refining capabilities, to attack. Russia is so big that they simply cannot defend all of it from aerial attack, and Ukraine’s intel is good enough that they can continually shift their focus to wherever Russia isn’t defending.
It is especially delicious how Russia's greatest advantage in this war - their size relative to Ukraine, hence significantly higher manpower and resources than Ukraine, as well as territorial depth that let them have important military facilities beyond the range of Ukraine, has been turned by Ukraine into one of Russia's worst strategical weaknesses.
Anywhere in Ukraine can be hit by Russia, even with shitty shit drones like Shaheed, so Ukranians adapted, plus comparativelly to Russia their's is a smaller country hence with fewer sites of strategical value, which means having enough AA to take down most of Russia's missiles and long-range drones is actually possible, which is why Russia's ever larger mass attacks of late have had so much less effect than smaller attacks did at the start of the Invasion.
Meanwhile Russia's strategically important infrastructure is all over a large country, so they would have to deploy AA to defend every individual site and they don't have enough of the kind of AA that can successfully deal with low-flying drones (it doesn't matter how good their coverage with longer range systems like the S-500 is when that weapon system is not suitable to deal with Cessna-152s converted into drones flying at low altitude plus each missile costs many times more than each of those drones).
One consequence of Russia invading Ukraine is that Finland and Sweden joined Nato. Finland has a 1,340 km border with Russia, so Putin has not created a "bigger buffer" - he has managed to double Russia's border with Nato. Also, the countries you label as unfriendly are peaceful countries who are only 'unfriendly' to Russia because they worry about Russian imperialist expansion, and Russia's aggression habit.
The whole border argument is silly anyway. Russia has the longest border of any country, and they expect that border to be surrounded with buffer states that they control. If they engulf them, then there's an even bigger border and more states to seize control over. It doesn't take much to see the self-serving imperialist logic of this position. They'll grab evrything they can until they're stopped. That's the real situation.
Answer me these questions: Is Russia INVADING Ukraine? If so, do they succesfully hold any Ukrainian land? Then they're winning. Even if they only hold and keep east+Crimea, that means they won and gained territory. How does this not compute to some of you?
Ok so what you are telling me is that a country which invades another is still winning even if their army is in full retreat, as long as they remain in the other without giving up?
I am taking your logic to the extreme trying to find the limits of it, you simply stated that as long Russia hols land in Ukraine then Russia is winning, which misses most data telling how well the parties are doing.
Their state of being unable to handle their neighbour is that they are winning incredibly slowly.
They're winning so slowly that they've advanced essentially nowhere after their intial gains three years ago.
Their foreign trade is down the shitter since their ability to export fossil fuels has been badly degraded, and if they run out of money before they win, they're fucked.
Threatening and posturing to destabilize Europe and NATO, while going heavily on grey zone warfare and divisive misinformation campaigns. At the top, should not want any kinetic warfare against NATO, but rhetoric, 'yes' men, and arrogance may make some think they can and should.
That's Putin, always claiming he's got a royal flush even when just holding a pair to try to intimidate the opponent into folding. It's the same every time.
Saddest part is his grand strategy is literally open source, i.e. "Foundations of Geopolitics", written by a Russian ultra nationalist, taught in Russian military academy's. Main points are weakening NATO and US by supporting internal strife and divisions, allowing Russia to take back its "land" and sphere of influence.
Top many willing useful idiots for them to use. . .
I read that book, boy it's a steaming crock of shit. They are following the worst book second to mein kampf that has soo many misconceptions that you really get a sense on why Russia is such a shithole.
Also and as somebody else pointed out, if makes sense for him to try and scare European nations so that they refrain from sending as many weapons and ammo to Ukraine because of thinking they might need those to defend themselves from Russia.
So a sabble-rattling discourse and even the recent air-space intrusions by Russian military planes are cheap ways of trying to get the strategical gain of Ukraine receiving fewer weapons from the rest of Europe and even if those things fail he loses nothing from doing them (at this point, he's hardly going to get in a worst situation than he already put himself in).
It makes absolute sense to pursue a strategy where at best you gain something and at worst you lose nothing.
Now, if the response to the Russian intrusion in European airspace had been for European nations to set up and enforce a no fly for Russia inside Ukraine, that would've definitelly been a loss for him (at the very least the rest of Europe would protect Western Ukraine from Russian drones and air assets, freeing Ukranian assets to be used elsewhere), but the leaderships of European nations have yet to show a willingness or capability to act decisivelly like that as a group: even the help with weapons and ammo took ages to get going properly, was riddled with "red lines" (like "no tanks", then "no jets", then "no long range cruise missiles" and who could forget the whole "can't be used against Russian territory" artificial limitation) and there was a lot of feet-dragging, especially from Germany) so actual direct intervention even if only with air assets doesn't seem likely as response to "mere" Russian air space intrusions and unconventional warfare that can be denied (cyber attacks, election interference, support for extreme political forces, cutting of undersea cables and so on).
It's time for you guys to decide whether you want direct war with Russia or not. Imagining that they aren't ready for it, and this is just a diversion, is seriously risky. I'm nervous with how Europeans are getting bolder the more Ukraine fails to fulfil its military objectives. Nobody is doing more than doubling down on political narratives that were dry in 2022.
I can tell you don't read Ukrainian newspapers by your blind dismissal of any military shortcomings. They bicker about it constantly. Why do you think Zaluzhny as exiled?
You clearly don't understand how organizational hierarchies work. In his position as ambassador he has zero leverage on military strategy, as he did in his military position. Why do you think he was removed from decisionmaking and the country itself?
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When they are under the Phutatorius Law, I will demand tributes of charcuterie, stinky cheese and Belgian monk beer. Also some good doctors and personal trainers to keep me from becoming too much of a lard-ass while enjoying the spoils.
Japan had an aircraft carrier fleet rivaling the US, better carrier fighter planes than the US, and were occupying a lot of China, who was a peer opponent. It also took a US-USSR alliance to take them down.
Russia on the other hand is able to wreak a lot of havoc, and is also good on some technological fronts, like drone warfare, espionage and ballistic missiles, but it has recently lost a lot of its fleet against an opponent with no navy, and is stuck in trench warfare with equipment that in WWII would be the equivalent of muskets.
This whole posturing is because Russia ran out of easily recruitable people, and needs internal justification to start throwing in conscripts as well.
Oh, BTW it's "Wunderwaffe", if you want a "Wunderwaffle", go to Brussels, they put strawberries and cream on it so high it won't fit in your mouth.
I don't think they work anymore. I would have thought he would have used a small one by now especially after Ukraine made advances into Russian territory.
But what the fuck do I know, I'm just a guy front of a monitor speculating on things I'm not qualified to speculate on.
I follow a few sites but can’t filter Lemmy by domain or follow domains, so I want to create a community where a bot reposts my RSS feed to surface the most interesting items from those sources. Which Lemmy instances or communities are bot-friendly, have signups enabled, and permit this kind of mass automated posting?
I think that the guys at lemmy.dbzer0.com might not be against it
Although, I think one community containing all the feeds you are interested of might be a little bit too personal for a general population instance. It might be better to set up your own instance, with just one community and join it from the account you use
There is also ibbit.at !meta@ibbit.at but with that one, I guess you will have to ask for separate communities per feed and the admin does care about the type of content it would be pulling
There is also ibbit.at !meta@ibbit.at but with that one, I guess you will have to ask for separate communities per feed and the admin does care about the type of content it would be pulling
This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, and I see the sources I wanted are already there, so there's no need to post my own.
Most instances will let u create Jr own community to do that but u won't get any human sorting ap lied that way without building a community around it. Most people would be upset if u did it in existing public comms. I run !news_summary@hilariouschaos.com where I do a similar thing but with AI summaries. The bot is foss and takes RSS feeds as the input.
If you are familiar with Azure there is the project PandaCap by @lizard_socks@lemmy.world which is a self-hosted reader for activity-pub, ATProtocol, RSS/Atom and integrated with DeviantArt and other art sites.
ASP.NET Core Identity is backed by an in-memory database (since 11.1.0); the only allowed login method is via Microsoft account, but DeviantArt and Reddit accounts can be added in user management (which will connect these accounts to Pandacap's main database).
Does this literally mean I need a Microsoft account to run this on my own machine, or is that only for deploying on Azure?
You'd need to change the code so it uses some other OAuth provider to log in - and presumably to check the username that comes back from the OAuth provider to make sure it's yours. It would probably be pretty simple, I just haven't written it myself. Since I deploy it to Azure, it was already dependent on me having a Microsoft account, and I didn't want it to depend on a second account too.
I've been working on a frontend/browser client for "exploring" activitypub instances in my spare time, and CORS basically requires me to have some sort of separate server process that can fetch and auth using my account(s). I'm unsure of how much sense it would make to try to bolt my client on top of your software, but at least now I know I can try without needing to involve a Microsoft account.
Afghan Taliban forces have attacked Pakistani border posts in what it called "retaliation" for an air strike on Kabul.
Pakistani officials said their forces were responding "with full force" to what they called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan.
Pakistan's government did not confirm it was behind Thursday's air strike, but called on Afghanistan to stop harbouring the Pakistani Taliban, which has targeted Pakistani security forces.
Let go of any fear of others expectations for you as soon as you can. Explore what interests you and don’t let others stop you. People come and go, but they’ll come to you faster than they leave if you’re a confident and passionate person. You can only be that if you work on figuring out how you want to live and chase that life.
My guess is that because hardware support, you can install PC Linux on pretty much any system, but I am unaware of mobile Linux os that officially supports my phone.
This week is KDE’s 29th anniversary. It may not be a nice round number like 25 or 30, but whenever another birthday rolls around for an independent project the size and scope of KDE — powered by the goodwill of its contributors and users — that’s really quite something!
This year KDE are celebrating by kicking off their yearly fundraiser. Let’s raise at least €50,000 before the end of the year!
This week is KDE’s 29th anniversary. It may not be a nice round number like 25 or 30, but whenever another birthday rolls around for an independent project the size and scope of KDE — powered by the goodwill of its contributors and users — that’s rea…
A group of Chinese citizens attempted to cross the border between Serbia and Croatia illegally; one of them died
Two such cases of illegal border crossings have been recorded in the last two months
Some European countries are warning of an increased influx of Chinese citizens arriving via human smuggling routes in the Western Balkans
Serbia and China have had a visa-free regime since 2017
Serbia: Chinese citizen died as overloaded boat capsized on Danube river while attempting to cross the border illegally and flee to EU
A Chinese citizen died when a boat capsized on the Danube between Serbia and Croatia while attempting to cross the border illegally.
In the last two months, there have been two recorded cases of groups of Chinese citizens attempting to cross the border between Serbia and Croatia illegally.
Miroslava Jelačić Kojić from the non-governmental organization Group 484 [said] that there are trends indicating that Chinese citizens are increasingly becoming victims of human trafficking in the Western Balkans.
[...]
“Italian authorities have warned that there has been an increase in the number of Chinese citizens who have been smuggled and that they have also been moving along the Western Balkan route,” she said.
[...]
Serbia and China have had a visa-free regime since 2017, which means that citizens of both countries can reside or transit through the territory of China and Serbia for up to 30 days from the date of entry.
As a candidate for European Union membership, Serbia maintains close ties with China and is strengthening political, economic, and military cooperation.
[...]
Serbian rescue services found four injured Chinese citizens, while Croatian rescue services pulled five more Chinese citizens from the Danube.
Dragoslav Živković, acting deputy chief of the Vukovar-Srijem police administration, told the media [...] that, according to initial information, the individuals had attempted to cross the state border from Serbia to Croatia illegally.
[..]
The boat reportedly capsized due to overloading, with ten Chinese and one Serbian citizen on board.
[...]
The Western Balkan corridor is also mentioned in a January statement by Europol, the EU police agency, when it announced the dismantling of a sophisticated Chinese criminal network.
The network was involved in illegal immigration and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Raids in Barcelona, Madrid, and Toledo in Spain, and in Zagreb in Croatia, led to the arrest of 30 people, including the leaders of the criminal network.
Senior members of the government are urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reassess his policy toward China and take a tougher stance on the risks it poses to UK national security.
At least two cabinet members want Starmer to decline permission for China to build a new mega-embassy near the City of London on security grounds.
The call for a tougher stance comes after a collapsed espionage case, which has led to intense scrutiny of Starmer's approach to China and allegations that his administration did not provide sufficient support to secure convictions.
I wouldn't get my hopes up, this is still an isolated local case. Though it should be mentioned that they also lost a couple percent in the communal elections in the west two weeks ago.
Meanwhile the ruling coalition is doing everything in their power to be as incompetent and corrupt as possible to ensure more votes for the AfD in the next federal election.
This is great news! No AfD! We don't need corporate lapdogs willing to sell their neighbors out in power in this country. I know we have the CDU issue still, but AfD would be worse.
Billionaires? Sure. Millionaires though... Someone getting their company successful through a good idea, hard work and a great ton of luck can become a millionaire. People with a million € or $ are not the main problem really. There will always be richer and poorer people. The problem is that we have people with 1000+ million, and that these people are yet getting even richer by simply just having that wealth. The difference between a million and a billion is enourmous.
TL,DR: Millionaires over something like 20 million dollars are unhealthy people, either by nature/nurture or by the inevitable corruption that isolating wealth causes. A good society would prevent that from happening, as that's bad for its citizens and dangerous for its stability. Individuals with nearly no accountability shouldn't have the power that comes with having 20+ million. Until everyone has 6 million dollars, no one should have 20+.
Full response: I think there's an amount of money that removes you from the experience of your neighbors, that isolates you from your community, and that gives you more power than should be allowable in a democracy. I think people lose their humanity after a certain dollar amount (and of course they have to - can you imagine having everything you could ever need or want taken care of for the rest of your life and your families life and then NOT giving away the excess to friends and family and your city and charity) and I also think some people who lost their humanity because of systemic issues pursue money and power infinitely. In both cases I think an ideal society, a good society, would prevent that accumulation from ever happening - it would limit the amount of wealth a person or entity can have relative to its peers.
Where is that line? My initial comment said hundred millionaires, but you asked about millionaires so let me perform my thought process for you.
I know billion dollars is too much. You shouldn't be able to count your wealth in the same units as small countries, that is wrong. If you can afford to rent a city or buy a government election or personally fund a NASA equivalent you have too much money and power.
I believe something like 6 million is fine. If you can make enough money to never have to work again, to provide for your family and pursue your dreams, I think that's probably healthy for society. In fact I think that's the goal for human society, to get to the point where everyone has everything they need and want satisfied so they can pursue whatever they're feeling.
So between 6 million or so and 1 billion I know there's a point where a person has too much money and every dollar of wealth should be taxed away. So let's double one and half the other.
12 million is enough to earn 600k a year on 5% interest. 360 on 3%. Both conservative values. I'd say that's at or approaching too much of a salary every year from doing nothing. Maybe that's fine but I've clearly become uncomfortable with it. At 600k a year I could kickstart any project I have ever wanted to do and just see which one's hit or miss. That's on the cusp of okay with me. So maybe my value is somewhere between 10 and 20 million.
500 million is enough to earn 25 million on 5%. That's definitively too much. If I could, by doing nothing, produce another person each year that I already think should be capped on wealth - I think that's too much power for an individual with little accountability. That money must be redistributed.
I think if I continued this I'd find that 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25 million are all way too much by my standard. So I want to tax every millionaire above 10-20 million out of existence for their safety and the safety of society and, because like housing or holiday potlucks, no one should get 2 houses/rounds/permanent-livable-wages before everyone gets 1.
But knowing that the education systems in the western world have systemically produced people who believe millionaires are cool and okay, and especially people who haven't thought about it long enough to form their own opinions on the matter, I tend to default to 100 million in online discourse because it is a number I think everyone can get behind.
Elect me your whatever and I guarantee to make everyone's lives better proportional to the power I'm given 😁 - starting with the just and healthy redistribution of wealth.
Yes, but that is one battle out of many more to come in a war. The AfD has to be decisively defeated and must stamped out for good, and destroy the source of sustenance for its hydra body to prevent another rise of fascism.
The source? Well I've always suspected some of that is Russia. MAGA too, but they get a load Russian support too. I think it's online bot farms as much as just out right corruption/donations/lobbying. When Ukraine defeats Russia, I wonder what knockons it will have.
I think it doesn't matter. There are so many far right parties all over the world, all of them normalizing the narrative, that it will take ages to revert. This envi can be easily exploited. It's an absolutely illogical clusterfuck.
It very much does matter. Without the troll farms and the social media that amplify them, the current far right parties would never have been as successful. Just ask any of their voters where they get their information from.
!Without the troll farms and the social media that amplify them, the current far right parties would never have been as successful.!< Fully agree, but now social media and troll farms and the necessary infrastructure is there. I sure hope it reverts without Russia, but I suspect, that other players will take over.
Just ask any of their voters where they get their information from.
OK, have you? Because it just seems like you're huffing your own farts while decrying the other guy huffing his own farts. What credible evidence do you have for 1) who the voters are, 2) where they're getting their information from?
And what information would you consider credible to see what these mythical voters that you claim to know personally think?
The rise of populist right stems from genuine frustrations on ruling elites and politicians. Russia isn't the cause, they only stoked the fire. And even if Russia collapses, the Pandora's box is already opened. The only way for the far right movements to be tempered is for politicians to actually do their jobs as sworn public servants.
To assuage you a bit. The AfD is a paper tiger inflated by the media. I'm not saying there is no chance for them to ever reach power, but right now it's not very likely. They lack something important: competent people in local politics. They don't care about local politics, they often lack the shoes to fill posts, or have people nobody likes, or have people whose only competence is to wail on immigrants.
That is the result of the media propping them up as a real threat and people taking them too serious. Like I said, they have the voters but not the manpower to back it up at leat not yet. (And polls tend to be higher for protest vote parties, as many decide to not follow through).
More concerning is the influence all the misinformation that is bombarding the next generation will have. The next far right party might have more fertile ground.
"Shitty candidate who only gets taken seriously because of the media coverage" is a trap many of my fellow Americans fell into in 2016. Don't make the same mistake we did and stomp them out while you have the chance.
You're correct, but current Germany's democracy is way more robust than US was. A party can't just rise to power with the power of bullshit, not quickly anyway. A party has to play with others, it is almost impossible to have all the power, so crazy people can't just usurp the country. AfD tries to appear less crazy than they are, but the evil shines through, so nobody wants to play ball with them
We're lucky that the allies did such a wonderful job of correting their own mistakes and making our system more robust after WW2 (not /s, seriously good job).
Yeah, it's a shame that they did such a good job in Germany but weren't able to import it back to their own countries. Imagine if it was as hard for right wing populists to get the power in the US, Russia, UK...
Media control over time is exactly how you build a base though. It's very fair to be concerned about the monster they could grow into in the future, especially with all the different news sources getting picked up by billionaires. By the time they're running the school boards and town halls it'll be too late.
The mouthpieces are replaceable. Considering how fast the AfD is radicalising it is likely they'll sabotage themselves before ever gaining real relevance. It's much more important to look at what put them there in the first place.
The way I see right wing misinformation pop up more and more as "sponsored" content here in Germany is worrying. The next far right party that eventually pops up will likely have a much bigger politically active base. And I don't want to think about the influence global warming will have...
Right wing is all about property protections, corporate interests and bank lobbies + upper class protection. Cultural stuff is just a distraction. Even average left wing nationalism (like the pan-arabist ones) protects local cultures better than profit driven right wing that only cares about "muh property and hierarchy" things.
Enligt uppgifter på sociala medier från en anställd på Flamman går det bra för Flamman. Under det senaste året har de redan nu haft fler besökare på sin webbsajt än totalt under något tidigare år.
Explore the American Airlines Dublin Terminal at Dublin Airport for smooth arrivals and departures. Find terminal location, check-in counters, baggage services, and helpful tips to enhance your travel experience. Whether you're flying in or out, this guide covers everything you need to know about the American Airlines terminal at DUB.
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Seems to be affecting a number of individuals. Usually OTAs go through deployment waves, and I’d expect that only certain combos of trims to be affected but it could also be a shit show deployment. Will be interesting to see what happens.
All I want is a car with modern engineering and simple technology. I'm fine with crank windows and a radio I can easily swap out. But I would like an engine that gets more than 7MPG and has crumple-zones that aren't my face. I don't need touchscreens and sensors for everything. And I sure as fuck don't want the manufacturer pushing out "updates" that can brick my car.
My 2014 Kia Rio has crank windows, no cruise control, 6-spd manual trans. No touchscreens--only buttons. Car is very slow (1.6L non-turbo) but gets ~36mpg average. I've gotten as much as 40 when actually driving for mpg.
Yes, slow by modern (and my) standards but compared to older cars it's quite good. And while peak power is low it makes decent torque in the midrange and is tuned well for daily driving.
I think they were doing the Nissan Versa like that for a while too. But it's definitely not common and should be for cars that aren't economy-boxes. And just to lay my shit out, I guess, my progression was: 1991 Plymouth Acclaim, 1990 Chevy Caprice Classic (loved that car), 2000 Chevy Monte Carlo (it blew up!), 2007 Hyundai Tucson, 2012 Hyundai Tucson.
I AM in the market for a new car...eventually. Have replace the engine on this one already and know it's on its last legs. But I don't see anything out there that I actually like. I kinda liked the Challenger, I guess...but I honestly am thinking about going back to cars from the 90s/80s again. I legit miss my Caprice.
A friend of mine had a Caprice Classic. Such a good car. It was soft and smooth and the economical 305 V8 made good torque while still getting good mpg!
It was a boat on wheels. But mine only got 7MPG. And that "twilight sentinel" nonsense never worked right. It did have some decent pickup for its size though.
20mpg doesn't really sound that far fetched for a 305 if you're mostly doing highway. Mine was a '78 and got around 14 in the city when just commuting. That thing could drink a lot more with a heavier foot though, lol
For a 350 to get 7mpg it would have to be a race built engine or simply run like garbage. I don't even know how you could get a 305 to get that poor mileage but 🤷♂️
A V8 has a lot of low RPM torque so if you drive with a light foot it can do very well. Most of the energy from an engine is used moving the car, not engine losses. A smaller engine is always going to do better at the same load, but the difference isn't going to be large if everything else is equal (which it often isn't)
Fuck dude, I drove 94 Acclaim across the country, and it was a pos then, but I miss that car. My current is a 05 Sierra, barebones, not even a radio anymore, I really like that it doesn't have much to break, and it's decently cheap to fix still
My 2016 versa is crank windows, no power locks, no cruise control, 5-speed manual transmission, no touch screen/complicated electronics in the dash. It’s been really nice minus I do miss cruise control.
I'm curious to see if there will be simpler electric cars in the future. Like the bare minimum electric circuit to make the car go forward. I could see a DIY kit for something like that. But the security standards these days ask for way more sensors and cameras to reduce risks of accidents wich is fair tbh.
Same here but also I don’t want a truck nor something with that low range. Aside from being not what I’m interested in , the “blank slate” concept is compelling enough to be very interesting. I’m definitely going to follow this.
For everyone reflexively hating on this “Bezos Mobile”, I’m well aware of the reputation Amazon built for itself. However they are promising something people could own. For a reasonable price. And even customize. Instead of jumping right to negativity, this warrants some optimism
A user here emailed slate asking if there would be any tracking, and they responded that it would not, as it wouldn't have the hardware to make that possible.
We'll see if they actually follow through on that.
Ownership has been flipped upside down for modern EV owners (and actually a lot more). You don't own the machine, nor the keys, you license the experience- software, data, and even the ability to start/ move the vehicle. 30k+ for remote access, EULAs, feature subscriptions to a connectivity mesh? Also the monthly connectivity costs and software updates for.. how long?
I'm not sure EV's are the brilliant solution to modern transport, entertainment perhaps but little to nothing to do with modern or futuristic transport.
That's a corpo problem, not an EV problem. They could very easily make a perfectly fine EV that isn't a shitty motorized "smart device", if they chose to. But they aren't. The EV push just happened to coincide with the global ramping up of automotive enshittification that had already begun for all cars regardless of their energy source.
Yes of course, electric motors are by and far more reliable, stronger, faster, cleaner, quieter, less polluting, simpler, easier to repair, cheaper.. should I continue..
I'm keeping a skeptical eye on them. I really like the concept obviously but remaining cautious for a number of reasons.
Obviously as the other replies mention, Jeff Bezos is one of the initial investors, but that's also true of Rivian. The important distinction is you don't have to get the massive tablet computer/nav/infotainment system that would be susceptible to these OTA updates.
Another reason is I was looking through available jobs that they were hiring for and a lot were AI-centric. It was unclear as to why, but obviously that just doesn't sit right. Regardless of whether they use it for customer support, automotive design, or infotainment embedding, I can't imagine a good reason and it was more than one type of position.
I picture an electric car with almost no dashboard at all. Just one dial for speed and another for remaining charge along with your odometer if you feel you must have that info. Maybe estimated mileage, but even that’s just spare info to someone who’s used to a classic fuel gauge.
In a car, the interior should fall away and the car should become an extension of the driver. Only by feeling the need to preserve the car do you drive with the necessary attention to protect yourself.
People seem to treat cars like roaming living rooms instead of the farm equipment they really are.
An American worker spending 1hr each way commuting to an 8hr+1hr lunch job is spending 2 out of 7 of their free hours in this machine. It's understandable that the demand for their vehicle to not be an oppressive environment would arise.
But I do agree that not all cars should be packed with these superfluous amenities
Most people who are cheap enough to do without the amenities still want them and so will buy a used car with all the amenities over a new car at the same price without.
Back camera, cruise control, no radio (data, fm, or am), no stupid fucking touchscreen interface, a dedicated phone holder, and I’m happy. My phone has plenty of sounds to play while I drive and I’ve literally never needed anything a car touchscreen has offered.
While I tend to agree with most people here, simpler is better and fuck touchscreens in cars, but I do prefer to have a functioning AM/FM radio. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, hell it doesn't even need USB/MP3/CD player or anything else, but living in a hurricane prone area, I like to be able to get emergency news reports even in the event the cell towers go out.
Katrina was no fun yo, especially when we found out the hard way that a chunk of the eastbound Interstate 10 bridge had collapsed. We sure could have used a working radio to find stuff like that out...
My manual transmission Subaru Impreza has Android Auto and a Reverse Camera. That's the most advanced part of the car. It's a dinosaur otherwise, with a transmission and drivetrain that debuted in 1999 and an engine that's rough but reliable. The instrument cluster has two gauges - speed and RPM. The rest are on a calculator LCD that displays numbers for fuel and miles travelled, and a billion different danger lights that tell you if there's a problem somewhere. It also has electric windows and door locks. And cruise.
The problems the car has as it gets older are none of the electrical bits - they all work fine. It's the rear wheel bearings, suspension bushings, and center differential that wear out over time. Ironically, the most basic, mechanical parts.
2018, so it's a 5th gen. They moved it to the Global Platform, so it's bigger and fatter. Ever since the WRC changed their rules (2016) to force a transverse drivetrain (like front wheel drive cars) for rally cars, that rule basically wrote Subaru out of the WRC.
They exist, but hard to find. Most people doing this are hobbyists doing the conversion for their own fun. They might help you with your project but for liability reasons they are just helping.
I almost did something like this for my 1995 Exploder. Y'know how you can buy a crate engine and then *simply drop in a new engine? There are some companies that make electric motors that interface with your transmission and now you have an old vehicle with a new motor!
Before I could make any major decisions like that, though, one of my neighbor's told me that his friend had been looking for that exact same year and color Explorer after she lost her car in a flood, so I gave it to her. I never really got too far in my research, so I don't know much about the real cost and extent of work involved in these electric crate engines.
You can't just throw a crate engine in. My current car (2012 Hyundai Tucson) is a "California engine". My family is in auto, and we went to a guy who replaced the engines on my uncle's fleet. $6500 because the engine itself was so hard to source and replace with all the bullshit sensors, and an extra $1k for the rental I needed for 2 weeks while they tracked an engine down.
Oh, hahaha, sorry. The asterisk in front of the "simply" was meant to reference some fake fine print. I totally forgot to add that, so congratulations! You've unlocked the hidden fine print!
^*Process description does not include all necessary steps to make motor or car functional. Commenter assumes no responsibility and should not be considered as a reliable source of information.^
Also, I totally feel you on the engine replacement woes. I had an engine rebuilt by Jasper on a mid-90s 4-Runner. I was told that this would ultimately be easier, cheaper, and have better warranty than a new engine. It took over 2 years before I could go more than a week before visiting my mechanic with another issue caused by the incredibly invasive procedure. 4 years later, the block cracked and I just took what I could get at auction.
Mozilla’s latest edition of *Privacy Not Included reveals how 25 major car brands collect and share deeply personal data, including sexual activity, facial expressions, and genetic and health information.
Article is clickbait trash. This was something found in the privacy policy. Your Nissan doesn’t have a “sex sensor” that phones home if you whip it out in the passenger seat.
The very worst offender is Nissan. The Japanese car manufacturer admits in their privacy policy to collecting a wide range of information, including sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic data — but doesn’t specify how. They say they can share and sell consumers’ “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” to data brokers, law enforcement, and other third parties.
My 2001 Tacoma get like 24 mpg I think, been awhile since I did the math. Anyways it does all you said, got a tape player crank windows, and a bench controlled by 2 springs and 2 levers.
I've been in a crash in a 1995 Toyota 4runner which used more or less the same body, head on into the back of a truck at about 50 due to break failure. I can assure you that old Toyotas are about as safe as you can get without it being modern and even then it's a relatively minimum difference. A lot of the increase in safety started to happen with cars around 2000-2005 which given the lag time for a lot of these feature to see it in statistics means that that era of car is pretty damned decent.
Also it wasn't my 4runner mine had its engine self destruct due to a shitty rebuild.
I have a 2008 and got rear ended by a drunk driver. It totalled my car but I went to work the same day and didn't need any serious medical care. Indeed I didn't take it to my face but the ass. Why do people pretend like cars made in the last 30 years are death traps? They are the all metal behemoths from the 70s
The Slate EV is supposed to come in mid-$20k range. Doesn't even come with a stereo, you get your own that fits in the space, or just zip tie a Bluetooth speaker somewhere. Refreshingly utilitarian, I think things should be modular.
I suspect it now costs more to engineer and produce a window crank handle that will last the life of the car, than it does to stick a motor, switch, and couple wires in there. It’s also much more expensive to offer electric windows later then, because it will require a different window regulator, and now you’re producing and stock more part numbers.
It would be amazing if there were a more open source option.
It's unfortunate that cars are so big and complex to manufacture. With a just as complex a set of regulatory systems around verifying their safety and roadworthiness. I really don't see something more open source being a realistic expectation at any foreseeable point going forward.
I was thinking the opposite it is amazing that we allow car manufacturers to have closed source vehicles at all when such huge amounts life and property are at stake. Every part of the designs should be inspectable by anyone.
I don't get it? Why can't car companies just release software updates that get deployed with the regular service interval, like once every year or two? That way the repair service or dealership will be close by if problems arise.
Better yet, why don't they just write the shit competently and correctly the first time?
And don't tell me it's too hard; that's the way real software engineering used to be done when stuff shipped on physical media and couldn't be patched, and still is done for stuff that actually matters (avionics, etc.). They just want to pretend PC-level half-assery is acceptable because it's cheaper.
The kind of quality assurance you're talking about is astronomically expensive. Software has gotten a lot more complex over the past couple decades. And just because it came on physical media and could not easily be patched doesn't mean that it didn't have bugs. Far from it.
The kind of quality assurance you’re talking about is astronomically expensive
That might be a valid argument when talking about accounting software with backups in case of fuck ups. We're talking about cars, on roads, with people sprinkled all around.
It is less valid for accounting software than cars on the road. If you mess up accounting software CEOs go to prison for tax fraud. If you mess up car software it is someone else who dies, but no prison time for the CEO.
They can, but the point of OTA setups is that you don’t have to anymore, and you save a lot that way because satiate testing is very very expensive. Old PC platforms had a standard of compatibility in how all the hardware worked. So you could test a few variations, and be reasonably assured, or you had a specific version for a particular price of hardware, like c&c machines.
So the new paradigm is about testing your most common setup, then slow rolling out and waiting for complaints. If you broke something, you get the details, fix it, and ship again. The problem here is their release cycle takes too long. This is only viable if you can patch things in a day, if it takes you a month to fix a patch that is turning cars into driveway statues, it more than a handful of cars are affected, you need a new strategy.
but they need to show the shareholders that they can also have the "move fast and break things" style of updates like tesla that pushes ota updates automatically without user consent
No, I would hate being forced to bring my car in somewhere for updates. Maybe a notification that there is going to be an update, and an option to snooze it until convenient.
They still could have made their own post with a proper article as the post URL rather than directing additional traffic to a right-wing social media platform.
Aside from the aforementioned Discord server not being directly mine (nor are most of the community's users on the Threadiverse, unfortunately), not only is there a difference between linking to a community Discord server on an associated Lemmy community versus doing so on a Lemmy news community, but the ownership structure and organizational goals of Discord (its gradual commercialization, walled garden, and degradation aside) are a far cry from Twitter being owned by a fascist, transphobic billionaire largely responsible for getting Trump elected.
Are you stalking them around Lemmy to complain about their discord? Or did you go searching through their posting history for a whataboutism after they disagreed with you?
Everyone knows the weekends are the best time to push important updates, right?
From Jeep Wrangler forum: Did anyone else have a loss of drive power after today's OTA Uconnect update?
On my drive home I abruptly had absolutely no acceleration, the gear indicator on the dash started flashing, the power mode indicator disappeared, an alert said shift into park and press the brake + start button, and the check engine light and red wrench lights came on. I was still able to steer and brake with power steering and brakes for maybe 30 seconds before those went out too. After putting it into park and pressing the brake and start button it started back up and I could drive it normally for a little bit, but it happened two more times on my 1.5 mi drive home.
First one to build the unconnected EV where the purchaser has admin rights (and no one else), wins the race.
Here in the United States a person can already build new or convert existing gasoline vehicles to be "unconnected" and in every way except possibly the battery management doing it with an EV would actually be easier.
It does cost money and take some time but probably less of both than you may think.
Yeah I saw a guy convert an old Toyota pickup into an EV and it cost about $18,000 IIRC. Biggest expense is obviously the batteries, followed by motor and charging system. Madman kept the original 5 speed which I absolutely respect.
I have a used 2017 Chevy Bolt that I absolutely adore. I bet I could pretty easily disable the OnStar if I was so inclined and paranoid about it somehow getting updates. But I doubt I need to do that.
Admin right on the automotive parts seems like asking for trouble by default. While I'm very much in favor of owning and controlling all my devices, cars feels like weapons we put in the hand of the general public because they're deemed safe under regulations, so… yeah.
However, an EV with a separate automotive computer that only do car stuff under strict control, connected to another one that do management, UI, entertainment, etc. that's more open, I could see that. As long as the proprietary one have decent changelogs (that you'd have to trust, sadly) and can be updated at will with a decent UX instead of "your car's dead this morning lol". That sound like a viable compromise.
Any bad thing the user wants to do with the car can already be done by the person with the keys. Allowing the user more control could prevent someone including a terrorist or enemy state from doing something bad to millions of people like virtually cutting everyone's brakes at once.
You'd be surprised how many stupid thing users are prevented from doing by a basic software check. Making it easy to load a custom firmware downloaded from wherever do sounds like trouble brewing. Of course, I can't foresee the future, but It's already an issue with electric scooters, so I'm not in a hurry of seeing that coming to bigger vehicles.
I have long said in regard to Microsoft Windows, "If anyone else can shutdown your computer without your permission, it is not your computer, it is theirs" - same goes for cars.
Right, I forget that as a working truck it’s got different priorities than a sedan or something. And we actually use it as a working truck. My wife’s coffee cart gets towed by it with the bed filled with coffee gear and supporting tools and stuff constantly.
Drives me crazy to see these fuckin micropenis sunglasses dudes in monster trucks that have clearly never done a single instance of hauling anything. It’s just a status symbol that also excels at murdering children.
Hating Communists has always been an acceptable form of bigotry. You don't have to listen to what they say, just dismiss them (and insult them!) for wanting a world that doesn't run on money.
You do realize that like 95% of the planet doesn't want something like that. They just want something they can get in go that works and that if it breaks down somebody else can fix. Most people don't care about connected or not connected. In fact most people actually want to be connected.
They might not want that up front, but an Internet-disconnected car that gives the owner full control doesn't imply that it would be unreliable or hard to fix.
I'd even be ok with a connected-by-default car, as long as I have the option to disconnect it and do what I want with it, like any other computer I own. I don't think that's too much to ask, and I feel like it makes both audiences happy.
The first gen 3.6 has enough issues, have u seen how the new gen 3.6 is gobbling up intake cams? Ugh they stopped making real jeeps when the 4.0 went the wayside ...
Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code.
If I had a car that had suddenly stopped working due to a careless update, I'd want it to be bricked so I could make the manufacturer pay for a different fucking car.
South Korea has pledged stronger measures to protect its citizens in Cambodia amid a surge in reported abductions and forced labor cases, including the recent death of a 22-year-old Korean student who was tortured after being lured by a fake job offer.
The Israeli army has raided the homes of several Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank whose names were included in the list of prisoners to be released in an exchange deal following the Gaza ceasefire.
i fully expect israel to continue bombing gaza as a soon as it gets its prisoners back. israel still holds over 5000 Palestinians prisoner in the west back without a trial
Faced with a swelling mountain of used adult diapers, Japanese manufacturers are finding new ways to recycle them -- transforming waste into resources to curb incineration and carbon emissions.
Aid agencies are preparing to bring large amounts of vital aid to starving people in Gaza this weekend, as a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas appeared to be holding.
“We have received signals that tomorrow will be the day that the scale-up [in aid deliveries] begins in earnest under the ceasefire,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for the UN agency for children, Unicef.
"The stakes are really high,” said Ingram, speaking by phone from Gaza. “Even though we have a ceasefire – which means the bombardment stops – the humanitarian crisis continues. We still have a famine to fight and diseases are spreading, so we really need that scale-up to happen quickly and efficiently.”
Ingram said Unicef was calling for all crossings from Israel into Gaza to be reopened, so that trucks were able to move through quickly “without delays or impediments”.
Another UN aid agency, Unrwa, said it had enough stored food to feed every Palestinian in Gaza for three months. Its communications director, Juliette Touma, said on Saturday that the distribution of aid was “absolutely critical in controlling the spread of famine”.
The IDF broke the ceasefire within hours, but if we’re calling that “appears to hold”, fine. As long as starving civilians are actually getting food, I’ll let it slide.
It is probably one of the largest criticisms of MORENA that the government has consistently given so much power to the military that should be civilian controlled.
Donald Trump and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, are due to chair a Gaza peace summit with several world leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.
The meeting would take place on Monday afternoon in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh “with the participation of leaders from more than 20 countries”, the Egyptian presidency said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said he would attend, as will Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, and Pedro Sánchez of Spain. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has also confirmed his attendance.
There was no immediate word about whether Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu would be in Sharm el-Sheikh. Hamas has said it will not take part.
There's only one type to take offense to that. We were embarrassing before this and we'll be sure to embarrass ourselves in the future. It's the American way.
Now, alongside the additional funding, AltStore is launching its own Mastodon server, running on the ActivityPub protocol, where users will be able to view app updates and new information from the sources they follow. Developers can opt in to have their app updates published to the new server.
It says "alternative app store", not "alternative iOS app store", "alternative to Apple's App Store" or even "alternative App Store". The term "app store" is used pretty generally nowadays, there's no implication in the title that it's even talking about mobile apps!
You're 100% correct. I spent too long looking for the same info.
Just the term "app store" with no caps can mean any application repository - Shopify has an app store, FB has one, Blackberry used to have one, Apple technically has 2, etc. There's even a wiki entry for the term without caps.
confusingly the article leaves out what normal altstore does: install any iOS app provided its file and a connection to a computer (while installing) for seven days
Yes, you can install the PAL version, however it’s not the same. Pal barely has any apps and Apple doesn’t “notarize” shit, so you’re still stuck with altstore/sidestore for any meaningful apps like youtube sponsorblock .
Apple found a way to circumvent the EU directive with this “notarized apps” shit. They are despicable.
This is awesome but AltStore has been seriously missing several important features for years - most notably, PRs have been submitted to add support for organization dev accounts (as opposed to individual accounts), and they never get merged. In general, I haven’t seen AltStore get a meaningful update in well over a year or two.
There’s enough missing that has been in dire need of adding that it got forked into SideStore, which has that feature and tons of other missing ones, including the ability to sign apps on device which is hella convenient.
Yeah it really sucks. I was in the middle of developing an Android game and now I don't really want to. Luckily I'm working with Unreal so I can just build it for desktop distribution anyways. But still, ugh.
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[8 Stephen Gutowski @ of
“W° @stephenGutowski
Jeep just pushed a software update that bricked all the 2024 Wrangler
4xe models, including my Willys. The future is going great.
12:56 PM - Oct 1, 2025 - 154.4K Views
15 Was Q 14k Res 2
® Who can reply?
Accounts @StephenGutowski follows or mentioned can reply
[8 Stephen Gutowski & ©StephenGutowski - 21h [oJ
“MW Here's what the issue looks like for those wondering
=,
. 3 DON'T UPDATE Your U-Connect | Jeep Wrangler 4x...
~ As of October 10th 2025 the uconnect update is
| causing major issues for many 4xe owners. We lose.
X
5 Qn Qs 1h 22k na
[18 Stephen Gutowski & @StephenGutowski - 20h [oJ
“M" When mine bricked, | did the infotainment reset. You put the car in acc
mode then press the radio power and tune buttons for ten seconds until
the screen restarts. Then turn it on. | had to do that several times before the
Jeep would drive again.
4 j= Q 1o thi 11K na
[8 Stephen Gutowski & @StephenGutowski - 15h [oJ
“MW so, here's what Jeep says. It's the telematics box, which as far as |
understand it does diagnostics and ota communications, that's causing the
problem. This is the sort of thing | worried about buying a new car,
‘especially a Jeep 4xe. Oh well. dxeforums.com/threads/wrangl...](https://poliverso.org/photo/preview/640/61845176 "< Post [ac]
[8 Stephen Gutowski @ of
“W° @stephenGutowski
Jeep just pushed a software update that bricked all the 2024 Wrangler
4xe models, including my Willys. The future is going great.
12:56 PM - Oct 1, 2025 - 154.4K Views
15 Was Q 14k Res 2
® Who can reply?
Accounts @StephenGutowski follows or mentioned can reply
[8 Stephen Gutowski & ©StephenGutowski - 21h [oJ
“MW Here's what the issue looks like for those wondering
=,
. 3 DON'T UPDATE Your U-Connect | Jeep Wrangler 4x...
~ As of October 10th 2025 the uconnect update is
| causing major issues for many 4xe owners. We lose.
X
5 Qn Qs 1h 22k na
[18 Stephen Gutowski & @StephenGutowski - 20h [oJ
“M\" When mine bricked, | did the infotainment reset. You put the car in acc
mode then press the radio power and tune buttons for ten seconds until
the screen restarts. Then turn it on. | had to do that several times before the
Jeep would drive again.
4 j= Q 1o thi 11K na
[8 Stephen Gutowski & @StephenGutowski - 15h [oJ
“MW so, here's what Jeep says. It's the telematics box, which as far as |
understand it does diagnostics and ota communications, that's causing the
problem. This is the sort of thing | worried about buying a new car,
‘especially a Jeep 4xe. Oh well. dxeforums.com/threads/wrangl...")
flatbield
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Señor Mono
in reply to flatbield • • •cyborganism
in reply to Señor Mono • • •Señor Mono
in reply to cyborganism • • •0_o7
in reply to Señor Mono • • •You can strip ISOs of some bloat but you cannot strip M$ out of it
, tho. And there's always a chance an update adds it back in.
I had outlook appear back on one of my laptops after an update. I had removed it ages ago. Some services do the same.
So, are you going to limit updates too? That'll make it vulnerable.
My point is, it's just going to be cat and mouse game with "cleaning or stripping" Windows.
Señor Mono
in reply to 0_o7 • • •See, I run a stripped Windows for playing games that don’t run under linux. I update it regularly and nothing intrusive was re-added by updates.
The other systems I use are linux and macOS, with each OS having its purpose.
In acknowledge that Linux is not intrusive and that you have to have PiHoles and other DNS sinkholes for a basic protection, which is hard for regular people. But in the end you have to look at peoples needs and if somebody insists he needs Windows, and you are knowledgeable in IT stuff, make it as secure and clutter free as possible.
adarza
in reply to Señor Mono • • •mullvad's free dns. free for all, not just their subscribers. encrypted doh or dot only. a basic ad and malware blocking dns sinkhole is a fairly simple configuration away if your os supports it (win11 and android do.. those are what i've set it up on for others so far).
mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-h…
DNS over HTTPS and DNS over TLS
Mullvad VPNmonovergent
in reply to Señor Mono • • •cronenthal
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Whitebrow
in reply to cronenthal • • •Creosm
in reply to cronenthal • • •Feydaikin
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I had already dabbled in Linux on and off years back. I already wanted to switch, but I'm a moron at computer stuff, so Linux was always a bit out of reach. Too much to learn and memorize for the basic things I needed it for. (addendum: We're talking about 25 years ago)
But Win 10 annoyed the piss out of me. Like, to the point of breaking my laptop in a fit of explosive anger. I'm not usually a "throw-the-controller" kind of guy. But that shit got to me.
So around the time Win 11 was first announced, I decided to give Linux yet another shot. And lo and behold, I found Mint. Everything was setup and streamlined exactly for a moron like myself. It was literally easier and more straight forward than Windows.
And with a little bit of reading and copy/pasting commands smarter people than myself have written around the internet, pretty much any problem I've encountered have been solved within a few minutes.
So I recommend Mint to anyone looking for alternatives to Win 11.
It has been good to me.
And a big Thank You to all the glorious nerds that take the time to not on only make this, but also take the time to help us hapless dummies fix the small problems we encounter in the process of switching.
eatCasserole
in reply to Feydaikin • • •gi1242
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Bo7a
in reply to gi1242 • • •I bet you also have a 4 digit slashdot id!
(This is not an insult. Quite the opposite)
gi1242
in reply to Bo7a • • •HairyHarry
in reply to theorangeninja • • •melroy likes this.
melroy
in reply to HairyHarry • • •Matt
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Einar
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Moved family mostly to Zorin. I stay with Tumbleweed.
Keeping Windows on dual boot for some edge cases. For the app or two that doesn't run with Linux I keep Windows in a virtual machine (which sadly I need once or twice a day).
95% of my daily business runs on Linux.
Now I wish my phone would do that too.
dubyakay
in reply to Einar • • •Einar
in reply to dubyakay • • •Work. Sadly Linux cannot run most Windows Store apps.
And there's some niche software that runs, but crashes too much for my liking. So unfortunately in these cases: Windows.
dubyakay
in reply to Einar • • •Well damn.
My hatred of Windows got so much in the past two years, when I abandoned ship last year for Linux (using Arch btw), I was ready to ditch software that was not available native, without even bothering with trying to run them through Wine. In the end I had to abandon three of my absolute favourite software, totalcmd, notepad++ and foobar2000. Luckily I was able to replace them with nearly similar quality equivalents in Krusader, Kate and DeaDBeeF. Bit less polished, but very configurable.
My work requires me to have a windows based laptop or a Macbook. They've told me that they've been trying Fedora workstation before, but supposedly the VPN doesn't work on it. I've checked and the VPN expressly supports certain distro, including fedora. But they've simply disabled VPN access from non-win/mac based systems since. I suspect there's either some skill issue or something fishy going on. I know they are monitoring incoming and outgoing files to the system via some tool, which may indeed be not supported on Linux workstations. However the way I use this laptop is simply by accessing it through RDP, and then share files between it and my personal desktop via SMB on LAN, and no one ever complained. I have the lid closed on it all the time. So in essence I just use it like a terminal, and only run work related webportals through a browser on it, like JIRA and shit. Most of my work related to our platform I'm running on my own desktop, because it's significantly faster.
Not sure what I'd do if I still had to run Windows or even VMs for stuff.
KernelTale
in reply to theorangeninja • • •untidy_configuration
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I hosted an endof10.org event at my local public library. Advertised like crazy, posting flyers around town, posting online, etc. I had over 30 USB installers ready to go with Debian 13. I was worried that I was advertising too much and wouldn't have room for everyone.
Only 2 people showed up, and neither were prepared to go through with an install. In a town with well over 70k people and a major university, I expected more.
Now I'm thinking an event like this would only be viable in a major metropolitan area.
In my circle of friends and family, I only knew of one person who was faced with the Windows 10 dilemma, and he chose to purchase new hardware (granted he's nearly 80 years old).
the_q
in reply to untidy_configuration • • •cyborganism
in reply to untidy_configuration • • •PlutoniumAcid
in reply to cyborganism • • •No offense, but this question is what is holding many people back that would otherwise be on the fence or ready to go.
If there were just Mac / Windows / Linux, it would be an easy sell.
But we have Mac / Windows / two million Linux flavors.
It does not matter which one you pick, it is bound to cause questions or issues. And once you've chosen a Linux flavor, someone asks you why you chose that desktop and not foobar9000 instead which everyone knows runs much better on your Linux flavor anyway.
I honestly think that Linux' biggest enemy is Linux. Sure, choice is good, but this is too much. Way too much.
cyborganism
in reply to PlutoniumAcid • • •While I agree with you, my question implied that Debian might not be the right choice for beginners. It's not that easy to use compared to Mint that comes with many quality of life features which makes it the perfect introduction to Linux.
All the important software is there, you have all the necessary codecs to play the most popular media files, you have an easy to use software store with a friendly interface, and you don't have any complicated concepts like immutable or atomic OS.
LeFantome
in reply to PlutoniumAcid • • •I understand your frustration. And I agree that choice is an impediment to adoption.
That said, I am not that comment deserved your reply.
As far as I can tell, the OP was only offering one option—Debian. So your concern does not apply there.
And the next comment did not suggest having more options or adding confusing choices either. I think they were ok with offering just one distro. They just wanted to know why the single recommendation was not Mint.
He was not asking a new user why they chose Debian. He was asking the Linux expert why he chose Debian over Mint. Your comment does not seem to apply.
There is nothing wrong with Debian so I certainly think it is an acceptable choice. That said, Mint probably would offer a less jarring transition than Debian for Windows users. Mint defaults to Cinnamon (very Windows like). Debian defaults to GNOME (a less familiar desktop metaphor). Mint also comes with just a few extra tools and touches that can keep new users off the command line (unless they want to go there).
And if you like Debian, LMDE gives you Debian with the Mint GUI and tools.
Honestly, it seems like a fair question.
If you are only going to give them one option, why not one more likely to work for them? Them being everyday Windows users.
And all that said…I do agree that keeping it simple is the most important thing and offering a single recommendation is the right strategy regardless of which distro you choose to recommend.
spaciouscoder78
in reply to cyborganism • • •Debian is a stable operating system and as user friendly as mint once you get past the installation.
Mint also uses a Ubuntu base but Debian has better quality of packages and is less likely to break.
LMDE is also a good option in this case
cyborganism
in reply to spaciouscoder78 • • •Yeah Debian is stable, but it also doesn't come with an easy to use app store or pre-installed codecs for multimedia.
The installation process isn't exactly user friendly either. And if you plan to use BTRFS with Timeshift for easy snapshot creation, you have to do some pretty technical stuff.
And finally, there's stable and stable. Linux Mint being Ubuntu based is already VERY stable, but you still get fairly recent packages. With Debian you have to wait much longer for the latest software.
spaciouscoder78
in reply to cyborganism • • •Wdym not user friendly? I use Debian everyday and the stuff you were talking about dates back to the bullseye days.
Trixie is a lot more user friendly and even includes the calamares installer now which is a GUI installer that’s similar to mint’s one
It also comes with gnome software and you can enable flatpaks with 2 commands. I don’t see how that’s not user friendly in any way.
Of course nonfree software is a different case but you can always use snap or flatpak for it
frongt
in reply to untidy_configuration • • •Yeah nobody in real life really cares about this. Anyone techie enough has already replaced their system and runs Win11, or has already switched to Linux themselves.
Anyone not techie enough doesn't care and will continue using Win10 (or just follow the Windows nagging and buy a new PC from Best Buy).
eatCasserole
in reply to frongt • • •LeFantome
in reply to untidy_configuration • • •CodenameDarlen
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I'm still using Windows on dual-boot with Arch because of games, that's the only reason. I've Windows 10 LTSC IoT, which is the most debloated version available, plus I ran a debloater script, so the OS is basically raw now, no Microsoft account linked.
Unfortunately Windows still gets more performance, at least on my experience, I've a Laptop 16GB RAM, Hybrid GPU (GeForce 1650 4VRAM + AMD).
I'm still not prepared to give up from this little extra performance just to switch to Linux, it really makes a difference, and I pass the whole day dealing with Linux so at the end of the day I just want to boot into something that just works without major tweaks.
I know it's not Linux fault, but most games are made to run better on Windows. If and when W10 become unusable, I'll switch to 100% Linux without any doubt, it's my last Windows.
altkey (he\him)
in reply to CodenameDarlen • • •Depending on your usage, it may mean years, especially as it's IoT that iirc has longer update cycle.
Microsoft didn't lock anything meaningful behind w11 upgrade, like they did with DirectX versions, RAM limits etc. So as long as your software doesn't drop Win10 support (like Steam dropped Win7 just a couple of years ago), you'd be fine.
It would be pretty interesting to see where Linux would be by that time tho.
lonesomeCat
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I got my new laptop back in April, had a Windows 11 preinstalled (I wish it wasn't the case, it would've been cheaper but it's very rare to find OS-less PCs in my country)
Anyway, I prepared a Fedora installation before the laptop got home, booted Windows once to make sure everything (regarding hardware) works, and the rest is history.
Tenderizer78
in reply to lonesomeCat • • •lonesomeCat
in reply to Tenderizer78 • • •cyborganism
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I've been dual booting since 2000 starting with Mandrake. Then Ubuntu and stuck with it or Xubuntu or Kununtu ever since.
I had been using win 10 a lot more when I eventually installed it. It was a great OS in my opinion. Until it wasn't because Microshits decided to make it bad. I was getting angry with that and learned last year that it would reach EOL this October. So I booted in Linux and started experiencing with Steam and Proton and Bottles and I was blown away by how easy it had become and how well the games played. So last December I wiped the disk, installed Kubuntu 24.04 and it's been a great experience ever since. Honestly it's insane how easy it has become. To think I had to recompile my kernel to have all the features of my hardware back in the early 2000s. LoL!
I tried to convince my GF to move to Linux but she can't due to her job. It's complicated.
mybuttnolie
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Broken
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I switched to Linux about a year ago.
I was a windows power user and now I'm a Linux noob, but couldn't be happier.
I hate to say it, but there's still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can't get away from.
For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won't or can't make the switch, which I'm respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.
People won't care until they have a reason to care. I'll still be around when they do.
chillpanzee
in reply to Broken • • •For sure. There's a lot of software that's built for Windows only. I have some Garmin aviation software that only works on Windows or Mac. It's pretty shit software, but I have to use it, and since I can do windows in a VM, that's what I use. Similarly, there's another bit of software I use all the time that's only built for iPad. So I have an iPad for that app. There's not always a choice.
Kr4u7
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Distrochooser
distrochooser.deCreat
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I've finally swapped over my main personal (gaming) PC 6+ months ago. Should've probably done that a lot sooner, but lazy. I knew I wouldn't upgrade my Win 10 to 11, and didn't wanna wait until the last minute, but have fallback options and time to distro hop if needed.
I'm not new to Linux at all, as most servers I'm running (personally or in my job) are Linux based. Debian, usually, cause servers. But I haven't used a Linux desktop in well over 20 years.
My choice fell on CachyOS, as I wanted something pre-configured for performance/gaming/wine, but kinda dislike fedora (rules out Bazzite, Nobara, and actual fedora). Also in the running was PikaOS, but I tried CachyOS first and stuck with it. I had no experience with Arch, but what a brilliant base that turns out to be for me. Love the rolling up-to-date-ness and AUR accessibility. I'm used to having to contort myself to get a more current version of software, possibly compiling from source and screwing with dependencies, but everything is literally just there and up to date. Critically, all games basically just worked. Everything just worked. EXcept all mail programs suck to an unexpected degree, but that is literally my only complaint.
I do use the EoL of win 10 as an opportunity to get people to move over or at least try it out. Depending on their use case, I usually still recommend Mint for non-technical people, mostly because searching for help from a Windows convertee likely finds appropriate solutions. The more technical ones get personalized recommendations, depending on context. For example I do have a colleague who spends half his day complaining about anything Microsoft, but still uses Windows at home, but that is mostly because of a single piece of software (and so far I haven't been able to get that to run, but haven't tried very hard yet either).
Domi
in reply to Creat • • •What's wrong with Thunderbird/Betterbird?
antimongo
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Unfortunately still have to use W11 for some anti-cheat games I play with friends 🙁
But being forced to update to 11 motivated me to come back to Linux on a PC. I already have a little homelab with all the flavors, but was wondering how it would game on my desktop.
Ultimately went with Debian + KDE on a second SSD, and it’s just awesome. Especially coming from WSL on my desktop, it’s just so seamless.
Had a little trouble getting Nvidia drivers for my relatively new card (Debian’s latest proprietary driver still didn’t support it lol), so I had to use the official Nvidia repo. And it was a little tricky signing it for Secure Boot, but other than that, awesome.
Need to run better side-by-side tests, but it at least feels like a 10% or so performance improvement.
Thank you Linux! And fuck Fortnite, release a Linux port already!
chillpanzee
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I would help if asked, but I'm not out there trying to convince people. This isn't the first Windows version to be EOLd, and Apple and Android have all but convinced people that a 2-3 year hardware replacement cycle is normal. I just don't think this is a significant consumer event at all.
Yeah, but I wouldn't say "switched" is the right word for me. I've been using a variety of OSes for personal and work for a long time. I worked in embedded software, and we had to support a variety of build toolchains for different host OSes and different target OSes. So the idea of using a different OS on my own computer is not a big deal. Over the years it's been Solaris, BSDos, Mac, Windows, and more flavors of Linux than I can recall.
Not the question you asked, but it was gratifying when Raspberry Pi really started to take off because it was the first time that developing for a different hardware arch and OS target was going mainstream. I would enthusiastically help people with that sort of thing. But even fewer ask. lol
normalexit
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I used windows 10 on my gaming PC for many years. I "upgraded" to 11, and it felt bad. The UI/ux was tolerable, but between the AI features and everything requiring a Microsoft account, it got on my nerves quickly.
I literally just wanted to upgrade the firmware on my Xbox one controller (so it'd work in Linux..) and that forced a login. At that point I logged in, upgraded my controller, formatted as ext4, and now I rarely look back.
Every once in a while a game will crash or not be playable on Linux, but I'd trade that for being in control of the hardware I've spent thousands on over the years.
Very happy with bazzite on my htpc and a kde based distro on my main computer. I pop over to my MacBook for casual computing, but for the real stuff I'll never use windows again (barring being forced by future employers)
monovergent
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Linux on all of my main machines, so I'm grabbing the popcorn. Got LTSC for all the remaining Windows use cases: VMs, beater laptop for Windows-only stuff, and a couple of computers from family.
Most of my friends replace their computers quite frequently, so they're living blissfully unaware on Windows 11 or MacOS. The ones who do have older laptops tend to be tech-savvy enough to have figured out LTSC or Linux themselves. On one occasion, a good friend of mine had an old iMac that wasn't getting updates anymore, so I installed Debian and themed XFCE to look like MacOS, taught them the basics, and they were impressed with the result.
As for family, they're usually very happy with the Linux Mint Debian Edition that I install for them, but some I know just won't use the computer if it doesn't have their familiar Windows-specific software, so I get them started with LTSC.
I frankly have an excess of unused hardware that's piling up, which won't be helped by my access to a good source of e-waste. Old computers have already been trickling in, but I'm excited to see what's next now that the Oct 14 date has come.
muusemuuse
in reply to theorangeninja • • •The EoL doesn’t affect me. I use Linux and Mac. My work pc is windows 10 but that’s their problem.
My roommate refuses to move on. I flat out gave him an old surface pro X with win11 and a spacious new SSD. I offered to migrate him to fedora and teach him how to use it. I offered to help him pick out a new pc if he wants. No, he’ll just keep waiting 20 minutes for his old crusty Dell to boot up, then another 10 to load chrome. For updates, he said he’ll just download hacks as people post them online.
All his shit is on its own VLAN now.
someacnt
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I am a chicken, I could not make the switch for the home desktop and work computer, so I just downgraded to Windows 11. There are some financial apps that needs switching, damn.
Maybe I could convince people to let me use Linux at work..
LeFantome
in reply to someacnt • • •It is just a computer. Don’t let us nerds intimidate you. Use what you are comfortable with.
That said, you could dual boot or even just boot of a USB stick into a live Linux session. That will let you play with it and decide if it is as scary as you feared.
Linux Mint can be written to USB and booted into a live Linux session I believe.
someacnt
in reply to LeFantome • • •PearOfJudes
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Macbook/Linux user here: People (And organisations/governments) who are reasonably skilled with technology will understand that on hardware which can't use windows 11, and is stuck with windows 10 without security updates need an alternative operating system. When institutions switch to linux, they will likely contribute to the opensource project, and overall bring the user base numbers up, which will make more software developers add support for linux.
But while this should happen, it might work in microsoft's favour, (Like when Netflix stopped password sharing) meaning people, who are used to windows will just buy new windows 11 machines, overall increasing microsoft's company value. Microsoft also supports the Israel military during the genocide, and Bill Gates personally supports Trump and had close ties with Epstein, so it would be best if the general public does an accident, or purposeful boycott. Personally I buy secondhand stuff and put linux on it, if you want new stuff either buy a mac, or buy one of those new linux machines from Lenovo?
LeFantome
in reply to PearOfJudes • • •Microsoft will for sure benefit here.
Many users, especially businesses, will simply upgrade.
Some will pay for the ESU.
Some will sign up for cloud backups.
All these benefit Microsoft.
Some fairly small number will work around Microsoft’s plan by upgrading Windows 11 where they are not supposed to or finding a way to get the updates for free.
Sure, probably the biggest fraction of users will probably do nothing. But they were already doing nothing for Microsoft so nothing changes in this case. Of anything, the load in Microsoft servers goes down a bit.
So ya, Microsoft has little incentive not to charge ahead.
Ftumch
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I've been using Linux for about 25 years. I completely stopped using Windows at home more than a decade ago.
I do some volunteer work for an organisation that refurbishes old computers and gives them to people who can't afford one. For the time being we're using Rufus to bypass TPM and other hardware requirements so we can install Windows 11 on everything.
We're willing to install Linux for people who want it, but unfortunately I haven't seen that happen yet. Most of our customers have no idea what an OS is. A lot of people also need Windows for education or work. There's a free course available that teaches how to use a computer and of course that is also Windows-only.
We helped one of our colleagues to install Mint on his old laptop, though.
Cricket [he/him]
in reply to Ftumch • • •Heads up, Microsoft has stated that they do not support machines that don't meet requirements and that those machines may stop receiving security updates at any time.
adarza
in reply to Ftumch • • •not a whole lot of takers here either, and not a single one yet due to win10's "retirement".
everyone wants windows. but after that, most are pretty receptive of other foss options like libreoffice.
data1701d (He/Him)
in reply to theorangeninja • • •brax
in reply to data1701d (He/Him) • • •data1701d (He/Him)
in reply to brax • • •brax
in reply to data1701d (He/Him) • • •SteakSneak
in reply to theorangeninja • • •ndupont
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I would gladly run Linux but have yet to understand why no Debian live media would ever boot on my main laptop
Occultist0178
in reply to ndupont • • •Macaroni_ninja
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Switched to Mint over a year ago from win 10 on my desktop and my wives laptop, we both love it. It was fresh, user friendly and familiar in the same time. To be fair we are pretty much average users without any specialized needs, other than gaming.
Later this year I built a new gaming pc 100% with Linux in mind. I am running Bazzite on it and it works absolutely amazing. Bazzite is currently my favourite distro. Im not a distro hopper or a big tinkerer myself, don't have time for experimenting, so not planning to switch. It just works perfectly.
onlooker
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Yes, that. As far as my circle of friends and acquaintances who are running Win10 are concerned, I've made the effort to advise them to switch to something newer for security reasons. They will probably switch to Windows 11, but that is their concern.
Phoenixz
in reply to theorangeninja • • •SocialMediaRefugee
in reply to theorangeninja • • •LeFantome
in reply to SocialMediaRefugee • • •Believe it not, Steam even works on RHEL if you use Flatpak.
But you are probably going to want to go for something a bit more current. Fedora or Bazzite may work for you as they use the same core layout and userland as RHEL. Fedora is the test bed for the ideas that go into CentOS that becomes RHEL.
Sinfaen
in reply to theorangeninja • • •Richie’s Computer Stuff
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I’ve been using Linux and macOS since 2020. I shifted my main PC from Windows 10 back in April of 2020 right as lockdowns were hitting my locale, when I discovered how much Linux gaming had improved. I was curious to see if I could make it work for myself.
At that time, I had been interested in using Linux more frequently than on random old computers that I had lying around, but my opinions on Microsoft’s and Windows’ “quirks” were… less advanced. At that time I was unconcerned about Windows telemetry and advertising, but it also wasn’t as bad then.
It took me about a week to get everything set up and ready to go and to get settled. At first, I didn’t know if it’d end up sticking. Well, it did. I started with Ubuntu, and quickly went after Pop!_OS. I used that for a while, and eventually shifted to Garuda where I still am today.
Windows 10 end of life has almost no impact on me. My mindset has shifted dramatically since I first started using Linux on my main PC. When I used to not be bothered by Windows’ telemetry I find myself strongly off-put by it. Even macOS, which some say isn’t as bad as Windows puts me off and I’d rather not use it. Having had to set up Windows 10 for someone about a year back, I saw how much worse it got. It was insufferable.
Right now, my brother and sister in law still use Windows 10. They don’t see the problem with that. My brother specifically says he’ll just keep using Windows 10, because he “doesn’t have anything important” on it (I mentioned his Steam account has linked payment info). He’s also told me that he’d rather use Windows 11 (which he hates) than give Linux a try, a stance I don’t understand. It’s clear he doesn’t really understand the situation, and he doesn’t realize that Linux is not necessarily the difficult and unfriendly OS he thinks it is.
I’d rather him use Windows 11 than Windows 10, despite how awful I know it to be. At least there’s somewhat lower risk of nasty compromise there. I also know that he does play at least a couple games with anti-cheat that explicitly block Linux, so that introduces some complexity. But, I’m done preaching. I know how it makes me look, and I’ve tried in the past to change his mind but he’s unwilling to do so, so at this point the only way he’s going to learn is for something really bad to happen. Maybe his computer gets hit by ransomeware that took advantage of an unpatched vulnerability. That might be what it takes to finally make him do something.
I hate that it’s like this. I’ve tried to tell him about the risks. He doesn’t understand the full scale of it, and he dismisses me when I try to explain it to him. But at this point, what can I do besides say “I warned you” when something goes wrong?
☂️-
in reply to theorangeninja • • •tasho
in reply to theorangeninja • • •proooobably should think about putting Bazzite on the gaming PC soon. but my partner is reluctant.
how's online gaming on linux going these days? the issues with anticheat are a bit of a pain.
FreddiesLantern
in reply to theorangeninja • • •I have used Linux for a good while around the early 2000’s. Good memories.
Fast forward to now. Bought a new laptop with W11. hated it.
(Just imagine a long list of frustrations about W11, because I’m not going to contribute anything new by saying it)
-and finally, I want my data to be mine!
And so now I get to annoy my wife about how awesome Linux is. My dad is on the train as well. We both annoy our wives with Linux.
yeehaw
in reply to FreddiesLantern • • •Man I use Windows 11 daily for work and I can't stand how fucking buggy and clunky everything is. It's so bad.
Once in a while I'll boot my Linux desktop and it's just.... Bliss. Other than that I spend a lot of time on my steam deck, love that too.
spaciouscoder78
in reply to theorangeninja • • •