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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: September 10th, 2023

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  • Sure, but the common consensus seems to be that you shouldn’t be annoyed at the constant updates when that’s an explicit feature of that system. Maybe that’s just a misreading, but I assume the expected reaction would be “Not now” rather than “Not again”.

    (I’m not taking a position, as I’ve never worked with a rolling distro and can’t really comment on either stance, just trying to navigate the confusion here)



  • I’m far from OG, unless you count my dad’s SUSE that I “used” as a child for a while. I fondly remember SuperTux. But I didn’t really interact with the system much beyond starting games or a browser.

    Later (about six years ago, I think) I started dual-booting Ubuntu as a side piece for productive stuff while gaming on Windows. Gradually tried gaming on Linux too, then made the jump to Linux (Ubuntu) exclusive late 2021.

    Since a recent PC upgrade, I’ve used an additional disk to try Nobara and am happy with it so far. I’ve now got a spare disk and more time to try new distros, so I plan to explore the distroverse some more, but all in all I’d consider myself more of a newcomer or at best a resident than an OG.


  • I had the opposite once, years ago: I don’t know the cause anymore, but somehow Windows disappeared from my grub.

    By the time I had finally secured all my data with the intent to make that absence permanent, it did reappear (again, no idea why), but I was committed. Steamrolled the entire drive with a new Ubuntu install and haven’t used Windows privately since.

    I did need to use tools that don’t run on Linux (even with wine - believe me, I tried) for uni and used a windows VM, my work laptop is Windows because I need the same tools and get no say in it anyway, but haven’t had a direct Windows install on my system since 2022.

    My private OS of choice is by now Nobara, though I also intend to use an obsolete SSD to try more distros with.






  • The first problem, as with many things AI, is nailing down just what you mean with AI.

    The second problem, as with many things Linux, is the question of shipping these things with the Desktop Environment / OS by default, given that not everybody wants or needs that and for those that don’t, it’s just useless bloat.

    The third problem, as with many things FOSS or AI, is transparency, here particularly training. Would I have to train the models myself? If yes: How would I acquire training data that has quantity, quality and transparent control of sources? If no: What control do I have over the source material the pre-trained model I get uses?

    The fourth problem is privacy. The tradeoff for a universal assistant is universal access, which requires universal trust. Even if it can only fetch information (read files, query the web), the automated web searches could expose private data to whatever search engine or websites it uses. Particularly in the wake of Recall, the idea of saying “Oh actually we want to do the same as Microsoft” would harm Linux adoption more than it would help.

    The fifth problem is control. The more control you hand to machines, the more control their developers will have. This isn’t just about trusting the machines at that point, it’s about trusting the developers. To build something the caliber of full AI assistants, you’d need a ridiculous amount of volunteer efforts, particularly due to the splintering that always comes with such projects and the friction that creates. Alternatively, you’d need corporate contributions, and they always come with an expectation of profit. Hence we’re back to trust: Do you trust a corporation big enough to make a difference to contribute to such an endeavour without amy avenue of abuse? I don’t.


    Linux has survived long enough despite not keeping up with every mainstream development. In fact, what drove me to Linux was precisely that it doesn’t do everything Microsoft does. The idea of volunteers (by and large unorganised) trying to match the sheer power of a megacorp (with a strict hierarchy for who calls the shots) in development power to produce such an assistant is ridiculous enough, but the suggestion that DEs should come with it already integrated? Hell no

    One useful applications of “AI” (machine learning) I could see: Evaluating logs to detect recurring errors and cross-referencing them with other logs to see if there are correlations, which might help with troubleshooting.
    That doesn’t need to be an integrated desktop assistant, it can just be a regular app.

    Really, that applies to every possible AI tool. Make it an app, if you care enough. People can install it for themselves if they want. But for the love of the Machine God, don’t let the hype blind you to the issues.