That’s true for a lot of people, but I truly believe a very significant number of people are being exposed to Linux this way and will stick with it long-term. It will be a while until we see that reflected in the desktop and laptop statistics.

I haven’t used SteamOS (or even seen many videos of it), but from what I’ve heard it’s not shy about being a desktop operating system. Even the Steam Deck, which is marketed as a console like you said, lets you use it in desktop mode and run any Linux software without having to jump through any hoops. This isn’t like Android which is technically Linux deep under the hood but effectively completely detached from the Linux ecosystem. SteamOS is part of the Linux desktop ecosystem, and it’s proud of it.

To add to what others have said, I think Steam OS is making huge waves and that’s a really strong force.

Linux Mint is exactly as easy to use as Windows, if not easier. In Windows you also needed to google every day basic functions, but I guess for you personally that was so long ago that you don’t remember. On Windows you also need to use the terminal for some things, like removing some of their bloatware (xbox bullshit, for example).

There are some specific points I kind of agree with you about, but I don’t agree with your general sentiment. Linux is easier to use than ever.

You’re right (and upvoted accordingly), but if said evil company is as much of a clusterfuck as OP said, I wouldn’t bet on them having competent security measures in place.

Because it’s strong and powerful but it’s hard to keep from crashing?

(I’ve never used Arch, and really have no idea how true that is)

Regarding “No Stupid Questions”, I submit for your consideration the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyiNW33MpAo

Pretty much lol, well put!

From my understanding, Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons yet. What they destroyed is essentially a factory that creates one of the key ingredients required for making nuclear weapons. It’s not a weapon yet, and it’s not explosive yet. Iran’s still a ways away from making that.

I super highly recommend William Spaniel on YouTube. He hasn’t covered this bombing yet (I’m sure he will within a few hours tomorrow), but a few days ago he did briefly go over the process of making nuclear bombs, you should check it out: https://youtu.be/XA1CQp_oJ90?t=480

Either way it’s an amazing channel for understanding world affairs, I really can’t recommend it enough. Go watch any of his recent videos, they’re short and well worth it.

As a user, why should I care whether the distro I use uses systemd? I use Mint and I don’t remember having to interact with that kind of low-level nonsense. The distro maintainers can use whatever reasoning they want to pick these details.

See, this is just bad scientific methodology. You changed multiple variables at the same time and now you can’t determine which one caused the different treatment. Smh women can’t do science.

(hopefully obvious but: just kidding of course, that is awesome)

Recently built a PC with an AMD GPU. Tried to figure out how to install AMD drivers, because Mint’s driver manager didn’t seem to offer anything like it would for nvidia… Turns out AMD drivers are just part of the Linux kernel and you don’t need to install them at all. Nice.

I did have one problem though - my hardware is too new and the kernel shipped with Mint doesn’t really support it yet. But it was surprisingly easy to install a newer kernel. And anyway for any PC that doesn’t use bleeding edge hardware, this would never be an issue.

<3 Mint and Linux

Honestly, I think it’s premature - Organic Maps isn’t down the drain yet. But I’m also not 100% up to date. You can see most of the context here and in the open letter linked within: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/organic-maps-open-letter/128851

There is literally a drawing app called procreate. Nothing about this joke is forced, it’s just a direct observation.

Every part of that is fine except not including the cable with the product. But I don’t think I ever got a new product with a USB-B connector that didn’t come with the cable.

I just recently looked into Secure Boot and from my understanding it’s not a Microsoft lock-in. Many Linux distributions are signed with keys that are loaded by default, and advanced users can even add custom signatures to their computer so Secure Boot would accept them. The original fear around Secure Boot was legitimate, but by now we know the worst outcome of it didn’t come to pass.

That said, I did disable it on my new PC because I think the chance of it causing issues is greater than the chance it will actually protect me from bootloader malware, and I’m willing to accept that risk and responsibility.

You anarchist!

Real talk though, I think specs are literally my favorite thing in the world. The truly great ones are so good that there’s never a real reason to deviate from them - if you do, you’re either doing something wrong or you’re taking a shortcut for a hobbyist project (which is fine, but not for anything mass-produced). USB is mostly one of those great specs. The cable you posted is an abomination. There is always a better way.

I did not know this. Are they allowed by the spec?

Sure, it would have, but I was following the time-honored tradition of reading only the title and the Lemmy comments without clicking through to the full article. If that comment hadn’t been there, it is possible that my intrigue and confusion would have been sufficient to make me betray my legacy and bring shame to my family by actually reading the linked article. Disaster avoided!

Oh, thanks, I needed that to understand what this was talking about.

I definitely do for quick scripts, but I try to break this habit. The biggest advantage of def main() is that variables are local and not accessible to other functions defined in the same script, which can sometimes help catch bugs or typos.