Mmm, this is kind of what I’m talking about. I’m certainly not knocking Nobara as a distro or people who prefer it, but taken from their FAQ,

1. Will there ever be other Desktop Environment versions? No. The ‘Official’ modified KDE release layout was designed for myself and my father out of personal preference.

5. I heard Nobara breaks SELinux, is this true? No. We have completely swapped SELinux in favor of AppArmor (this is what Ubuntu and OpenSUSE use).

6. Is Nobara compatible with SecureBoot? No. Nobara ships with a kernel that has been custom patched and is built and hosted on COPR.

7. Can I upgrade from Fedora to Nobara using the Nobara repositories? NO. This is a big large huge NO. The Nobara install ISOs have a ton of packages that get installed which are specific to Nobara, and not installed on Fedora on fresh install.

10. Just how modified is Nobara aside from what I can see? Heavily.

11. This project is quite new, is it going anywhere? Is there anything to say it won’t just up stop development? Is it something that is recommendable to daily drive? (I am quite technical, and can troubleshoot my issues). As long as I am alive and using linux this project will continue. It started because I needed something both myself and my father could easily use from clean install without time consuming troubleshooting or extra package and repo installation.

It’s been around since ~2022 compared to Mint in ~2006

These are exactly the kind of points that a casual, new user would stumble across and in attempting to troubleshoot things from a Fedora perspective could trip them up severely.

My point is that casual users are already averse to making the switch and they are likely going to do ONE install and it needs to be as vanilla and stable as possible. If they turn into Linux nerds who want to distro hop later, they’ll find their way, but we need to keep things absolutely stock and simple.

The biggest issue for most casual users starting remains picking a distro, and to that end I think we as a Linux community need to stop recommending flavors of the month. Even Bazzite has come up against some recent drama and having to break down distro drama for a new users is an absolute deal breaker.

Based on their skill level and needs just get them into a bucket: Mint, Fedora, or Arch. They’ve been around forever, they’re stable, there’s plentiful documentation and there are no weird opinionated decisions buried in them that’ll go off like a landmine or confound troubleshooting. Install the Nvidia proprietary drivers, I’ve had less issues with those (until recently I dunno, we can revisit this point) but overall just everything simple and smooth for a transition.

Once people are on Linux they can start to come up with their own informed opinions depending on how well they take to the environment but at the same time there’s nothing wrong with starting and ending with the above distros.

(I actually don’t know much about Fedora, there might be a slightly better variant recommendation but it’s gotta be something analogous to Mint. I’m pretty adamant on vanilla Arch though, if that’s the route you want to go. Anyone who starts with Arch will be able to better determine an Arch variant down the road for themselves and are also more likely to do multiple installs. Doing so much as even a single reinstall may be a deal breaker for casuals).

It’s kind of a weird phenomenon that’s been developing on the internet for awhile called, “just asking questions”. It’s a way to noncommittally insert an opinion or try to muddy the waters with doubt, “Did you ever notice how every {bad thing} is {some minority}? I’m not saying I believe it, I’m just asking questions!” In this instance it seems that by even asking for a clear statement of value you are implying there may not be one, which is upsetting.

To be clear, I’m not accusing you of doing this, but you can see how stumbling into a community that takes their own positions as entirely self evident would see any sort of questioning it as an attempt to undermine it. Anything short of full, unconditional acceptance of their position is treacherous.

It’s worth thinking about because it’s a difficult and nuanced problem. Some things are unquestionable like when I say I love a bad movie or that human rights are inalienable. Still, I should be able to answer sincere questions probing into the whys of that and it really comes down to an assumption of bad faith or not.

I’ve been using Arch for about 3 years now myself and shamefully … I do most things without the terminal.

I still use it for a handful of things of course, I don’t know if there’s a GUI interface for upgrading by I just prefer manually running pacman and inspecting things myself. I write a few small helpful Python scripts here and there to manage my abundant, unrepentant pirating, but otherwise I’m just browsing and gaming.

I really don’t think you can (or should) fully escape it, but it’s been minimized to a point where it’s never been before. Depending on where your friends are at, leaning into the hackerman thing might be useful? Get them set up with Ghostty (running some flashy shaders) and oh-my-zsh so they can feel cool, then teach them how to run pacman -Syu or sudo apt upgrade. Once they’re comfortable with the concept, introduce them to a few little helpful Python or bash scripts or show them how to run htop and kill some processes. I think if you can get people sufficiently interested they’re more eager to pick things up on their own and run with it.

I still have a lot of mistrust for the TPM, but that’s OK, my paranoia has room to accommodate everyone.

No. The rebellious spirit is what lights the fire. It may take a few tries to follow through, but I respect the rage >=D

We need to come together as a community and encourage every effort. If you really want to see other people stick to it we need to smash any sense of righteousness or gatekeeping to bits.

I’m still not great with Wine myself, but sit down for an afternoon and try out Bottles. https://www.howtogeek.com/running-windows-apps-on-linux-with-bottles/

I’m on Arch and even the wiki just recommends using the Flatpak. It’s pretty obvious once you get the hang of it, each Bottle is just it’s own little, specific Windows configuration. Try running through the example on that site and installing Notepad++ (or something else of your choice) and you’ll probably have an a-ha! moment.

Isn’t it?

The arguments of preference and convenience are falling by the wayside as megacorporations take more and more control over not just your hardware but your behavioral patterns by dictating what you can install and how it functions. They suck up all your personal, private data for AI training without your consent.

I get it, shit sucks. It really does, but we have to remember who is to blame here and it’s not each other. There has to be some urgency here because this is a battle and we, the consumers, the ordinary people, are surely losing. It’s not about being holier than thou, it’s about lifting each other up.

Cyber security effectively doesn’t exist without consequence in capitalism. If there aren’t regulatory fines or monetary damage from breaches, what incentive is there to spend on enforcing anything? When they can’t innovate or compete anymore, they’ll begin cutting at the structural systems to save more money until it’s just a shell of an appearance of security, and maybe not even that. Who will care?

Absolutely boggles my mind that they would even consider this? I can’t imagine the amount raised would come anywhere close to justifying the damage done?

Agreed. I was actually afraid to modify my KDE desktop for months because of the trauma sustained from just trying to customize Gnome a bit. My configuration is still pretty vanilla, but it’s got enough personal flair to it that it feels uniquely mine and I’m the happiest I’ve been.

Aww, I will always love XFCE and save a place for it in my heart … but I moved to Plasma 2 years ago and haven’t really looked back either >_>

It annoys me how much crap people still give Arch because it did honestly deter me from trying it myself when all this time it was exactly the distro for me. A lot of it is the nature of the rolling releases and pacman just feeling more clean and simple then apt and the inevitable Franken-Debian installs I end up with.

The archinstall script makes installation much easier. After that, choosing all my own apps and having to read the wiki and perform minor configurations on them could be seen as tedious when something like Mint is just more out-of-the-box, but it both helped teach me more about Linux so I have a better understanding of how my own system works when things do rarely go astray and it helps me feel like my system is very personalized and my own. Sometimes I still go, “Wait, why don’t I have this very basic thing or why isn’t it working?” And I find out it’s because I didn’t install a necessary package, but then I learn and build

As far as rolling releases, I update daily because I’m a geeky maniac and I have had better stability doing that the past 2 1/2 years than I ever did in Windows. Truly, no lie. Part of that is Microsoft setting a low bar, but also my system is a simpler build. That’s not to say there have been no issues whatsoever, but I wonder at the people making these claims how much they’ve really used Arch.

My point generally being: don’t let the opinion of some Linux snobs deter you. Try Arch, it may very well be your thing, too.

You’re absolutely right, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

As someone who deployed Windows professionally for years and was a power user at home, let me supply some additional details,

Windows has become business software through and through. It can run fine enough if you go with a basic install and minimal tweaks through only the standard channels (like Group Policy) and this is probably what those people always loudly claiming “well I never have an issue!” are doing and then they’ll accuse you for bringing it on yourself from deviating from this.

But what everyone should understand, especially them, is that this is not how normal people use their computers and it’s utter bullshit that Microsoft continues to restrict people into this box. Most businesses don’t need hardly anything aside from Office and perhaps one or two industry specific applications, an overwhelming number of these being SaaS these days anyways. Normal people on the other hand use a wide variety of software for their businesses and hobbies in a wide array of configurations and what’s more, we enjoy personalizing our experiences on top of it, as we should! This unsurprisingly leads to more instability that Microsoft simply doesn’t want to take responsibility for.

People still complain about not being able to move the taskbar from the bottom of the screen and Microsoft apologists will say, “but it’s such a small thing!” And well, it is and that’s kind of my point; it’s a bellweather. I bet it’s a simple fix, they could do it, they could please people and provide further usability but they just don’t have to. How long has it gone unaddressed now? You want to play Call of Duty, you cretin? Lick our boots! And don’t even get me started on the whole SecureBoot/TPM 2.0 DRM lockdown issue.

I use Arch BTW and here’s my quick pitch for that. It really is a good distro for people of moderate or above skill level. I slowly built it out over time, bolted on each carefully selected piece of software from the repository, reading the wiki and making configurations as I went. In doing so, I gained a better understanding of Linux in general and my system in specific so on the rare occasions something does break, I don’t feel as clueless addressing it. The reason we all start to sound like cult-like zealots after awhile is because we’ve established a personal relationship with our computers; it is my friend again. It’s hard to understate the actual palpable relief that comes from cutting out a bloated, malicious corporation from that chain of trust with a machine we use in our daily lives.

It’s time to end Microsoft. Reach out, be helpful and welcoming in the Linux community. They’re losing balance, they’ve overplayed their hand on 11 and over-invested in AI and while I doubt we’d be lucky enough to be truly rid of them, we can see them suffer some real damage.

This is a good point. I’ve been trying to make it clear in a lot of my predictions that Microsoft doesn’t want or even need full control, just enough. They don’t even need to do anything particular here other than continue to manage github with their current level of incompetence.

Was trying to source an article here, wasn’t there just an outage or some other major issue a few days ago? Anyways …

not only is Windows not very profitable anymore, the real money is at businesses.

Hear me out, this is exactly why they care. Windows as a product isn’t profitable anymore, but as a market share it is. Apple has always enjoyed their locked down ecosystem and Google is trying to completely block side loading on devices we already largely don’t have control over the bootloader. It’s no secret Microsoft has been seething with jealousy for years.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

You’re a soulless corporate ghoul, how do you make those numbers work for you? Why do you think they have the absolute gall to tell you to throw your computer out and get one that supports TPM 2.0? Why do you think there are still so many people willing or not that will swallow that bitter pill that’s Windows 11?

I’m not trying to call you out in particular here or anything, but I think it’s foolish to assume they don’t

Some others have already said the “embrace, extend, extinguish” but here’s my take on it. Pair it with Secure Boot and TPM 2.0

• Embrace: Secure Boot can already work with Linux, how lucky! This gives them not exactly control, but authoritative denial over your boot process and hardware.
• Extend: This is the part that remains to be seen. If they feel threatened enough by the shift in the gaming landscape, mind you not over losing out on sales or the hearts of gamers or anything, but again control, they may begin to make Linux offerings. A concession to allow an honest to god, thick Office client on Linux would certainly appeal to some. Adobe gets in on that action to back them up with Photoshop and Activision with Call of Duty, etc.
• Extinguish: TPM 2.0. One of the less talked about features of this is remote attestation (“Remote attestation allows changes to the user’s computer to be detected by authorized parties. For example, software companies can identify unauthorized changes to software, including users modifying their software to circumvent commercial digital rights restrictions.” - DRM). We’re already seeing this with CoD on Windows. They’ll allow you to run much requested Windows software on Linux, even provide direct support possibly, but at the cost of not precisely control but authoritative denial. Which still works out to be control in most ways since if you want to use the software and they are to remotely attest, they can also insist that part of that attestation is you running some sort of telemetry or not running software they disagree with.

The reason I think this route is highly likely is because it plays well with uninformed consumers. To the untrained eye it looks like they’re giving ground and actually allowing for broader support of their software while effectively gaining control over the environment once again and removing the biggest benefits of running FOSS on your system.

Anyone know what music visualizer that is in the screenshot near the bottom under entry 2? Quick search of the available music widgets and I didn’t see anything that looked like it.

LLMs are a tool, and all tools can be repurposed or repossessed.

That’s just simply not true. Tools are usually quite specific in purpose, and often times the tasks they accomplish cannot be undone by the same tool. A drill cannot undrill a hole. I’m familiar with ML (machine learning) and the many, many legitimate uses it has across a wide range of fields.

What you’re thinking of, I suspect, is a weapon. A resource that can be wielded equally by and against each side. The pains caused on the common person by the devaluation of our art and labor can’t be inflicted against the corpofascists; for them, that’s the point. They are the ones selling these tools to you and you cannot defeat them by buying in. And I do very much mean the open source models as well. Waging war on their terms, with their tools and methods (repossessed as they may be) is still a losing proposition.

By ignoring this technology and sticking our fingers in our ears, we are allowing them to reshape out the technology works, instead of molding it for our own purposes. It’s not going to go away, and thinking that is just as foolish as believing the Internet is a fad.

Time will tell. How are your NFTs doing? (sorry, that was mean)

The negative preconceived notion bias is really not helping matters.

Guilty as charged, I’m pretty strongly anti-AI. But seriously, watch that ad and tell me that the disorienting cadence of speech and uncanny, overly detailed generated images look good? Most of us have seen what’s on offer and we’re telling you, we’re tired.

Look, I do apologize, I’m very much trying not to be overly aggro here or attack you in any way. But I think discussions about the religious overtones and belief systems of the BJ are exactly where we’re at.

How o3 and Grok 4 Accidentally Vindicated Neurosymbolic AI

This is a really interesting article. Gary Marcus is a lot more positive on AI than myself I think, but that’s understandable given his background. If I do concede that some form of AGI is inevitable, I think we are within our rights to demand that it is indeed the tool we deserve, and not just snake oil.

AI art still ugly, sorry not sorry.

Kind of really disagree with this video 😕

I’ve only read the first two Dune novels, and that awhile ago, so I’m poorly equipped to have this conversation, but the video focuses on the idea that fascists are perpetuating it to keep powerful tools of liberation out of the hands of the proletariat. You wouldn’t agree with a fascist, would you? While there may be some truth to this, it completely ignores the cause of the BJ to begin with. It was in fact a rebellion by the people against those tools.

Even taken at face value, the video seems to posit that because the fascists can’t be trusted, AI is indeed a powerful tool for liberation. I don’t see that as the case. It hardly needs to be said, but Dune is a sci-fi novel, the context of which does not currently apply to our real world circumstances. AI is the tool of the fascists, used for oppression. I don’t think it can simply be repurposed for liberation, that’s a naive interpretation that ignores all of the actual ways in which the current implementations of AI work.

Disgusting AI-generated add for merch halfway through.

EDIT: the point is further confounded by the fact that the BJ eliminated “computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots”, not simply AI. Many of those are tools that could empower people but that doesn’t mean you can just lump them together.