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The Best way to switch to Linux is to NOT
  • I highly disagree with recommending regular users to use virtual machines, it defeats the whole purpose, at the end of the day, you are still using windows, and on top of that, it adds additional complexities that can only create frustration to users.

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    Windows 10 EOL PSA
  • Hahaha, too stable and boring... Do you use OSs as a form of entertainment? No wonder why people can't take Linux enthusiasts seriously.

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    All the ways streaming services are aggravating their subscribers this week
  • Way easier, the catalogs are ready for you, you don't need to download anything in advance, you can use it in any device too.

    If you use real debrid, there's no need for VPN either. So it's cheaper also.

    It's also very low in maintenance, I touch my configuration every 3 months to update my details and that's it.

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    All the ways streaming services are aggravating their subscribers this week
  • Stremio + Real debrid.

    Stremio is a platform to watch any media you like (works very similar to Plex), you can use it as it is, and install the plugins that are more useful to you (torrentio for example). If your country has strict laws, then you can use real debrid to convert the torrents to direct downloads, you just need to open an account in real debrid, pay a few dollars a month (no need to pay for a VPN as direct downloads are ok), and link your account to stremio, and then you'll have access to lots of content.

    But I only use it to watch the latest linux distributions, nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon watching Fedora 40 while it's raining outside.

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    Elon Musk Says He'll Reinstate Twitter Account Of Hitler-Loving White Supremacist
  • I am in academia, and I hate how everyone in my field interacts there. Even my supervisor posts relatively important news there (new papers published or conferences etc).

    I used to check it without logging in. But now I can't see a thread without logging in. From all the fields, I thought academia was the first to leave, but no. I tried the mastodon but it is still a ghost town..

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    Spotify quietly moves lyrics behind a paywall.
  • You basically need professional headphones and speakers to notice any difference, my guess is that 99% of Spotify customers have headphones that didn't cost more than $100, so why would they care? I mean, I have nice headphones and speakers and after some blind tests I couldn't notice any difference.

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    U.S. likely to enact a law soon that could ban TikTok nationwide, President Joe Biden vowed to sign it into law
  • Check out the new video by "some more news", it's more comedy than anything, by it deals with some reputable sources.

    https://youtu.be/5aFQY6-Mxcw?si=IFkuuPCQ6Pmv7YOK

    The effect is not clear cut, and there are many other confounding effects that might be more important, and being glued to your phone might be a symptom more than a cause, but I agree that excessive social media and short format videos are bad for you, but that can be said about video games or even regular games.

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    U.S. likely to enact a law soon that could ban TikTok nationwide, President Joe Biden vowed to sign it into law
  • Yeah, I'm almost 100% sure the "tiktok is damaging kid's brains" is the millennial equivalent of boomers "videogames and TV are damaging kid's brains".

    I'm a millennia by the way, and we are starting to sound a bit afraid of technologies.

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    "Yeah, but what if we used AI?"
  • Your example was on Google Chrome, and your example said you had tabs opened with searches, so I assumed you were using chrome. I guess bad assumption though...

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    The US has so much space
  • Exactly, it's a ridiculous example because it sounds just as ridiculous as saying US and EU are in principle the same type of union.

    I was being hyperbolic with my last sentence so you can see how ridiculous your statement sounds to me.

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    "Yeah, but what if we used AI?"
  • If you are using Google Chrome they already have your browser history... Why are you suddenly worried about privacy just now?

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    The US has so much space
  • True, but my point is that if a country decides not to follow one of the directives, they can just leave if they want, they are agreements that they want to be part of, they are not merely imposed by EU. Nothing like the US and their federal government.

    This is like saying that marriage and a double match of tennis are the same type of union or follow the same principle, no, they are not.

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    The US has so much space
  • Sure dude, EU and US, same principle, same as united nations, united airlines and IUPAC. Same principle, they are a union of things, if you mean that as "principle", sure.

    EU doesn't have rules that everyone has to follow, they have agreements, that are often very specific between nations. UK was part of the EU with their own currency for example. So no, it's not the same type of union, unless you simplfiy it to "union of things"which of course is the same principle.

    Also any member of the EU can leave unilaterally (like the UK), not so much for the US. I don't think they follow the same principle, again, unless you think of it just as a "union of things"

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    The US has so much space
  • "not much unlike"? They are both nothing alike, except that they are some sort of union.

    I mean, if you say that in real life to anyone who is half aware of how the government works, they would laugh at you.

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    The US has so much space
  • What no... What are you talking about? EU is not even close to the government structure of the US. Starting that each EU country has their own military, and the EU president has absolutely no power on each of the EU members military.

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    Is there a way to add "Run as Sudo" to context menu like with Windows?
  • OP asks a relatively simple question, and gets scolded as it committed murder.

    For all we know OP is the only user and is just playing with Linux, and just wants a simple (probably unnecessary) shortcut because he's GUI oriented.

    This is kind of someone asking how to open their lunchbox easier, and get treated like they are giving a copy of their house keys to everyone in town.

    Chill... Not everyone is running a maximum security level server. If OP screws their system (like most of us do at some point), I'm sure a fresh re-install would be enough for them.

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  • The main cloud services don't even work natively (GoogleDrive, OneDrive, iCloud) basically the only mainstream choice is Dropbox. I tried to use Google Drive in Mint, and it's a pain to get it to work, and usually it stops working after computer restarts.

    Someone has a recommendation about how to handle these services?

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    Let me start saying my first approach with Linux was around 2000, the first distro I installed successfully was Debian, then moved to more user-friendly distros (at the time) like Knoppix and Fedora, and ultimately to Ubuntu. In the 2000's I used Linux mostly for fun, do homework, and browsing. I used Knoppy for like a year because my hard drive was not working properly, it was glorious. I still used windows on the side for the occasional software that was not available on linux.

    In the 2010's I stopped for the following reasons:

    • Most of the software I used (and I needed for my research and work) was not available: OriginPro, XRD analysers, EndNote, etc. I dabbled with Wine and PlayOnLinux but it slowed my workflow way too much.
    • No single distro recognised all the hardware of my computers (even after adding external repositories and spending unusual amounts in obscure forums). It could be the fingerprint reader, the HDMI output, SD card reader, the touchpad buttons... There was always something missing.

    I could see that in the 2010's installation methods and GUIs improved drastically. Now in the early 2020's I see that there are new distros in town. And I wanted to give them a try:

    • Arch: it was also around 2000's, but it was only for hardcore users or servers, I never gave it a try back then, and I am surprised so many people now recommend it as a regular distro, because it is not. Anyway, tried to install it in a virtual machine, managed to go through the installation, but it never booted up, I might have screwed up at some point, and I was not willing to try it again. • Debian: The installation was a breeze, recognized all the important stuff except fingerprint sensor. Tried to install stremio and I realised there were so many missing dependencies, and I was not even able to install some. I spent a good afternoon just trying to get stremio installed, and nothing. I gave up. • Mint: To my surprise the installation was slightly less friendly than Debian, but still easy. Recognised everything (expect fingerprint sensor), and most of the software installed just fine. Until I tried to get my GoogleDrive to work. I managed to mount one virtual disk with ocamlfuse, the second one was a pain. And they disappear randomly or with every restart. For me, that was a killer, as I use GDrive for uni/work/personal stuff. OpenOffice could now replace Microsoft Office just fine, and it is compatible with my current reference manager, but lots of people still use *.docx *.xlsx and *.pptx with features that are not compatible with *.odt. Most of my specialised software also work on linux (Matlab, Comsol), so that is refreshing. Still some software to manage hardware in the lab is not available, but hey, I only use them when I am in the lab.

    So my final takes and my personal opinion on why linux is still not widespread among casual users, even when there are clear advantages of linux over other OSs. • Linux is very suitable for the computer illiterate, the grandma who just watches facebook videos, the kid who wants to watch youtube and edit basic files for homework. As long as someone set their system, linux is perfect. This is why Android is so popular, even if it is linux based. • Linux is very suitable for highly literate users. Being for using linux for coding, selfhosting, or if you work in a computing environment. • Linux is NOT very suitable for the literate users who collaborate with regular users. Most popular reference managers do not work on linux natively. Most of my collaborators still send me *.docx and *.pptx. • Linux is not suitable if you don't have the time to troubleshoot some hardware incompatibility for hours. • For some reason, personal cloud services in linux suck. Googledrive, OneDrive and iCloud don't even work natively. I guess Drobpox would be the best alternative out of the mainstream ones, but in the 2010's it was a pain to install on linux, not sure how easy it is now.

    I still want to migrate full to Linux, but I just can't, I love the concept, I love how much control I have, but it is the minor inconvenient things that keeps me away. I will still go back to linux from time to time as an exercise, and to try new stuff.

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