It’s also worth noting I’ve recently been seeing a lot of Linux posts from people who just switched, this was somewhat of a trend on Reddit as well but imo the Linux posting has gotten noticeably less toxic toward newer users and a lot more understanding of the “using Linux without wanting to spend hours configuring everything” perspective.

Side point that’s somewhat related to that: I wonder how the growth of other platforms FOSS platforms like Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix, etc. has impacted Linux project development. Not sure if it’s just me but it seems like it’s helped a lot with making Linux communities more accessible.

If you’re worried about using the terminal you could always install one of the frontends for pacman like the one Manjaro uses. Manjaro might be a pain if you’re using AUR packages (really depends on what packages you use, some niche ones like specific game modloaders or the professional JetBrains IDEs are only on the AUR) because Manjaro’s repos are delayed by around 2 weeks, but the AUR isn’t delayed at all. Depending on the packages you’re using that could break updates sometimes.

Depending on how familiar with programming you are you could also try NixOS which has an absurd number of packages in their official repo but NixOS’s config files can be kind of a pain sometimes.

Edit:

It’s also worth noting that you could start off with Manjaro and then jump over to something like EndeavourOS/Arch once you get more familiarized with using the terminal down the line. That way you wouldn’t have to relearn commands/setups when you switch, since they’re ultimately all arch-based and have the same underlying structure.

Software optimization is mostly not a language-level problem. I’ll be dailying my 3-year-old OnePlus 9 Pro until it starts missing out on security updates, but it will probably still be “usable” long after that. Support/updates aside, my 6-year-old galaxy s9 can still run most normal apps. Hell, I got the most recent lineageOS running on a pixel 2 XL from the year before that and it straight up felt fast as long as I wasn’t playing some super intensive game or something. This isn’t an android vs. iOS problem, it’s a “developers of [insert flashy new app here] either not bothering to put effort in to optimize their code or being forced to push out a minimum viable product ASAP” problem.

Edit: fixed my hyphen use

They’re all tone indicators, since you can’t communicate voice tone over text.

/s stands for sarcasm, sometimes /srs is used for serious, I’m not too sure what the others stand for but those are the most frequently used from what I’ve seen

I think blocking downvotes is an option built into Lemmy servers that can be communicated through the API. I know there are a decent amount of instances that don’t federate downvotes because of toxicity concerns.

In the grand scheme of things the difference between C, C++, and Python isn’t meaningful when operating over a network (edit: for a single-user system). It’s very likely that the difference for thread OP is just caused by weaker connections to specific repos.

We’re talking about a package manager, not a game, network server, etc. On a basic level the package manager only needs to download files from a network and install them (OS syscalls for reading/writing files, these are exposed C functions or assembly routines), or delegate to a specific package’s build setup (which will also likely be written in a compiled language)

Me during my exams this week

For anyone else confused: in this case NLP stands for “Network location provider,” not “natural language processing”

I love not having downvotes federated 😎

I feel like squash and merge on GitHub/GitLab is nicer for that anyway though, it makes the main branch so much cleaner automatically

“socialist”

The problem with chat apps is that as much as I would like to switch to other ones, I don’t really have a choice. The people I know use text, so even whatsapp is a stretch, let alone signal, xmpp, or matrix. When it isn’t text it’s normally Discord for my friend group, and I’m not going to attempt to explain Matrix to a bunch of non-technical people who just want to play games.

Unfortunately depending on the level of extremism they have a point. When you can’t even agree on what’s reality and what isn’t, it’s pretty hard to change someone’s mind.

I originally heard this quote about using the Internet but the general sentiment applies to any extremist politics as well.

Generally, people don’t log onto internet platforms to be proven wrong

Extremists don’t talk about politics to change their viewpoints, they do it to rant and convince others (IMO)

(At least this is often the case for US extremism, not sure about elsewhere)

Most commands will have expanded arguments started with 2 dashes that usually look like ‘–verbose-name-of-option’, they’re usually listed in the man page/documentation along with the abbreviated letter version

I may be misinterpreting their comment but I initially read elder as “elderly people” and not just “people older than them” and that the point was about how adults refer to them by first name unless it’s in a professional environment (e.g. doctor or government title)

For kids at least formality still mostly applies, I’m Gen Z in northeast US and I grew up calling every adult by Mr./Ms. X, with the only exceptions being family. This could be different in other parts of the US though, I don’t mean to generalize.

Depending on something isn’t necessarily tied to how many alternatives there are.

For example: I use a heavily configured qtile setup on my desktop. I’m depending on that setup working every time I turn my computer on. Sure, I could switch to i3 or sway or Hyprland, but that would take a considerable amount of time and effort. In this case, I’m depending on qtile working for me, so I can get work done instead of messing with a bunch of config files. The only time this wouldn’t happen is when one solution can be a completely (or almost completely) drop-in replacement for the other, e.g. how sway claims to be with i3.

This is especially true with tiling window managers, where people spend many hours configuring setups to behave how they want. Moving to a different alternative isn’t exactly simple.

To your point about FOSS: chrome and android may not be FOSS, but as much as I dislike it AOSP and Chromium definitely are, even if Google controls the repos for both. Your definition is a slippery slope because by that definition software like Ubuntu, Manjaro, etc. also aren’t FOSS because the repos are controlled by a single company.

To your last point: telling someone else they shouldn’t use a piece of code for the same reason you don’t is also perfectly valid. It’s not like it’s an order, they don’t have to follow it. People can choose to agree or disagree with you if they want. Ultimately, the decision to install software in Linux lies with the user, and the most any online opinion can do is give a persuading or dissuading argument. Just like I could say, “don’t use this software, it’s built on some old deprecated library that will probably break in a month”, I could also say “don’t use this software, the main dev is a bad person because xyz…” and it would still be up to the user to make a decision. If you don’t mind disagreeing with the author of software you use, that’s fine, but not everyone is like that, and that’s also fine.

The developer doesn’t owe us anything, but if they’re creating an online community like Discord there are inherent responsibilities that come with that. If they don’t want to moderate, then they shouldn’t create a Discord/Matrix/Whatever server.

Just like how even if the developer doesn’t owe us anything, that doesn’t mean it’s fine for them to push malware as an update to their previously fine code after they’ve established trust.

You’re still giving them a platform by installing their code though?

If you use software coming from someone you inherently disagree with, especially a desktop environment/compositor, you depend on that person for your computer’s day-to-day functionality. Isn’t one of the key points of the FOSS community that we disagree with large controlling companies like Google and Microsoft? That, even when they make FOSS contributions, it should be taken with a huge grain of salt?

Imo, this is the exact same thing. Even if it’s good software, not wanting to rely on code from someone you don’t agree with or trust (even if those concerns are unrelated to the given codebase) is completely reasonable and valid

Maybe you’re right. Being “daycared” shouldn’t happen on the internet, it should be a prerequisite.

People who default to stringing multiple slurs together for a response just to prove a point should just be banned on sight and sent back to daycare. Maybe they could learn something.

Nuclear is probably the safest form of power when proper protocols are put in place but it’s hard to do that when the largest country in Europe (Russia, both by size and population) is currently in a war