A New Cat Color Is Defying Genetic Expectations
A New Cat Color Is Defying Genetic Expectations
Scientists have discovered a rare new cat coat color called salmiak, or salty liquorice, caused by a genetic mutation. This stunning shade is now explained.Jackie Appel (Popular Mechanics)
'Our Genocide': How do Israelis feel about the war in Gaza? – video
'Our Genocide': How do Israelis feel about the war in Gaza? – video
Reporter Matthew Cassel speaks to Israelis in Tel Aviv, to see what they think of the war, famine and genocide happening next door, and the growing international condemnation against itTemujin Doran (The Guardian)
Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total US spending in Q2, up from 48.5% in Q1, reaching the highest level in data going back to 1989
Top 10% of Earners Drive a Growing Share of US Consumer Spending
Wealthy consumers continue to account for a growing share of US consumer spending, highlighting the lopsided strength of the economy as a slowdown in hiring and wariness among other income cohorts raise fears of a slowdown.Jonnelle Marte (Bloomberg)
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Man accused of killing Brian Thompson will not face state terrorism-related murder charges but others will standVictoria Bekiempis (The Guardian)
Prices, unemployment up: Even Fox News poll shows voters think Trump screwed economy
Prices, unemployment up: Even Fox News poll shows voters think Trump screwed economy | Opinion
President Donald Trump promised a new Golden Age. But eight months into his term, grocery prices are rising, along with inflation and unemployment., USA TODAY (USA TODAY)
Democrats also want the U.S. to officially condemn plans by Israel to construct settlements in the West Bank, which the letter says is "designed to end Palestinian and Israeli aspirations for a two-state solution.
What actions did dems do when they was in power to punish Israel for the settlement building and settler violence/terrorism?
GOP Rep. Backtracks on Bill That Could Let Marco Rubio Revoke Passports From Israel Critics
A top Republican lawmaker in the House of Representatives is backtracking on a proposal that would have given Secretary of State Marco Rubio the power to revoke American citizens’ passports if he decides they have provided “material support” to terrorists.
Under Mast’s original proposal, the secretary of state would have been empowered to refuse or revoke passports of people they deem to have materially supported terrorists.
Activists were especially concerned the provision could be used against critics of Israel, given Rubio’s aggressive move to revoke green cards and student visas from noncitizens who have publicly demonstrated support for Palestinians.
GOP Rep. Backtracks on Bill That Could Let Marco Rubio Revoke Passports From Israel Critics
GOP Rep. Brian Mast moved to strike his own provision that would give Marco Rubio power to revoke U.S. passports.Matt Sledge (The Intercept)
GOP Rep. Backtracks on Bill That Could Let Marco Rubio Revoke Passports From Israel Critics
A top Republican lawmaker in the House of Representatives is backtracking on a proposal that would have given Secretary of State Marco Rubio the power to revoke American citizens’ passports if he decides they have provided “material support” to terrorists.
Under Mast’s original proposal, the secretary of state would have been empowered to refuse or revoke passports of people they deem to have materially supported terrorists.
Activists were especially concerned the provision could be used against critics of Israel, given Rubio’s aggressive move to revoke green cards and student visas from noncitizens who have publicly demonstrated support for Palestinians.
GOP Rep. Backtracks on Bill That Could Let Marco Rubio Revoke Passports From Israel Critics
GOP Rep. Brian Mast moved to strike his own provision that would give Marco Rubio power to revoke U.S. passports.Matt Sledge (The Intercept)
Jobs massacre in Germany: Establish independent action committees!
Jobs massacre in Germany: Establish independent action committees!
A wave of job destruction is sweeping across Germany. The trade unions, led by IG Metall, are closing ranks with corporations and the government.World Socialist Web Site
TOR VPN
Tor VPN | Tor Project | Support
Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship. | Tor VPNsupport.torproject.org
isn't orbot doing the same thing?
Orbot is a free VPN and proxy app that empowers other apps to use the internet more securely. Orbot uses Tor to encrypt your Internet traffic and then hides it by bouncing through a series of computers around the world. Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.
The American Cultural Revolution Is Underway
The American Cultural Revolution Is Underway
Trump’s second term has turned polarization, tariffs, and symbolic purges into a systemic crisis.Neil Zhu (Grumpy Chinese Guy)
Murena is launching a smartphone with a hardware kill switch again
Post reads: "❓ Do you know who are the inventors of the hardware-level kill switch for smartphones?
🤫 Stay tuned! We’re teaming up with them to offer you more privacy.
👇 Share your ideas in the comments! "
❓ Do you know who are the inventors of the hardware-level kill switch for smartphones?🤫 Stay tuned! We’re teaming up with them to offer you more privacy.
👇 Share your ideas in the comments!
#Privacy @gael @rikviergever @e_mydata
So this kill switch will auto delete all the telemetry /e/ collects by default, including the Voice data Sent to OpenAI? right? RIGHT?
Btw, if you dont understand their text, let me translate it for you
We took out loans from a bunch of venture capitalists in order to make a phone with a weird gimmick which is completely unnecessary since our OS collects your Data by default and dosent care about your Privacy at all anyway, just so we can please a crowd of tech hippies who have no idea about actual privacy but want to look cool by switching off their Camera after posting their 24/7 location on facebook and letting ChatGPT analyze their breakup text. (Also btw we have to somehow pay back those millions by raising our stock prizes, so stay tuned for our cloud selling your unencrypted photos because we have to enshittify).
The only reason to have hardware switches is if you fear that you've been compromised. And if you've been compromised, why would you continue to use a compromised phone for things that need your location or access to your camera?
And if you go in with the expectation of „this phone is going to be compromised”, just remove the Camera and everything and attach a Webcam or Mic for whenever you really need it. This way you can actually verify easily if its on, instead of having a mm button that can be easily toggled while putting the phone away
privacy-first company
is a Privacy first company.
They are worse then Linaege. Linaege at least supports local system backups. With /e/, you have to use their own unencrypted servers.
(Also btw they support Phones with not anymore updated firmware, which partially allows script kiddies with a flipper zero to exploit your chipset)
I can tattoo „privacy first” on the inside of my asscheek. Dosent mean it actually means anything.
Like I said, /e/ is not at all better than LinaegeOS, but instead takes the OK LinaegeOS, adds their own insecure services, removes everything that could be more secure, and misrepresents what is essentially a LinaegeOS Flavor as
- uLtRa gIgA sEcUrEeweeeeeee!!!!;111! V. 1211 b !!!
Voice to Text feature using Open AI
As I was reading the Murena’s terms of use I discovered that the voice to text feature introduced with e/OS/ 3.0 is using the Open AI API. That means our voice is sent to Open AI so they can translate it to text./e/OS community
With /e/, you have to use their own unencrypted servers.
Stop making stuff up... you do NOT have to use Murena services.
Please tell me, where I can enable Seedvault or another local backup service without having to root my phone first or use apps like shiziku.
YES, I HAVE to use Murena services in order to back up my /e/ is phone without compromising security via root or shizuku. Prove me wrong, and send me a fucking video about it.
While I appreciate your desire to improve privacy for yourself and others, you are again inventing things (optional service as if everybody using /e/OS had it, relying on Murena services where not everybody does it) from your very narrow perspective as if it was the truth. Again I imagine your ultimate goal is to help people to find a better alternative (which is something I hope too) but I can't spend more energy arguing with made up problems. I hope others who do read your words and are exhilarated by your passion and the strength of your words do still go check the source of the claims you make but I don't want to have this kind of conversations again so safer to block. Take care of yourself.
Edit: to clarify, Google is the enemy. Meta is the enemy. Amazon is the enemy. etc, not you, not me, not Murena, not LineageOS, not whatever tiny project of the Internet is trying to do slightly less worst than BigTech and surveillance capitalism.
I am using e/os on a fairphone so Settings > System > Backup > Choose Seedvault as Backup provider. Done.
At least that works for me
Edit: And no I dont have the time to create a video of it
auto delete all the telemetry /e/ collects by default, including the Voice data Sent to OpenAI?
You are back with your FUD. I don't know what you have against /e/OS specifically or if you are genuinely paranoid but in this specific instance you are making stuff up! I clarified in lemmy.ml/post/35472063 so maybe a language barrier because the post you linked to was in French but the STT service is
- NOT on by default
- for paying customers only (0 chance that a random person would activate it and thus be shocked)
- tries to anonymize the data
So... that's not even telemetry, that's like activating a service which the company explicitly said relied on OpenAI in the first place, people STILL paid for it AND activated it. They can't be surprised that it's sending anything to OpenAI then.
Come on, help us make this community better. We have enough problems with BigTech, small tech and more that we do NOT need to invent problems!
PS: also the reasoning about the presence on kill switch is ... just plain silly. The PinePhones are running Linux, no Android, no /e/OS/ or whoever actor you might dislikes, OSes built by others, e.g. PmOS, Ubuntu, etc and yet still have hardware kill switches.
/e/ OS does a little trolling and sends all your Text to Voice data to OpenAI for processing and Speech generation.
First of all, to anyone downvoting my Comments about /e/ being a piece of shit, because...
- they advertise themselves as degoogled, but instead let you connect to Google/Microsoft/etc services
- replace all the propriatery not at all Secure Services from Google, with.... Drumroll please.... Propriatery and not at all Secure Services from themselves and actively encourage it.
- They are For-profit
- and being MORE out of date then even Fairphones stock roms.
... I told you so. Dm your Instance admin, pay them to send the DB entries of your Downvotes on a Thumb drive (or anything else from SSD to 3.5 inchHDD, depending on your preferences), and shove it up your rectum.
But a TL;DR:
/E/ is not Private. They just switch one bad comany to another one.
Voice to Text feature using Open AI
reality — an open, secure, de-Googled system is not open, not secure, and not a de-Googled system!? This is just a new anøm disguised as open source./e/OS community
You are back with your Spam
NOT on by default
This is a Private OS. They should not have this integration, since there are more than enough FOSS alternatives.
for paying customers only
Dosent change my point.
tries to anonymize the data
Tries. Tries. Tries.
They claim to be private. They incorporate a non private Service even though there are valid alternatives. Thats where this discussion starts and ends.
back with your Spam
Try it, report me for spam to the mods I'd be curious to hear their opinion.
It being sandboxed doesn't prevent it from doing whatever the fuck it wants within the confines of the sandbox, and that sandbox has to be pretty wide to be functional.
Like, which is worse:
- An os that ships with an opt-in kinda privacy unfriendly locked behind a paywall.
- An os that ships google play services, which you need to give all sorts of permissions for apps to function, and requires a google account.
To quote you:
They claim to be private. They incorporate a non private Service even though there are valid alternatives. Thats where this discussion starts and ends.
See how that applies to graphene shipping google play services instead of microG?
Not commenting on the other stuff but people should get used to the fact that anonymized private data is still private, so a so-called privacy app should not be leaking or disclosing or selling it. It might be LESS invasive than personally identifiable data, but it's not NON-invasive.
Who is willing to pay for it after all? Almost certainly, someone who is up to no good. And if you can think of a way it can possibly be misused, then enabling that misuse is invasive.
I'll preface my answer to clarify that I'm against surveillance capitalism and privacy Zuckering. I say that in the open, do not use Google services, Amazon, have my own PeerTube instance, IoT at home is HomeAssistant with ZigBee, etc. So my goal here is NOT to cut some slack to anyone.
I started with this because I'm not actually sure what you are referring to. Since my initial comment is about Murena STT I'll assume it's that but if not please correct me. This specific service... is not a compromise I would accept. So I'm in NO way advocating for me. The only thing I'm clarifying is that this service is not something one can "stumble upon" and enable without paying attention. That's why I put such recurring emphasis on it. It's not coherent with "sharing all data" or imagining a scenario where somebody buys an /e/OS phone Murena and somehow ending up getting their data leaked (due to the potentially imperfect anonymization) to OpenAI. One has to activate it and to do so one must be a Murena services paying customer. This is not the case when "just" installing /e/OS. So once again I'm not saying Murena is perfect, not even that it did the right choice (according to my own privacy preferences) my relying on OpenAI, and yet that problem is not relevant to most people who use /e/OS.
To make a quick a analogy it's like installing WhatsApp on a privacy OS phone. Sure you technically can do that but if you do and complain about how Meta is collecting your data then you did it on yourself, you can't blame the OS developers.
due to the potentially imperfect anonymization
I don't understand what you're saying above, but my point is that disclosing any info to adversaries is invasive even if the anonymization is 100% perfect. The potential imperfection makes it worse, but that's a side issue.
An example is polling. Some terrible politician X wants to know what voters think of issue Y, like "35% in favor". So she hires a polling firm to call people and ask their opinions about Y, with the result being completely anonymized and aggregated, again, like "35% in favor". What will X do with that info? Something bad, of course! We said at the beginning that they are terrible!
So do you want to cooperate with such a poll, that X commissioned to serve an evil purpose? Of course not! Or at least, I hope of course not. In that case, what do you think of software that effectively enrolls you in such a poll against your wishes?
If your private activity is being statistically reported to your adversaries, your privacy is being invaded even if there is zero PII in what the adversary gets. This is infosec 101. A quotation due to Silvio Micali is "a good disguise does not reveal the person's height". Statistically summarized information is still information, and calling it otherwise is self-serving nonsense. You want to give the adversary NO information. Anonymization is irrrelevant.
Link Prediction by De-anonymization: How We Won the Kaggle Social Network Challenge
This paper describes the winning entry to the IJCNN 2011 Social Network Challenge run by Kaggle.com. The goal of the contest was to promote research on real-world link prediction, and the dataset was a graph obtained by crawling the popular Flickr so…arXiv.org
Saw it earlier today, actual phone murena.com/shop/smartphones/br… at 730EUR, delivery in October.
Got a CMF1 with /e/OS since ~February (cf my history of comments to see the ups and downs, overall happy with both) ... and I admit I'm tempted. I obviously don't need it and having a relative cheap (~350EUR) feels pretty nice to me. Maybe if I want an upgrade later on but for now I'll stick to what I have.
SHIFTphone 8 - Murena - deGoogled Phones
Murena SHIFTphone 8: The sustainable, modular smartphone with privacy-focused /e/OS and a hardware kill switch. Enjoy a 6.67″ AMOLED display and expandable storage up to 512GB.Murena - deGoogled phones and services
Indeed, it's quite tiring especially when IMHO the goal is to decouple from large dominating actors that are obviously worst. I think the initial motivation is positive, namely genuinely improve privacy, but it goes to such extreme that no compromise is possible (which even that is fine) to actually inventing scenarii that aren't real to make the point.
TL;DR: let's focus on doing better than the popular worst offenders (random recent example) and eventually keep on improving without pushing imperfect projects down
Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court
A court ordered Google to pay $425 million after finding the company misled 98 million users about data collection through its "Web & App Activity" setting1. The case revealed Google continued gathering user data via Firebase, a monitoring database embedded in 97% of top Android apps and 54% of leading iOS apps, even after users disabled data collection1.Google's internal communications showed the company was "intentionally vague" about its data collection practices because being transparent "could sound alarming to users," according to district judge Richard Seeborg1.
This ruling adds to Google's recent privacy settlements, including:
- $392 million paid to 40 states in 2023 for location tracking violations
- $40 million to Washington state for similar location tracking issues
- $1.38 billion to Texas in 2025 over location tracking and incognito mode claims1Google plans to appeal the $425 million verdict, with spokesperson Jose Castaneda stating "This decision misunderstands how our products work" and asserting that Google honors user privacy choices1.
- Malwarebytes - Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court | Malwarebytes
A court has ordered Google to pay $425m in a class action lawsuit after it was found to have misled users about their online privacy.Danny Bradbury (Malwarebytes)
They all use the base package from the chipset vendor. It only supports android and only for a given number of years. I wouldn't be surprised if the license was massively invasive.
Basically, there's no drivers and no documentation for most mobile hardware outside of manufacturer contracts.
means no Play Store
Indeed, by default AFAICT they provide ~~Aurora Store and F-Droid~~ App Lounge (edited: was a little while so I forgot, I install F-Droid on every Android device I have as a reflex).
Regarding the consequence... well I don't know the future. Maybe alternative stores will have a "trick" so that they are considered verified and thus can install other .apk, or maybe it won't matter for rooted phones anyway.
The West and its agreements: betrayal under the guise of diplomacy
The West and its agreements: betrayal under the guise of diplomacy
When the West signs an agreement, it is mainly to better bend it, twist it... then throw it away—a reality that Russia must absolutely remember at everyМохамед Ламин КАБА (New Eastern Outlook)
Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza – UN commission
Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza – UN commission
West Jerusalem has rejected the accusation, slamming the body as a “Hamas proxy” and calling for its abolitionRT
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Years after NATO bombings, is there a plan that can heal this nation?
Years after NATO bombings, is there a plan that can heal this nation?
A new roadmap for Libya has little chance of success while the country remains divided and the same actors are in placeRT International
Ukrainian teens speaking Russian to spite parents – language commissioner
Ukrainian teens speaking Russian to spite parents – language commissioner
Teenagers in Ukraine continue to speak Russian widely, a top language official saysRT
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Luigi Mangione scored a major legal victory on Tuesday with a judge dismissing the two top state charges against him: first-degree murder and second-degree murder, both of which prosecutors had argued were terrorism crimes.
Mangione still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge, in the killing of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson last December.
The judge overseeing Mangione’s state criminal case, Gregory Carro, said “the evidence put forth was legally insufficient” for the two terrorism-related charges, in a written decision that was posted during a 15-minute proceeding in Manhattan court on Tuesday.
“Counts 1 and 2, charging defendant with Murder in the First Degree (in furtherance of an act of terrorism) and Murder in the Second Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, are dismissed as legally insufficient,” Carro wrote. “The People presented legally sufficient evidence of all other counts, including Murder in the Second Degree (intentional).”
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Man accused of killing Brian Thompson will not face state terrorism-related murder charges but others will standVictoria Bekiempis (The Guardian)
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Luigi Mangione scored a major legal victory on Tuesday with a judge dismissing the two top state charges against him: first-degree murder and second-degree murder, both of which prosecutors had argued were terrorism crimes.
Mangione still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge, in the killing of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson last December.
The judge overseeing Mangione’s state criminal case, Gregory Carro, said “the evidence put forth was legally insufficient” for the two terrorism-related charges, in a written decision that was posted during a 15-minute proceeding in Manhattan court on Tuesday.
“Counts 1 and 2, charging defendant with Murder in the First Degree (in furtherance of an act of terrorism) and Murder in the Second Degree as a Crime of Terrorism, are dismissed as legally insufficient,” Carro wrote. “The People presented legally sufficient evidence of all other counts, including Murder in the Second Degree (intentional).”
Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting
Man accused of killing Brian Thompson will not face state terrorism-related murder charges but others will standVictoria Bekiempis (The Guardian)
At UN, western powers push phantom 'Palestine' recognition to safeguard Israel
Rather than act to end Israel's genocide in Gaza, western leaders rally behind a French-Saudi scheme for fictive statehood that entrenches Israeli supremacy and props up the PA
How Israel is stretching its genocide far beyond its borders
In two weeks, Israel bombed five countries, expanding its military operations thousands of kilometres away from home
Israel killed 10 children from this football youth academy in Gaza
Israel killed 10 children from this football youth academy in Gaza
Ten children from a professional football academy in Gaza City have been killed in Israeli attacks.Al Jazeera
Israel’s Ben-Gvir vows 'magnificent' Gaza beach settlement for Israeli police
Israel’s Ben-Gvir vows 'magnificent' Gaza beach settlement for Israeli police
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has promised to establish a settlement for police officers in the Gaza Strip.Nadav Rapaport (Middle East Eye)
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Charlie Kirk Assassination Sparks Social Media Crackdown
Five hours after Charlie Kirk was shot this week, an Atlanta man got a phone call from an Illinois police officer asking about a photo he shared with a couple of close friends on a private Discord chat. The Atlanta man, who asked not to be identified, says the post was merely a confirmation that he had purchased the same T-shirt that the accused killer wore (from an Illinois-based online shop).Social media companies are generally forbidden by law from divulging users’ private communications to the government without a traditional legal process (e.g., court order). But there’s an exception: in perceived emergencies, social media platforms can proactively and “voluntarily” hand over private messages in response to what’s called an “emergency disclosure request” (EDR).
Discord, I am told, did not respond to any EDR here; but when I asked them directly if they’d provided law enforcement with information to traditional legal process, they declined to respond on-record.
The FBI, or the intelligence community, evidently is monitoring Discord private messaging, even from people who have broken no law.
Full blown Orwellian world. Run for local government and stop this shit.
The largest populated areas are left leaning. If they ae controlled by democratic socialist, we can restrict this shit. Just by pure numbers.
Charlie Kirk Assassination Sparks Social Media Crackdown
How buying a T-shirt led to government monitoringKen Klippenstein
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Sun on Privacy: 'Get Over It'
At the Monday night launch of Sun Microsystems' new Jini technology, CEO Scott McNealy calls consumer privacy a non-issue. The Federal Trade Commission has another view. By Polly Sprenger.WIRED Staff (WIRED)
De-google and open source has been my push this year. I'm not the most knowledgeable but I don't trust these companies.
I stopped using social media for almost 20 years. Only anonymous chats like this are used. Everything goes through a VPN and I always think that someone else is reading my stuff.
9-11 put us on this track with no restrictions.
If I ever get oppressed for my speech, I'm going to go do some deeds.
I'm not going to hide away for 30 years like you have.
If I ever get oppressed for my speech
You already are.
Ask yourself: can you say or post absolutely everything that falls under free speech - i.e. not calls to violence of civil disturbance? Do you feel like you can safely talk about all subjects without being cancelled or sued?
As soon as you start thinking twice about whether you can say something safely, that's censorship. Censorship isn't someone breathing over your neck saying "Be careful what you say", it's you self-censoring so you don't get into trouble.
They don't give a shit about that either. Trump has been trying to goat people into violence and he final got his wish (possibly by his own people). They are seizing on that. That is why he moved the national guard into memphis TN. He wants marshall law to hold power forever.
Edit: spelling
Edit: spelling
Since we're making corrections, the word is "goad," not "goat." You try to "goad" people into behavior or choices they wouldn't normally make.
I try not to correct people much anymore if their message is still pretty obvious. I realized that offering too many corrections could cause people to post less, and I didn't want to be the cause of that. But the fact that you were already willing to edit goaded me into suggesting another correction.
Using 'Martial' and 'Marshal' and 'Marshall'
Not to mention 'marshall'Editors of Merriam-Webster (Merriam-Webster)
Martial - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
Originating from Latin Mars, the Roman god of war, "martial" means warlike or military-related, including military law and fighting arts.etymonline
This is a great point out. Just like Chomping/ Champing at the bit.
Your good. Just don't be the " it is it's vs its" person when you have nothing to add. I just want to fight those people.
With Christy Noem in charge, the dog days of democracy are over. Because she put a bullet in its head for insubordination.
But no I agree I mean I always knew we're going to get fashy here but I always thought the bad guys would have their shit together more.
Using this to try to get more people off of discord.
Also not privacy related, but fuck substack
Ken Klippenstein has done amazing work and broke multiple stories.
This is not a smear against discord but a reveal of how the government is operating. If you don't think it is a privacy issue then you don't know what privacy is. Being a fan boy doesn't change what is happening.
Use discord all you want but your point is baseless about the story.
Apologies, I wasn't criticizing the article, or you for sharing it. It's a tricky sentence, especially if English isn't your first language - the "but" changes the subject. Article is definitely privacy related.
What isn't privacy related is my opinion about subtack. I don't mean to derail, so will let anyone reading this look up why ss sucks and make their own decision.
Gotcha. SS has a troubling history. One could argue journalist have a open door policy.
How do you say one is a journalist while another isn't? Today, anyone can be a journalist and a lot of traditional journalist are doing their own thing.
Even credible outlets are changing. The New Your Times was considered top tier but now..... lord have mercy. Billionaires are buying up and interfering with the companies. And then we have private equity firms, the lice found on the flies that eat shit.
Yes, I wonder what journalists ("professional" and otherwise) are supposed to do. Everyone going their own way and splintering off into many little voices doesn't feel like the right answer, but publishers are beholden to investors and can be bought out by billionaires. I suppose there are publishers/agencies that have maintained their integrity like 404 Media, or Al Jazeera.
Maybe this is just the burden of anyone in a democracy: to constantly weigh the quality of the sources of information you're using to form opinions which spawn action.
Getting funding from South Korea might be an option. They probably want the Trump Regime to go away, so that they can carry on business without a toddler doing stupid shit.
If a civil war happens, I suspect the Blue States would get a great deal of foreign support. "Fuck that guy", would be a big part of that. The other part being "I want a reliable business partner." Kinda like how the Confederates were boned internationally when it came to trade. Plus, it would be an easy way to earn favors with whatever institution that displaces Trumpkins.
Highly prone to lock-in, enshittification, and they promote Nazis.
Just another centralized platform that can't help but want to become universal.
There are several, but the most direct alternative is Ghost (see SS to Ghost migration guide here).
I used to subscribe to several SS newsletters that switched to Ghost, which is how I found out about it. But I wouldn't have even noticed if they hadn't told me.
Migrating from Substack - Ghost Developer Docs
Migrate from Substack and import your content to Ghost with this guidedocs.ghost.org
You may as well assume that anything done on public social media is being read, searched and filtered in real-time by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Given the trajectory of this administration in persecuting people for their political affiliation, dumping commercial social media should be an imperative for everyone who isn't goose stepping.
That's been the case for 10 years. Unless it's e2ee, it's public record and can be tied to your real name with a minimal amount of paperwork.
Before I comment anything anywhere, I imagine it being read in a court room in a monotone voice. Bip bop dippity dop, the judge in this case is a swell person and I hope they have a lovely day!
Sounds like a CSAM case for a motivated partisan prosecutor.
People break the law, as it is written, way more than they think. Selective enforcement to target political rival groups is very much in the playbook here.
It is less safe to speak in public today than it was 2 years ago, and it is only getting worse. Protecting your privacy also means protecting yourself from mob justice when they decide you're the new target group.
Protecting your privacy also means protecting yourself from mob justice when they decide you're the new target group.
New flavor of the month. Let's see what Trump seen on Fox News.
It was said in a Discord chat. Discord chats are not private, you agree to that in the TOS when you sign up.
There are always people monitoring the chats, voice and video, looking for illegal activities. Something was said in that conversation that their algorithm flagged for human review and that person sent it to law enforcement.
You have zero privacy on any social media. Everything that you write is viewable by the service owner and they actively look for things to report to law enforcement.
Companies pay lip service to your privacy, but at the end of the day they’ll turn you in the instant it suits them. If you want privacy, you use encryption so that your privacy is guaranteed by mathematics.
I really do worry tools like whatever the naperville pd using here are going result in a lot of damage and upturned lives once their use becomes more casual, like god knows what's going to happen with the president declaring random political views terrorism
no real court orders were involved, the article mentions a EDR wasn't invoked, no push back from discord over what sounds like some sort of dump or access to all images uploaded to the service
Spotshooter is one of those systems that collect but doesn't work as advertised. Politicians love approving it. We also have these POS.
mobileprosystems.com/products/
Mobile Surveillance Products | Mobile Pro Systems
We engineer the highest quality mobile surveillance equipment integrated with the most advanced technology to suit your unique needs.Mobile Pro Systems
I think you missed his conclusion.
We have tools that they can't penetrate. Privacy is a right. We're not cooked.
Lol, okay. As the vast majority of people have no clue and no interest in utilizing those tools. No interest in understanding threat vectors and cryptography. Cooked was a bit glibb, but the general "we", I do not see your optimism.
"Privacy is a right"... sure, so is healthcare and shelter... I am sure those policies are going global really soon.
As the vast majority of people have no clue and no interest in utilizing those tools.
I can't agree more. A few family members got really paranoid about their communications being monitored after Trump was elected again, so I offered to show them Signal or Element. Nah, no interest, "too hard". They still text even with the fucking US government itself warning people it's a very insecure medium.
I'm hoping that disinterest changes after a few people get locked up based on social media PMs, but don't have all that much hope.
After the ICE raids started, I had a lot of people reach out to me. I've given trainings and lots of people switched to more secure systems.
There is an increased appetite in many oppressed groups for this. Don't try to force it. Be open and ready to train those who are eager.
All leftists worldwide are gun happy.
Under no pretext motherfucker.
Hitler died from suicide and Stalin from a stroke.
Kind of difficult to make that happen.
Words are sufficient only in a system that prioritizes broad wellbeing (as opposed to prioritizing the billionaires), when such a system works well, is healthy, is valued by most, etc.
We don't have it. We have a "every man for himself" and "got mine, fuck you" system.
I hate to say it, if anyone wants something in our system now, they have to take it by fiat and force. The fascists get it. They use the methods that work, it's just that their desired end state is intolerable shit for most. If their end state had freedom and human rights for everyone, most would forgive the methods.
Stop saying fascists, youve all used that word to fucking much and it now means fuck all.
People are still going on holidays, people are still buying houses, people are still getting jobs and paying rent and every thing else people have always done. Youre just spreading nonsense to play your part in the dumb as fuck culture wars. YOU and people like you, are why Trump is a thing. Yes, thats right, YOU. You, who plays the dumb games of culture wars, who calls a person who dont like star wars a fucking nazi. You created this nightmare world were extremism is everywhere.
Fucking stop it.
Hey dipshit, which lead to Kirk stopping spreading his hate?
- debating him so he can get views on YouTube
or - the little ouchie he got?
No, the spreading of hate was the talking heads who told you he said things he never said. All the grifters and influencers and main stream news outlets who cherry picked the things he said, to make him look much worse than he is.
Like when he said that people accept that people die so they can have the 2A. You think thats extremism, yet dont ever bother to repeat the rest of what he said, when talking about the shit that society puts up with to have things. Like cars, we accept that 50k people a year will die because we want to drive cars. Its the same argument, but you take it away and all of sudden hes some nutjob claiming kids dying is a good thing.
Take away the 2A and you are at the mercy of a tyrannical government. The price of that safe guard is that some people will die. Exact same thing with cars, and knives, and whatever else. Everything has a cost. EVERYTHING. That was his point. And youd be dumb to disagree with it.
You can argue that we dont need guns, theres nothing wrong with that. But the logic is there.
Look who's calling others a dopey twat.
You don't seem to understand that we are already using words, and it's getting us nowhere. These people understand that we want to use words, and they have weaponized our need for peaceful discussion against us.
Peaceful negotiations only work when both sides are operating in good faith. Not only are the MAGAs not operating in good faith, they view that as an enormous weakness to be exploited. So they tease us along, offering opportunities to negotiate, but they are just distractions, to keep their grift and oppression going longer, and deepening.
Hopefully, we will eventually negotiate our way out of this, but it is looking more and more unlikely by the day. Anyone who has read any history knows that sooner or later, it will almost certainly take some level of violence to unseat the MAGA disease that is afflicting the world.
We should start getting used to that idea now, before we need it for real.
That's what happens when you let billionaires operate unchecked. Billionaires have the ability to operate like an independent nation of one, fucking up the works for real nations who are trying to take care of their people.
Billionaires should either be prohibited, or their expenditures should be tightly regulated. Make them get permission from a regulatory panel before they can spend their money.
"No, you already have a yacht, you don't need another. Just for being shitty enough to request a SECOND yacht, that money will be earmarked to build homeless shelters instead. Anything else?"
Nothing to worry about. Schmuck Schumer has released a statement calling this situation "outrageous."
That'll fix'em.
British woman 'raped by French police officer' while drunk and handcuffed in van near Marseille
British woman 'raped by French police officer' while drunk and handcuffed in van near Marseille
The 37-year-old victim is said to have been arrested by three policemen before being subjected to a horrific ordeal in the back of a patrol vanPeter Allen (Evening Standard)
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He is a veteran officer who has never been involved in any trouble before.
Never been caught publicly before, I doubt this is the first time he's raped women as a police officer.
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But unlike the US, they arrested the cops immediately, and they are even keeping them (except the driver) in jail before trial. So some cops over there are doing thier job at least.
"CCTV footage has been misconstrued."
Don't believe your eyes or the woman! Say the rapists.
"I was doing an alcohol test with my fine tongue while my hands were looking for drugs or weapons. I was multitasking!"
I mean, their lawyer can argue all they want. If there is video, it will have to be heavy law contortionism.
Denmark Holds Massive Military Exercise in Greenland
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/46279988
Denmark did not invite the United States to take part in a large-scale international military exercise on Greenland this week, as it had previously, as tensions remain high over President Donald Trump’s intention to acquire the Danish territory.The exercise, the largest in Greenland’s modern history, comes amid increased interest in the Arctic region and its vast natural resources from other large powers, such as Russia and China.
It included contributions from the militaries of several European NATO allies, according to the Danish military. More than 550 people and soldiers took part, including more than 70 from France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
It comes as the Arctic region is becoming more of a priority to various superpowers, friend and foe. Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent, and beyond its strategic potential, the island is rich in natural resources, home to 25 of the 34 minerals categorized as “critical raw materials” by the European Commission. Some of these minerals include those essential to the production of phones and computer chips.
Anderson emphasized the potential threat of Russia and China to reporters.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” Trump said during an address to Congress in March, pointing to the influence of other global powers in the Arctic, specifically Russia and China. “And I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” he added. Trump is trying to boost production of computer chips in the United States, which rely on minerals present in Greenland for production
Danish officials have made it clear that Trump’s interest in the region is not welcome.
https://time.com/7318044/trump-denmark-greenland-military-exercise-nato/
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Western bids to recognise a Palestinian state put Israel first
cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/57398
From Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera via this RSS feed
Western bids to recognise a Palestinian state put Israel first
If recognition is to matter, it must centre on Palestinian self-determination, not Israel’s security.Somdeep Sen (Al Jazeera)
Conditional recognitions centre on Israel’s security, not Palestinians’ right to self-determination, or real accountability.
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First person removed to France under ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal, says UK government
First person removed to France under ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal, says UK
Agreement reached with France allows for removal of asylum seekers who arrive on small boatsDiane Taylor (The Guardian)
Introducing QUIC Obfuscation for WireGuard | Mullvad VPN
Introducing QUIC Obfuscation for WireGuard
We are excited to add QUIC obfuscation for WireGuard, aimed at helping users bypass firewalls and censorship.Mullvad VPN
As the title of the RFC implies, QUIC obfuscation works by tunneling UDP through an HTTP server acting as a proxy.
...yes, it says so in the article.
Yeah their CEO said some weird shit last year. They also just rolled out an LLM chat bot this year. Sketchy company heavily leaning into enshittification.
I switched to Proton at one point because they're one of the last few providers to offer port forwarding, but I recently cancelled it and went back to Mullvad.
Chinese economy slows amid Trump trade war and weaker consumer spending
Slowing growth in factory output and retail sales prompts calls for fresh economic stimulus
China’s economy showed further signs of weakness last month as it comes under strain from Donald Trump’s trade wars and domestic problems, with factory output and consumer spending rising at their slowest pace for about a year.
The disappointing data adds pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus to fend off a sharp slowdown, with a debt crisis denting the country’s once-booming property sector and exports facing stronger headwinds.
Economists were split over whether policymakers should introduce more near-term fiscal support to hit their annual 5% growth target, with manufacturers awaiting further clarity on a US trade deal and domestic demand curbed by an uncertain job market and property crisis.
Probably only considered a slowdown because China comes from enormous growth.
Industrial output grew by 5.2% year on year last month
That's exactly what I thought, after almost 5 decades of near 10% annual growth, 5.2% is obviously less, but most countries would love to have 5.2% which AFAIK is more than mostly any industrialized country, or western country or democracy.
What's called terrible news for China would be awesome almost everywhere else.
The activity data point to a further loss of momentum
Oh wow really? They can't keep growing 10% annually?
Surprised pikachu!
🤣🤣🤣
France: Strikers challenge Macron's austerity drive
Report: At this point we are just trying to figure who Canadian Parliament WON'T give a standing ovation to | satire
Report: At this point we are just trying to figure who Canadian Parliament WON'T give a standing ovation to - The Beaverton
OTTAWA - After members of the Canadian Parliament earlier today gave a standing ovation to recently deceased far-right agitator who touted white supremacist theories, Charlie Kirk, we here at The Beaverton are stuck trying to figure out if there’s li…Staff (The Beaverton)
Opposition calls for ‘regime change’ in African state – media
Opposition calls for ‘regime change’ in African state – media
South Sudan opposition SPLM-IO has called for regime change, urges citizens to mobilize after charges against Riek MacharRT International
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The Soviets had promised at Yalta to enter the war in the Pacific within 3 months of the war ending in Europe. And they did launch an attack on Manchuria at 3 months to the day. Hardly feet dragging.
In fact, them being about to launch the attack, was one of the deciding factors on Truman dropping the nukes on Japan. He wanted to prevent the Soviets fron capturing territory that they would be reluctant to give up in the end. And he also knew that the USSR entering the war in the pacific would be what really pushed Japan to surrender. He didn't want to lose the opportunity to show off the new toys to scare the Soviets.
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Um... no
"Curse those lazy Soviets for not immediately starting a two front war after losing 11 million people to the Nazis. Respecting the agreements made at the Yalta conference regarding an invasion of Japan, to the letter, was ACTUALLY mendacious."
You realize that after losing 11 million people in a enduring and cataclysmic war, it may take some time to prepare for a war on the totally opposite front?
I dont even know why I'm engaging with this whitewashing. This isn't even what the OP is about.
The fact of the matter is that Japan has not handled the outcome of WWII well at all. Namely the Nanjing Massacre.
Being a "middle" user is the most difficult
By this i mean, grandma checking her email and the IT pro with 10 NAS setup are the perfect linux users.
But us in the middle who pretend we're smart...its a damn hard road. And then helping others to switch when youre not yet a pro is even harder, though a good learning experience.
Getting games to work perfectly, audio issues, Bluetooth issues, vr setups are far harder to do, running older obscure software, hooking up obscure hardware, using external drives, music production, these are some examples of things that will be extremely hard on linux vs windows for the majority of middle users.
However id say it is worth it if you like learning thousands of weird terms and phrases and putting in many hours of frustration to solve a problem. (Have you tried using floop to Docker the peeble?). It is very satisfying fixing an issue and figuring out why it happened!
Still, when im forced to use windows I see how bad its become, so im sticking with linux!
I had a crisis too some years ago, when Windows 7 was the shit, I heard Windows 7 was very good (for Windows).
So I tried to dual boot Windows 7, goddam a load of crap!! I'll never believe anyone claiming Windows is good again.
The structure of security is a bloody mess, providing worse security, while taking control away from the owner of the system.
And lack of package manager makes it ask for updates at the most inopportune moments. Just a tiny program like Adobe reader was super invasive, and was a major pain in the ass.
Windows is not in any way user friendly, it's just what most people are used to.
Window XP was probably the best and last good Windows version... 10 was kinda okay without all the telemetry shit and bloatware.
Windows 11 feels like macOS with extra steps + spyware on every move, click, clipboard copylpast.... Wouldn't go near that stuff even with full protection and debloat ^^ Just remove that shit and install linux instead.
A few months ago I wrote out some recommendations around the same theme here. Extracts:
A good start is to install tldr. You use it like man, but it gives you shorter explanations – or rather, a short list of illustrative examples.Going further, check out Fish instead of Bash. I haven’t use Fish yet, but it’s said to be much better for learning Linux commands as a beginner. Later on, you may switch to Zsh. In any case, hitting Tab once or twice will often give you a list of possible completions to the command you are typing.
Also, I hugely recommend reading at least one book about Linux. I'm now almost through with the O’Reilly book “Classic Shell Scripting” by Robbins and Beebe (ISBN 9780596005955). Despite the fact that it's 20 years old, it helped me hugely – primarily with the shell and its commands, but also with understanding things like file structure.
It presupposes some familiarity with Unix-like systems and with the shell, so if one’s just starting out, the book “Learning the Unix Operating System” may be better.
External drives? Usually on most distros and file managers, it’s just one click.
I have had a bit of a horrid time with Bluetooth, though, especially when it comes to audio. However, I will say Linux allows you to do some nuts things with Bluetooth like emulate a Nintendo Switch controller with NXBT, allowing you to use a PlayStation controller on a Switch with a spare laptop.
As for audio, I feel like life has gotten much better for the layman since Pipewire.
I don’t think VR setups are that common, and the Venn diagram of VR owners and Linux users has to be even smaller. I’ve probably only known 2 people who actually own a headset, and both of them were standalone Oculus affairs.
Overall, I feel like it’s possible to conceptually understand Linux and which config file is while, while Windows registry is an incomprehensible beast. Also, it feels like Linux tends to have better errors that correlate to a specific problem, whereas the same Windows error could be caused by many different things and lead you on a wild goose chase through forum posts filled with generic advice and dead ends.
Not to say you are wrong in general, just a personal anecdote: i run Debian, everytime i need to upgrade from one major Version to the next I work for a day, dont get it done, cry, and then setup all my 3 PCs from scratch. (And NO a rolling release like arch or tumbleweed is not the solution, as I am not smart enough to manage different versions of dependencies and everything breaks at somepoint, Debian is at least stable between the major releases)
My vive wireless will not work under Linux so I need to keep a dual boot windows on the workhorse which is difficult to maintain itself sometimes.
And on my low spec PC audio is never synched with video and no matter what I do I don't get it fixed
I love Linux for its philosophy and hate Microsoft for theirs, I will go back under no circumstances and agree that Linux gives better error messages and docs to fix things, but I never needed to do that with Microsoft. I never needed to open the registry apart from escaping out of box setup...
User experience for someone with high technical expectations for what should be possible (vr, games, hi-fi cinema, CAD, DAW) but only moderate technical skills (I can navigate GUIs and make basic use of the terminal (grep, nano, apt) but if I try to understand English primary source docs I don't get it as after ~7 years of Linux I still only know about 30% of the necessary concepts and vocabulary just isn't that good....
Like, Damm, its hard for someone without any technical training who only has a few hours a month to work on his PC (meaning having time to fix and learn stuff, not just using the PC) to get the stuff done which is a no brainer on win
May I ask how your Debian upgrades go wrong?
I mostly say so because I recently upgraded from 12 to 13 with almost no issues; the only issue was something with Apache that ended up being a quick fix. I followed the official Debian guide and temporarily remove third party repos and packages.
Havent brought myself to upgrade to 13 yet,
but from 11 to 12 i followed to official guidlines, and when trying to reinstall my packages after kernel upgrade stuff got messed up. Packages didnt recognize their own config files anymore, wine completley behaved random, apt was flooded with error messages, the blzrry glassy Theme in I had in KDE plasma didn't reinstall properly leaving my desktop looking horrible, half programs not working and some weird driver(?) behavior ( hanging Indefinitly when trying to shut down the system and stuff like that)
Maybe all would have been fixable for someone smart enough, for me it was easier to start again from scratch.
Did you restart the computer after the upgrade and before reinstalling third party repo packages?
The “half the programs not working” kind of sounds like you had packages compiled for a newer libc and the like but the newer libc wasn’t in memory yet because you hadn’t restarted.
Was a while ago, i think i did.
All I know is I worked trough the whole doc to upgrade start to finish because I didn't know which sections apply to me and which don't, it was like ten hours of work trying t o understand everything which, holly shit, wasn't easy and when I finally got completely through it didn't work as expected.
Not that I think the docs were wrong, I am aware that I was the problem there, but it sometimes bothers me when people act like Linux is super easy and even grandma can understand and use it while I, the most techy persons in my peer group, give it my all and still dont even manage a simple upgrade, which would be absolutely no problem on the corporate OSs
Huh. I guess 3 years of Debian usage has just gotten me used to stuff like that.
I can see where one might go wrong; there’s a lot of sections in that guide with contingencies only meant for specific situations, like upgrading from a USB or optical disc.
It's 100% nvidia's fault. AMD has been doing a great job maintaining linux drivers. I recommend it if you are pro-linux.
Can't compare rocm to cuda though.
Gonna be real, I haven't had to bother with my OS for the past two months, so I disagree with a lot of this post. The take I disagree with the most is that things that would be difficult regardless of OS are somehow "harder" in Linux though. Getting old games to run on Windows is also a massive PITA, and oftentimes can be easier on Linux since you can always just run a WINE instance using whatever version of Windows the game was originally intended for. Same for old obscure software, anything from like the XP era does not play nice with Windows 11 in my experience. It sounds like the bigger issue is that you have learned a lot about Windows, and haven't learned a lot about Linux, so your knowledge base for Windows is better.
The actual issue I think is huge for your hypothetical "middle user" is hardware based. Some hardware is just better for running high performance applications on Linux than others. In my fancy, shiny, top of the line rig, my experience in getting games to work is I download them and run them with Proton. I've done no troubleshooting, barely use any applications other than Steam for gaming, and so far have not found a game I wanna play that doesn't work. On my old Nvidia-based rig that I replaced, however, it was the exact opposite story. Nothing ever worked, I was constantly looking through error logs and trying to troubleshoot, and most of the time the answer was hardware that wasn't properly supported.
Thats not what i experienced....
Trying to run sketchup with wine, 3 days trial and error, doesn't work even though winehq says its possible
Using vive wireless? Not possible at all!
or playing league, hard before vanguard, impossible after...
Updating between major versions? Always breaks my setup and makes me start from scratch
Using zoom for work with sharing desktop? Huge pita and u need to deepdive in Wayland to get I running (I didn't so I switched back to x)!
Install a non native daw like ableton and get it running without crashes and usable latency? Impossible!
Using your rack audio interface? Not possible as there is no Linux driver and pipewire only recognizes half of the functions
I have a ryzen 5 12 core and a Vega 64, so hardware is decent and clearly not the problem here.
I am aware that those problems often stem from programs not being designed for Linux, not Linux itself being bad, but the effect is sadly the same: using halfbacked freeware or study IT to get it running, nothing apart from Mozilla "just works"
Still, when im forced to use windows I see how bad its become, so im sticking with linux!
That's the right attitude. A lot of the comfort of Windows comes down to habit and mere exposure. Every Windows user who dives beyond the surface also spends a lot of time learning, but with the added burden of having to sift through every forum post suggesting sFc /ScAnNoW. And if you keep the same hardware for a few years, the Linux experience ages like a fine wine as drivers improve and features get some subtle polish.
Sometimes I wonder if my health takes a toll each time I help someone set up Windows. I can literally feel my heart rate increase as I go through the privacy-related settings.
I had that very experience somewhat recently. I had to set up Windows 10 on a laptop for a friend. I had been using Linux on my main PC for probably five years at that point, so I was “un-used to” Windows. Oh boy that was a dreadful experience. It was a lot like “no, no, no, no, don’t want that, stop it, turn that off, be quiet”, and then logging in and getting the final pieces finished? Headache-inducing. “Try this!”, “try that!”, “did you know you could do THIS?”, “subscribe to this product you should use!”
And then the preloaded “suggested software”, the search bar with “suggested/trending” garbage I did NOT want to see? Yeah it was not pleasant. I think unless I’m doing it professionally? I’m not going to accept that task again. I’m glad I do not have to use that software on my main PC anymore. It seemed to have gotten worse since I stopped using it five years ago.
But us in the middle who pretend we're smart
The trick you'll learn is that everyone is just pretending. The more your learn the more you realize you don't know.
You've used Windows for so long that you don't remember how it was when you first started using it.
This isn't different than what you are doing with Linux. The flow gets better and better and you will acquire the experience needed to navigate the issues. It takes time, that's all.
True, but there's a lot of stuff in the free software ecosystem that is just jank.
I expect things not to work at this point and don't get surprised when they don't. It's part of how we pour way more resources into abusive technologies over ethical ones. We can continue to be part of the problem (like a useful idiot), or pick our heads up and work towards the solution.
If you stick to popular free software, the jank is limited.
The Linux userspaces have a lot of enthusiastic people that create their own software and share it, and thus it seems like there is lot of janky stuff (because there is).
It feels like Windows has been captured by corporations and so the market is competitive. There isn't much space for enthusiast developpers to tackle a different vision of a popular software.
So yeah, I agree with you, lots of janky software in Linux, but that's the beauty of it IMO. If you stick to popular softwares, the jank is somewhat equivalent to Windows.
True, but there’s a lot of stuff in the free software ecosystem that is just jank.
A lot of free software is built to scratch the authors itch. If you choose to use it as well, that's on you. There's nothing stopping you from forking it and making it work how you want it... except time.
Yeah, my linux experience usually seems like its hanging on a thin thread at all times. If stuff is actually working, im super grateful and hope it doesn't break itself on the next reboot.
Im not sure why everyone else seems to have a perfect error free experience except for me xD or they are just lying. And I dont use Intel or Nvidia so I should have it easy!
This is very true. Linux is great if you just want to check email, or if you want to compile your kernel or dig into incredibly esoteric config files. But if you want to do something between those 2 extremes, the learning curve is extremely steep. My Windows box and Mac Mini both do all the things I want them to, but my Linux box keeps breaking and I don't trust it with anything important. I usually try to do things on Linux first, but when it inevitably breaks I switch over to Mac and get it done in a tenth of the time.
I'm sure I could get my Linux box to do everything I want. I'm busy and I don't want to fight with it and spend all my time learning about its eccentricities. I want to point and click and occasionally modify a text file.
and the IT pro with 10 NAS setup are the perfect linux users.
Well I'm closer to that. I'm an "IT pro" (I pay my bills by writing software) and I did learn CS at uni... and yet it's STILL damn hard!
I think that might be the part that "grandma" (bit sexist and ageist there but going with the example) finds it hard is a given but that professionals are struggling daily is somehow hidden away.
I can give you examples from just yesterday :
- my deGoogled Android phone rejected my SIM card yesterday "SIM 1 not allowed"
- my home IoT server stopped working
and few others smaller problems. So... I had to find ways to fix that which lead me to learn that :
- some bug into HomeAssistant (my IoT server gateway) led me to
restartits container, without having to restart the device itself - my Android ROM has a "Reset Network Settings" within the "Reset Options" menu
The irony is that some people who are not professional might even know about the later one but I didn't. So... my whole point :
TL;DR: IT is hard for everyone because it's complex (lots of moving parts) and always changing ("updates" are not just "better" but different) so we ALL must keep on learning.
I was moving plex from my NAS to a dedicated box this weekend and spend 3 hours going crazy on why my movie library wasn't showing up. After a break and looking through fstab, I realized "novie" wasn't a share....
Remember kids, always work from the simplest solution up
It seems only natural…
- the “grandma”/casual users never try anything complicated or different so nothing goes wrong.
- the “pro” users either know what they are doing well enough to not make a mistake or to fix it when it goes wrong.
- the middle users will always have it harder, they are trying things beyond the margins of “easy” so of course things go wrong and they don’t know how to fix it.
Anecdotal example: just yesterday I found out that I broke my file picker function in five out of six web browsers, by loading an Xcompose file with some definitions that GTK apparently doesn’t like. It took me about 5 hours of poking at things to figure out that a change I did a week ago, broke a function I hardly ever use. So I did fix it eventually but I it took me a week to notice and then hours to track down what was going on.
Is there any chance at all that the casual users would be using a compose key, let alone loading a custom definition file for it? Hell no!
But here’s the secret: there is nobody out there who is the perfect expert who never makes a mistake and knows all things. We’re all out here pushing boundaries; the only difference is where those boundaries are.
me getting games to work:
install cachyos
install steam
download game
pick proton in compatibility options
what else are you all doing ? you can also add a non steam game and pick proton to launch it
I also use a 4070 (Nvidia) and haven't had any issues
my audio works with an usb interface with 0 tweaking
Yeah well, no problem with steam proton games.
Now get the ones with kernel level anti cheat running (league for example)
As a more advanced user, I have to say, the problems don't stop. Computers will never be "solved". They just keep making new puzzles forever. That's whats fun.
The more advanced you get, well you can solve the easy problems off the top of your head, but now you have new problems and there are zero search results for your error message. If you can't figure it out from the docs or irc you just have to read source code.
I try to document stuff as I find it, even if it means resurrecting an ancient thread. I often search for things and get one result, and it's me answering my own question a few years ago.
This is strictly my personal experience and is not meant to negate someone else's experience.
I disagree, as a middle user myself, I've had much less problems since the switch to Linux. I don't own a VR setup, so can't speak to that, but I have used basically everything else you've mentioned since switching without issues. Older software seems to work better on Linux than windows 11 in my experience. The rare stumble I've had was easily remedied by searching forums and wikis.
Most windows problems I've had to search for solutions in the last several years led to either blind registry changes, following some useless wizard that rarely fixes the problem, or a nothing-burger circle where the OP ended up either giving up entirely or re-installing windows to avoid the problem. I've very much had better luck actually fixing a problem in Linux than just avoiding it.
Sonetimes i feel like its a lot of work to stick with linux
Then im forced to use windows at work and get locked into a 45 minute forced update.
Not to mention how horribly slow win11 is even on 64 gb ram and an i7.
And the bloatware. Never seen so much bloat (and ai slop shit) ever before. And start menu ads. Yay.
How do people use this trash!
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I’ve found Linux easier and a much better user experience than windows 10 or 11.
If you use a straightforward distro that doesn’t let you do stupid stuff (like Bazzite or Fedora Kinoite or any other atomic distro), Linux becomes easy.
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This is so true. It's been good enough for me for so many years at this point, and yet it just keeps getting better. The whole experience is so much nicer now than it was years ago, which was better than years before that, etc.
(That said, better hardware also helps a lot.)
It sometimes is, but then sometimes Linux is not to blame.
Yesterday I was installing CachyOS on my son's laptop, because that's what he chose to use instead of Windows 10. The desktop came up fine, but no wifi adaptor was detected. I could try another more mainstream distro, but I wanted my kid to have what he chose. So we went troubleshooting. Googled the laptop model, found the adaptor, found the matching kernel module, checked the logs... and there it was, a cryptic error -110. Googled that and there was an answer: disable Windows Fast Boot.
It turns out that Windows locks the wifi adaptor when shutting down in Fast Boot mode. So after disabling it and a couple of reboots later, CachyOS was installing flawlessly.
It served as a lesson for me and an example for my kid to persevere and learn more.
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That love of tinkering is why I've landed on not using an immutable distro for my first time installing Linux since the 00s. CachyOS is what I landed on; now I just need to catch up on work so I can take a day to tinker with my setup.
For context, I semi-broke my current Windows 11 install by trying to manually edit the registry to remove all traces of a piece of invasive, uninstallable bloatware (that comes direct from ASRock... the bastards) I accidentally installed. Turns out my sound drivers are from the same company, so when I deleted all entries with that company in the search terms, I FUBARed my Bluetooth audio and 3.5mm microphone. And didn't backup the registry.
I like to tinker, and if I need to reinstall my OS anyway, so now is the time to finally switch!
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I never understood why windows updates take so long.
I can format and reinstall a linux distro in 10 minutes. I can update everything after that reinstall in 5 minutes.
On the same machine a windows update takes almost an hour. A format and reinstall can take several hours.
What is windows doing that takes so much longer?
Ive been having a good time with PopOS/Linux made for a specific machine. Its my daily driver.
I know its cheating a bit, but having something completely supported is so nice when I just want to sit down and compute. Ive had the same system76 machine for 6 years now and its still VERY fast. No issues with drivers (cause they fully support it) and made of generic parts.
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I was troubleshooting some audio hardware and decided that I should try it on windows, to make sure it was hardware and not software. So I tried to download an install disc image that I could put on my thumb drive and it was surprisingly hard, then I got driver failures, then I lost count of all the boxes I had to uncheck, then finally after like 2 hours I was greeted by ads on my desktop. Just a really bad experience overall. I cannot fathom why anyone uses that piece of crap.
Anyway so I figured out it was a Linux problem because of course it was just plug-and-play on Windows, and I found my misconfiguration and fixed it in 10 seconds, and I thought about the tech literacy of the average person, and realized that is why people use windows. They don't care about shit except least resistance. That was the first time I've booted windows since 2020 though, so here's hoping it was the last time.
I fathom they use it because its what they have always used and it comes with there device. Often people find its linux which takes the extra work.
If you want to use windows for testing, I would recommend something like Atlas OS for debloating: github.com/Atlas-OS/Atlas
edit: for testing
GitHub - Atlas-OS/Atlas: 🚀 An open and lightweight modification to Windows, designed to optimize performance, privacy and usability.
🚀 An open and lightweight modification to Windows, designed to optimize performance, privacy and usability. - Atlas-OS/AtlasGitHub
I grew up with DOS and used Windows 1 (barely, DOS was better), 3.1, 95, 98, etc... But curiosity made me try a bunch of OS in the beginning of the 2000s, like BeOS, QNX, and Linux (Kheops, Mandrake, SuSE). I dual booted for many years, keeping Linux as my main OS but having to boot Windows for games. I preferred Linux but I was pretty much OS agnostic for a while. I even worked as level 1 tech support for many years, helping people with Windows and Office products.
But then came Windows 8, 10, and now 11, + Office 365 + OneDrive. It's very difficult to stand any of those new versions, with the ads, the constant peddling for Microsoft products, the "forced" login with a Microsoft account, the updates whenever they feel like it if you don't pay enough for Windows, if the updates are not breaking something. A few years ago I was helping a friend and discovered a version of Windows 7 where you can't even change the wallpaper.
TBF, I knew it was coming. Anyone in IT knew for years that Microsoft planned of having everything subscription based. To me, every new versions of Windows or Office, or Teams, is now more intolerable than the previous one.
Anyway, at some point I stopped gaming/dual booting and pretty much kept exclusively on Linux. My workplace used Windows, and I use Linux at home. I've been using Debian for 15 years now and despite minor issues with sound recently, since pipewire, every time I use Windows, I'm reminded of how much worse it could be.
Recently I quit my job as a level 1 tech. I can't help people with Microsoft products anymore. Having calls from people telling me they cannot delete files from their OneDrive when it tells them it's full, then discover it's a bug and users with their drives full cannot delete anything, is just disconcerting. Before all that, I could at least see/understand the reason why things were working like they did; I could help and explain it to the users. Now, I'm as frustrated as they are when I use Microsoft products.
I have to use a windows machine at work and without fail I have to restart it by early afternoon because it has nearly ground to a halt. Usually right when a client turns up and wants to see their work.
It's an absolute embarrassment.
But it's still Windows.
Doesn't matter how much hot sauce and cinnamon you dunno on to a turd, it's still a turd.
I build cross platform desktop software professionally.
Because of this I have to use and pretty deeply understand the inner workings of every OS.
I can state as absolute fact that every major operating system including Linux is an absolute pile of hot garbage.
The difference is that macOS and windows are garbage on purpose. There were deliberate decisions to enshitify them for profit. They spent time and money making the OS worse on purpose.
On Linux most of the shitty parts were designed with good intentions but just kinda suck (Wayland for example).
What parts of Wayland do you not like?
There is a good chance that it was also designed this way on purpose. Almost everything I have heard people complain about on Wayland boils down to “it does not do that on purpose for security reasons”. In order to get around the purposeful constraints, you need to design extension protocols to create desired functionality and not all of those have been built. It is still on purpose though.
You may simply disagree with the priorities. Which is what enshitification for profit is as well of course.
IDK I think Wayland will be great some day. But right now we're between x11 and Wayland an both options suck.
I'm just over here trying to record my desktop and take screenshots haha.
“it does not do that on purpose for security reasons”.
I understand the motivations here but my priorities do not align with this. Not once in my life has someone recorded my desktop without my permission. I support the idea of having a secure environment but its just a pretty bad UX in the meantime.
Dont take this the wrong way. I think Wayland is a good idea in general. I just wish there was something else to hold us over in the meantime and x11 isnt really that.
It is a LOT of work indeed! In fact I even commented on that hours ago in lemmy.ml/post/36231170/2112411…
... but as you mention the alternative is ALSO a lot of work PLUS frustrations.
So between learned helplessness and tiring empowerment the choice remains obvious.
FWIW whenever it feels like it's "too much" I reminder myself how I browse through obscure man pages decades ago... to still find them useful today! It's crazy that so long after learning about tools like more or grep is useful on :
- a desktop
- a console (SteamDeck)
- a mobile phone (which basically didn't exist back then)
- a VR headset (yes, via
termux) - the "cloud" (as in fine it's just a server)
depends what you do, tbh. If you try to get a 3D program (that works well in Windows) to work on Linux, or try to get a game running as smooth as it is on Windows, then you are in for a lot of work.
But if your usage involves: simple web browser / email, codes, file operations. Then Linux is just plug and play, even much simpler than Windows. No ads, no constant updates nagging.
Linux just leaves you alone, if you mess some thing up it is you fault. On my Win 11 laptop, I got logged off by the damn OS just for it to display a popup with something bullshit like "Sign in to OneDrive to protect your PC"
You’re wrong about the games part. Most of us have no issues with that because of proton. As long as the game doesn’t require kernel level anti-cheat malware.
And yeah, 3D program written for windows is not going to run on Linux natively without issues. That’s common sense. It’s up to the developers to support more platforms, and that will happen with market share.
I use Garuda, which is an Arch-based distribution. Regressions are inevitable, though in my experience any actual issues arising from updates are quite infrequent. I’ve only once ever had to use Snapper to restore my system after a borked update in the some three and a half years I’ve used it. Keep in mind that this is a rolling release distribution, so new code isn’t always thoroughly tested before it’s sent out. I generally prefer new software, because I like playing games so new features and enhancements are important to me (on my main PC. I often install Arch for fun on other computers, but I thought for my ThinkPad? It’s older, maybe I’d like it to run Debian).
But any time I have a minor hiccup (that usually gets resolved after an update or reboot), I remember how much worse it could be. I’d much prefer the rare slight complication to the ads, telemetry, nags, intrusive updates, excessive bloat, and lack of control.
I’ve said before, that after using Linux on my main PC and not touching Windows? Windows really does feel like I’m not using my PC, something I never really noticed before I made the switch five years ago. I used to have no problems with modern Windows, but now it’s hard for me to tolerate. Old Windows is generally okay. I collect old computers, so versions like Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP are fun.
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