My wife uses Arch (actually). She calls it the internet, when she really means Facebook. She knows it isn’t Apple but it gets a bit vague after that!
The last time I had to fire up the Mesh Central client to sort something out on her desktop from work was around three months ago. Every couple of weeks I ssh into it, update it and schedule a reboot for 03:00.
If she only does basic web browsing, why not something more stable like Ubuntu or Debian?
Define stable! Both are non rolling distros so that means that you have the upgrade jolt every few years. I have several VMs that started off life as Ubuntu LTS around 16 so from 2016 and are still running but now on 2022.04. Those are servers so relatively simple - web, PHP, Samba, DBs, etc. PHP is a pain to fix up. Ubuntu doesn’t have the rather neat slotting feature that Gentoo has so you get to do quite a lot of detective work to put it back together again. Debian is similar - again I have several systems that I manage that have gone through at least three or four Toy Story names.
Arch is rolling so there is no break and continue point. There have been some packages that have broken or been broken but not the entire system and that suits me. The QA is surprisingly good from the devs. Arch really isn’t the bugbear, nightmare super ricer thingie that it is sometimes painted out to be. I find it a very thoughtfully put together distro with an awful lot of moving parts that are well integrated and a great toolset. Choice is paramount and delivered in spades without the micro management that Gentoo requires.
It also helps that I have been doing this stuff for well over two decades so some challenges are no longer the challenge they once were.
why arch and not something with more stable updates like debian?
I’ve spent over 25 years with Linux. With multiple distros and a lot of that with Gentoo and Arch. At work I specify Ubuntu or Debian, for simplicity and stability. I always used to use the minimal Ubuntu, because it was tiny with no frills. For quite a few years I managed a fleet of Gentoo systems across multiple customers - with Puppet. Those have quietly gone away. I’ve dallied with SuSE (all varieties), Mandrake, Mandriva, RedHat, Slackware, Yggdrassil and more.
Arch is surprisingly stable and being a rolling job there are no big jumps. When I replace one of our laptops, I simply clone the old one to it and crack on. I used to do the same with Gentoo - my Gentoo laptops went from an OpenRC job with dual Nokia N95 ppp connections around 2007 to through to around 2018 with systemd and decent wifi when I switched to Arch to allow the burns on my lap to heal. I still have a Gentoo VM running (amongst friends) on the esxi in my attic.
It was installed in 2006 according to some of the kernel config files. I left it for way too long and had to use git to make Portage advance forwards in time and fix around a decade of neglect. It would have been too easy to wipe and start again. It took about a fortnight to sort out. At one point I even fixed an issue following a forum post I made myself years ago.
Anyway, Arch is pretty stable.
At one point I even fixed an issue following a forum post I made myself years ago.
I love when that happens lmao, it’s the best. Thank you past me.
I know this was a long comment and I’m only reacting to 1 word, so, I’m sorry in advance… But man, your mention of Mandrake really brought me back… I couldn’t for the life of me remember the distro I used to use all the time and this just clicked it all back into place. So much nostalgia, switching from like red hat 5 or 6 (not rhel, old plain red hat) to mandrake and being so happy.
because Arch is more lightwheight than Debian, and also more stable than non-arch users think it is
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What does this mean lol it feels vaguely threatening towards debian
So he can say his wife uses Arch (btw)
Arch has rolling releases and is super stable.
How do you define “stable”?
Low occurence of notable bugs during daily use.
Debian is sometimes frustratingly out of date for daily apps like the web browser. I’d rather recommend something with a bit more updates like Mint.
frustratingly out of date for daily apps like the web browser
Use flatpack for those then?
Opened the post for this comment, wasn’t disappointed!
That’s torture and is outlawed by the geneva convention (btw)
Absolutely one of my favorite james acaster quotes! His whole Netflix special, “Repertoire” is just fantastic
Personally, if you can’t tell me if you are running Windows or MacOS, I don’t really want you downloading my software
Why? Are you feeling bad about all the adware you bundled in?
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I used to work with internet service for trains. I remember one support ticket filed by the train conductor:
“Internet doesn’t work”
No info regarding area
No info regarding when
No info regarding which carriage
…or even which train.Well, I managed to jump through a few hoops, figuring out the schedule for this particular individual, and could deduce which train at least. Nagios reported everything as fine, but sometimes Nagios can lie, so I tracked it down and did the usual diagnostics onboard. Couldn’t find anything wrong.
I phoned up the guy and it turned out he’d forgotten to enable wifi on his phone.
have you been im it long enough to see some that used their cd drive a coke holder.
I’ve done that myself.
better yet is the program doesn’t even have a comment feature
Even more people can’t get Linux to run.
Does anyone really not know if they have an apple or windows device…?
I’m sure my grandma does not give a shit
Not sure grandma would be visiting this site
Sometimes they can afford to not know because they have a relative who can manage the device for them. In which case they really wouldn’t be installing software on their own really.
You would be surprised at how many people cannot even change the volume on their tablet.
You would be surprised at how many people cannot even change the volume on their tablet.
If that number is more than 0 then I would be very surprised. There are buttons on the side for volume and volume buttons have been standard on devices since at least the early 80’s.
Had someone ask me why their phone didnt make noise or vibrate when they recieved calls the other day. They were pressing the volume down button with the unlock button to get the screen to turn on/off. So it would slowly mute the phone and take the vibrate off once muted.
They would have benefited from the buttons not being less than half an inch away, and possibly on the opposite side. (Not sure what kind of phone it was, it was a cheaper device it seemed.)
Yes. I have helped people install software over discord and they don’t know what a OS is.
My aunt in her late 70s probably is only distantly aware. I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned her tablet around to check.
Not if you are on Android phone.
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If the client is blocking OS fingerprinting by returning generic
navigator.appVersionanduserAgentvalues you should probably just assume Linux in the first place.Penguin people for sure know theirs
And they’ll tell you about it every time.
Insert GNU/ LINUX Copypasta here. To feed the meme: I use Pop!_OS btw
I use Arch.
Penguin People
Penguin People
I’ll have you know I’m and Arch Oligarch tyvm.
You mean, there are still websites that don’t auto-detect what OS you’re running and make you actually choose?
I actually hate it when a website does that, especially when it doesn’t let you download the application you want because your OS is not compatible. For example you wanna download some windows software to run it with Wine/Proton and the website detects you are running linux and does not let you download. I always need to spoof my User-Agent string to get access.
The correct solution (as with languages on websites) is to auto-detect but then make it super easy and obvious how to change if the auto detected version is not what the user wants.
Also if any web developers out there are reading - don’t use the user’s location to determine the language/region they want, and especially don’t force it. I have no idea why so many websites do this but those responsible deserve to permanently have small amounts of sand in all their socks.
How do websites choose a language by location? What about countries that have more than one official language?
Yeah, I’m saying they shouldn’t, but plenty of them do. They use geoip or location services to work out where you are and then use that to send you to the local site or the site in the language that they feel is appropriate for that location.
If you’re really lucky they then make it difficult (and sometimes practically impossible) to switch.
Besides the problem you’ve highlighted for countries with multiple languages, you also have immigrants, people on holiday, multilingual people, VPN users… And it’s not great for your SEO either.
On the other hand if you have a device you don’t know what OS is on there it is likely some kind of Penguin (TV, SmartFridge, Hearing system display)
There are some tech illiterate people, who use Linux without knowing it, because their child set it up for them.
80% of people using Android.
You’re being generous.
98%
I’m in this picture :)
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No, a gnawed apple
indeed!
Arch btw ;)
I literally bought the wrong version of a game called Heretic on Amazon in the early 2000s because it “had a cool penguin on it” lmao
As if apple users had no fuckin clue
Worked in a repair shop long enough to know that a whole lot of mac users just know they bought a “better computer” without any idea of what an operating system is, someone showed them that the photo they took on their phone magically appeared on their computer and that was all the info they needed to pay 2 grand for it
My mom is tech illiterate and I buy all her devices for her. If I gave her a Mac she’ll just use it without knowing what OS it is.
weeeeelllllllll …
(jk)
Penguin fellas only download software from package managers and official repos tho
