OpenAI finally admitted they're crawling the web to profit off of GPT. Block it from your sites using robots.txt.
Well, I don't know a single programming language well enough yet 🙂
It always trips me up when I'm switching between Python and say, Javascript. Python's syntax is so wildly different to everything else. The main reason I was interested in React Native was having a single codebase, as you say. It would be a real pain to keep two codebases in sync, especially with the haphazard way I write things at the moment...
Code sharing wasn't something I'd thought of, but that's a pretty neat benefit, too.
vanilla ViM
I've always wanted a really portable Vim setup, so I've stuck to the built-in features for a long time. Hell, I used netrw for a year until I got really annoyed by the keybindings and general sluggishness. I'm still new to programming, so I don't know what IDE features I'm missing! I learned git, Vim, and bash long before I did any real programming, haha. I guess I'm more experienced at system administration. Syntax highlighting would be useful though I know Vim already does some of that for some languages.
My init.vim is 40 lines. The main thing is setting shortcuts to change the spellchecker from American to British English and back again.
Technically, Lightworks is a competent video editing tool and it was used for some Hollywood movies like Pulp Fiction. So if you're willing to learn a different workflow, that is a professional tool that has better support than DaVinci Resolve for GNU/Linux. Nuke, Autodesk Maya, and other VFX/3D tools usually have GNU/Linux versions, but those aren't prosumer—they are firmly professional, which is why a license costs like $6K a year.
The major ones that don't have professional counterparts yet are Photoshop, inDesign, and After Effects (if you can't get along with Nuke, Natron, or Blackmagic Fusion as a replacement, which I can't 🙂). I would say Inkscape is a decent replacement for Illustrator, though I don't do much vector work. It helps that .eps is a really good exchange format. GIMP is slowly getting to the point where I would consider it to have feature parity with Photoshop at an essential level. Namely, non-destructive editing (3.0 is close, and surely 3.2 can't be that far away). And unfortunately, it doesn't matter how good of a replacement Scribus is for inDesign, because I need to deal with the .indd format. I'll need to wait for a web version of that.
Really, if Adobe supported GNU/Linux, I would be good. I don't see After Effects ever going to the web or supporting my operating system of choice, unfortunately, but everything else is fair game. I'm of course happy to be proven wrong.
Nice to hear you've had a good experience with React Native! I like the idea of using native components, for both major platforms, with JS (React), meaning I don't need to learn a new language. Really, there's no better proposition than that. We'll see if I can make that my next project...
Neovim
I know most people use Neovim for the larger extension ecosystem...I think. But I just use an lf integration plugin and nothing else, haha. Before that, I was using netrw but found it slow. I have some basic tab/line width settings for different programming language in my vimrc but not much else. I must look into extensions one of these days.
Programming is one of those fields that's very easy to do on a free operating system (for the most part), though unfortunately not every field is like that yet. I'd be happy even using proprietary software like the Adobe suite on GNU/Linux if it meant I didn't need to keep macOS and Windows around (though I will express my doubt at this situation changing, ever). One step at a time. I'm just glad I've managed to change my personal workflows entirely to free software.
Oh right, thanks for the info about Electron! I've heard Discord has let their Electron version languish for several years now. I wonder how well React Native works for cross-platform mobile development... it seems like it would be easier than maintaining separate codebases. I've heard things both ways. But that's completely off-topic.
Are you a graphical designer or something?
It's, uh, complicated. I have occasion to review or make minor changes to other's work, and sometimes I'm the one creating the work. I get involved in a few different creative fields, mainly... My primary job role right now has me doing web design, and I use Neovim for that. Mainly because I can SSH into my main computer from my laptop and work on the same codebase without splitting up commits, but also because I'm a Vim fanatic.
In my personal life, I use GNU/Linux for everything. I try to get acquainted with the current state of free software for doing what I want to do so I can do it faster/better next time. Some software can replace the proprietary counterpart I use for work, but the biggest problem is collaboration, of course. There aren't good exchange formats for most of these software. The only thing that calls me back to Windows is anti-cheat multiplayer games.
We’re discussing browser engines, so whether the shell is from Google or Brave is irrelevant. You’re technically correct I guess, but it’s a weird thread to be pedantic in.
I initially thought you really did mean "only Safari is allowed on iPad", and then I realized you were talking about the browser engine. As I said, it's a nitpick, but not entirely a distinction without a difference. Technically the browsers can have other features like...the ability to choose a search engine not on the blessed Safari default list. Or a pin-unlock screen like Brave has. But for rendering, it matters exactly zero, so the difference is irrelevant in this thread.
Yeah, the “write once run everywhere” nature of the web comes with some pretty big caveats. Despite JavaScript being pretty fast, it’s still way slower than native code, and web pages seem to be a lot harder to get right consistently than a desktop app where you’re in control of all of the GUI libraries.
I don't know—I think the web has been pretty successful at getting things to run consistently on different operating systems (minus DRM, though that's intentional), but yeah, different screens and different browser engines are definitely pain points. It's why everyone standardizes on Chrome.
What about Electron? Is it any better? It bundles the browser after all, haha, so no worries about compatibility there.
So I just don’t touch Adobe products. They don’t solve actual problems I have that FOSS apps don’t, so I ignore essentially their whole catalogue.
I wish I could! I use DaVinci Resolve where I can, and Affinity Photo/Inkscape for other things, but sometimes it's necessary for collaboration. I personally despise Adobe software for several reasons, but I'm not getting away from it any time soon.
In particular, I'm never going to find a replacement for inDesign.
Another good point. I forgot Adobe is targeting the mobile market as well. However, I doubt Adobe wants to ship a webapp as an official product for mobile devices. Steve Jobs might have wanted to only support webapps on iOS in the beginning, but we're at a point where most users won't accept anything but an app as a first-class experience. It could make sense as a beta product though.
And it's not necessarily that Safari is the only browser available on iOS/iPadOS, but that Webkit is the only browser engine supported, so Google Chrome/Firefox/Brave and others are using Webkit while changing the appearance and some features of the browser. Minor nitpick.
Personally, I'm all for Adobe going to the web with their products. It means I don't need to keep a Windows or macOS computer around to get some of my work done. I do wish Photoshop Web wasn't a completely buggy mess which is impossible to do any real work with. I don't mind if they don't support Firefox, although I would prefer they did.
It seems more likely that Adobe supports Safari because Safari is the main browser on macOS. Adobe supports Windows and macOS (and I would guess a lot of their users are on macOS), so it doesn't make sense not to support it, regardless of how cumbersome that makes the codebase.
Additionally, Photoshop Web (Beta), which is available to paying customers, has the same levels of browser support.
While we're talking about history, Firefox was originally called Phoenix, then Firebird (trademark infringements), and was born from the ashes of Netscape Navigator (and the original architect behind the Mozilla project did not have much faith in the future of Mozilla and left the company/project).
Microsoft Edge was previously based on EdgeHTML, which was canned within 2 years, and is now based on Chromium. Opera used the Presto engine for a long time, but now uses Chromium, and a bunch of Opera developers used this as an excuse to split and create their own browser with their own—yeah, okay, Vivaldi uses Chromium too. There was a time when Google promoted Firefox on the front page of google.com instead of Internet Explorer. A time obviously before Google Chrome became a thing—after that, Firefox's position as "second-most popular browser" was quickly retired. It's kind of crazy Firefox ever managed to get that much market share considering it was competing with pre-installed browsers like Internet Explorer and Safari; Firefox was never pre-installed on any platform except GNU/Linux.
And Konqueror is still kind of around today. First comes the Navigator, then the Explorer, and then the Konqueror, anybody?
My very first thought. At the same time, it brought to mind stories of Richard Stallman's "blank password" protest shenanigans...
How about Google SearchWiki? Or even just starring results?
This is from an era when Google hosted their blog on a Blogspot subdomain.
I tend to stick to mainline distributions (with the exception of Ubuntu), but I'm glad you're having a good experience!
Thank you for sharing this! It was just the thing I needed to get a project setup. Toolbox couldn't pull the version of Fedora I needed to use for whatever reason, but Distrobox works great and has a much wider selection of distributions.
The Steam and Lutris Runtimes do a good job of ensuring a good experience on most distributions. The only things that can really screw you up are graphics drivers and really low-level dependencies, like glibc. You're more likely to have issues with Wine, DXVK, and those components than the distribution's packages.
I use Arch Linux, and there are occasional breakages. However, that's the sort of thing you expect with Arch. openSUSE and Fedora, from my understanding, are far more rigorous about quality-checking and ensuring a good experience for users. Fedora is not a "true" rolling release distribution as it still has major versions, but openSUSE Tumbleweed is.
I personally don't think the kind of stability these operating systems are offering makes sense for a desktop. For a server distribution, you absolutely want that kind of stability—mostly because it's difficult to keep on top of upgrades while balancing downtime and your services requiring certain versions of dependencies. You can bridge the gap between newer releases of software with Flatpak and Snap on stable distributions, for the most part.
Fedora is probably a good compromise between completely rolling and stable. It's particularly attractive to me for all of the security configurations they've made out of the box. One of these days, I'll switch to Fedora or openSUSE...
I believe many developers have started testing and optimizing their games for Proton
I've always been curious as to what this process looks like. If they encounter a crash, unless they have a Wine developer on staff, it isn't as if they can send a patch for Proton. And then there's the period of time between Valve commissioning the fix and releasing a new version of Proton. All they can really do is open an issue with Valve, as far as I know. They can certainly make changes for the Steam Deck experience, though.
As others have mentioned, many multiplayer games have anti-cheat, which is more likely not to work in Proton than it is. This area may continue to improve. See http://areweanticheatyet.com
Personally, I play a lot of Japanese visual novels, which usually aren't released on Steam. Games encumbered with PlayDRM from DLsite will work in Wine, but all games from DMM are encumbered with DRM that doesn't work in Wine. Wine is a compatibility layer for Windows games that makes them work on GNU/Linux, in case you weren't aware.
On the other hand, many physical releases of visual novels aren't encumbered with DRM, so they work fine in Wine. AlphaROM can be worked around by inputting your serial key into the SETTEC website. More information here: https://wiki.comfysnug.space/doku.php?id=visualnovel:problems#drm_and_region_restrictions
Newer games might not be optimized for Linux in the first place
This is usually not true. There aren't many native GNU/Linux games today; most of them are played using Proton, Steam's compatibility layer for Windows games. There is no inherent penalty in translating Direct3D calls to Vulkan calls. Vulkan has the potential to be faster than Direct3D, actually. Native games may not be as optimized as the Windows counterpart, but as most of these are small indie games, performance is usually not an issue anyway.
And finally, let’s say I make the switch. What Linux distro should I use?
It's a good idea to use a rolling release distribution. This is mostly to get the latest drivers; Steam and Lutris both ship a runtime with most of the dependencies you need to play games otherwise, though installing Wine on Ubuntu and Debian is harder, for example. Fedora and openSUSE are good choices. openSUSE in particular has robust graphical tools for package management and other activities which other distributions might force you to use the command line for.
I think a rolling release distribution is a good choice for a general desktop anyway. You're running the latest software, which means the latest bug fixes and security fixes.
Thankfully, it appears this is no longer necessary in most cases since 2022: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Package_signing#Upgrade_system_regularly
Though, it's still worthwhile doing it for computers you don't power on for most of the year, as the service likely hasn't had a chance to run.
AppIndicators are a popular one. I have the extension installed for Fcitx (though I usually never touch it, instead using keyboard shortcuts). I previously used IBus for my input method, but because I often switch between GNOME and Sway, I've found Fcitx a better option. I so rarely use my phone that I don't need KDEConnect. And Fcitx has built-in clipboard history—not that I use it anyway.
I don't see any need for them! I like the defaults. I only change the keyboard shortcuts, and I usually don't even autostart anything. I tend to still install GNOME Tweaks so I can turn on Focus on Hover, move the Close button to the left side of the window, but I don't need an extension for any of that. I don't know what I would even use an extension for!
I also wonder about Nix and Guix. But I never seriously consider Gentoo.
Are those really important thing I should have configured? The only safety thing I have is LUKS encription.
Ubuntu configures AppArmor by default, Fedora sets up SELinux, openSUSE also sets up SELinux to some extent—most major distributions except Arch do it, because you're installing it yourself. I recommend looking into it. AppArmor and SELinux are essentially about preventing privilege escalation. Here's a good place to start: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Apparmor
SELinux is an absolute pain to understand and setup, so it's good that Fedora does it.
I use GNOME without any extensions, so there's no benefit for me 🙃
I mean, technically I use AppIndicators, but I tend to just turn off system trays for all software I can. Steam is probably the only exception.
Oh, cool! Since when? I always thought that was something the user shouldn't need to remember and that Pacman should automatically prioritize it.
This is exactly why I love making these kinds of comments. Someone always comes along to teach me something new!
I'm surprised they're not just using Common Crawl.