Israel’s advocates fear that its conduct of the war has cost it the support of an entire generation of U.S. voters.
By David M. Halbfinger Oct. 12, 2025
The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.
Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.
A Test Now for Israel: Can It Repair Its Ties to Americans?
Israel’s advocates fear that its conduct of the war has cost it the support of an entire generation of U.S. voters.
By David M. Halbfinger Oct. 12, 2025
The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.
Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.
Israel’s advocates fear that its conduct of the war has cost it the support of an entire generation of U.S. voters.
By David M. Halbfinger Oct. 12, 2025
The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.
Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.
A Test Now for Israel: Can It Repair Its Ties to Americans?
Israel’s advocates fear that its conduct of the war has cost it the support of an entire generation of U.S. voters.
By David M. Halbfinger Oct. 12, 2025
The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.
Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.
Israel’s advocates fear that its conduct of the war has cost it the support of an entire generation of U.S. voters.
By David M. Halbfinger Oct. 12, 2025
The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.
Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.
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.
In debates about Palestine, one recurrent Western refrain is that “terrorism” and “militant violence” automatically disqualify any actor from legitimacy. Such a position is intellectually dishonest and legally unsound. It erases the foundational principles of international law, sovereignty, and democracy that apply equally to all peoples. The case of Hamas, in this light, is not an aberration but a reflection of the Palestinian right to resist occupation and assert self-determination. No foreign power has the moral or legal right to veto the will of Palestinians—least of all those whose governments have sustained and armed the very occupation that necessitates resistance.
Hamas, democracy, and the right to resist: A case for Palestinian self-determination
by Ranjan Solomon October 15, 2025 at 2:55 pm
In debates about Palestine, one recurrent Western refrain is that “terrorism” and “militant violence” automatically disqualify any actor from legitimacy. Such a position is intellectually dishonest and legally unsound. It erases the foundational principles of international law, sovereignty, and democracy that apply equally to all peoples. The case of Hamas, in this light, is not an aberration but a reflection of the Palestinian right to resist occupation and assert self-determination. No foreign power has the moral or legal right to veto the will of Palestinians—least of all those whose governments have sustained and armed the very occupation that necessitates resistance.
Bad news, baby. The New Yorker reports the rapid advance of AI in the workplace will create a “permanent underclass” of everyone not already hitched to the AI train.
The prediction comes from OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner, who claims AI will “reach or exceed human capacity” by 2027. Once it develops capacity to innovate, AI superintelligence will supersede even a need for its own programmers … and then wipe out the jobs done by everyone else.
Nate Soares, winner of “most sunshine in book title” and co-author of AI critique If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies suggests “people should not be banking on work in the long term”. Math tutors, cinematographers, brand strategists and journalists are quoted by the New Yorker, freaking out.
The consolation here is that if you are among those panicking about being forced into the permanent underclass, you are already in it. Inherited wealth makes more billionaires than entrepreneurship, the opportunity gap is growing; if your family don’t have the readies to fund your tech startup, media empire or eventual presidential ambitions, it’s probably because they were in a tech-displaced underclass, too.
They are all created the same way (which involves creating an image entry and immediately editing it via the API to add the body), so maybe this might be a cause? A similar issue was with Piefed, which also got hiccups with the fast edit activities.
@jerry@fedia.io
Also pinging @melroy@kbin.melroy.org as it might be a problem of Mbin and not only fedia.io.
However, when addressing the principles of the Republican Party, Johnson said, "We fought the Nazis. We've defended that evil ideology."
Johnson was addressing an incident where a staffer of Republican Representative Dave Taylor appeared to have a swastika in the background of a video call.
"He says that that's not his, and there's a proper investigation ongoing," Johnson told reporters. "And the congressman did exactly what he should have done and that is report it."
Johnson said he could not comment more until the investigation has been completed, but "obviously, that is not the principles of the Republican Party."
A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to halt mass layoffs of federal workers during a partial government shutdown while she considers claims by unions that the job cuts are illegal.
During a hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a request by two unions to block layoffs at more than 30 federal agencies while the case proceeds.
For example, a $20 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to Kipnuk, which was inundated by floodwaters, was terminated by the Trump administration, a move challenged by environmental groups. The grant was intended to protect to protect the boardwalk residents use to get around the community as well as 1,400 feet (430 meters) of river from erosion, according to a federal website that tracks government spending.
The group said no single project was likely to prevent the recent flood. But work to remove abandoned fuel tanks and other material to prevent it from falling into the river might have been feasible during the 2025 construction season.
“What’s happening in Kipnuk shows the real cost of pulling back support that was already promised to front line communities,” said Jill Habig, CEO of Public Rights Project. “These grants were designed to help local governments prepare for and adapt to the growing effects of climate change. When that commitment is broken, it puts people’s safety, homes and futures at risk.”
District Judge Sara Ellis said Thursday she was “startled” by images of law enforcement actions after she issued her initial order last week. “I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports, where at least from what I’m seeing, I’m having serious concerns that my order’s being followed,” she said.
She then ordered agents to wear body-worn cameras during the so-called Operation Midway Blitz, “and they are to be [turned] on,” she told the court.
A lawsuit from press associations, protesters and faith leaders accuses federal officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection of “a pattern of extreme brutality,” with agents “indiscriminately” firing on protesters, including an incident captured on video where officers defending an ICE facility struck the head of a Presbyterian minister with pepper bullets that knocked him to the ground.
I'm talking about like your mom if she started using Linux, and just needs it to be able to open a web browser and check Facebook or her email or something. A student that just needs a laptop to do homework and take notes, or someone that just wants to play games on Steam and chat on discord.
I'm working on a Windows - > Linux guide targeting people like this and I want to make sure it can be understood by just about anybody. A problem that I've noticed is that most guides trying to do something like this seem to operate under the assumption that the viewer already knows what Linux is and has already made up their mind about switching, or that they're already pretty computer savvy. This guide won't be that, I'm writing a guide and keeping my parents in mind the whole time.
Because of this there's some things I probably won't talk about. Do these people really need to know that it's actually GNU+Linux? No, I don't think so. Should I explain how to install, use and configure hyprland, or compile a custom gaming kernel? I dont think that's really necessary. You get what I'm saying? I don't want to over complicate this and scare people off.
That being said I also want to make sure that I'm not over simplifying by skipping on key things they should know. So what are some key concepts or things that you think even the most basic of Linux users should understand? Bonus points if you can provide a solid entry level explanation of it too.
Eh, go for something simple like Fedora KDE and teach them how to update and install stuff through Discover - it's like App/Play/Microsoft store + the System update all in one. I imagine Linux Mint and OpenSUSE has similar GUIs to introduce if that's more up your alley.
This was going to be my suggestion. Most noobs will be familiar with phone app stores. You can present a distro's software manager like an app store. People coming from another OS will probably be happy they don't have to find, download, and install their programs.
I don't think that's a guide... it's a hands on class. Maybe even a good idea to pitch to your local community college, community center, or adult edu department.
It'll shock you how low the average person's technical literacy is. And since you're talking about a guide for a lot of things that update independently, the guide will begin to be outdated before you even publish it. It's exceptionally hard to keep technical documentation in sync with software and hardware that you don't control, and when the users of your guide hit those spots where the doc doesn't match, they bail quickly.
What key concepts to cover probably depends on what you're trying to teach. If it's just how to use a web browser, the mainstream distros all do that pretty well out of the box once they're installed (although installation can still a bit of a challenge from one laptop to the next). Maybe the greatest communal benefit would be to teach foundational concepts of online security.
Hmm, I think that's where experiences will differ. I'm unable to search for files within file manager (thunar) easily, and use catfish file search instead.
IME, beyond the install, it's all distro- and desktop-specific.
How to find and install apps varies from distro to distro. IIRC, the Mint menu item is something obvious, like "Install software", but on Arch (you'd have to hate your newbie to throw them into Arch), it requires a chicken/egg finding and installing a graphical installer. If you know the distro, this would be good information - or if you're helping with the install, create a desktop launcher.
Showing them where settings are. Surprising to me, this has been super-not-obvious to my newbs. Even though the KDE Settings app is called "settings", I think Windows and Mac folks are used to looking for settings in a specific place, rather than an app name - and in Windows, there's can be several ways to get up different settings, like changing display stuff is always in a weird place. Again, maybe a desktop or panel shortcut would help.
One of my newbs used Mint for two years without opening a shell, so I don't think that's an issue. He even found and installed a piece of software he wanted, but I can't remember if I originally showed him how to the first time. But that's Mint. He did, however, need help setting up a printer, but that's because he couldn't find the settings program; he came from Windows originally.
Edge cases, like printers and other peripherals, can be hard, and I don't think any amount of extra documentation is going to help, because almost every difficulty is practically unique. There's a ton of online help for stuff like that already. And then, if they want to, eg, attach a game controller... well, that's very specific and again varies by controller. I don't think you can cover all of these edge cases.
Games can be hard only because of the indirection of having to install some other software, like Proton or Steam, creating an account, knowing how to check for compatability - there's a lot of moving parts. It's not just: go to the game's web site, buy, download, and install something and run it, like I imagine it is on Windows. So maybe that would be useful - or - again - pre-installing one of the game stores and (surprise) making a shortcut would eliminate that.
Network connections. Again, I always find figuring out how to get to network configuration in Windows to be hard, and bizarrely having multiple ways of accomplishing the same task, so I'd guess going the other direction would be confusing. Having a note about how to get to the configuration would be handy.
As I think about it, I realize that configuration under KDE of way more encapsulated and clear than on Windows, and people having learned the byzantine and myriad ways of Windows, KDE's relative simplicity is confusing. Windows people look for configurations in places they've learned to look, which aren't always where they are under KDE (I can't speak much about Gnome - I don't use it or set people up with it). MacOS isn't as bad, having a similar configure-everything-through-a-single-settings-program approach.
Hard to summarize, because it differs so much from person to person.
I installed Linux on my parent's computer. They don't need to know anything about Linux, because everything they use is identical to their old Windows PC. They click the icon for Chrome to open the browser. They Click the icon for LibreOffice to type up a "Word" doc and print it by clicking "file > print"
As far as they're concerned, they are still using Windows.
For a gamer, they will need to know a little about Proton, possibly Lutris and the Hero launcher. They might need to know about installing nVidia drivers or tweaking a few things in the Steam launch options to get games to run better.
It's tough to know exactly what a new Linux user will "need" to know in order to use Linux.
Graphics driver installation is pretty key on any system but AMD graphics systems.
For example if your parents want to watch any videos without them stuttering or being weird, whether Intel or Nvidia, they will need the non-free graphics drivers installed so it doesn't run like shit.
To my knowledge nearly every AMD chipset already works out of the box on Linux.
True, it still does vary even chipset to chipset. Some Nvidia and Intel cards do just work depending on the distro, others require more work.
It also depends on how "techie" the user is. My parents are 0% techie, so I have to do anything and everything for them if they have questions or issues.
But a Windows power user can handle some terminal use and other basic system modifications. And honestly now days, most of that stuff is super easy. Like Linux mint has a dedicated driver app that allows you to use a simple GUI to install Nvidia drivers, it's super easy.
What kind of programs there are: namely, differences between a daemon, a service, a server, a binary, a gui, a CLI, and what role do sockets play in all that. 101 on local ports and networking with firewall.
One thing that many guides tend to skip is how to install software. People coming from Windows might try to install software the "Windows way" by going to the website and downloading them. That is just likely to cause pain and suffering for a number of reasons.
Instead, every beginner friendly distro has its own flavour of software centre that users should be encouraged to use instead. Maybe even include a link to flathub in the guide or something.
Instead, every beginner friendly distro has its own flavour of software centre
And they generally run like dogshit, unfortunately. Bazar on Bazzite is the only one I've found so far that doesn't have me run for the terminal immediately
Just going to second this because I had to complain about the process being a pain here on Lemmy, which earned a lot of upvotes, before someone asked how I used the software center and I said the same as the Microsoft Store which was to say not at all. The number of downvotes told me I was way off and I needed to give it a fresh look.
At least a basic primer about finding your way around in Linux in command line, and where various configuration files live.
When shit goes wrong (and it likely will at some point) knowing how to dump to another tty and log in via the console and fix issues via command line is pretty key. This has saved my ass more times than I can count now.
Having trouble finding a CLI focused course, but this is a free course that covers a lot of basics:
As a Linux noob, this is not as basic as you think it is. It's probably cool to show them "sudo apt install [program]" as a neat trick to dip their toes into the command line. All the other things you mentioned would scare me away if it was presented as beginner essential knowledge. I legit have no idea what you're talking about.
It's basic in the sense that Linux is always a work in progress and no matter how hard you try, you're going to need it at some point.
When your system randomly turns on to a black screen and there is seemingly no way to log in, knowing how to switch to the command line and at bare minimum back up your settings and documents before you wipe and start over is pretty key. To be clear, I have been in that exact situation and even more confusing situations where the PC has basically become unusable but I was able to fix it via CLI.
Just imagine losing months or years of work because you don't know that you can probably fix it all from command line and likely don't even need to wipe your computer and start over if you can narrow down what is going wrong and remove it via the command line.
True, first time I ran into catastrophic problems (caused by entering in commands I copied from online, knowing damn well it was a bad idea), I got annoyed having to fish out corrupted files and shit, but I realized that anytime something had gone wrong with Windows I had no tools to fix it and could only check in on a loading screen that lasts hours. It was a learning experience
For me personally, I would remember none of that if taught to me. I'm stubborn and handy enough to figure it out during an emergency. For the kind of noob OP is describing that benefits from a handheld on-ramp, they will probably never be able to do what you're describing.
I think a good compromise would be mentioning a few things that you can do in case of emergency so a more savvy person would know what to look for in an emergency. You don't have to teach them so much as tell them there is something they can do. If there's a fire, idk where the fire extinguisher is but I know there is one and I can go looking.
I'm in the minority who thinks Linux isn't for everyone and that people who approach computing from that standpoint should really stick with macOS or Windows. Linux gives you more freedom to be in control, but that freedom to be in control also demands more knowledge and involvement to be able to be in control. "With great power comes great responsibility" kind of thing.
For an analogy Windows is like being a passenger in a car with someone else driving, and Linux you're in the drivers seat of the car. You simply are required to be aware and involved in driving more because you are in control, and that control requires knowledge. You don't get to sit back and go "I don't need to know what all this stuff does because I don't want to." Understanding how the pedals and steering wheel work is a requirement for driving, as is paying attention to what is going on around you on the road. As a passenger, you aren't required to know or pay attention to as much because you're not being given the freedom of control, you're just along for the ride. Linux is giving you that freedom of control of being the driver, but you have to know a lot more to do it than you need to know just being a passenger (Windows).
I know everyone else thinks Linux is ready for the prime time and ready for regular users who don't want to have to learn and just want something that works... but I personally don't. Simply because Linux is a lot less guaranteed to "just work" than the other options.
TBH, I agree with you. However a lot of people's PCs are no longer supported with no practical way to change that. For those people that are trying Linux out timidly and reluctantly, I'm fine with a little handholding. I wouldn't recommend someone switch to Linux unless I knew they were a bit savvy. But if they're worried about going behind on security updates and can't afford a new PC, I will suggest their one option, even if I know it will be challenging at times.
Agreed on that, it's not the best solution, but for people who need access to computing and whose devices have aged out of other support, it's pretty much the only option available.
I think the biggest fundamental concept for any computer regardless of operating system is filesystem hierarchy. The concept of nested folders is core to using a personal computer, but for the last two decades UI/X teams have done everything in their power to obscure and abstract it away. Many younger people conceptualize the storage on their device as just an amorphous blob that apps manage autonomously. Windows is starting to go this way as well with OneDrive being sold as the way to manage all your data, but on Linux the file system is still king.
Your mom is presumably old enough to have some experience with desktop PCs, so hopefully that basic hurdle is already cleared. And honestly once someone is at that level of base competence, along with basic interface concepts like how to use a mouse and keyboard, clicking on icons, use of a web browser etc, with the right distro you really don't need to explain much else. There might be a few quirks of the UI to explain depending on what you choose, but most of that can be handled by just watching them use the computer for a bit, and/or asking them to give you a list of questions and annoyances after they use it for a few days.
The biggest difference is one that most "I just want it to work" users will actually love, and that's relearning how to install software. Having one central location to install verified software from is a change from the wild west of downloading installers from the internet, but it shouldn't be a difficult transition. Most people these days don't even install software beyond maybe Zoom, so you can probably get away with just installing any third party software they need in the initial setup.
I recommend an immutable distro like Fedora Silverblue, at least if a) you're setting it up and are reasonably technical, and b) you don't want to go over and help them fix stuff often. I set my mom's laptop up with it 4+ years ago and she's only had one problem since then.
I'm talking about like your mom if she started using Linux, and just needs it to be able to open a web browser and check Facebook or her email or something.
Nothing. Just set up Elementary or Mint or something with a shortcut to Firefox and there's nothing else to do. Any apps they might need would come from an app store, so point that out.
A student that just needs a laptop to do homework and take notes
So how to open a text editor? Recommending an easy-to-use and standard one like Kate would be good, but a polished distro will have one preinstalled.
someone that just wants to play games on Steam and chat on discord.
They need concepts like filesystems (e.g. the concept of a root directory, mounting, and device files), software repositories (since steam comes from a non-default repo in many distros), an awareness of the whole graphics driver situation, and hardware both appropriate to their needs and to running Linux.
Linux isn't Windows. I know that is a no-brainer but it needs to be said so it won't be as 1:1 to Windows.
How to install software both in terminal and as well as software manger GUI. Bonus points about compiling software from places like GitHub.
Packages type and their pros and cons
Trying to run Windows application via Wine (or some manager like Bottles or Lutris) as well as comparing running same Windows Application from Linux and Windows.
Alteratives to popular software and list out what it can do and what it doesn't have so user can see if that feature it doesn't have would affect them. For example, GIMP doesn't have full CMYK support which for most users, it isn't a big idea but for people that want to edit images to be ready for printing, they might want to keep that in mind.
I have heard it does but it was generally just an example of "Try this software but note it may not have this feature if this means lot to you" and suggest others like maybe Krita then?
This may be a controversial inclusion, and it’s based on my relatively unsophisticated understanding of Linux. I believe the reason casual computer users hate Linux (generalizing here) is that “Linux” is not one thing.
Commercial operating systems are monoliths. Windows 11 is Windows 11. macOS is macOS. Apart from a few surface-level settings, all instances of them are the same. If you know how to use that operating system, you can go to almost any computer running that OS and start using it, just like you use the one you have at home.
“Linux” is entirely modular. There’s no single thing called “Linux.” You can pick and choose each component to build up your own customized OS from the ground up, and distros take advantage of this. I know just within my household, I have three Linux systems, and casual usage varies wildly across the three. One is a SteamDeck, which is a different kind of thing, but if I just take the two computers as an example, on one, you have an application menu in the top left where the other has an application menu in the bottom left. Also, those menus look completely different. That alone is enough to frustrate a casual user. Now take the fact that they each have different settings panels, different bundled apps, etc. and you have a recipe for making users always feel lost when moving from one system to another.
I don’t think this means you need to teach how to use every available desktop environment, window manager, or sound settings panel, but I do think it would be useful to introduce this concept as part of your curriculum. The sad part is that I think a lot of your audience will tune out at this point because they never had to know that on the commercials OSes, but I think it’s important to be forthcoming about it rather than having your audience blindsided by it.
This is something that I actually planned on explaining! A big reason I myself like to use Linux is because it's modular and can be customized and used in so many ways just to meet your needs which I think is ideal. An operating system shouldn't be a one size fits all kind of thing!
I think there's a certain kind of user who doesn't really learn concepts, but rote actions. They click the start menu and then excel to open excel, but they don't really understand that the start menu is an application launcher and Excel is an application that can be opened in other ways. It's very one dimensional.
Then when something changes, like the application launcher is moved, they freak out. They don't have a mental model.
That's how my mother is, anyway. It's all magic with no underlying coherent anything. Not sure how to fix that, because it usually comes up when they're mad or scared, and that's not a time anyone will learn.
Sorry to grin at you. But in OS theory Linux is known as a monolith kernal. So you choice of words would have given my lecturers a freakout.
But while your terminology is a bit crossed. The ideal you are explaining is fine.
Better Technical way to put it. Linux is just the kernal. Much of the interface you see is actually programs or apps running above that kernal. A d can be changed amd selected.
Windows is also started multipart. But has become less so over time. And it's single distributer makes it way less obvious. By preventing any competition within it's internal structure. The original monolithic kernal of Windows was the MS Dos command.com program. But I no lying those of us from the 80s and early 90 remember using it.
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Package managers: - Repositories - Update mechanism. Many of my friends and family are used to updates being either automatic, nagged, or nonexistent. Not an issue on auto-updating distros, but could get ugly on vanilla Arch or Debian. - Resisting the urge to install loose executables from websites
File system: - Write caching. Windows doesn't do this for most USB drives so people get away without safely ejecting for years. On Linux, the safe eject button does matter. - File hierarchy and mount points. When I first used Linux, I was very confused by the lack of the Program Files and Users folders, My Computer page, and drive letters. - File permissions, especially executables - Partitioning and how to format drives in the absence of a format dialog in the file explorer
Bash shell: - It's not the incomplete mess that made cmd or Powershell so intimidating - Resisting the urge to paste in commands and scripts without knowing what they do
DO NOT download and install random programs from the internet. Not a deb/rpm file, not an elf binary, not an install script, nothing. Use your package manager or desktop environment's app store. At most use flatpak or snap packages.
Linux gets its reputation for not getting malware from the same place Mac does: It has a managed app repository where you get all your software from. Difference is Mac doesn't let you install arbitrary programs at all, while Linux expects you to know better than to do that. Someone who doesn't know what they're doing downloading Linux programs from random websites will inevitably hit one of the super rare Linux malware in the wild.
Even ignoring security issues, running an install script even from a reputable open source project's website can open you up to package dependency hell. And if you ever need to upgrade or modify it, you're in for a rough time because none of the existing tools built into your distro will help you. It's even worse than Windows when this happens because Windows at least expects for things like this to happen (because everything comes in its own installer and handles updates separately) and has UX elements to help non tech savvy users deal with their mess of apps, Linux expects anyone bypassing the normal package manager to know what they're doing and if you don't, it won't be a good day for you.
Also, for Arch folk: AUR isn't a traditional repo. Always be careful what you pull from there. Check pkgbuild files for weird shit and avoid unpopular bin files.
Now the KDE Discover store on Kubuntu needs to let me say no when an app asks for "Full Access: Can Access Everything on your System". It's a bloody text editor, what access could it possibly need.
As far as I know when you download a dmg, the OS checks its signatures against Apple's registry and only allows installation if it's approved. The developer would have submitted the app to Apple (for like $100) for them to inspect even if it's not on the "official" app store.
Not a Mac user so please call me out if I'm just talking out my ass.
In a better time, yes. These days it'll throw a warning that the application can't be trusted and offers to throw it in the bin. You have to run a command in the terminal now. Every time the app updates.
Yes it's impossible to do it fully now 🙁 but you can open programs from unapproved developers by going into settings > security > and select "open anyways". It's kinda a hassle when you like using open source software.
Came here to say drive letters. That's a weird one for converts. A guide for noobies should explain that drive is mounted somewhere in the file structure. Cover how to find it, and how to mount it where you want.
Honestly if you can install windows on a machine and use it then you can install linux on a machine and use it. especially if its an out of the box distro (like my favorite zorin). when downloading something from the web you have to choose linux instead of windows and its usually .debian so its good for it to be a debian based distro. if someone else install the linux for the person then they just need the same skills they needed to run windows. mouse moves the same. login is same. doubleclick is the same. etc. etc.
zorin has a free version though. the paid gives you the gui chooser basically which is not necessary to me. If I had a job I might pay but that would be just to support. Want to sign up for status coup news first though. Need that postive cash flow though so who knows.
I set up Mint for a non-techy relative on their old desktop. * Their use-case is almost entirely web browser, so there was no need to cover installing programs. Click the same browser icon and it should behave basically the same way. * No need to explain the terminal beyond "this is where you can type advanced commands, you don't need to worry about it". * If there's an error message, read it and try to understand what it's actually saying rather than just dismissing it. Do a web search if you're feeling confident, send me a photo of the screen if you're not. * Explain how to install updates (or just configure automatic backups and updates for them). * Explain when and why the computer will ask for a password (e.g. login and updates) and how that password is for the computer, not for their email or whatever. * Explain the basics of folders. This is your home directory, here's where downloads go, here's how to create a folder and drag your files into it. * Tell them not to panic. I've seen a lot of older people terrified of pressing the wrong button, make sure they know how to understand what they're doing and undo their mistakes. * Be patient!
I find that one of the biggest differences is the file ownership/group design, and the non admin user. Sure, it might not come up in a straightforward manner, but it will.
Why do I need to put in a password all the time? How come I can't just move this file to another drive?
This might be too "advanced" for what you're looking for, but I think even basic usage comes across this.
i came here to say this. I was really frustrated for a while figuring this out and understanding how it really makes things more secure, even if you're the only one using the computer. At first it drove me nuts when my server would auto create a folder for media and I'd attempt to change some files within and not have permission, like, my account should have access to everything.
Changing access permissions without understanding how/why completely borked my first install by setting a user without sudo privileges as primary (or something, I still don't know what I did haha) but I couldn't sudo anything and was locked on that profile.
I started by just using Nautilus but this is not good practice so I learned the basics and it finally started making sense.
Yeah, I always bring this up because it's what I dealt with. Mind you, it was amplified because I set up a media server right away and got seriously confused.
What? Permissions don't get inherited? OK fine, so how do you set permissions? This site says 755 and this site says drwxr-xr-x. Can't I just get a straight answer?
It's a fundamental functioning difference between the OS's that not a lot of people talk about when talking about switching.
Even my Windows machine that is set up with an admin/user structure (as God intended) doesn't give me any fuss with file access.
Honestly the biggest thing is just READ WHAT IS ON THE SCREEN. So many people just refuse to read when the computer is literally telling them exactly how to resolve a problem
Yep. And also for bonus points, learn the basics of asking for help. Even simple things like writing a useful subject for a post, being respectful and how to share useful error codes or logs.
Communication is the key. And the problem is most Linux users aren't able to grasp how the language they use is opaque to new users who don't share their knowledge base. Just the word distro is already a barrier to new users cuz they don't know what it means and yet Linux users throw it around as if everyone knows what it means. These basic terms are the biggest barrier I think. Most people who just use a computer check their email don't know what a bios is. They don't know how to boot from a flash drive. That's going to be your biggest barrier. Language and the basic stuff you don't think of as remarkable.
I've been using linux for years, but in limited contexts. With switching my primary desktop over this year I've found it helpful to stop by my local library and checked out some books on linux. I'm combining that with chatting with a locally running LLM. I've also setup an extra Raspberry Pi I had laying around with Ubuntu Lite as a sandbox OS to tinker with.
Maybe consider a portable sandbox setup like this you could quickly demonstrate or share?
It's fundamental because instead of saying "It doesn't work!" and get no useful help, people must think of it as an investigation (or whatever get them going) looking for clues. Until you get the right message and can provide the right context (e.g. what computer are you using, what OS version, etc) then you get generic help which is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sure it's not entirely impossible if you are both lucky and patient but you are doing yourself and others a huge disservice.
Before Linux maybe they were used to black boxes but here, nobody is intentionally trying to hide away anything from you!
PS: bonus, notes are basically free. Jolt down notes about anything and everything you are learning. Don't just "use" a computer, LEARN how to use a computer.
I'm not sure this is great advice. In principle it is. But you can't tell a windows user "yes. You know how many of the programs you used to use are not available because they don't make a Linux version? Well a lot of the ones that do you shouldn't use even though the distro supports it for reasons you don't understand"
That is better advice for an intermediate used learning about the dangers (or lack there of) sideloading.
In general o disagree with your stance on a basically semantic reasons: the definition of a trusted source. If I trust a software manufacturer and they tell me to use their flatpak, it's fine because they are trusted, regardless of the format. What I do not like are things like the AUR
How to get thumbnails working in the file manager.
Adding cloud storage to the file manager.
How to make libre office save files with MS office filetypes by default (depending on work / school requirements)
Maybe samba shares if they have another computer in the house.
For truly casual users (grandma or a student taking notes) there isn't a lot to learn. Here's your browser, here's your office apps, this is like "notepad". This is the software center for updates or any other applications, press the "windows key" to get your menu.
It depends on the distro and how it feels about shipping non-free software.
Wait, what codecs (commonly used by Linux distros) aren't free software?
As far as I know the original issues back in the day was with patents, not licenses, especially with MPEG. And because it was patents (which I think aren't even valid in most jurisdictions except the hell-hole called USA), the issue was mostly with what commercial distros wanted to ship to their customers, not what the end-user could legally use. These days I thought we're using mostly patent-free codecs or people realized they aren't really enforceable anyways. Fedora maybe kind of makes sense, since its users are basically free beta-testers for RHEL, which is mostly US-based and commercial, so would be the most likely to be affected by patent-trolls.
H.265 is a pretty major one. E-AC-3 for audio. Ideally, for a desktop user, you want to be able to play anything. So you need know if your distro includes those codecs. Then how to install them if it doesn't. Then you need to delete your thumbnail cache to fix the thumbnails.
It's not hard. You just have to know that that's a task you need to do. Coming from windows, a user is likely to just assume linux doesn't support video properly and it's thumbnails are broken.
With regards to patents or not being free software? Because ffmpeg includes those and is definitely free software. You also need x265 for encoding I think, but that's also free software.
It’s not hard.
Sure. I was just surprised it's still a thing at all. None of the distros I use have this problem (Gentoo, Arch, Ubuntu, Libreelec).
H.265 is royalty free for non-commercial use. It's ownership is kind of complicated with a bunch of patents and it is commercial licensing is controlled by a few groups.
If I understand correctly (and I'm no lawyer) FFMPEG is completely non-commercial so they don't have an issue. Although I think anyone using FFMPEG for commercial applications (streamers, professional productions, etc...) should be paying a license.
I guess some distros felt that was legally murky for them and others aren't comfortable with non-libre software.
I really wish Fedora would figure out a legal workaround and bundle in the codecs, but for now I just have to remember to set it up before I add any media.
I guess some distros felt that was legally murky for them and others aren’t comfortable with non-libre software.
Let's get something completely straight: ffmpeg is completely, 100%, no-restrictions, free as in libre software. This has nothing whatsoever to do with "not being comfortable with non-libre software". That's just FUD at best.
Legal considerations about patent/license trolls in corrupt neoliberal hell-holes might be justified for commercial projects. Most distros however seem to be getting away just fine by assuming end-users get their license for the codec/patents somewhere else if they even need one.
That's not an attack on ffmpeg. It's 1,000% not fud. I'm not disputing its libre bonifides. H265 is not libre. It's also not part of the ffmpeg code. But they can be distributed together because it's non-commercial.
My apologies if I worded something in a way that wasn't clear about that.
Separate from that issue.
There are distros that do not want to incorporate any non-libre elements into their OS for ideological reasons. They won't have h265.
Then there are distros that have commercial elements, or for which their parent company has some kind of commercial interest in the distribution. If they don't want to pay for licensing they may have legal limitations on their ability to incorporate h265.
But any completely non-commercial software that wants to bundle h265 in has cart blanche to do so.
H.265 is also not software but a specification that ffmpeg implements, and the implementation is libre. Additionally there's also x265 a decoder/encoder that also implements it, that ffmpeg can use, but that is also FOSS.
But they can be distributed together because it’s non-commercial.
To be clear: ffmpeg does not ship any proprietary blobs in order to decode H.265. It's implementation of H.265 is fully FOSS as well.
They won’t have h265.
This is plain wrong and repeating it doesn't make it any better. A libre distro with only libre software can decode H.265 just fine. In multiple ways.
But any completely non-commercial software that wants to bundle h265 in has cart blanche to do so.
I'm trusting your claim here, that that's the case, but even then, it would be more like: Any completely non-commercial software can ship a FOSS H.265 implementation with a bundled royalty free license.
If you don't want to bundle a license, you don't have this problem to begin with, you can let the user worry about that, which the user can then just dismiss without legal consequences (in any sane legal system).
Contrary to what others write*: Yes, the terminal.
It's not that you can't get by without it on many distros, for most things. But for even for medium and non-techy users, getting the fear of the terminal out of the way early will make their journey much, much smoother. It doesn't have to be much, no shell scripting or anything, just the basics, conceptually what a terminal is, what the shell is, how to execute stuff, maybe chmod +x to execute, other utilities like ls, cp, mv, mkdir. maybe symlinks/ln. That'll be enough to take away the fear if they see any "Now do this in the terminal" advice online (which they absolutely will, let's not delude ourselves), and maybe enough to get them to notice that "huh, sometimes the terminal is more convenient, they weren't bullshitting when they said that".
*) Since you asked about "beginner Linux users" and not users that "just want to use their computer and not think about the OS at all", I'm pretty confident about that assertion.
PS: I really think that's not too much too ask. I remember my mother learning DOS commands back in the day for a regular desk-job. Everyone can do this, it's not difficult, people just have to let go of a few false preconceptions drilled into them by the industry (MS, Google and Apple).
su/sudo -Why you will need to use it and how not to use it.
-I still don't think it's wise to rely on the various stores like Discover or Pop!_Shop to do basic updates as they are bloated and slow to an alarming rate while running.
Something I don't think is mentioned because someone who knows how to use windows can figure it out: what to do when a window freezes, the keyboard command to reboot, other common things that go wrong and how to get around them. I use a gui task manager and it's basically just like windows, but if the computer freezes on someone who doesn't know what to do you will be receiving a phone call.
everything is a file lol, unlike on Windows where a lot of things are GUI based:
Want to change your grub font size? Heres a file.
Your python gives dependencies errors? Well, because the libraries (aka files) are in a different directory.
want to change your password and username? Heres a file to change .....so on and so forth
On Linux you have a lot of power, can use sudo to make changes to a file. If you know what youre doing, great. If you dont, system can break. Even without sudo, a misplace / mistype of files in the /home directory can cause weird stuff.
So TLDR is: be careful when make changes to files on Linux. Dont listen to stranger on forum who gives out command to paste and run. Do your research what the command does.
::: spoiler spoiler The best advice is don't be an autistic retard. Learn pragmatically by experience. Take your time and have fun. Don't do (or not do) something just to fit in with losers on the internet. :::
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.
Greetings to the Activitypub.space community. I have a question. Is it possible to use Activitypub protocol to define a unique identity on a single account across the various federated platforms, valid for the entire Fediverse?
phi yes! It is very much possible in theory, but in practice it is less of a given.
What you're thinking of is having the "various fediverse platforms" — Mastodon, Pixelfed, WordPress, etc. — allow you to use your existing fediverse account, and for your interactions there to be done by that account, which might not be on the server you're on.
A lot of sites (this one included, for now) doesn't support that, but the base techniques are there.
We know we can achieve fediverse single sign-in through OAuth2, and the ActivityPub API can theoretically accomplish the latter. It's a matter of support, and it's something I want to focus on soon!
julian Thanks. I think there's some confusion among the protocols for defining a single identity for the Fediverse. I've heard about the Nomad, Zot, and Streams protocols for defining a nomadic identity on Activitypub, but I'm a bit confused.
Initially nomadic identity was only possible in Zot and Nomad protocols, but not in ActivityPub. But we figured out how to do it in ActivityPub too. Streams is a software that implements both Nomad and ActivityPub protocols, and supports nomadic identity. It is not the only such project though, there are a couple of others that support ActivityPub-based nomadic identity:
silverpill@mitra.social I think it's important to define a feature within ActivityPub that "allows users to freely move from one server to another without losing their identities and content." Obviously, the servers don't have to be part of the same platform.
phi maybe this is a social layer problem rather than a technical problem.
Your issue means a lot in a world where we have amateur hobbyists setting up social network servers and allowing the general public to join. Those hobbyists get overwhelmed or bored after a while, or they do a bad job and your server gets defederated.
In this case, it makes a lot of sense to move from one server to another. But this is not the only way we could organize the Fediverse.
Email isn't like that. You (probably?) don't use an email address from a server you found on a list on joinemail.org. You probably, instead, have an email address from your employer or university, and maybe a personal one from a well-known and reliable cloud service. If you're very clever, you may use your own domain for email, and share it with your household or family.
In those cases, you rarely change email addresses. We have some ad hoc ways to move from one to the other, but they aren't built into the SMTP or IMAP specs. And yet we have a lot of email going around, even after 50 years.
I think we should be putting our efforts into getting Fediverse services from organizations we have a lot of affinity with, like employers or universities or the city you live in or the post office.
Another option is using the extremely portable identity system we already have -- domain names. It should be a lot easier to bring your own domain name to a Fediverse server, and to move your data between servers by backing up and restoring and then repointing your domain name to the new server, like you do for blogs. This is really hard right now.
I think LOLA is doing a good job with online moves, but we should also be encouraging more server developers to support BYOD, and we should encourage Fediverse users to get a domain.
> We have some ad hoc ways to move from one to the other, but they aren't built into the SMTP or IMAP specs
yes they are, though? in IMAP, you can just copy your messages and folders from one inbox to another. in SMTP, we have email forwarding.
using your own DNS name can make things easier, but the main challenge in fedi is that we don't have a common storage/access abstraction (equivalent to IMAP folders), and we don't recognize HTTP redirects (equivalent to SMTP forwarding).
Flock has built a nationwide surveillance network of AI-powered cameras and given many more federal agencies access. Senator Ron Wyden told Flock “abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable” and Flock “is unable and uninterested in preventing them.”
ICE, Secret Service, Navy All Had Access to Flock's Nationwide Network of Cameras
A division of ICE, the Secret Service, and the Navy’s criminal investigation division all had access to Flock’s nationwide network of tens of thousands of AI-enabled cameras that constantly track the movements of vehicles, and by extension people, according to a letter sent by Senator Ron Wyden and shared with 404 Media. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the section of ICE that had access and which has reassigned more than ten thousand employees to work on the agency’s mass deportation campaign, performed nearly two hundred searches in the system, the letter says.
In the letter Senator Wyden says he believes Flock is uninterested in fixing the room for abuse baked into its platform, and says local officials can best protect their constituents from such abuses by removing the cameras entirely.
The letter shows that many more federal agencies had access to the network than previously known. We previously found, following local media reports, that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had access to 80,000 cameras around the country. It is now clear that Flock’s work with federal agencies, which the company described as a pilot, was much larger in scope.
This post is for subscribers only
Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now
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.
inb4 the wEll yOu hAvE nO eXpEcTaTiOn oF pRiVaCy iN pUbLiC comments
I hate this argument that people use. Technology has fundamentally redefined what it means to be observed. Someone casually glancing at you in public is a completely different thing to having your movement tracked, permanently stored, and linked to you wherever you go. People absolutely have a right to expect a degree of privacy even in public settings
I don’t know about the particulars of other countries, but in America you’re mistaken.
The goal of my comment was not to “well actually” but instead to point out that, relevant to the post topic and concurrent with your recognition that technology has fundamentally changed in our lifetimes the understanding of privacy and anonymity we apply in everyday life, if you want privacy you have to take active steps to ensure you can go in public and maintain it.
That doesnt mean using graphene and libreboot, it means covering your face in public.
Apologies I must've replied to your comment accidentally, I was meaning to post it as a general comment in the thread. It's interesting though, there's a middle ground somewhere but people shouldn't need to take extreme steps to not be recorded everywhere they go. The only thing we can be certain of is that the government and companies aren't going to give us privacy back. We have to be proactive ourselves. I just wish it didn't have to be this way
One thing I’ve been thinking about is the historical circumstances around traditional dress in the Arabic speaking world, Muslim religious proscriptions about clothing and how those could converge with outcomes in the present day.
Giant wraparound shades with a punisher skull veil dangling off em.
"No expectation of privacy in public" is a legal doctrine. I do have an expectation of privacy in public. Stop filming me and shit, mind your own damn business.
Former GOP operative Scott Leiendecker just bought Dominion Voting Systems, giving him ownership of voting systems used in 27 states. Election experts have concerns.
Viral ‘Cheater Buster’ Sites Use Facial Recognition to Let Anyone Reveal Peoples’ Tinder Profiles
A number of easy to access websites use facial recognition to let partners, stalkers, or anyone else uncover specific peoples’ Tinder profiles, reveal their approximate physical location at points in time, and track changes to their profile including their photos, according to 404 Media’s tests.
Ordinarily it is not possible to search Tinder for a specific person. Instead, Tinder provides users potential matches based on the user’s own physical location. The tools on the sites 404 Media has found allow anyone to search for someone’s profile by uploading a photo of their face. The tools are invasive of anyone’s privacy, but present a significant risk to those who may need to avoid an abusive ex-partner or stalker. The sites mostly market these tools as a way to find out if their partner is cheating on them, or at minimum using dating apps like Tinder.
This post is for subscribers only
Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now
Videos demoing one of the sites have repeatedly gone viral on TikTok and other platforms recently. 404 Media verified they can locate specific peoples' Tinder profiles using their photo, and found that the viral videos are produced by paid creat…
"App store" means a publicly available Internet website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes software applications from the owner or developer of a software application to the user of a mobile device.
This sounds like it could apply not only to F-Droid but also to any website distributing APKs, and actually, every other software distribution sysem too (eg, linux distros...) which include software which could be run on a "mobile device" (the definition of which also can be read as including a laptop).
otoh i think they might have made a mistake and left a loophole; all of the requirements seem to depend on an age verification "under Section 121.021" and Section 121.021 says:
When an individual in this state creates an account with an app store, the owner of the app store shall use a commercially reasonable method of verification to verify the individual's age category
I'm not a lawyer but I don't see how this imposes any requirements on "app stores" which simply don't have any account mechanism to begin with 😀
(Not to say that this isn't still immediately super harmful for the majority of the people who get their apps from Google and Apple...)
Right, so basically they'll have a database of who has (had) what app, when, and where...
Which could include apps like Grindr (way to target the LGBT community), or like Signal (way to target Journalists, activists, and other privacy minded people). You can find out a lot about someone's app choices and in a state like Texas, which is conservative and authoritarian, that can be used to go after certain demographics.
On Tuesday, here in Chicago, America caught a glimpse of its possible future, and it was terrifying. Federal agents, dressed like soldiers and armed with the weapons of war, rammed a civilian vehicle on 105th Street, using a maneuver outlawed by Chic…
"What we will not accept is for the ACA premiums to skyrocket on the American people," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse."
Ciao a tutti, sto provando a passare in modo definitivo a Linux. al momento utilizzo un mac book pro (fine 2008) con Lubuntu e sono molto, molto soddisfatto. Sto' cercando un alternativa non troppo complessa a Camera Raw, ho provato (e sto' continuando a provare) DarkTable ma ... è veramente macchinoso ... consigli ?
non so se mi leggerai, comunque io per le foto ho provato CameraRaw e RawTherapee, e uso quest'ultimo dal 2020, da quando ho preso la macchina bellina che ho ora, e mi ci trovo benissimo, meglio che con CameraRaw. L'unico punto un po' dolente è che il setup iniziale per la tua macchina può essere un po' complicato (il più delle volte è automatico, ma a volte, come nel mio caso, no), però comunque se segui le istruzioni sul wiki non lo è, rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/; e che comunque devi impararlo (ma gli strumenti sono un po' gli stessi su tutti i programmi di "sviluppo" RAW, solo che in RawTherapee mi sembrano organizzati meglio che in CameraRaw); e che ha una visuale di anteprima sempre un po' sgranata rispetto a come potrebbe essere (mi pare ci stiano lavorando, a migliorarla; comunque dopo un po' ci fai l'occhio).
I’ve been thinking about discovering underappreciated Lemmy instances. GitHub’s awesome-lemmy-instances used to serve a similar purpose, but it hasn’t been updated in a long time, and I haven’t found anything else like it.
I got the idea from this post about finding decentralized communities in the Fediverse. I’m thinking of a Lemmy bot that tracks Lemmy instances, calculates the average number of active users and standard deviation, and identifies instances with activity below the average plus two standard deviations. It would then rank these underutilized instances by performance metrics like uptime and response time, and periodically update a curated list on Lemmy to guide users toward instances that could use more participation.
I'd love feedback on how you would go about doing something like this. And specifically how to rank by performance.
If someone wants a regional instance they usually figure it out by themselves, also the Piefed instance chooser can help and has a latency indicator: piefed.social/post/1337079
You don't need to calculate the average number of active users. If you do, it will be wasted resources and you probably will miss a few dozen.
Simply request the instance's NodeInfo.
NodeInfo 2.1 (which Lemmy does implement) and I think 2.0 as well require implementors to provide correct user usage statistics. So you have total users and average active users per month/half year calculated on request.
This also means you can provide this service for other platforms that support NodeInfo.
Making a GET request to /.well-known/nodeinfo will give you the links to the instance's NodeInfo documents.
In fact, you can recursively begin from some random known instance, get a list of other instances it is federated with, get their NodeInfo and repeat the process. NodeInfo also provides the name of the software (check schema).
Choose which sections in the Tab Button popup are visible from the Display Options menu.
You may find some sections in the Tab Button popup irrelevant to your workflow. If that’s the case, hide them and enjoy using a Tab Button that fits your needs perfectly.
To hide sections you don’t use.
Open the pop-up menu.
Open the Display Options menu by clicking on the 3-dot menu button in the top right corner.
Click on the section names on the menu to toggle their visibility off or on.
Can anyone tell me whether modifiers/diffusers 're-polarise' light? For example, if i put a polarising filter on a speedlite but then fire it through a softbox, will the light still be polarised outside of the softbox?
It's sobering walking down a street 30 minutes from where you live – even in a crowd of 2000, majority women – to cries of 'shame on you' and 'ped~~~~les' from families stood in their drives with their kids. It's not that the marchers didn't have our shar
Like many who marched against the Iraq war (an estimated 36 million across 3,000 protests) only to see the popular turnout ignored by government followed by a devastating, illegal war, I’ve come to question the value of marches. 500,000 marching about Gaza in London each month doesn’t get a photo in the press, but an arrested 83-year old Priest holding a Palestine Action sign – or a Plasticine Action sign – does.
But Epping was something different.
If me – 6ft white guy – felt nervous amidst a crowd of 2,000 anti-fascist marchers, with police everywhere – I was struck by how on earth the asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel must feel, amidst theviolence erupting outside their accommodation. And how must Epping’s BAME and migrant residents feel walking about? Unlike other marches I’ve been on, this was about strength in numbers. It was a way of saying to the rest of Epping ‘you’re not alone’ – and judging by the many waves and cheers from windows and doorsteps (some half-hiding for fear), that was welcomed.
By some. But not by others – it’s sobering walking down a street 30 minutes from where you live – even in a crowd of 2000, majority women – to cries of ‘shame on you’ and ‘pedophiles’ from families stood in their drives with their kids.
But it’s not that the marchers didn’t have our share of inflammatory chants – from ‘Nazi scum’ and ‘kill yourself like Adolph Hitler’, this social media-friendly tendency to paint the other side in the extreme worst place struck me as lose-lose for everyone, other than the companies who depend on polarised content to feed to audiences around the world safe at home, screen-stroking. On this level it’s not a community crisis it’s a content strategy – it’s the social media equivalent of premium content – violence on British streets, with something for both sides. It’s not tribes, its not a community story, it’s two different dramas with two different audiences, who each can look at it and say how the other side are a sign of how Britain is doomed.
Campaign groups need to get better at communicate to both two audiences
A danger of these ‘filter bubbles’ is not knowing how to communicate to the other bubble; the strongest messages can be heard by both groups and the majority will agree with it. That’s why ‘save our kids’ works and ‘migrants out’ doesn’t. Organisers Stand up Against Racism have to be better at communications. Take this reasonably balanced report from the BBC of the march –
Carmen Edwards, from the anti-migrant protest, said: “It was all happy, people were dancing, we were singing. There weren’t no far-right.” Sharon Smith, who had travelled from nearby Harlow, said she wanted to attend the protest to “protect my grandkids”. She said: “A lot of people showed up; it was good humoured and [there was] music. Everyone wants the same, [which is to] save our children.” However, Lewis Nielsen, officer at Stand up to Racism, said: “We think it is a quite dangerous situation in Epping. “They are potentially heading towards the same kind of violence we saw in August last year, so we think it is important that anti-racists and anti-fascists come out and mobilise against them. “People are right to be angry about the cost-of-living crisis, the NHS, the housing crisis. None of that was caused by the refugees in that hotel.”
Stand up to Racism sound like a politician who’s dodged a question from a journalist. The anti-migrant crowd in Epping aren’t talking about the NHS or housing, they’re talking about ‘protect our kids’. That has to be the first sentence in any response:
“We absolutely agree every community should feel safe, and nothing is more important than keeping all of our children safe. Unfortunately some of the refugees staying at the hostel have been attacked and beaten up while just going to the shops – and we’re here to say they must feel safe too.”
That’s the headline statement. And then they can pivot to the hard truths:
Nigel Farage has tried to split this community over a sexual assault of a teenager, but champions pro-rape figures like Andrew Tate. Some of the loudest voices weaponising the concerns of this community pay no interest when those accused are white. Tommy Robinson planned to come here today – he co-founded the EDL with Richard Price who was convicted for creating and possessing child pornography; Tommy defended him for long after that. The EDL – which he founded – had 20 members charged with child exploitation offences. This has continued for years – dozens of people close to him charged with child sexual abuse material, his spokesman in 2019 convicted for domestic abuse, and what’s key is he NEVER condemned these white supporters when the crimes came to light.”
Of course this isn’t a new story – a horrible attack on a teenager, weaponised by Britain’s newest Nazi group Homeland through a Facebook Group ‘Epping Says No’ (who openly boast of their orchestration), instrumentalised by a click hungry right wing press, conflict-hungry social media platforms and shameless politicians – to divide a community into ‘racists’ vs ‘threats to children’; or at the extremes ‘Nazi scum’ and ‘Pedophiles’.
Is this something new?
Is there anything meaningful to take from all this? From Tulsa to Ballymena – sexual assault is the ignition on an initial furious community backlash against the minority group where the accused comes from; and other forces then mobilise to defend them. In Ballymena 107 police officers were injured; in Tulsa in 1921 35 blocks were burned down and 39 of the local black community were killed. In Epping’s march on Sunday night thankfully no-one was hurt, a week before tho a dozen were – and Nigel Farage spent the week in between complaining that the police had let more get injured.
Reading the press in the aftermath, listening to the chants on the day, looking at the range of people who opposed our march through Epping I think there is. I think what’s new in all this, that’s different to Tulsa or previous such fights was how many of the men lining the streets was how many of them were filming. Unlike the race battles of the 80s and 90s that we thought we’d left behind, this is also about content production and distribution. It’s both social-capital generating content for the creator, and money-making, attention-grabbing content for the platforms.
This is a relatively new thing. And so a relatively routine far-right weaponised concern for the safety of women and kids and a similarly common concern for the safety of refugees and minorities – is prevented from finding that natural common ground of ‘safety and care for all’ on social media, because this is social media’s version of a football match – choose your side and attack the other. A resolution would be bad for business.
Where once community leaders – from the local church to pub, cabbies and newspaper – would do the work of trying to repair fractured communities, the business model here is the opposite. The attention model is built on conflict, not the calming down and compromises which community peace and restoration is built on. At its worst unregulated extreme, we can picture a full cycle where social media companies –who don’t invest in content production– benefit so much from these conflicts that their algorithms continually reinforce the conditions for conflict, encouraging each ‘side’ to behave in ways that are most triggering to the other, all as a path to generate high-value content.
I began to write a screenplay a few years back about a developer who discovers the algorithm he’d written to grow a newspaper’s engagement and clicks was triggering geopolitical conflicts to meet its objectives of ‘more news’. It was a fun/scary Black Mirror-esque idea, but increasingly it feels like a logical conclusion of the business model of the attention economy, when coupled with the lack of transparency or regulation over the algorithms that decide who sees what.
Un uomo trovato morto nella sua villa. Una scena che sembra una rapina finita male. Ma qualcosa non torna.
Il vicequestore Tiburzi lo capisce subito: la vittima, rivela il medico legale, prima di essere uccisa è stata drogata con un insolito cocktail di medicinali. Perché? Se doveva essere uccisa perché complicarsi la vita drogandolo e in modo così raffinato? E la rapina come si inserisce nel delitto?
La vittima è un noto commercialista. Ricco, affermato, ma anche pieno di nemici. Una moglie elegante e distante. Un figliastro pieno d’odio. Un passato costruito su segreti e compromessi.
Mentre la città soffoca nel caldo estivo, le indagini fanno emergere le contraddizioni. Una relazione ambigua. Una vita doppia. Un piano studiato nei dettagli. O forse solo una tragica coincidenza?
“Una vita di inganni” è un giallo raffinato e avvolgente, dove ogni personaggio ha qualcosa da nascondere. E dove la verità si nasconde dietro le maschere quotidiane.
Un’indagine che scava a fondo nei legami familiari, nelle ambizioni, nei rimpianti. Perché, a volte, il movente non è solo l’odio o l’avidità. È anche l’amore tradito.
Come tutto ha inizio
Tutto ha inizio in una villa. Una rapina finita male, un uomo trovato morto. Eppure, come spesso accade, ciò che appare agli occhi non sempre corrisponde alla realtà.
Il vicequestore Tiburzi si troverà coinvolto in un’indagine tanto complessa quanto affascinante. Perché un noto commercialista è stato ucciso? Cosa lega davvero la rapina all’omicidio? Sono solo alcune delle domande a cui dovrà cercare una risposta.
In un intreccio carico di suspense, Maurizio Mos, con la sua penna calibrata e uno stile limpido, ci trascina nel cuore di un romanzo in cui nulla è come sembra in questo thriller. Un giallo elegante, raffinato, dove ogni personaggio ha qualcosa da nascondere e dietro ogni angolo si celano maschere e finzioni.
Le maschere: Pirandello e il doppio volto dei personaggi
Uno degli aspetti più apprezzabili del romanzo è il modo in cui Mos affronta – con delicatezza e raffinatezza – il tema della maschera, concetto caro alla tradizione letteraria italiana e in particolare a Pirandello.
“Uno, nessuno e centomila”
Così scriveva il grande autore siciliano, e così appaiono anche i personaggi del libro di Mos: dietro le loro quotidianità si celano inganni, sotterfugi, avidità, gelosie, amori traditi e sogni spezzati, che danno vita a un sottile gioco di parole e azioni. Il vicequestore Tiburzi si muove in questo scenario con l’abilità di un danzatore, un ballerino che riesce a destreggiarsi su fili sottili intrecciati con le trame nascoste della vita di tutti i giorni. “Una vita di inganni” è un giallo raffinato e avvolgente, dove ogni personaggio ha qualcosa da nascondere. E dove la verità si nasconde dietro le maschere quotidiane. Anche nella presentazione ufficiale si sottolinea la centralità del tema delle maschere, simbolo di finzioni, segreti e apparenze. Ma, si sa, le maschere prima o poi cadono, frantumandosi davanti allo specchio della verità.Tiburzi riuscirà a smascherare ciò che si cela dietro le apparenze? A sciogliere i nodi del dubbio e della finzione? Questo lo scoprirete solo leggendo il thriller di Maurizio Mos.
Un pensiero sulla scrittura
Non è il primo libro che leggo di Maurizio Mos e, come le volte precedenti, posso dirmi soddisfatta. Ho particolarmente apprezzato la scelta del formato: caratteri grandi e chiari, ideali anche per chi ha difficoltà nella lettura. Una soluzione che rende il testo più fruibile e migliora la scorrevolezza generale.
Questa volta, però, ho percepito qualcosa in più. La scrittura di Mos sta maturando, diventando sempre più sicura e incisiva, capace di coinvolgere il lettore pagina dopo pagina.
Estratto dal romanzo
“… Erano alla fine della settimana, le indagini non avevano fatto un passo in avanti… Intanto già ai telegiornali e sui giornali erano comparsi i primi resoconti vagamente critici sulle indagini. C’era da temere un insuccesso.”
Questo estratto mi ha colpita particolarmente. Spesso diamo per scontato che ciò che non si risolve subito sia destinato a fallire. Ma la verità è che occorre dare tempo alle azioni perché maturino. E questo è proprio ciò che Mos riesce a fare con il suo thriller: costruire con pazienza una tensione crescente, fino al disvelamento finale.
Chi è Maurizio Mos
Maurizio Mos nasce a La Spezia il 16 novembre 1951. È in pensione dal 2013, dopo aver lavorato per anni in diversi enti pubblici. Ha una figlia trentenne, laureata in Filosofia.
Amante della campagna, vive in solitudine nella casa di famiglia, dove si dedica a lunghe passeggiate. È anche un grande appassionato di auto d’epoca (soprattutto quelle dei suoi vent’anni, seppur platonicamente, come lui stesso racconta) e di letteratura gialla: la sua collezione supera i 200 titoli.
Amazon's new delivery station in Elkhart, Indiana, looks nothing like the concrete and steel boxes that dot America's logistics landscape. The 171,000-square-fo
One of the perks of being a network engineer is that since almost all Network troubleshooting utilities (nmap, tshark, hell even tracroute) require root I get sudo on everything. Now sure they could restrict my sudo privileges to specific applications, but at that point, they don't really trust anyone so they have already lost.
Anyway, if you can't trust your employees with sudo, they shouldn't be using the command-line at all.
Eclypsium researchers have discovered UEFI shells, authorized via Secure Boot, on Framework laptops. The UEFI shells contain capabilities that allow attackers to bypass Secure Boot on roughly 200,000 affected Framework laptops and desktops.
Its not a backdoor, because secure boot was never about safety to begin with. Its just a piece of security theater, whose primary use is more control for microsoft. "Secure" boot only boots software signed with a microsoft key, thats the "security". Microsoft also allows linux distributions to be signed, but nothing is technically stopping them from just refusing, for " security reasons", and on some systems secure boot cant be turned off. So it being bustable is a good thing. There are other ways to protect devices from physical access, but generally, if attackers have physical access to your computer, then its compromised, secure boot or not. Framework just didnt want to play along.
So don’t use it? How much or how little actual security secure boot provides is a topic that has been discussed to oblivion. I brought it up to make a point of how badly people are overreacting about the severity of this latest framework news.
I still have no idea what secure-boot really does and this was me turning the metaphorical secure-boot dial while checking the crowd to see whether they start gasping in horror.
they sponsored Omarchy and Hyprland. one a glorified dotfiles arch "distro" built by DHH who is pretty much a fascist and Hyprland a buggy neon mess of a WM built by a transphobic fascist.
So yeah, they're not having a good time right now.
because they're built by individuals who are those things. that's the controversy. that's it.
the whole thing is people are upset that Framework sponsored those things because they don't like paying Framework for their machines who in turn then give money to people they feel are facists.
To me they give to a project that have individual that hold controversial opinion rather than to a controversial individual but I can understand the logic.
But tbh I would rather be pissed that a company would finnanve other while they sell their stuff for a premium price
In a way its understandable: It looks flashy, "hackery" and is a complete departure from the Windows or Mac GUI which avoids an "uncanny valley" of usability. Also it is pretty easy to install (i would argue, even more easy than many mainstream distributions), couple that with the positive PR that it got by some Youtube people and you have a road to success for this distro.
This is heavily sensationalized. UEFI "secure boot" has never been "secure" if you (the end user) trust vendor or Microsoft signatures. Alongside that, this ""backdoor"" (diagnostic/troubleshooting tool) requires physical access, at which point there are plenty of other things you can do with the same result.
Yes, the impact is theoretically high, but it's the same for all the other vulnerable EFI applications MS and vendors sign willy-nilly. In order to get a properly locked-down secure boot, you need to trust only yourself.
When you trust Microsoft's secure boot keys, all it takes is one signed EFI application with an exploit to make your machine vulnerable to this type of attack.
Another important part is persistence, especially for UEFI malware. The only reason it's so easy is because Windows built-in "factory reset" is so terrible. Fresh installing from a USB drive can easily avoid that.
I think... we all think the bag was a nice idea. But - not pointin' any fingers - they coulda been done better. So, how 'bout, no bags this time - but next time, we do the bags right, and then we go full regalia.
Depends entirely on the device. On most desktops, you should be able to. On a lot of laptops, this may leave them in an unbootable state (due to GPU option ROMs).
Check for your specific hardware before removing factory default secure boot keys.
Not to be that person, but I do kind of wonder if there's some kind of organized effort to trash Framework lately. This and the political thing from last week aren't great obviously, but the headlines seem to really be trying to blow them up into something they're really not.
I use Manjaro Linux with the Cinnamon desktop and sometimes run into system-level issues, but I have no idea how to properly debug them. It doesn’t feel as straightforward as debugging a normal program. What’s the best way or resource to learn system debugging on Linux?
There are guides available. Search for 'Linux kernel debugging' or 'Linux module debugging', depending on which you are more interested in. And, of course, learn about the relevant parts of the kernel.
Just as a general rule, I would start checking log files. You can start by searching /var/log for files that have been modified in the last few mins with something like "sudo find /var/log -mmin -10 -ls 2>/dev/null". That will get you all log files in /var/log changed within the last 10 mins. Then you can tail those or grep them looking for clues. I have done searches of the entire file system looking for log files that were recently modified to find clues. It might also help to send the output to a file so you can view that and scroll up and down rather than just trying to read the output of the find, tail or grep commands. Put a "1>/{path}/filenameyouwanttouse.out" at the end of the command or you can pipe it to the tee command and it will show on the screen and write to the file you specify.
Sysadmin here, this is my usual flow for various distros
as /u/FigMcLargeHuge mentions, recent logfiles in /var/log. Notably /var/log/messages (EL) and syslog (Debian) but anything that's recent.
journalctl - More and more things are moving to binary logging. If you know the process, then journalctl -u processname restricts to just that. also add a -f for tailing it for ongoing logs.
dmesg -T - especially at system level, this captures any hardware/low level logs. (-T reports actual times, not just seconds since boot)
Once you have some logs that you think are related, but don't know WTF they actually mean, you have two options. The first is to google likely strings. This is... ineffective much of the time - accidental misinformation and outdated advice is increasingly common. The answer might be there, but it takes time and can be frustrating to weed out the cruft.
The better way, (IMO, and people downvote me for saying this) is to use AI. Get a few lines of logs with the errors, check them for confidential information, and simply paste the suspect lines into chatgpt, gemini, claude, co-pilot, whatever. No need for context, it'll figure that out. The LLM will, 4 times out of 5, identify the problem very quickly.
Now, once it's identified that, it will offer to fix it for you. This is where you've got to be on your toes as LLMs are really really quick to give bad advice at this level. But that first triage is nearly always worth doing and helps shape your own mind as to what's going on. AI is still useful for fixing it, but do understand what it's telling you to do.
We did experiment with local models. They were okay, if a little slow with the resources we allocated for testing. Ultimately though, we paid for copilot. I'm still a little sceptical that it won't leak data, despite the assurances, so I do clean anything sensitive before pasting.
As for best models - generally gpt4 or 5 is my go-to, but the others have their uses. I tend to stick with one until it annoys me, then move on. Claude's pretty good for code help, imo, but there's not really a huge difference between them.
I do not use models in general online, but my needs are also much smaller. Max I use my local model for ollama is translations. I am always interested in seeing more focused models so we can use on lower end hardware
I have resorted to the AI step also, if Stract.com doesn't give me a good link, because if I paste a minidlna crash log Google responds with: - Mini Cooper on sale - Buy your DAC device here - want to sign up to streaming music - network and NAS comparisons
Useless.
At least AI said: based on your error it appears a file in your database has metdata tags it cannot parse properly. Sure enough the tagger I used had applied a tag to a wmv file and Minidlna couldn't deal with tag1 area vs tag 2 areas used in other file formats.
use AI. Get a few lines of logs with the errors, check them for confidential information, and simply paste the suspect lines into chatgpt, gemini, claude, co-pilot, whatever
concur. I used to put smaller snippets of the logs into Google search to hopefully bring up pages from fellow sufferers of the same malaise; that usually worked, but AI is doing it better - now.
If there's one thing AI is good at is trawling though a hell scape of random data from across time and space. And outputting... Something reasonably close.
Least close enough to actually put you in the right path 9 times out of 10. Even if the ai is wrong, it's still vastly more time effective then going to stack overflow for this was solved with no solution present.
Hell I had a issue trying to find documentation for a old game I was modding from 10 years ago that maybe sold 1000 copies the wiki was dead the devs site was dead and the way back machine didn't have the pages I needed.
Some fucking how chat gpt knew the game, was able to identify it correctly from a script I gave it then spat out the exact correct context and documentation I needed.
It was flabbergasting. Cause at the same time it told me the game came out in 1995 when it came out in 2015... It got basic ass info wrong but the technical details right.
Generally, it depends on the issue. The first thing I'd check is journalctl, and if there are any errors, I usually look up "[pasted error] [distro name]" and go from there. if I'm unable to find errors, then my next bet is to look up "[description of issue] [distro name]". Unless I am directly familiar with the component that is having an issue, I try to see if I can find a solution online first. Of course, I never recommend running commands you read online that you don't understand, so take it as a learning experience and pull up some man pages to see what everything is doing. By doing that, you can even begin to learn how to debug and fix these issues by yourself. Even just finding issues other people have and proving it isn't your issue helps narrow it down.
What I will never under any circumstances recommend is using an LLM. Please, just use a normal search engine (I prefer DDG), and find forum posts from real people. Those people are generally capable of understanding what they're saying, so they won't give completely made up information based on generation of the most likely next word from the data an LLM model was trained on. Besides, chances are that the LLMs are trained on the data you would find by searching anyway, so why not go straight to the source?
I do find myself having to troubleshoot issues entirely on my own sometimes, but usually those are of my own doing, and I can likely figure out what I did wrong (I host my own server and tinker with it quite often). Of course, since switching to atomic distros on my desktop, I haven't had any system issues to troubleshoot with it in years. Running Manjaro is practically a guarantee that you'll have system issues, though. I've never had a worse experience with my system than when I ran it, and I'm not alone in that.
Otherwise, if you find yourself unable to find an easy solution, backups are a wonderful thing. My server recently had part of its boot corrupted, and it was just a case of recovering from a backup to restore it. Remember, with backups: 2 is 1 and 1 is none. Data can (and will) get corrupted eventually.
journalctl and log files are very valuable. If it's specific to an application running said application in a terminal with verbose also gives can potentially provide you with a clear indication of what's going wrong.
I'm dyslexic so I get syntax errors all the damn time and thankfully using NixOS it likes to remind me on rebuild how much of an idiot I am.
Worse comes to worse you can always plug the error into an LLM like Claude or Chatgpt. But take that with a grain of salt. It'll give you a good base to start from for debugging but never trust something like Claude that will constantly tell you "it's a known issue" when it isn't.
All this being said I've had the best experience for help via whatever application/distro/whatever IRC channels on Libera chat.
There's an entire step between trying to figure it out yourself and resorting to an LLM which is probably likely to tell you to shove cheese into the USB ports. Regular web searching. Forum and social media posts. The distro's wiki itself or other such resources. You know, the stuff the AI originally sucked up, mashed together, mixed around, and spat back out.
right that's why I said worse comes to worse and to take it with a grain of salt. For very simple issues it's fine, beyond that it's a coin toss. It's a fine rubber duck. Like if I missed something obvious but I'm just not seeing it then it might point that out for me. Like for example I recently reinstalled my OS and I couldn't get wireguad to work so as a last ditch effort I plugged it into Claude and it told me that I had forgotten to replace a privatekey on one of the peers. I had just completely missed it.
Guix channel for packages that can't be included upstream. Please do NOT promote or refer to this repository on any official Guix communication channels.
The UN relief chief on Wednesday urged Israel and Hamas to honour their agreement to return deceased hostages and allow aid at scale into Gaza, warning that it should not be used as “a bargaining chip” amid reports of new civilian killings and extraj…
Russian pro-war sources have published a video of a drone strike on a UN convoy in Ukraine. The footage surfaced on the morning of Oct. 15 via the Telegram channel “From Mariupol to the Carpathians,” which is associated with Russian UAV operators in the Kherson sector. The Ukrainian side had reported a truck attack on Oct. 14, and the UN stated that the incident could be considered a war crime.
[...]
The truck targeted by the drone bears the inscription WFP — the abbreviation for the World Food Programme. On top of the trucks, the UN abbreviation is also visible, marking them as United Nations vehicles.
[...]
The strike on the convoy was reported on Oct. 14 by Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Ukraine’s Kherson Regional Military Administration. One of the four trucks burned out completely, and another sustained serious damage. There were no reported casualties.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, called the deliberate attack on humanitarian workers and facilities a severe violation of international humanitarian law. He emphasized that it could be considered a war crime.
mrdown
in reply to Peter Link • • •