I read the thread you linked. I’m so fucking tired boss.

What do you even do in this situation? The algorithms and propaganda networks are all controlled by fascists and people don’t care. Beyond not caring, they refuse to even protect themselves from being targeted in this way - they do not value privacy nor integrity.

So what do you do? We have to figure something out.

Agreed. There are many facets to this problem, so it’s difficult to get in one post, so I’ll try to reconcile the main points.

The core of what I’m trying to say, is don’t kill Linux trying to become Windows. Linux is great because it diverse, but it also has difficulties because of this. We should not change (nor destroy) the ecosystem for people who do not care to understand it.

That being said, we can also make it easier for people who do care and cooperate to make it over. But if we do this we, as Linux users, have to look at this from the right lens. The question is not “Linux users, what do you find difficult?”; this is survivorship bias. The question is “Windows users, why can’t you get Linux on your machine?”. From this framing, the real issues become a lot more apparent:

• Not savvy enough to set up USB stick
• Driver, and other hardware, issues
• Programs needed for work, or general daily usage, are unavailable
• Too much tinkering required (this is related to, but not the same as RTFM and CLI)

The first two points can be solved by purchasing a machine from a Linux OEM (i.e System76). If this is not possible, then you are going to have to do research; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

AI has a good and valid use-case here, as it can significantly ease this process (even if it’s only right 60% of the time).

Linux may not have an alternative for your preferred programs; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

Developers should follow open guidelines (i.e POSIX). If they refuse to, there is nothing Linux can (nor should) do about it.

The last point can be solved by distro choice, we completely agree here. The problem is finding said distro, which is difficult. For example, I’ve never heard of Ublue until your post. I appreciate distros that handle defaults and don’t push breaking changes. The community can make this better by having a dedicated website (with a decision tree) for choosing a distro, but this has its own set of issues.

No matter, the responsibility falls on the user to pick the right distro; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

Linux Mint is a great distro, and I’m happy it works for you.

In terms of mass-adoption though, the fatal point is probably putting a Linux ISO on a thumb drive. Like I said prior, we must be aware of survivorship bias. You don’t care much for the terminal - but you made it through.

The people that didn’t make it through probably failed from the thumb drive step. I only say this from personal experience, because when I first installed Linux, I was very determined and came extremely close to giving up at this step. And I only got through because I happened to find an obscure forum about how Rufus needed a special setting for my machine.

P.S. I also was not tech savvy, but I wasn’t completely lost either - and I still struggled really hard here.

This is actually a really deep rabbit-hole. To avoid typing a novel, I’m going to cut out a lot of nuance.

Windows is installed by default on machines. Since people do not change defaults (many studies have been done on this), this is checkmate. As long as this is true, Linux will not have a major (20%+) market share.

So this has to start from the OEM. Several Linux OEMs exist (i.e Tuxedo Computers, System76, Framework) but they cannot compete with the Microsoft network. Those who are interested in Linux, but are not tech savvy, really really really should buy their device from a Linux OEM.

Driver issues are near non-existent on Linux OEM hardware. So software is the next step; and let me tell you, developing for Linux is rough. There are 2 window servers, 2 graphic stacks, 2 desktop environments, 2 coding standards, 2 C libraries,… you get the point. A lot of this can be abstracted, but it takes genuine work to do - and may be obsoleted in a month; meaning no company will do this.

All to say, creating “magically working” apps - even with a lot of monetary support - is a herculean task. Even Valve (who is FLUSHED with cash) gave up and just decided to make their own distro (SteamOS).

A lot of issues also just require personal tweaks due to open-source software being extraordinarily bad at setting sane defaults. With something like Windows, you can hire people to make this better. Who do you hire to fix the defaults for 300 independent projects? And will the devs even listen to them?

I could keep going, but you get the point, the buck is going to have to stop at the user for a lot of things.

The best solution (in my opinion) is to have specialized distros and have people choose from them. Want to game? SteamOS. Want to dev? Fedora. Want to surf the web? Linux Mint. Creating, and more importantly accurately listing, specialized distros will make lives easier. Leave the defaults to the devs, just download the “vibe” you want.

Windows users and Linux users are not seeking the same thing from their machines. The common mistake I often see from Linux advocates.

From personal experience, when I was a Windows user, I didn’t care (or even know) about privacy, open-source software, nor owning my machine. I didn’t care if I had to sign up for a Microsoft account, and I never changed defaults ever (except for my wallpaper). I just wanted the machine to turn-on, work, and play some games.

Why am I bringing this up? Because Linux requires the user care about their machine and defaults. You need to know your architecture, graphics card, and threat-model. You need to know what your apps are called and where they come from. You need to know what tools you need to troubleshoot (and devs will not help you). This is the biggest the pain-point of Linux. Do not succumb to the survivorship bias of RTFM or command-line.

This issue cannot be fixed from simplifying Linux interfaces (though we should do this anyway!). The soul of Linux is adventure, collaboration, and tinkering. To get the most from your machine, you’re going to have to interact with several communities. This is what makes Linux great, and frankly I do not think we should kill this for the general public - this is how you get enshittification.

The general public needs to understand that incompetence (being brain-dead) will lead to misery. It is simply the rule of the land. You need to care and you need to collaborate. We should not welcome nor accommodate users that refuse to do this.

My favorite iteration of the first point is “we take your privacy seriously” to “we take your privacy. seriously.”

So you’re telling me 2% of new Window’s users won’t be forced to make an account? Neat!

This is not about the technically savvy. The populace is being conditioned into not owning what they purchase. This will in turn make everyone’s life worse.

I appreciate you so much for actually linking actionable steps

Therapist: Stop being silly, you can’t hear emojis.

^ the emojis

Agreed, the “well regulated militias” argument was always nonsense.

People can barely work together in office spaces, have zero appreciation for democracy, and have zero discipline. Yet we expect these same people to painstakingly learn combat, change their lifestyles, and agree who the enemy is.

For full transparency, I support 2A - but I support it because it is the best way to be uncooperative with violence. This is extremely important for not only having any chance against a corrupt government, but also your hysterical neighbors - who want to lynch you for being a witch.

P.S. Remote areas tend to be significantly more violent than populated areas. This is a phenomena observed through both anecdote and data. Protecting yourself from rabid neighbors in remote (often rural) areas is a genuine use case!

I think the rule of thumb is to never take a conservative at their word. They seem to only argue in bad-faith for their own personal gain (whether it be money or pleasure); and will go as far as changing the meaning of words and reality to be “correct”.

When a conservative makes a hypothetical, just assume it has no nuance, practicality, nor scientific process. If it did the militia argument would’ve been dead-on-arrival.

I challenge you to look at this from a different perspective.

The people with the (severely under-powered) guns come out, shoot some people, and then what?

The American populace has shown itself to be completely spineless and incapable of doing anything useful. At least 50% of the country will condemn your actions as “not the right way” - even as fascists are rounding them up and sending them to El Salvador.

So what did you just throw your life away for? Making no change, and potentially even setting back the cause. Guns will not fix the deep seated rot in America - no matter how many times you say it. Anyone with a brain looking to win (not the same as being correct!) will not show their hand now.

Just no man.

Yes, JavaScript has been the most popular language but it is exclusively because of the front-end. Many companies do not want to pay for separate back-end devs and ask their front-end devs to do it instead. These people (ab)use JS because they’re most comfortable with it and are under crunch; so we end up with the abomination that is back-end JS.

It is NOT rivaling much lower-level languages; it can’t even rival C#.

First off, it is interpreted. You are never going to be faster than competently written C, C++, Go, nor Rust. Secondly, the resources it takes to exist makes in a non-option for embedded machines - which Social-Security facilities are all but guaranteed to use.

Not to mention the horrendous (and insecure) package infrastructure, and under-powered core libraries - it would be the fullest extent disaster.

The saddest part? The larpers at DOG(shit)E are all but guaranteed to pick the worst tools for the job, over-engineer, and have extremely poor management. Meaning whatever they ship WILL collaspe the system day 1; and all of the people refusing to pay attention will be like “hOw CouLd THis HaPPen”

Yeah, the world is sliding into global fascism, and fast.

Even “Never Again” Germany has a major political party sympathetic with Nazis (AfD). If you talk to the average person in America, it is okay to have all of your rights stripped as long as you can use TikTok. We’re in very dark times right now.

If anything, I think that people from around the world are very disconnected on average. The average person can barely care to support Ukraine, when Putin is clear-as-day running Stalin’s playbook.

Lemmy and Reddit are not real life.

I’ve said this in another post, and I’ll say it again.

Where are the resources? Where are the leaders? Where are the groups?

People are scrambling right now because there are a million people screaming and no one leading nor taking direction. We need courage, focus, and precision to win but everyone is acting spineless, scattered, and aloof.

We need every single person online using TOR and/or a VPN. We need an underground railroad. We need protocol to fight against ICE raids. We need places to find weapons (yes, even in blue states because a lot of people still don’t own). And most importantly, as our greatest civil disobedience, we need to stop paying federal taxes. I would even like to go as far as a general strike.

So how are we going to get this and more together? Or are we instead going to sit and cry about this?

Can we stop talking about “we should, we should”? Who is actually doing?

The time for talk was over November 4th, but it is beyond over now - arm yourself, period.

Where are the community resources for community building and fighting against ICE tactics - this is what the internet is for? Who is running the underground railroad? Why are every single one of us not educated on TOR and VPNs? Who are we primarying? What are the plans for removing propaganda from our real life communities?

There are no accessible answers to these questions - this is unacceptable, and we get this in order now. No one is coming to save us, we must do it ourselves. We have a 2 month window between now and when the most in-person activity will happen (summer).

P.S. Everyone screams at the gun owners and politicians about why they won’t do anything. But why would they? They’ll basically throw their lives away for nothing - especially when the people they claim to fight for are so fucking spineless.

If this woman can have her First Amendment RIGHT stripped and arrested in the street by plain clothes, and every single person in this country isn’t rioting, guns and laws will not fix it.

P.S P.S If you are not from America and are in a relatively free country, one of the best things you can do is host the resources for fighting the Nazis. American companies, individuals, and organization are automatically compromised.

If are an American, create an onion service or host using an EU VPS and domain registar.

thanks again. and yeah my mistake on the warcraft (now edited)

I can very easily buy a fake badge, flash it at you, and say I’m police.

This is why uniforms and agency-labeled vehicles (with id numbers!) exist. The fact that we still do not know the names of these officers should be enough evidence to prove that these could’ve not been officers at all.

I usually do not get rage-baited, but something about this response clicked something it my soul.

I am not a lefty. I will resort to much worse than insults if ever got my hands on you (or anyone like you).

I hate to co-opt the Canadians but. Elbows up.

True on all accounts

I would like a “federated” and open battle simulator. I would also like some viable alternative to pokemon for turn-based monster battling (the only one I know of is Temtem, and it’s not doing well). Pokemon could also pull the plug on “Pokemon Showdown” at any moment. Though they are benevolent today, they may not be tomorrow.

I’m not really looking to compete with Pokemon, it just has a game-mode that inspired the project. Kind of like “Warcraft 3” and “League Of Legends” - they are not competitors at all, but LoL wouldn’t exist without Wc3.

Thanks for the advice.

I think this is something I would enjoy doing even if no one played it. I’m not necessarily looking for thanks, but I also recognize it would be a massive waste of resources - which could be spent on a project people find useful. It’s also a multiplayer game, so without players, it would be truly pointless.

I think I’ll go through with it though; if there’s general curiosity, there’s a chance.