BananaTrifleViolin @ BananaTrifleViolin @lemmy.world

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Joined

2 yr. ago

Yeah I get what you're saying. I would put some caution for Fedora Kinoite - if you want a system that just works and you don't want to tinker, then it's great. It just works, and it updates in a very sane and stable why. But if you want to learn Linux and tinker, then it can be very frustrating working with an Atomic distro at the start.

So if I was putting Linux on my parents laptop and didn't want to be dealing with too much tech-support, I'd probably go for an atomic distro. But if the user wants to learn how to use linux, play with it, tinker then I think an atomic desktop is too restrictive to start out on.

While Mint with Cinnamon isn't the most cutting edge feel to it, there is a huge wealth of resources out there for people to tinker and play with the system and it's a great spring board in to other parts of the Linux world. I do love KDE Plasma though - it's my favourite DE and I used to run it on Mint before I finally moved to a KDE based distro.

I'd recommend Linux Mint generally for noobs. It's popular and has lots of tips and advice available online, easy to find. It's easy to install, and as it's an Ubuntu derivative you get a lot of the benefits of the big user base without the downsides of Canonical (such as Snap being forced on you). I used to use Mint, and it's a good stable daily driver.

In terms of your specs, you should have no problem with running it as laptop, but as a 2-in-1 device you may find some specialised drivers don't work out of the box. The most common is finger print readers, but also some of the switching between Desktop and Tablet mode can be tricky. Having said that, I own a Toshiba Satellite 2-in-1, and I installed Linux without issue. I don't and never have really used it as an actual Tablet though; it ended up being a gimmick too far for me - they're just too heavy and cumbersome as a tablet, and even the touch screen (which works fine in linux) is just a bit pointless for me. However I have KDE on my Toshiba now and it works well as a 2-in-1 for me at least.

The best thing to do is flash a USB stick with Linux, for example Mint, and try it out to see how it works with your hardware "out of the box". Linux Mint has a few spins for desktop environments: Cinnamon, XFCE and Mate. None of them are really designed to be Touch based interfaces to be honest. Cinnamon is the main/high end DE and it is ok with Touch interface.

I would say KDE and Gnome are better DEs for touch screen and convertible devices; I personally prefer KDE but both support Touch well - they just have different design ethos. Both can be installed in Mint, although as they're not "main" DEs for the distro you sometimes get some minor janky integration of the Mint tools in the KDE or Gnome desktop (e.g. sometimes the task tray icons for Cinnamon based tools just aren't as well integrated into the system themes of KDE & Gnome). You also can end up with duplicate apps in your app menus (cinnamon tools sitting alongside native KDE/Gnome tools which can be a little irritating). But the system works fine and a lot of these things can be tidied up if it bothers you.

But Mint is very Noob friendly, and I think it's a good way to get into the Linux world. Pretty much everything can be done via the GUI, and it has opted for a default Windows-like feel which can really help with getting used to it. Cinnamon is also still pretty flexible for creating some other interfaces to experiment. Gnome is far removed from that windows feel and is also pretty rigid in it's design philosophy - it's kinda "take it or leave it"; personally I don't like it. You can push it do other things though with extensions, so there is still potential to experiment. KDE does a good job of a default Windows feel but with more design flair/slicker feel, but it also has a huge range of options for making pretty much any interface you like. One reason I left Mint is because I wanted a distro which is built around KDE rather than me installing it separately (I'm on OpenSuSE Tumbleweed now).

So overall, I'd recommend Mint, and use the Cinnamon version. Flash a USB and try it out (note it will be slower/feel sluggish compared to a native install, but should give a feel for how it handles your hardware). If you install it, I'd also recommend a dual-boot setup rather than ditching Windows completely if you're completely new to Linux. Another option is install on a portable SSD attached via USB, and don't touch your actual hard drive. That way you can get a reasonable feel of an actual Linux system without messing up your laptop. It'll still be slower than a true native install but generally faster than a live-USB stick (you can of course also partition and install a full install on a USB stick itself rather than an SSD for the same effect).

EDIT: Just worth saying; if you decide to install Linux, be very careful where you install it. Double and triple check, as the last thing you want to do is accidentally wipe your windows install!

OpenSuSE Tumbleweed is my current favourite. It's user friendly with good system tools in Yast, it's got good repos including community repos with lots of software.

Its also a rolling release but has been stable and reliable for me. Leap is their point release version if rolling is not right for you.

I've been using Tumbleweed for over a year, and it's my main OS since I stopped using windows. I've dual booted Linux for many years but always mained windows up until Tumbleweed.

Previously I used to use Mint; it's decent but switching to Tumbleweed (and in particular KDE) convinced me to completely switch from Windows. Everything "just works", and I do a fair bit of gaming without issue with nvidia drivers, steam, and lutris.

For example I've been playing Stardew, Cyberpunk 2077, Distant Worlds 2, and Factorio recently - all in Linux and all without issue.

Bullshit news. If you look at the boring stats, trumps vote is up a bit on 2020 but the dems vote is down massively.

This was not a big breakthrough for Trump, he made small gains in lots of countues and some groups. But the main issue was a bad Democrat campaign which failed to get people out to vote.

In 2020: Dems 81m votes Rep 74m

In 2024 (95%+ count) Dems 70m Rep 74m

The dems lost 11m votes in 2024! The reps so far have gained none, but probably will be up 1-2m in the end.

So this idea of some great Republican breakthrough is rubbish. The real story is the Dems lost a lot of votes.

If they'd had an open primary and a fresh candidate, or if Biden stepped down sooner and they had an actual contest to pick a successor, or even if Harris had been able to run her own campaign from scratch, they may have had a chance.

The dems lost this election because the DNC backed Biden against all voices who raised concerns about his fitness. When they finally relented it was too late. Then they ran a campaign around abortion and democracy, rather than the number 1 concern of those who did vote: the economy.

The lesson of this election is NOT that Trump has the answers or has made some breakthrough. The lesson is the dems ran a bad campaign and did not offer the voters something good to vote for - 11m voters disappeared - that's who the dems should have been targeting, not the "never trumps" and going more right wing.

The polls said the country was tied 50:50. This is bullshit - polls only showed "likely voters". The raw numbers actually showed 1/3 support dems, 1/3 support reps and 1/3 weren't going to vote. The none voters are who the dems should have been targetting - they're not never voters because 11m went missing from the election!

The dems lesson is very simple: target the disenfranchised voters with positive Democrat policies. Don't try to be more Republican to beat the republicans, it doesn't work and will never work.

They won in 2020 because those 11m came out to vote angry about Trump. The dems didn't give them a reason to vote for them this time.

They must learn this lesson as they seemingly did not understand what happened in 2016, nor even 2020.

AI is a marketing term at the moment, and it's all orne big financial speculative bubble. Just look at Nvidia and how it's share price is so divorced from reality.

LLMs can bd uaeful tools and have value in themselves. The problem is the hype and misuse of the term AI to promise the earth. Also the big tech companies rushing to push tools that are not yet fit for purpose.

Any tool which "hallucinates" - I.e. Is error strewn and lies - is fit for nothing. It's just a curio and these general tools are going AI and LLMs a bad reputation. But well designed and trained LLMs targeted at specific tasks are useful.

Thats fair enough if it's not for you. The thing about Stardew is that things build up and its up to you how you do it. Like you don't have to farm crops if you don't like it manually; you can fish or scavenge or raise animals etc. And as you progress you can automate some things and explore new areas.

But the core gameplay loop is you doing the stuff, rather than managing others. It's not micromanagement as you're not managing anyone, you are doing.

I actually didn't think it was for me at first to be honest, but I got into it in a few hours. As you upgrade tools and can do more and more for less effort, it has its own satisfaction as you build your farm up. But if you're not feeling that after a couple of sessions then it's probably not for you and that's fine.

"Time to switch to uBlock Lite or another ad blocker"

No. Time to switch to Firefox or derivative such as Librewolf.

It's nice to blame voters for parties failing to win elections. That absolves the party of responsibility - "we were right, it was voters who are wrong".

But that won't win an election. And that attitude will gift the mid terms and even 2028 to the republicans.

The DNC fucked up - it backed Biden despite clear signs he was not a good candidate for this election, the primary process who a fig leaf of democracy rather than putting forward the party's best and brightest, it then fought concerns of Biden health and hid the truth, then when he finally stepped down late in the day it arranged a coronation for Harris. And then after behaving undemocratically repeatedly it had the gall to make the election about "saving democracy".

Voters didn't do these things, the DNC did.

Instead of demonising voters and non voters, it's better to ask what should the party have done differently to win them over and what does it need to do to win them over in the mid terms.

This is a good article calling out the true problems with the campaign.

I keep seeing people blame voters, but the only group to blame is the Democratic Party. Parties exist to serve and represent voters, not the other way round.

The Dems failed to address the genuine concerns of their traditional base - primarily the economy - and that left the race open for the Repulicans.

The Democrat message on the economy seemed to basically be "things are not as bad as you think and we've already done what was needed". Instead they focused on abortion and a threat to democracy as the main issues of the election.

Yet for many lower income households, they rent and have been hit doubly hard by inflation. Home owners have been shielded from the rent portion of the cost of living crisis, and experienced less hardship. The dems did not seem to understand that and effectively left the field open for the republicans.

Looking at the numbers, Trump hasn't significantly grown the Republican vote or if so, it's a relatively small increase. Yet the Democrat vote is way down on where it was in 2020.

There are lots of other failures on the part of the Dems - allowing Biden to run essentially unchallenged, the leadership aggressively pushing back against concerns about his suitability, Biden waiting until very late to step back and Harris being coronated and having to use Bidens existing campaign. Harris was a decent enough candidate but she was given an impossible task thanks to an out of touch and poorly led party.

The Dems lost this election, rather than Trump winning it.

This. I get people are angry but they need to step back and look at this for what to was. It was a bad Democrat campaign, from a party that is out of touch with voters. I don't blame Harris for this, I think she was a decent candidate given an impossible task.

The Dems did not contest Biden running despite obvious health concerns, then let him hold on til the bitter end dismissing all concerns, then had a coronation for Harris. Not very democratic and yet they made this election about democracy. And then they focused on abortion, as the main issue.

Yet voters concerns in the exit polls were clear - the number one issue was the economy. The dems failed to sell their message on the economy, they let Trump control the topic.

This is the sort of attitude that gifts power to repulicans ever more.

Instead of blaming voters, blame the Democrat party. It needed to appeal to voters concerns and needs. It needs to ask why it failed to convince younger voters, and address what their priorities are.

The obvious answer at the moment is the Dems failed to campaign well on the economy. Harris defended the last 4 years as a success but for many lower income people of all ages it will not feel that way. Middle class voters who own their own homes were shielded more from inflation than renters whose housing costs due rent inflation sky rocketed as well as all other living costs - they were hit doubly hard.

The Dems decided to focus on women's reproductive issues and a fear of democratic loss, and hoped women would come out and vote balancing our other groups. This failed. It's clear Harris and the Democrats should have campaigned hard on economic change and offered a different vision to trump.

So don't blame voters. Blame the Democrats for this and many other failings in this election (no real contest at their primary, Biden hanging on til late with patronising dismissal of concerns over his health by the Dem leadership, and then a coronation of Harris who also inherited Bidens team rather than had time to build her own campaign).

Looking at the overall vote count the Rep vote seems largely similar to 2020, or slightly up, but the democratic vote has fallen significantly. This is largely due to the Democrats failure rather than due to Republicans success.

I think this is an oversimplification and lets Democrats off the hook.

A large part of how he won is to do with how polarised US politics are. The Democrats and Republicans are polar opposites, to the point that no matter who the candidates are the core voters could never conscience voting for the other side. Some Republicans may hate Trump but they will still vote republican as they see the Democrats standing for things they just don't agree with (whether that's Immigration or abortion or conservative values or fiscal conservatism etc). It just takes one; things are so polarised that it's inbuilt that it's a binary decision. The Democrats are just as guilty as the Republicans for carving up US democracy between the two of them. If you look at polls, they say 50:50 split but actually thats just "likely voters"; the underlying split is more like 1/3:1/3 with a whole 1/3 of the electorate disenfranchised and not bothering to vote. When they talk about undecideds, they're talking about 2% of people likely to vote; not the whole 1/3 of the election who don't vote at all. 3rd parties don't get a look in, and even get blamed for taking votes from the anointed of the two big parties.

On top of that, the Democrats really fucked up. The party leadership supported Biden running, and no serious candidates stood in the primary race even though he was already clearly a weakened candidate due to age. Then when he was finally persuaded to go at near the last minute, it was too late. They again didn't have a primary, they had a coronation, and then a short run to establish her. I like Harris but she inherited his team, his set up and was unable and unwilling to paint herself as a change candidate as she wouldn't criticise the perceived mistakes of her own incumbent white house. She focused on abortion, and could seemingly not address the economy in a meaningful way to appeal to voters.

I don't think it's because Americans are easily fooled. I think it's because both parties have created an extremely polarised political landscape which they have both used to their advantage to suppress 3rd parties and other views across the 50 states. In addition, the Democrat party tried to claim it was an election about "preserving democracy" and yet chose to do that by not enabling democracy in their own party.

Hopefully the Democrats will take a long hard look at themselves. And the good news, a slither of good news, is that in 2028 there will not be any Clintons or Bidens hanging around whose "turn" it is to run. The party can actually have an open primary and the best candidates can stand instead of feeling they shouldn't run. Would we be in this position if there had been a full primary and the candidate had been someone like Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsome, Josh Shapiro or even just a truly independent run by Harris?

So America has decided and it looks like it won't even be close. The republicans will control Congress and the presidency. And looking at the numbers this won't be about turnout. In michigan for example, young voters went for Trump. He looks even on track to win the popular vote.

America has actively chosen Trump. They can't blame turnout and it looks like they can't even blame their crappy electoral system.

There will be a lot of recriminations in the Democrat party, and there is a lot of responsibility on their side. They were undemocratic, snuffing out their primary process, lumbering the party with a dud until the last moment and then rushing to pick Harris. I like Harris but they should have had an open primary even in July, and of course Biden should have stepped out of the election a year ago and let others compete and have a good run at the white house.

But also they are responsible along with the republicans for the 2 party system with its corruption, gerrymandering and shut down of options for any body who doesn't agree with either party. We can only hope this will stimulate the Democrat party to embrace actual democracy. It didn't last time.

But ultimately American voters have gone for Trump, they want him, they deserve him. The rest of the world will just have to deal with him.

The in- in inflammable means "to cause to be". Like indebted or indent. Flammable and inflammable are actually subtly different words, they dont mean exactly the same thing although often used interchangeably now.

I'd recommend video streams from BBC, Sky News and Channel 4 all in the UK. Channel 4 is partnering with CNN for data and shared stories, and their UK election coverage earlier this year was well regarded. TV news in the UK has to be impartial by law so they will not take a side in the election. They will however voice opinions from both sides.

Having said that though all coverage will endlessly speculate all night on what ever result means because that's the nature of elections and filling air time.

Regarding the Guardian, that is not regulated but it is a good quality broadsheet. It is left leaning and effectively supports Harris but it's coverage will still be good quality and not as partisan in the style of US media. But expect it to be biased somehwta in Harris' favour.

This is not open source? There is no license just a statement saying free to use for personal and commercial projects, but don't redistribute or resell.

This freeware at best but if you contribute to this project it's not clear who owns the work.

It's a thought experiment, not an observation. The idea is that if you have infinity and it's truly random than eventually all possibilities emerge somewhere within that.

The idea of infinite monkeys typing randomly on infinite typewriters is that eventually one of them would accidentally type out all the works of Shakespeare. Many more would type out parts of the works of Shakespeare. And many many many more would type random garbage.

If we then take that forwadd imagine for a moment the multiverse is also infinite and random, then every possible universe would exist somewhere in that multiverse.

It can be taken in other directions too. It's a way of cocneptualising the implications of infinity and true randomness.

Meanwhile actual Shakespeare had intelligence and wrote and created his works. Him being a monkey writing Shakespeare is just a sly humerous observation, but it has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the thought experiment and the idea it is trying to convey.

A prediction for the 2024 US election

I think from a third party point of view that makes no sense. It's not for her to prop up the broken electoral system. Harris is essentially the lesser evil in this argument, but the real problem is the electoral system.

Arguably the "better" outcome for third parties is for Harris to win the popular vote and lose the election because of the stupid electoral college system. That may actually get Democrats more serious about electoral reform which would benefit everyone. They've already lost twice despite winning the popular vote (Gore and H Clinton). Yet they continue to support broken electoral systems across the country at national and state level as all they care about is Dem vs Rep. Not actual democracy.

The Democrats didn't even have a proper primary contest in this election, they value democracy so little. They tried to forced Biden on the party and voters and it blew up spectacularly. The party needs a shake up and frankly losing may be better for them than Harris saving them from the party's own disastrous mismanagement.

I'm no fan of trump, but Americas problems run far deeper and are far more systemic than one election.

I bet it's deliberate. Like a power play knowing his story is clearly bullshit but the morons he's appealing to are believing it making him feel even more superior.