Mars2k21

Mars2k21 , 2 months ago

You know, I'd feel happy about this but I hear a voice from the back of my head telling me "You know this driver isn't coming out for the next 20 years."

But seriously, I think its cool to see Nvidia actually making strides towards an open source driver (if they are actually serious about it, which I'm still skeptical about for no reason in particular beyond past history).

Mars2k21 , 4 months ago

Debian for most of my machines, rock solid and works. I've had 0 problems with Debian on any computer its downloaded on. And I personally don't need very up to date packages.

On my main computer (currently Windows due to hardware compatibility issues on Linux), I've flip flopped between Pop and Fedora depending on how much I need 3D graphics applications.

Mars2k21 , 4 months ago

I don't personally use Linkedin so I can't really comment on how a federated alternative would work or be useful for professionals and networking.

What I will say is that paid/business-related and the general fediverse culture/design seems like oil and water. Especially the paid part. It simply won't take off unless there is a mass exodus of people from Linkedin (very unlikely). And even then, having multiple instances for something as focused on Linkedin doesn't seem viable. It's probably better off centralized and disconnected from a large network like the Fediverse, in my opinion.

The closest the fediverse can get to this is professionals using Mastodon or something in the same way they used Twitter before it imploded. Interesting idea though.

Mars2k21 , 4 months ago

I really don't understand why so many advocate for Linux, FOSS, and an overall open web while actively making Linux and other free software as complicated and "tech-y" as possible.

If Linux isn't growing, what's the point? If it remains stagnant, its getting closer to fading away. We've seen the impact of Linux becoming more mainstream and known to the general public through the Steam Deck, and it has done wonders for the platform. Why do people actively not want it to grow?

Helping it grow doesn't mean being annoying like Edge pop-ups, simply throwing out suggestions to try easy-to-use distros here and there. And let's be honest, the average internet user can use an easy distro like Ubuntu or Mint proficiently after 20-30 minutes of playing around with it. We need to make it seem accessible so that more people will actually be interested in the first place.

Really happy to see a post being made about this.

Mars2k21 , 5 months ago

Same here. Been stuck with Windows on my *main laptop for about a year now. For about a year, I had a dual boot setup with PopOS as my main OS and Windows for gaming and apps that don't run on Linux. Unfortunately, the battery life and hardware support on PopOS was subpar. Battery life decreased as well despite me running TLP and auto-cpufreq in the background, and given that I have a gaming laptop (Lenovo Legion 5) I need every minute I can get.

Just a week ago I started thinking about switching back to Linux, likely Pop with KDE rather than Cosmic/GNOME. Spent my 1st year with this laptop on Windows, 2nd on Linux, and the 3rd on Windows. This may be the year of the Linux desktop for me, especially if hardware support has gotten better since then.

Mars2k21 , 6 months ago

Unfortunately, this is a problem that can't really be resolved. As long as there is a downvote button, it will always be viewed as a dislike button by some people (and I don't know if removing it is a good alternative for such a large social network). It's a problem that would eventually arrive here from Reddit as the community on the Fediverse grew.

There's really nothing we can do about it.

Mars2k21 , 7 months ago

welp, another has joined the ranks

welcome

Mars2k21 , 7 months ago

Tech geeks and nerds (no offense, I'm one too) tend to be the first people to populate any sort of new online social network. Just the way of the internet.

While I do like Linux and talk about it pretty often on the fediverse, I do realize that 96% of internet users don't care about it and the lingo is...incomprehensible for most people. Even I get kind of sick of talking about Linux on here sometimes lol but unfortunately many of the things I wish I could build a community around simply don't have the fanbase needed on the fediverse to begin a community for the moment. While not impossible, building a community for relatively niche subjects on a small platform like this that is in direct competition with sites like Reddit is very difficult and easier said than done.

My advice is just try to search around and find things as close to your interests that have active people as possible. Looking for broad communities can help out here, for instance, just go to /c/art of whatever instance instead of trying to find a /c/painting. Also, for Mastodon especially, use hashtags if you haven't begun to already. Mastodon was wack until I started using hashtags extensively, they somewhat make up for the lack of a recommendation algorithm.

Its pretty rough around here if your interests aren't related to tech/FOSS/linux, but that should make things a little better. Hopefully there will be more diversity in subjects on the fediverse in the future.

Mars2k21 , 9 months ago

CPU brand choice doesn't really matter a lot.

In general, I'd say go with AMD if you can afford it, but otherwise Intel is fine. Intel has caught up slightly the past couple of years, but AMD APUs are still at the top in terms of what you get for the money. If you can't get an AMD laptop because of low stock/price or see an Intel laptop with more features you like, just go for that instead. I have an Intel laptop and the CPU worked fine on Linux (running Windows right now since driver support for other parts of the laptop like speakers and the display were a little shoddy because of how new it was).

I don't know if this still remains true (if not, please correct me), but AMD will be marginally better for productivity and programming because of the multi core performance. They are also slightly more efficient than Intel in terms of power usage, although I'm sure any laptop besides a gaming laptop will give you solid battery life in 2023.

Mars2k21 , 9 months ago

Saying this as somebody just reading the post, I don't know the whole context.

Being somebody who is BIPOC, you're not doing us much of a favor either by having an outrage across multiple corners of the fediverse. Take a breather. Seriously, zoom out and just consider what you are writing right now.

Hatred of politics is a transphobic, sexist, and racist trope.

...what if I just don't like seeing news that only makes me feel angry or bad on my feed. People have different things they want to participate in and see. Just because you like it to discuss it doesn't mean you should jump to accusations when someone doesn't want to. Its a sensitive topic to begin with. I just come here to see tech, cars, and art.

I started out by attempting to educate them on what politics actually means.

This comes off very pretentious. Just let this one go bro.

Look, I don't know what's going on with this blahaj place's moderation or whatever and its not my business. Just based on what I see here, you may want to take a good proof read at what you are saying and spreading around before you lead yourself somewhere that you regret. If you don't like this blahaj server's rules or anything, just leave. Its just the internet. You might find somewhere better suited for you if you just move your account to another instance. If you want to voice concerns, spreading posts like these across multiple communities isn't the way to do it.

Mars2k21 , 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

This is the definition of politics (Merriam-Webster).

You're taking it way out of context. If I tell somebody we should go for a walk its not anything beyond just socializing. Please stop jumping to conclusions.

I'll just leave it there. Not really here to go back and forth.

Mars2k21 , 9 months ago

I always love to see attempts to see people making the Fediverse more friendly and open for all, but I can't see this one working.

I'm not really a huge fan of the name Mastodon personally, but I don't have any other better ideas. The branding right now works, there just isn't enough people actually hearing about what Mastodon is to begin with. We need to push Mastodon, the name that people may have heard of before but never bothered to look into. Changing it now won't really do a whole lot. If they wanted to get the name out there, I feel this could be done through other ways like a massive update or something.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

I'm for this idea. Large sports communities could bring multiple new instances and also just a flood of active users in other communities. If we were to pick a specific community to come join, these guys and people in tech communities should be the first choices.

Communities centered around sports teams like r/chelseafc or r/lakers could warrant an entire Lemmy or Kbin instance with separate communities about that particular team (trade/signing rumors, live games, social media posts, etc). For them, federation actually has some huge benefits.

Plus as a side note, I'd love to have the regular diehard sports bickering on the Fediverse. Seriously. They'll be quite the counter to the current culture of the Fediverse, however. Arguing about Mbappé's longevity or whether the current NBA champions will win again would drown out the politics anyway, which is a massive plus in my book.

Mars2k21 OP , 10 months ago

It is social media that allows privacy and stops Corps selling your data is its USP.
If the person you are talking to does not care about the above, they have no reason to move.

Seems like the Fediverse' existence is trying to to send a message at the end of the day. If I were telling somebody about it and stopped as soon as they said the good old "I have nothing to hide" it would be kind of pointless to begin with. Might as well give the whole spill since that phrase likely is to be a given anyway.

The problem is that in all other aspects of social media: ease of use, userbase etc the various flavours of federated social media are last.

I do agree, they are behind the centralized social media. However, I don't think it would help federated social media's case if we didn't at least try to simplify it somewhat and show the appeal.

Personally, I am a bit sceptical about the long term sustainability and scalability of data storage for data intensive (images and video) federated services.

For images, I suspect that something like this would only be a major issue for federated platforms (besides Pixelfed) in the case of a massive influx of users from another platform all at once. Otherwise, the infrastructure would likely catch up eventually. Kbin, for instance, eventually scaled despite at one point being run by a single person on software absolutely not meant for that many people. Video, on the other hand, I do also feel skeptical about on the Fediverse unless a massive organization were to host an instance.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

Honestly one of the most well written posts I've read. Thanks a lot, helped me understand all of this networking stuff involved with self-hosting since I literally just bought a PC to function as my home server like 2 days ago.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

Not sure if the list is supposed to only be accounts that moved from another service to the Fediverse completely, but some other notable accounts/organizations on the Fediverse that I can think of off the top of my head:

• The BBC's Mastodon instance, social.bbc
• Ars Technica
• George Takei
• Flipboard (has multiple accounts)
• Wikipedia

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Honestly questioning why I even mentioned the instance name, I should've saw this coming

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

/c/masterhacker owner pictured

Linux memes are only funny if they are shitting on Arch anyway

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

That's a pretty huge move right there, hopefully this is the first of many migrations of apps to Activity Pub software (besides Threads).

Also...the name NERV kind of threw me off for a second. Tell the anime crowd on Twitter that NERV moved to Mastodon full time and we'll probably get an extra 2 million people in the Fediverse.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

I live in a major US city, and yes they are still everywhere and being used. Here they have an actual use since walkability isn't the best, and at worse are just a nuisance with the way they block parts of the sidewalk and can be left anywhere with little consequence.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

Would I be able to participate even though I'm on Kbin? OP on the announcement post says there is an authentication process.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

Dang. Hopefully support for other accounts does end up being added at some point.

Mars2k21 OP , 10 months ago

Honestly, while I love the ideology behind the Fediverse and Activity Pub, it seems like fragmentation is just getting worse and worse as it grows. The defederation drama and the forks upon forks of Misskey for instance is getting a little nuts. Maybe its just a transition period especially with the implosion of Reddit and Twitter, but its a concerning trend that is holding the system back in my opinion. I agree about the fediverse being more like internet as it should be though.

Mars2k21 OP , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

I actually use trunks on android, had no idea there was a web client as well. Might try it out before dropping Mastodon to see if I like it more.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

I'm pretty sure most of the people who will come here as a result of Reddit are already here. All the new Reddit refugees are probably getting over the hype with Lemmy/Kbin and are finally not pouring so much time into the platforms. And as a result, slowing growth numbers and tapering engagement. Its pretty natural and nothing to be worried about. There's still plenty of engagement here (just look at what happened to Threads a couple weeks after it came out).

Regardless, we should focus on making Lemmy/Kbin a fully fleshed out platform and draw in users the natural way rather than relying on Reddit falling off for new users. At this point in time, the Reddit blackout is pretty much over.

Might as well throw in my rant here, as I'm against this sentiment of not wanting Lemmy/Kbin to grow more and possibly even get mainstream. I get keeping out the undesirables of Reddit and other social media to prevent an Eternal September situation, but I also want more people of different backgrounds and interests rather than the same Reddit critic/tech enthusiast type of crowd. The great thing about federation is that if you want a smaller and more tight knit/topic centered community, there are smaller servers to join (not so much for Lemmy/Kbin at the moment since they are new, but it should get better over time). We can't seriously want Lemmy/Kbin to develop well if we voice desires to keep people out and rebuild echo chambers. Lots of smaller communities and topics have little activity because there's really only one group of people here right now.

Mars2k21 , 10 months ago

Its a terrible rebrand that pretty much comes because of Elon's impulses, or in other words, for shits and giggles. Regardless of this hilarious trashing of such a powerful brand, I'll have fun calling tweets "xeets" for a good week.

Mars2k21 , 11 months ago

Agreed, and honestly this is why I don't think these federated platforms will ever truly get to a large scale. The amount of disconnection on a service that is meant for connecting people together. Unless its changed, the fediverse will be only for the group of people who are quite comfortable with technology (beyond just downloading an app and creating an account). The complexity needs to be hidden.