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I never thought to ask this question before. How many of you are equally capable of using your right versus your left hand?
  • This was something I developed when I first started learning the drums. I struggled with my left hand so my instructor told me to switch everyday tasks to my left hand. Simple things like putting change in your left pocket, pouring with your left hand, etc. I never stopped doing this and now, I'm not fully ambidextrous, but ambi-useful.

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    People who lived in an HOA, what was your biggest nightmare with them?
  • Why is an HOA looking after the building and public spaces? That should be either the landlord/building owner and the local council responsibility. HOA are bullshit which ever way you look at them.

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    What Linux distro surprised you the most?
  • Endeavour OS

    I've tried all the usual distros many times over the years but never an arch based distro until last year. I gave arch a go first and it was great but then tried endeavouros and it came with the fixes I needed and was more instantly good from the first boot. The AUR and arch wiki stuff just makes the whole experience most (sry to use this term) Windows like in terms of fixes and support.

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    How can we make Linux more appealing as "just works"?
  • Yip. I was trying to find a useful front end to manage the audio settings on my focusrite audio interface. Pipewire has the functions and capability to set the sample rate and buffet size on the fly but I failed to find a gui until for it that wasn't part of some other complicated thing. When I suggested the Devs of pipewire should provide a GUI I was politely shot down. The reasons given were; it takes too long, and Linux users don't mind the CMD line. I think this is a mind-set that needs to evolve.

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    Interview with UK Journalist Under House Arrest on Terrorism Charges After Covering Gaza
  • I've only watched the first 4 mins but it sounds insane so far. Like they were expecting this woman to have a small army hiding in her cupboards. I'll definitely watch the rest, though I understand this is her own version of events. Maybe I'll post a summary of some sort. Few things rock me enough to motivate me to do anything much in response, but this seems insane.

    I'm aware of the claims that she made some stupid statements about the holocaust. Interestingly those are published on pro-israel sites. I've seen other news outlets say those claims were debunked. Either way it doesn't matter. It is her treatment by the police that works be the focus here.

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    What books do you consider must reads?
  • It is always hard to pick just one, but I usually pick either one of the culture novels, or Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

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    How can we make Linux more appealing as "just works"?
  • More GUI front ends for stuff. This takes away the need to understand command line tools and syntax, and makes the out-of-the-box experience feel more like it just works.

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  • I have 2 screens attached to my EndeavourOS (KDE Wayland) PC. The secondary is HDMI the primary is Display Port. The boot menu and boot messages all appear on the primary display, but once the login appears the password entry defaults to the secondary. How do I force it to default to the primary?

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    I've been trying various Linux flavours every year for 10 years or so. The last year I tried Arch, then EndeavourOS, which has been my most successful Linux exploration I've ever had, and given me huge hope. However, there are still a few things preventing me switching it to my default OS.

    I'll put aside Games that need Anti Cheat, as I doubt that will ever be fully fixed, unless Governments force game devs to support more than just Windows.

    Here is what doesn't work for me:

    1. Streaming services like NowTV. (Works in Windows in browser only)
    2. DRM proected VST's for use with Reaper (not via Wine)
    3. Roblox (Using Waydroid was not very successful)
    4. Office 365 (I like Libreoffice and OnlyOffice but fact is Word and Excel are just required for some stuff)
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    I watch the F1 on NowTV. In windows this works fine in Firefox but not in Linux. My research turned up various posts linking to the "widevine" package that depends on "glibc-widevine" but that seems to have disappeared. What happened to it? did it work? where can I get it? is there an alternative?

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    I recently moved to Arch (EndeavourOS) from Mint. Arch doesn't have cron installed as it uses systemd timers instead, and while I could have just installed cron that felt like a lazy answer.

    Systemd timers are easy enough to use and I got it working straight away, but I bumped into a comment in the Arch wiki about using a template for the timer so it can be re-used. I'm a bit slow, so I spent a hours trying to work this out, but I couldn't find a good example. Anyway, I now have it working so I thought it would be useful for someone in the future for easy reference .

    This is how you create a timer template that can be reused to run a oneshot service under a specific user. In this example it will run on the hour every hour.

    Create the timer file.

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/everyhour@.timer

    Paste the following into that file, save and close.

    ``` [Unit] Description=Run %i every hour

    [Timer] OnCalendar=--* *:00:00 Persistent=true Unit=%i.service

    [Install] WantedBy=timers.target ```

    Create the service file for the script or command you want to run. (using "myscript" in this example)

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myscript.service

    Paste the following into that file, save and close.

    ``` [Unit] Description=My Script

    [Service] User=username group=username Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/command -parameters ```

    Now enable and start the timer

    sudo systemctl enable everyhour@myscript.timer sudo systemctl start everyhour@myscript.timer

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    Not everything actually requires a GUI, obviously. But anything that requires configuration, especially for controlling a hardware device, should have a fully functional GUI. I know Linux is all about being in control, and users should not be afraid to use the command line, but if you have to learn another bespoke command syntax and the location and structure of the related configuration files just to get something basic to work then the developer has frankly half arsed it. Developers need to provide GUI's so that their software can be used by as many people as possible. GUI's use a common language that everyone understands (is something on or off, what numeric values are allowed, what do the options mean).

    Every 12 to 18 months I make an effort to switch to Linux. Right now I'm using Archlinux, and it has been a successful trip so far, except my audio is screwed, I can't use my capture card at all, I had issues with my dual displays at the start, and the is no easy way to configure my AMD graphics card for over clocking or well anything basic at all.

    I'm not looking for a windows clone, I love that I can choose different desktop environments and theme many of them to death. I even like the fact there are so many distros. Choice is a big part of linux, but there is clearly a desire to get more people moving away from Windows and until that path is 95% seamless most people just won't. Right now I think Linux is 75% to 85% seamless depending on the use case and distro but adding more GUI front ends would, imho, push that well into the 90% zone.

    GUI is not a dirty word, it is what makes using a new OS possible for more people.

    EDIT: Good conversation all. This is genuinely not intended to be a troll post, I just feel it is good to share experiences especially on the frustations that arise from move between OSes.

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    Using KDE plasma, Archlinux, Pipewire, Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen

    Audio from built-in audio and via GPU into display speakers all works fine but audio through my Focusrite is badly distorted, like it is running at super-low quality.

    I've spent most of today trying to work out how to make pipewire use the right bit/sample rates. It. This should be a basic GUI feature, and certainly shouldn't need to sudo edit cryptic files to configure this stuff. I use Reaper and I'll need to change bit / sample rates from time to time, so having to make with config files is just nuts. This should be a basic function available in the control panel (Like windows has had for decades). / rant

    Anyway, I genuinely want to fix this problem and would really like a GUI tool for it, but a working config edit will do at this point. I can' also make a script to tweak it on demand I suppose.

    There is a video that suggests building a new kernel driver for it, which is even more nuts for something so basic.

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    System spec - Ryzen 3700X CPU - AMD RX 7900 XT GPU

    I got an AMD GPU specifically because I wanted to switch to Linux. I've done a bunch of testing over the last year while I still had an nVidia card. Now I've got an AMD GPU I feel ready but it has not gone well.

    When I use multiple monitors I get a range of odd behaviours, including a white screen, lock ups, failure to display anything on second screen. I've unplugged the second screen for now and all is OK except that adaptive sync does not work properly.

    When I set adaptive sync to "Always" in the settings the screen sort of flickers when I move the mouse. To be more precise the screen gets a bit brighter when the mouse is moved, then returns to previous slightly dimmer brightness when the mouse is stopped. There are no errors that I've found.

    Both of those issues happen in fresh Fedora 38 and Arch Linux installs. I'm running KDE-plasma (using Wayland not X) so it seems like a KDE issue. Though I'm about to test it with a Fedora and gnome install next, though I doubt it will be any different.

    EDIT: Small update. Running Arch/KDE. I have found I can get it sort of working. I boot the PC with a single monitor (my 165Hz ultrawide) and set it to 60Hz, then turn on the second (1080p 60Hz) monitor. At this point I can set the then changing the ultrawide to 165Hz and set adaptive sync to automatic, but I have to do this process everytime I turn my PC on. Also, if it goes to sleep or I want to shutdown/reboot it goes mad again and things lock up. I have to turn off the second monitor off before I reboot/shutdown, or before I goes to sleep. Then I have to go through the whole process again. Obviosuly not ideal.

    EDIT2: Turns out it was the old LCD I was using as a second display. It has been around a very long time, and while it always worked OK it clearly doesn't like something about how Linux talks to it. Anyway it is working now. Though Adaptive sync on the desktop is still flickery.

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    Worlds cutest mini server and comms rack

    Server

    • Lenovo M700 Tiny Mini PC i7 6700t / 16GB RAM / 256GB M.2 + 1TB SSD
    • OS - Linux Mint
    • Hosting - Plex, qbittorrent, SMB, Minecraft, Terraria

    "Core" Switch

    • TP-Link 5 Port Gigabit Switch

    WIFI and Internet Router / Firewall

    • Ubiquity Unifi Dream Machine
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