Computer General Discussion Thread

[Cekoviu]

gentoo gang

arch gang

cringe

[Minoa]

Windows update is mandatory, of course.Microsoft has even put out a patch to fix a bug where users can refuse to update.Every day, people ask how to disable automatic update of win10

Windows nullified every performance gain on PCs with useless bloat. And now they are eating up internet traffic bandwidth updating crap like Edge that people don't even use. Why do Microsoft hate us?

It is among the things that says a lot about me using NTLite to bring all the bloat under control, but the trouble with the bloat has been around since Windows 98, when they bundled and integrated Internet Explorer. It could not be disabled until Windows 7, I think.

[Cekoviu]

Windows nullified every performance gain on PCs with useless bloat. And now they are eating up internet traffic bandwidth updating crap like Edge that people don't even use. Why do Microsoft hate us?

It is among the things that says a lot about me using NTLite to bring all the bloat under control, but the trouble with the bloat has been around since Windows 98, when they bundled and integrated Internet Explorer. It could not be disabled until Windows 7, I think.

if u REALLY want to avoid bloat just use linux from scratch & compile literally every single package by urself :^)

[Cisairse]

arch gang

cringe

Hey man, I want a system that just works.

I am honestly considering Gentoo for my upcoming media pc project though.

[Cekoviu]

cringe

Hey man, I want a system that just works.

I am honestly considering Gentoo for my upcoming media pc project though.

fwiw my main laptop runs only gentoo and after a few days of simple configuration it "just works" significantly better than any operating system i've tried previously on it (debian and briefly windows). it has issues with the internal bluetooth adapter but that's the kernel, not gentoo, so i blame torvalds

if you use it for the media pc, watch out, you'll fall in love with it and be compelled to install it on everything. i was originally just going to put it on a very old compaq laptop because slackware wasn't working on it. only a week later i was installing gentoo over debian on my desktop and laptop!

[Cisairse]

Hey man, I want a system that just works.

I am honestly considering Gentoo for my upcoming media pc project though.

fwiw my main laptop runs only gentoo and after a few days of simple configuration it "just works" significantly better than any operating system i've tried previously on it (debian and briefly windows). it has issues with the internal bluetooth adapter but that's the kernel, not gentoo, so i blame torvalds

if you use it for the media pc, watch out, you'll fall in love with it and be compelled to install it on everything. i was originally just going to put it on a very old compaq laptop because slackware wasn't working on it. only a week later i was installing gentoo over debian on my desktop and laptop!

Oh I mean

Debian is absolutely horrible

I left it for arch circa 2010

I plan on using Gentoo for my media pc because I want to compile a super stripped down kernel and while I COULD do that using Arch it's much easier with gentoo
Arch's package management system is still unbeatable though

[Cekoviu]

fwiw my main laptop runs only gentoo and after a few days of simple configuration it "just works" significantly better than any operating system i've tried previously on it (debian and briefly windows). it has issues with the internal bluetooth adapter but that's the kernel, not gentoo, so i blame torvalds

if you use it for the media pc, watch out, you'll fall in love with it and be compelled to install it on everything. i was originally just going to put it on a very old compaq laptop because slackware wasn't working on it. only a week later i was installing gentoo over debian on my desktop and laptop!

Oh I mean

Debian is absolutely horrible

I left it for arch circa 2010

I plan on using Gentoo for my media pc because I want to compile a super stripped down kernel and while I COULD do that using Arch it's much easier with gentoo
Arch's package management system is still unbeatable though

what do you have against debian, just curious? i still consider it one of my top 3 distros, along with slackware and obviously gentoo. it has one of the most robust package repositories and typically works well straight out of the box, plus the choice to use a rock-solid stable distribution or a standard rolling-release one is nice.

makes sense, unironically LFS might work to make a very stripped down system as well, if you want to put in the time

i've worked a bit with pacman and i found it acceptable, but not much better than apt if at all. i far prefer portage, its custom repository selection mechanism, the clarity of its output, and its configurability for virtually any use case are all completely unbeatable.

[Cisairse]

Oh I mean

Debian is absolutely horrible

I left it for arch circa 2010

I plan on using Gentoo for my media pc because I want to compile a super stripped down kernel and while I COULD do that using Arch it's much easier with gentoo
Arch's package management system is still unbeatable though

what do you have against debian, just curious? i still consider it one of my top 3 distros, along with slackware and obviously gentoo. it has one of the most robust package repositories and typically works well straight out of the box, plus the choice to use a rock-solid stable distribution or a standard rolling-release one is nice.

makes sense, unironically LFS might work to make a very stripped down system as well, if you want to put in the time

i've worked a bit with pacman and i found it acceptable, but not much better than apt if at all. i far prefer portage, its custom repository selection mechanism, the clarity of its output, and its configurability for virtually any use case are all completely unbeatable.

apt once uninstalled python when I ran apt upgrade

so when I rebooted my entire system was toast because obviously shit (such as gdm) can't run without python

immediately tossed debian in the bin, any system that uninstalls an obviously necessary package during a routine upgrade is trash-tier

[Cekoviu]

what do you have against debian, just curious? i still consider it one of my top 3 distros, along with slackware and obviously gentoo. it has one of the most robust package repositories and typically works well straight out of the box, plus the choice to use a rock-solid stable distribution or a standard rolling-release one is nice.

makes sense, unironically LFS might work to make a very stripped down system as well, if you want to put in the time

i've worked a bit with pacman and i found it acceptable, but not much better than apt if at all. i far prefer portage, its custom repository selection mechanism, the clarity of its output, and its configurability for virtually any use case are all completely unbeatable.

apt once uninstalled python when I ran apt upgrade

so when I rebooted my entire system was toast because obviously shit (such as gdm) can't run without python

immediately tossed debian in the bin, any system that uninstalls an obviously necessary package during a routine upgrade is trash-tier

ah, that sux. might be able to fix it by chrooting from a debian live cd and running `apt --fix-broken install` or smth but yeah that's super stupid (and obv chrooting should never ever be something you need to do to perform system maintenance caused by a distro's package manager breaking your install)
in fact, avoiding that sort of issue is one reason i really like portage - it shows you a very clear list of each package operation that'll be performed so you can manually review the changes and look for anything yucky. for example, if i run `emerge --sync && emerge -auD @world` (=tell portage to make sure its package definitions are up to date and upgrade all outdated packages that i've installed as well as their dependencies if necessary, also ask me before doing anything to my packages):

Code: Select all

[ebuild     U ] sys-devel/llvm-common-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild     U ] x11-misc/util-macros-1.19.2-r2 [1.19.2-r1]
[ebuild     U ] dev-libs/vala-common-0.48.11 [0.48.9]
[ebuild     U ] sys-devel/clang-common-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/rust-bin-1.47.0 [1.46.0]
[ebuild     U ] virtual/rust-1.47.0 [1.46.0]
[ebuild     UD] dev-lua/luaexpat-1.3.0-r2 [1.3.3]
[ebuild  r  U ] dev-haskell/hxt-charproperties-9.4.0.0 [9.2.0.1]
[ebuild  rR   ] dev-haskell/hxt-regex-xmlschema-9.2.0.3
[ebuild  rR   ] dev-haskell/hxt-unicode-9.0.2.4
[ebuild  r  U ] dev-haskell/data-default-0.7.1.1 [0.5.3]
[ebuild  rR   ] dev-haskell/hxt-9.3.1.18
[ebuild  rR   ] app-text/pandoc-2.9.2.1
[ebuild  rR   ] dev-haskell/pandoc-citeproc-0.17.0.1
[ebuild     U ] dev-qt/qtcore-5.15.1-r1 [5.15.1]
[ebuild     U ] net-misc/curl-7.72.0-r1 [7.72.0]
[ebuild     U ] dev-util/cmake-3.18.4 [3.18.3]
[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/libomp-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/libcap-2.44 [2.43]
[ebuild     U ] app-portage/gentoolkit-0.5.0-r1 [0.5.0]
[ebuild     U ] dev-libs/libinput-1.16.2 [1.16.1]
[ebuild     U ] dev-python/pycairo-1.20.0 [1.19.1]
[ebuild     U ] media-libs/dav1d-0.7.1 [0.7.0]
[ebuild     U ] net-misc/dhcpcd-9.3.1 [9.2.0]
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/python-3.9.0 [3.9.0_rc2]
[ebuild     U ] media-libs/lilv-0.24.10 [0.24.8-r1]
[ebuild     U ] app-text/iso-codes-4.5.0 [4.4]
[ebuild     U ] app-editors/nano-5.3-r1 [5.2]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-5.9.0 [5.4.66, 5.8.8, 5.8.12, 5.8.13]
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/vala-0.48.11 [0.48.9]
[ebuild     U ] net-libs/libproxy-0.4.15-r2 [0.4.15-r1]
[ebuild     U ] app-text/ghostscript-gpl-9.53.3-r1 [9.53.3]
[ebuild     U ] gnome-base/gnome-desktop-3.36.7 [3.36.5]
[ebuild     U ] app-editors/visual-studio-code-1.50.0 [1.49.2]
[ebuild     U ] media-gfx/imagemagick-7.0.10.34 [7.0.10.31]
[ebuild     U ] media-libs/gegl-0.4.26 [0.4.24]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-devel/llvm-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/spidermonkey-78.3.1 [78.3.0]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-devel/clang-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-libs/compiler-rt-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-libs/compiler-rt-sanitizers-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-devel/clang-runtime-11.0.0 [10.0.1]
[ebuild     U ] sys-auth/pambase-20201010 [20200917]
[ebuild     U ] net-misc/openssh-8.4_p1-r1 [8.4_p1]
[ebuild     U ] net-misc/networkmanager-1.26.2-r1 [1.26.2]
[ebuild     U ] media-gfx/gimp-2.10.22 [2.10.20-r2]
[ebuild     U ] net-im/zoom-5.3.472687.1012 [5.3.469451.0927]

The following packages are causing rebuilds:

  (dev-haskell/data-default-0.7.1.1:0/0.7.1.1::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) causes rebuilds for:
    (dev-haskell/pandoc-citeproc-0.17.0.1:0/0.17.0.1::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)
    (app-text/pandoc-2.9.2.1:0/2.9.2.1::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)
  (dev-haskell/hxt-charproperties-9.4.0.0:0/9.4.0.0::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) causes rebuilds for:
    (dev-haskell/hxt-regex-xmlschema-9.2.0.3:0/9.2.0.3::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)
    (dev-haskell/hxt-9.3.1.18:0/9.3.1.18::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)
    (dev-haskell/hxt-unicode-9.0.2.4:0/9.0.2.4::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge)


it tells me every single package i'm going to be changing and what's happening to it, with version numbers. for example, this output tells me it's updating my LLVM common set to version 11 from version 10, it's adding a new set of sources for kernel version 5.9 but keeping all my old sources, it's going to rebuild my pandoc with support for the new software without changing its version, etc. apt does not have that sort of detail in its output and i do not miss it. plus, if i decide "actually, i don't want to rebuild my kernel for 5.9.0, i want to stick with 5.8.13," i can use my handy /etc/portage/package.mask and add `=sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-5.9.0` and it won't try to install it!

[Saiwania]

The era of Adobe Flash has finally officially really ended, with it being truly dead in our browsers now and going forward. What with the plugin no longer working because of a hard stop coded into it by Adobe. It's full lifecycle was from January 1st 1996 until January 12th 2021. For 25 years, 11 days- it served people well for what it was. It will be missed by some but wasn't without its problems.

Here's to looking forward to whatever comes next. I'll be looking out for any emulators that can revive older .swf files that still exist, whilst moving onto the newer stuff in whatever forms it may take.

[Cisairse]

The era of Adobe Flash has finally officially really ended, with it being truly dead in our browsers now and going forward. What with the plugin no longer working because of a hard stop coded into it by Adobe. It's full lifecycle was from January 1st 1996 until January 12th 2021. For 25 years, 11 days- it served people well for what it was. It will be missed by some but wasn't without its problems.

Here's to looking forward to whatever comes next. I'll be looking out for any emulators that can revive older .swf files that still exist, whilst moving onto the newer stuff in whatever forms it may take.

Honestly it's crazy it took this long. It's been nearly eleven years since "Thoughts on Flash" was published. It's almost absurd that Flash lasted that long afterwards.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

What I want from an operating system is something like a Surgical Assistant who works unobtrusively in the background and quietly hands you what you need almost before you ask for it, what I get from Windows 10 is some cunt dressed as a clown standing too close to me waving their arms about and screaming in my face for attention.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

who made dell laptops get so loud when they found a problem in diagnostics i just want to talk

[Cisairse]

What I want from an operating system is something like a Surgical Assistant who works unobtrusively in the background and quietly hands you what you need almost before you ask for it, what I get from Windows 10 is some cunt dressed as a clown standing too close to me waving their arms about and screaming in my face for attention.

Try not to use Windows.

[Saiwania]

Honestly it's crazy it took this long. It's been nearly eleven years since "Thoughts on Flash" was published. It's almost absurd that Flash lasted that long afterwards.

Flash was fine for non-mobile platforms provided you kept it updated. I didn't care what Steve Jobs thought, same with perhaps lots of other people. He was a hypocrite in that his own company Apple, had proprietary software that they pushed with their products yet they were criticizing Adobe for much of the same business practices. Flash to this day, could do certain things better than HTML5 ever could and at one point- was the only way to have rich media online.

This is perhaps why it wasn't as seamless or easy to transition away from Flash. Some corners of the internet held onto Flash until the very end and even a bit afterwards, never bothering to fully transition over to HTML5 in time. My favorite Pool game from what was originally OMGPOP for example, was never remade into a non-Flash format. Hence the efforts from many people to make a Flash emulator to enable lost legacy stuff to be accessed again, in the interests of saving or recovering internet history.

The silver lining is that at least overtime, HTML5 became somewhat more capable or "good enough" to be a true replacement for Adobe Flash, but this wasn't until much later after gaining favor in most mainstream browsers.

Flash was good for its time and had its role. What was more absurd was that certain websites had 3 years advance warning to switch away from Flash or to recode their websites and some of those owners never bothered to do so until after the deadline if they bothered to at all.

[Destyntine]

The era of Adobe Flash has finally officially really ended, with it being truly dead in our browsers now and going forward. What with the plugin no longer working because of a hard stop coded into it by Adobe. It's full lifecycle was from January 1st 1996 until January 12th 2021. For 25 years, 11 days- it served people well for what it was. It will be missed by some but wasn't without its problems.

Here's to looking forward to whatever comes next. I'll be looking out for any emulators that can revive older .swf files that still exist, whilst moving onto the newer stuff in whatever forms it may take.

I'm gonna miss flash, I literally grew up on flash games. Things are gonna be so much less memorable for students in the future... no more Coolmathgames.. (And lets be honest, the name they used for the site was genius, teachers never knew we would just play bloons tower defense and run 2 the entire period.)

I grew up on Kongregate and Animal Jam, sadness hits hard now that these memories can't be experienced by others.

[Cisairse]

The era of Adobe Flash has finally officially really ended, with it being truly dead in our browsers now and going forward. What with the plugin no longer working because of a hard stop coded into it by Adobe. It's full lifecycle was from January 1st 1996 until January 12th 2021. For 25 years, 11 days- it served people well for what it was. It will be missed by some but wasn't without its problems.

Here's to looking forward to whatever comes next. I'll be looking out for any emulators that can revive older .swf files that still exist, whilst moving onto the newer stuff in whatever forms it may take.

I'm gonna miss flash, I literally grew up on flash games. Things are gonna be so much less memorable for students in the future... no more Coolmathgames.. (And lets be honest, the name they used for the site was genius, teachers never knew we would just play bloons tower defense and run 2 the entire period.)

I grew up on Kongregate and Animal Jam, sadness hits hard now that these memories can't be experienced by others.

A lot of those games have been ported over, haven't they? Coolmathgames specifically still works, at least most of them

[Minoa]

This thread because it is tech-related.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/face ... 021-10-28/

How long do you think Zuckerberg will uphold his promise to turn back on forced Facebook accounts from other services like Oculus, which was hit with a temporary sales suspension in Germany in September 2020 for that very reason (source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54014217)?

My prediction is that promise will not last long, because I imagine Facebook means so much to Zuckerberg that he would do anything to maximise the user base. But then again, every owner of a website wants a large user base. Facebook is doing the same, but in my opinion, very very unethically.

Unsurprisingly, a name change will do nothing to hide the growing public backlash over its market dominance and abuse.

[Cisairse]

This thread because it is tech-related.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/face ... 021-10-28/

How long do you think Zuckerberg will uphold his promise to turn back on forced Facebook accounts from other services like Oculus, which was hit with a temporary sales suspension in Germany in September 2020 for that very reason (source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54014217)?

My prediction is that promise will not last long, because I imagine Facebook means so much to Zuckerberg that he would do anything to maximise the user base. But then again, every owner of a website wants a large user base. Facebook is doing the same, but in my opinion, very very unethically.

Unsurprisingly, a name change will do nothing to hide the growing public backlash over its market dominance and abuse.

It's a terrible name. Honestly I think they're just copying Alphabet here, in adopting a more bureaucratic, generic name.

[Minoa]

On the internet front, YouTube is to end the public display of the number of dislikes:

1. https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/10/youtu ... -platform/
2. https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-to-youtube/

It’s sad that the abuse of the dislike button has resulted in such drastic action: when used properly, the dislike count was an important indicator of whether or not the video was bait and switch.

However, I spot a potential middle ground: I think YouTube should roll out an option to allow creators to show only the like count, instead of forcing it on everyone. Alternatively, YouTube could offset the change by rolling out an option to allow creators to display the dislike count.

[The Second JELLIAN Republic]

Do you talk about programming here ?

[Minoa]

People do talk about programming languages, but my experience is patchy across Bash, SVG, HTML, Javascript, PHP and Visual Basic. I still have to consult tutorial after tutorial to get it blumin’ right.

[Saiwania]

https://www.techradar.com/news/bitdefen ... -antivirus

I've just received word that Bitdefender intends to discontinue the free version of their anti-virus/anti-malware software. What does this bode for the current/future state of anti-malware offerings that aren't commercial versions? I get that antivirus companies want/need money from somewhere, but usually its good enough to have a "freemium" model where their free software has limited capabilities but is "good enough" whilst their paid software has everything their free software doesn't.

Yes, Windows 10/11 has Windows Defender. But in my experience its usually not enough protection to keep your devices reasonably secure against new/current threats. Many people just aren't going to want to pay a subscription to protect their hardware or can't.

For those of you who do utilize third party anti-malware protection, what are your plans if you're using Bitdefender Free Edition and if you use something different- what do you all recommend so far as the "free" versions of antivirus software goes?

I used to use Comodo antivirus to give me protection, until their software became unsatisfactory. Then I used Bitdefender free edition, which was a pretty good "set it and forget it" solution up until now- now that it's going to be gone in 2022. Am looking for a replacement that has no subscription but still gives "good enough" protection but ideally has a low system footprint/impact so far as performance goes.

Some examples people could pick from now: Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, Avast Free Antivirus, AVG AntiVirus Free, Avira Free Security, Panda Free Antivirus, etc.

[Cisairse]

https://www.techradar.com/news/bitdefender-is-ending-its-free-antivirus

I've just received word that Bitdefender intends to discontinue the free version of their anti-virus/anti-malware software. What does this bode for the current/future state of anti-malware offerings that aren't commercial versions? I get that antivirus companies want/need money from somewhere, but usually its good enough to have a "freemium" model where their free software has limited capabilities but is "good enough" whilst their paid software has everything their free software doesn't.

Yes, Windows 10/11 has Windows Defender. But in my experience its usually not enough protection to keep your devices reasonably secure against new/current threats. Many people just aren't going to want to pay a subscription to protect their hardware or can't.

For those of you who do utilize third party anti-malware protection, what are your plans if you're using Bitdefender Free Edition and if you use something different- what do you all recommend so far as the "free" versions of antivirus software goes?

I used to use Comodo antivirus to give me protection, until their software became unsatisfactory. Then I used Bitdefender free edition, which was a pretty good "set it and forget it" solution up until now- now that it's going to be gone in 2022. Am looking for a replacement that has no subscription but still gives "good enough" protection but ideally has a low system footprint/impact so far as performance goes.

Some examples people could pick from now: Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, Avast Free Antivirus, AVG AntiVirus Free, Avira Free Security, Panda Free Antivirus, etc.

Considering antivirus software is nearly exclusively the domain of MS Windows, I'm not particularly sad to see the field slowly dying off.

[Saiwania]

Considering antivirus software is nearly exclusively the domain of MS Windows, I'm not particularly sad to see the field slowly dying off.

Is Linux truly invincible? If Linux had the dominant market share, I would think that malware authors would target Linux systems more and consequently it would have just as much, if not more security problems as Microsoft Windows does. I don't see how "open source" is the solution to everything.

Windows Defender in my experience, isn't truly enough to protect your PC. If I want greater protections I have to either find a free solution with more limited features or pay for a service if it isn't locking down permissions as to make the machine a pain in the neck to navigate because you need passwords and accounts for every little action.