Buy it on Steam, play for 2 hours, full refund if unhappy? Trying out games has never been easier these days.
That said, I’m in full support of pirating first and buying if you continue playing. I probably have hundreds of hours in Skyrim, but it only shows a few hours on Steam because I did exactly that 😋
Buy it on Steam, play for 2 hours, full refund if unhappy? Trying out games has never been easier these days.
Weren’t there some issues with people no longer being able to refund games after doing it too many times?
That said, I’m in full support of pirating first and buying if you continue playing. I probably have hundreds of hours in Skyrim, but it only shows a few hours on Steam because I did exactly that 😋
That’s what I did with Hotline Miami. Since then I’ve bought it 5 times. No regrets I love that game.
Besides the other points already brought up regarding this, 2 hours is just too short. Games like this often have long startup times, long intros, etc… and it’s just not enough to get a good impression of the game. At least with demos you get a good vertical slice preview of what you’re getting into.
The name changed, the number of satellite republics changed. The religion really didn’t change that much other than the orthodox Catholic Church being able to show back up without getting executed. The state held properties got bought up by oligarchs so that’s a little different from traditional fascism where private companies are controlled by the government and vice versa. In the current case the oligarchs tremble in fear so the traditional ties between private companies and government that one finds and fascism doesn’t really work in this situation. So calling it both fascist and a theocracy isn’t in keeping with the traditional meaning of either word. It’s like calling a Tesla a horseless carriage. A lot is different from what that originally meant.
The religion really didn’t change that much other than the orthodox Catholic Church being able to show back up without getting executed.
Nonsense. The orthodox Church is as big a power in Russian politics as it was in Tsarist times. They pretty much control the social policy of Russia. For example, the draconian anti-LGBTQ+ laws are, if not religiously motivated, at the very least using religiously based arguments to justify the bigotry. That’s a far fucking cry from “show up without getting executed”!
The state held properties got bought up by oligarchs so that’s a little different from traditional fascism where private companies are controlled by the government and vice versa.
Nope, oligarchic capitalism is very much a pillar of modern fascism. Same in Putin’s Russia as it was in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.
In the current case the oligarchs tremble in fear so the traditional ties between private companies and government that one finds and fascism doesn’t really work in this situation.
Couldn’t be further from the truth. The oligarchs (along with the church) are the power base of Putin, gaslighting the public and keeping him in power no matter how much he abuses the people. Far from trembling in fear, they’re living in a malevolent symbiosis with Putin’s government.
So calling it both fascist and a theocracy isn’t in keeping with the traditional meaning of either word
Yeah, it is. I’ve already explained the theocratic element and, other than oligarchs playing a different role, it’s fascism as it always has been.
In conclusion, you’re talking absolute bullshit and should really learn more about reality before you make assumptions that are completely divorced from it.
Oh. I see, you live in a reality that’s 25% different. And you happen to be so rude that you can’t find ways to educate anyone on anything because you are too busy insulting them for them to even take you seriously.
No, I live in the real world and I DID just educate you. My mocking tone is entirely appropriate given your arrogant assertions of nonsense about well-known facts concerning a major world power. It’s not my fault that the truth perplexes and offends you.
“It has to stop” I agree. But how do I make it stop? There’s a lot of talking about what is the issue and its consequences, I say this also for climate change. But they don’t say what can we do about it
A possible solution could be to limit the personal (family?) wealth, fortune, possession, etc. to for example 100 million. That should be enough to live a luxury lifestyle and give your children’s children a ‘care free life’. Everything above that amount goes to the aid of the less fortunate, public and social improvements, energy transition, solving pollution problems, etc. (worldwide). In exchange you get a certificate with: “Congratulations you won capitalism!”
P.S. When you ‘cheat’ you get 1 dollar (or equivalent) and may start over. In addition and not exclusive of all possible legal proceedings.
P.P.S. The above is just an example to illustrate that there are possibilities. But this doesn’t solve all problems of inequality or everything else that is wrong on this planet.
P.P.P.S. Too many people think the have the possibility to also collect wealth above the 100 million ( or think they are entitled to an amount above that). They will protest and vote against any such solution. (I’m not talking about those 400 Americans from the website graphic).
Reminder that the money is printed out of thin air and it’s not really that we need anyone’s stored wealth. Not even liquidating a mansion or ten from a billionaire, or from all billionaires, is going to solve our problems. Sure they are worth a lot to one person, but how much is a mansion worth to society in effect? Not much really.
The system is designed to have poor people. It must so that there is incentive to work. Otherwise we would have to force people to work. I’m not trying to justify the ways things are, I just don’t see going after stored wealth as solving the problem especially when it is not their assets we need or their made up currency.
Marxism has a rich history of thousands upon thousands of books, millions of adherents, influential thinkers across nations, disciplines and social stratae; it’s not as if there is no-one with a solution on their hands. They are just being willfully ignored.
I think their question is more about how we would implement that. Marx believed that proletariat uprising would be the “how,” and that it is an inevitability of end stage capitalism. But the nature of capitalism keeps people from attempting that. This is a system that we are forced to participate in if we want to survive. We need food and shelter and we don’t want to get arrested and/or murdered by cops for revolting. With that in mind, we have to get to a point where we collectively have nothing left to lose.
With all due respect; do you think that Marx, let alone Engels and myriads of Marxist thinkers over the centuries overlooked the idea that people are dependent on wages and therefore not likely to throw their lives to a revolutionary effort? I think the historical intricacies of revolutions are perhaps the most studied part of history for Marxists.
That said, there is obvious truth in the fact that obviously people will not join a revolutionary mass movement today or even tomorrow in the world that we live in. The circumstances ought to be life-or-death for many of them to consider that much of a sacrifice; not that I advocate that at all of course, but revolutions have not historically been staged as fun and games for all those involved.
The sad truth is that the permanent solution to our woes is a revolution that can only really happen when things are already boiling.
See, this is the fucking problem right here. You are a commoner. The person you replied to is a commoner. Compared to the ultra rich anybody but that tiny tiny subset of people are commoners. As long as we keep name calling and pointing fingers at each other this shit will never change and we’ll be rolling around in the mud until we all fry under the sun.
I understand your frustration, we all feel the same way. Let’s direct that frustration at the people and the system that is telling us to turn on each other simply so we are blind to how we’re all being played for fools.
Not to be fatalistic deliberately, but what can we do about it? If we try to take on the system individually, we face the Plucky Ninja problem. If we try to coordinate, it’s too big a movement to keep secret, so the rich and powerful can subvert it before we get anywhere. (They’re doing a pretty good job of it already.)
It may speed up your boot time, at least it happened to me on Void (maybe the reason is how minimal this distro is though). I personally prefer runit over systemd in how it handles services, but honestly you most probably won’t notice a much difference - definetely not worth reinstalling whole system.
First off, systemd-the-repo does contain way more than an init system. But yes, I am pretty sure systemd-the-init is slightly bigger than runit.
Secondly: Systemd-init does set up some useful linux kernel features for the processes it manages in an easy and consistent way. That’s why other services started to depend on systemd-the-init by the way: Systemd does linux-specific things developers find so useful that they prefer adding a dependency on systemd over not having the functionality.
Runit does not support any linux kernel specific features at all to stay portable to other unixes. Other alternative inits made the same design choice.
Thirdly: The overall attack surface of the system without systemd is bigger than a typical systemd system. That’s because so much code run by the init system is way more locked down as systemd provides easy ways to lock down services in a cross-distribution way. Note that the lockdown functionality is 100% linux kernel features, so it involves little code in the init itself. Users of other inits can of course add the same lockdown features as service-specific startup code into the init scripts. We saw how well that works across distributions with sysv-init…
Finally lots of security features implemented outside systemd-the-init require a systemd system as they need the lockdown features offered by the systemd-init. One example is systemd-logind: That depends on systemd-init to be secure where the pre-systemd attempts all failed to archive that goal. Logind makes sure only the user sitting at a screen/keyboard can actually interact with the device interfaces of the kernel device files managing that hardware, so no other user but you can see ehat you type and take screenshots of your screen. Contrast that to devuans approach: Add all users allowed to start the UI to a group and make the devices controllable by that group. Much simpler, KISS and the Unix way… but it also allowes all users on the system that ssh into the machine somebody sits on can log what other users can type. Apparently that is not a problem, since no system ever will have more than one user in the age of personal laptops and desktops. That seriously isvtheir answer… and they even rejected to maintain the ubuntu-before-systemd logind replacement when canonical asked them, because such functionality is not needed im Devuan.
Runit is brilliantly simple, and as the old granite maul examine text says, “simplicity is the best weapon”.
I’m sorry, you won’t be able to convince me to use it, it doesn’t feel KISS (I left Arch when they swapped). Fuck binary logs too. The only place I use it is on my phone which is SailfishOS.
Void to me is what Arch used to be – I tend to use minimal replacements where I can, e.g. Openntpd as ntp, socklog as logger, seatd as logind, zfsbootmenu instead of systemd-boot, no polkit et cetera.
it’s the closest usable distro for me to cut most of the poetteringware out apart from messing around with Gentoo (which I can’t be arsed with any more). I am not a fan.
Like or dislike systemd, be it convenient or not, you can’t deny it’s a behemoth.
I am not trying to convince you: Use whatever you want.I am trying to explain it, so that people can have a more informed discussion. The web is full of either systemd is the best since sliced bread and systems is horrible. It is neither: It is just a technical system that made technical choices that make certain things easier or even possible and others harder or even impossible.
The sytemd time thingy is actually more minimal than openntpd: It only supports sNTP and not the full NTP protocol and is a client only… Openntpd is a full NTP implementation with both client and server. It also is a great technical choice, so keep using it, especially when you need an NTP daemon.
You behemoth is my plumbing layer:-)
I like the ton of small and simple tools that systems brings along: systemd-nspawn is a really lightweight way to run containers that works basically everywhere, no need to install docker or podman. Disk resizing, sysusers, tmpfiles, boot, Key Management, homed, etc. enables me to build reliable, immutable images for my systems. There is no tooling whatsoever for this outside the systems umbrella.
If you do not try to build a 1980-style UNIX system, then you basically are stuck with systemd. Nobody else is even thinking about how to move forward. If you try to raise the challenges you see outside systemd, you get laughed at and are told that your usecase is obviously stupid. The limitations admins ran into 1980 are gospel now and you may not question any of that.
Fair play, as you say it is a “love it or hate it” affair. I personally really like the simplicity and stability of old school UNIX.
OpenBSD comes to mind as the closest thing in contemporary times and I would use it as a daily driver but I need Linux for a few bits.
Void to me seems like the Linux equivalent. Minimal, stable, no bullshit. Alpine also fits this criteria but is a bit more sparse in some packages that I use. Both great distros.
Systemd is 1.5+ million lines of code! However convenient, it felt forced by Redhat into the Linux world and many of us who do not like it feel bent over backwards to be fucked in the arse by Poettering et al.
As solely an init system, may I suggest a superior alternative, s6?
(I am in hospital on morphine so I may not be making sense).
Text logs are binary, too… they just uses a pretty common binary encoding.
Where do you actually use text logs? I did not use text logs outside of hobby machines ever during my career. Logs were either aggregated in databases or at least stored in temper-resistant formats (usually due to legal requirements).
Do you actually use text logs in a professional setting? Just curious.
With textlogs you have a hard time noticing a couple of added/removed/changed characters or even entire log entries. Thats exactly why some industries may not use text logs in the first place as permanent records that are at least temper-evident are mandated.
If binary logs go kaputt they tell you exactly which entries were effected and still display every bit of data they contain. Typically you do not grep in binary logs: Grep can not make sense of all the extra data in the logs (way more than in a typical syslog), so grep is just a poor tool for the job. You typically can use grep as binary logs so contain lots of text. This is ignoring compression, encryption and other extras of course.
Well, in the real world, Windows has won. It’s the default desktop OS. Whatever Linux distro is trying to take over needs to be just as simple to use, and needs to be designed so that most of the knowledge that your grandma has regarding her Windows computer can transfer over. Once that happens, and the only difference between Windows and Linux is the cost, then Linux will win.
Yeah, but XP was on the tail end of operating systems that still needed their users to understand what’s going on. Back then, you HAD to be “tech savvy” (at least relative to today) in order to get your computer set up. People understood what a file was. What a file format was. They needed to understand what folders were on their computer and how to get to them from different applications. The kind of knowledge that you’d think people still have.
Since then every single UX designer has been working towards making everything “just work”. So, at this point people just assume that technology is doing what they intend it to do in their heads. Everything auto opens, auto updates, auto installs, and auto syncs. In modern operating systems you don’t control over anything, but everything is done for you. Obviously that’s not really the case, but that’s the design. And now, most people don’t even have a desktop in their home. Most people do everything from their phone and use a tablet for anything that the phone is too small for. And because of that, many people coming out of school don’t know what a “file folder” even is. What it means to put a file onto a flash drive and move it to a computer. It’s old people nonsense to them.
I hope that we can bridge this gap, but I don’t know how that would work.
You make a very valid point, I didn’t think of that problem before. My mother learned how to use a PC back in 1988 when we had XT and Wordstar. It’s obvious that she understands the basics of OS and filesystems, but I guess that skill is now becoming quite fringe.
you use a system like mint and it is as easy if not easier to use that windows and the local application search bar actually works decently and doesnt bring up a bunch of useless fucking web results.
I guess the last thing is to get some company to install it on laptops and sell them at Walmart. Because the “normies” are not going to go out to install something themselves.
How about for gaming? I will admit that I haven’t tried a distro in almost a decade, but I was hearing that back in 2010, and tried to migrate to Linux in 2014 and EvE Online refused to work on either Ubuntu or Mint
I think if you come from Windows to Linux, there is a change of mentality as Linux works different from Windows, different apps and philosophy, for gaming, you should check the proton community here www.protondb.com/app/8500 and check what they say. Linux has a lot of communities, wiki and guides to get help, that’s what I miss on Windows… their official website s*cks a lot… never helped me unless for basic commands like “how to enable OpenSSH”… you will need to re-learn the OS basics if you plan to move to Linux.
I mean it’s to the point that if you’re willing to install an operating system (a smaller sunset of computer users overall) , you can go with Linux no problem
Well, is not super common for sure, but Dell sure sell the same laptops with Ubuntu pre installed, they’re a bit cheaper too. At least in here South america they do, pretty much every single computer they sell has a Linux option from the box.
But I also can’t think of any other big brands that also do that, so you have a point, Asus and Acer have some models, but they’re harder to find, even online.
Lol, my power supply on my desktop died earlier this year and I work from home, so I had to come up with something fast. Booted up my Raspberry Pi and connected it to my monitor, ran it as my Linux desktop for 3 days while I waited for the replacement. Did everything I needed and was able to handle my browser games to boot.
To be fair, Nvidia support on Linux has been historically quite poor, with users having to manually install drivers (something the average person shouldn’t have to think about). Though even that has gotten much better recently, with Debian now allowing forks to have proprietary drivers built in.
Can confirm, recently installed it on a friends’ dell G3 laptop and I was quite impressed to see that it recognized both the nvidia graphics card and the intel GPU without a hitch, and installed the nvidia proprietary driver directly from the live usb.
Then I installed it on my wife’s mother thinkpad x260, because she was bored with Windows “getting in [her] way” (her words, not mine) and wanted to try something else (70 years old grandma, main usage is web browsing, mails, some accounting on LibreOffice Calc, Zoom with her friends and… that’s all). Everything worked out of the box (well, the x260 is pretty standard by the way). I showed her how to upgrade, how to use her software, how to install or uninstall software from the package manager GUI, and how to use workspaces. She didn’t call for help once, and, for the moment, when I ask her about it she’s quite pleased with it.
I’m a Debian and OpenBSD guy but recently got a second hand thinkpad yoga X390 laptop and decided to give Pop a try on it. From touchscreen to touchpad gestures to automatic screen rotation in tent or tablet mode - everything works out of the box (except for the fingerprint reader, but well, we’re used to that). Basically it’s Ubuntu 22.04 LTS without the snap hassle and a recent kernel (6.4 right now). For what I tested it on, it’s always been a pleasant experience.
Of course, YMMV, and I might as well go back to my trusty Debian Stable + flatpak setup if things goes awry but right now I’m quite impressed with what they’ve managed to do.
I just checked Lenovo from Google Search. I only checked the British site, but if you select “No OS” instead of Windows 11 Home, it’s -90£ (115USD)!
Holy hell! I didn’t realize Windows license makes up such a big part of the price.
Now I wonder how much of the price it could be with the cheap Umax laptops sold in Czech republic and Slovakia. They start at €130 with Windows Pro license.
I would say Nvidia historically (10+ years) had great support for Linux.
They were officially releasing drivers with feature parity to Windows. To get real manufacturer supported drivers, for a GPU none the less, was a breath of fresh air. This was in the era of having to be careful what wifi card you choose.
Sure, you had to manually install the drivers, which was not the norm with Linux, but that was still the case with Windows too. It wasn’t until Windows 7 that “search for a driver” feature in Windows actually did something.
It’s really only been recently, with AMD releasing official GPU drivers for the kernel, that things have changed. If you were putting a GPU in a Linux computer 10 years ago it absolutely would have been Nvidia.
By the way, Ubuntu and probably most Ubuntu-based distros (like Linux Mint) also have driver manager (ubuntu-drivers) that handles drivers similarly to the “search for driver” feature. Except that ubuntu-drivers also let’s you select between multiple drivers and let’s you easily uninstall them.
lemmy.ml
Top