My city still owns the utilities and the council doubles as the utility board. They’ve been trying to privatize it, but it’s very contentious. Rightly so.

There was a spin of Ubuntu back in the day that focused on music production. I think I took it for a spin, but that’s not really my world and running it as a daily driver wouldn’t make sense for me. Having said that, you’ve probably already got a collection of licenses for a dozen windows-only audio programs . I did learn that sound in general is a bit complex on Linux with pulsaudio, alsa, and whatever else is going on.

Minecraft runs natively. One version is Java, so thats easy enough. I think the C++ version has an installer.

My wife does this in our home. Calls and full videos are usually okay, but nobody who is not watching them wants to hear you flip through shorts. I go play Cities Skylines in my office and it keeps everyone’s peace.

Yup, my wife watches a lot of shorts. I don’t get it. I think it’s bad for you, but it’s her choice as an adult. With that said, the looping is enraging.

Yup, I’m fine with it being done by a public org in the pursuit of science and furtherment of humanity.

They’ll staff the space factories with felony convicts, kidnapped non-citizens, and orphans who don’t have a place to stay. In addition to your proposed union I would like to see a “made with space-prison labor” disclaimer on these productsm

In person, bash is king. Online I’ve mostly given up, but I don’t shop on Amazon anymore, so on the rare occasion I need something, I ask a friend to order it for me. I assume that provides some obfuscation.

Another reason not to use AI. I already had a pretty sizeable collection of reasons before.

I am an AI hater.

With the number of breaches and leaks, my chosen birthday is likely more substantiated than my actual birthday.

I can’t bring myself to throw anything out anymore. Someday, when all my working PCs have worn out, a $200 bottom of the barrel 32bit netbook could be the last thing standing between me and having to rent compute from some shitty tech company who doesn’t respect my first amendment rights, hides any advanced configuration from the end user, and has an AI constantly rewriting my files to remove any objectionable language, like YouTube or Facebook, but in my home. I’ll hack my toaster to run Linux before I let that happen.

Currently running a ~10 y/o Dell-XPS laptop that still runs absolutely great.

For me, I was a long term gnome 2 user and have used gnome 3 and various derivatives. Gnome 2 was still very customizable, but Gnome 3 was very prescriptivist. I feel like KDE gives me the ability to dial in my desktop quite a bit more and I really like dolphin and the KDE apps. With that said, I don’t hate Gnome. I’m glad it exists if only to encourage other DEs to keep getting better. I don’t see myself daily driving it, but I would gladly recommend it to a Linux beginner.

I have issues with that too. Some of it might have to do with VPNs, but even with everything off, my devices sometimes still can’t see each other. I’m guessing I made a mistake configuring the network or something. Instead, I usually copy files from my phone via SMB, then access the same share from an NFS mount on my PC

Agreed, that IS a major plus. A good old fashioned red wagon or as nice wooden sled (No AI) is better than 90% of this e-waste. I would latch into that “no ai” box advertisement ad well.

Frustratingly, even adult toys 🍆🍑 come with AI now. 🫤

If they truly believe in their AI offerings, they should release them as an extension so users can choose to install them. You only bundle shit people don’t want. If it’s good, you distribute it stand-alone.

Yeah, when I support a social program, it’s with the knowledge and acceptance that some abuse will occur. It’s just that I think, despite the abuse, the upside is still a superior outcome to not doing it at all. Maybe one day we’ll rebuild the cultural fabric to the point where people don’t feel so desperate they immediately exploit any crack in the system regardless of the risks or long-term outcomes. With changes in culture and wealth distribution worldwide, I believe global prosperity is absolutely possible.

I can’t imagine welfare of any kind is more abused than the process by which the US government farms things out to private companies. If the poor are suckling at the teet of the welfare cow, then private industry is the wolf ripping it’s head off. Just look at the clusters of contractors that show up like flies on shit any time the money faucet is opened.

Yeah, I want my neighbors to have heat in the winter, food when they lose their job, and universal childcare. If I have to pay a few extra bucks a year for that it’s better than pouring it into the rest of the money-holes in Washington DC.

OP mentions being from another country. I don’t have a ton of experience with countries commonly regarded as corrupt, though I did go to Nigeria once; money flows >>differently<< there. But there’s also a stronger social fabric. I don’t know if I could vote for any tax when there is suck a blatant track record of shady dealings (though it’s arguable we’ve all been doing that). It was fascinating and I hope to go back some day.

Lol, I would wake up some time in February with an apetite sufficient to cause a global famine.

I love that version number matchup. The way things are going, Wine 11 is looking like a better option than Win 11.

There’s a fascinating cognitive dissonance that happens with drivers. People will carelessly speed past their own child’s school oblivious to the fact that car accidents are a leading cause of death, yet worry about unlikely events like serial killers or terrorism.

If we paved the road in front of every elementary school with some very bumpy cobblestones and put the crosswalk on a speed table, that would slow people right down. “I don’t want to launch my vehicle into a power line” is somehow easier for Americans to understand than “I don’t want to run over my neighbor’s child”.