hello_hello

Source for image: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=family-tree

Image Description: A twist on the periodic table of elements with the elements replaced with various Linux distributions. We can see that the most common type of distribution is derived from Debian/Ubuntu.

• Link to previous megathread: https://hexbear.net/post/4475419

How to choose a Linux Distribution

Here's a set of quick criteria for choosing a Linux Distribution (not exhaustive)

1. Check the leadership behind the project

• Are they a reputable organization? Some distributions are led by a small group of hobbyists while others are backed by large multinationals.
• I recommend trying to find a blog or newsletter of some kind before jumping in.

2. Try to get a feel for the support network for the distribution

• Before installing, you should get a feel for where you can possibly get help, read up on distro specific manuals, or get peer support. Some distributions host their own forums, chat networks, etc. If a project has a sizable wiki (like the gentoo or arch wiki): double points!
• Distributions based on other distributions (like Arch Linux) can piggy back off their parent distro, but make sure you understand what changes they've made

3. What release schedule is it on? Are the packages updated?

• For a majority of users who don't require mission-critical software 24/7/365, it's good to understand what release model the distribution uses. There are two main types:
• Rolling Release: Packages are released to users after a round of testing when they become available. If a package has a new version, you'll likely get it the weekend of its release (sometimes called "bleeding edge" because you'll likely get the release version of packages instead of several bugfix releases over).
• Stable Release: A new version of the operating system is released periodically. Once released, all critical packages and most major releases of packages will be frozen to just minor releases and bugfixes/security updates. Divided into "Leading Edge" and "Long Term Release" depending on time (6 months and 2 years respectively).

4. Does the distribution have a unique advantage for your use case?

• 95% of Linux distributions use the same software, they are just collections of software at the end of the day. That is, if you have something not working on your current distribution, then you'll more than likely run into it again. Generally avoid choosing a distribution based on aesthetics or branding.
• Sometimes the folk wisdom of certain distributions are exaggerated or outdated ("This distro is great for beginners, this distro is great for gaming, etc")

Distro-hopping

If you're distro-hopping, likely the distribution you're using isn't doing well enough to provide you with software and options.

Instead try:

• Using specialized tools like Distrobox, Homebrew, Nix, Podman/Docker, Flatpak, Appimage, etc
• Setting up a virtual machine using QEMU and virt-manager (great if you want to scratch an itch without having to format your drive)
• Looking more into the problem you originally have: If you can't install a certain piece of software, try to figure out why.

Megathread

FOSS software help, propaganda/agitprop, whatever you got you can post in here that doesn't deserve its own post.

Excuse the awful title of the post but sched_ext is a really cool development that greatly improves Linux's scheduling efficiency. Minus all the technical details, it means that very intensive workloads that involve multiple demanding programs can actually coordinate with each other and not suffer performance penalties.

Fun Demonstration video with Terraria running under Proton in Ubuntu!* (where the 50% faster comes from, don't take it at face value you can read the case studies instead).

It's recently been merged with the Linux 6.12 kernel. And some orgs like Bazzite already ship their own schedulers.

Linux stays winning! Free software always wins!

I just caught up to the current chapter of HxH (as of writing that's chpt. 408) and I'm wondering what other hexbears have to think about HxH?

One key argument for moving to Linux is the environmental benefits. Joanna Murzyn, who spoke at the KDE Akademy conference in 2024, warns about the increasing problem of electronic waste (e-waste). In her presentation, titled Only Hackers Will Survive, she highlights the environmental toll of throwing out perfectly usable computers.

E-waste, which includes discarded laptops, desktops and other electronics, releases toxic substances like lead, mercury and cadmium into the environment, according to Murzyn. These substances can contaminate soil and water as well as cause long-term harm to ecosystems and human health. Murzyn urged people to resist the urge to “upgrade” to new hardware and instead explore solutions like Linux that extend the life of existing devices.

For users with older laptops and desktops, especially those incompatible with Windows 11, switching to a Linux distribution is a powerful way to avoid discarding perfectly usable hardware. openSUSE, for example, provides excellent performance on a wide range of hardware, including machines more than a decade old. By choosing Linux, users can continue using their devices for years to come and don’t need to invest in new hardware.

Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, flock to Linux Mint!; Apple Silicon users will want to check out Asahi Linux.

Did people really watch movies/shows on DVDs that forced them to watch ads before even starting? Like you go to the store and pay for a movie disc and when you go home you have to sit through like 10 minutes of ads. Did people really have to watch ads before they could even watch the movie they paid for a copy of?!

𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝘿𝙑𝘿 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙣𝙚𝙮’𝙨 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙤𝙣𝙪𝙨 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮. 𝙏𝙤 𝙗𝙮𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮, 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙈𝙚𝙣𝙪 𝙗𝙪𝙩𝙩𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚. 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩…

Even on VHS there were ads (you could fast-forward through them though), and Blu-Ray also has ads despite being a "more modern" standard (it's not it's just HD-DVD with a different branding). Also you can't even use the disc without paying for a special disc reader that reads that shit for you (tbf a lot of devices came with a disc reader, but it still persisted despite the fact that USB storage was far cheaper and more efficient). You'd also have to navigate the terribly slow menus just to get to the part you were at.

Also if you buy a DVD/Blu-Ray whatever the fuck they call it nowadays in one part of the world and you travel to another, say you have family that lives in one country and you live in another, you can't play that disc because it's "region-locked."

Ok maybe it's region locked because different countries probably use different displays/standards or whatnot. NO! It's region locked for NO MATERIAL REASON besides "ensuring copyright distribution of the holder". This is even more mind-boggling for "blu-ray" the supposedly new format.

Also most Blu-Rays don't even come with all the goodies that normal DVDs had like behind the scenes/deleted scenes etc, so it's not like Blu-Rays have any other advantage besides being incompatible with your dvd player. "Just buy a PS3" yes I will buy the SONY product to play movies on a disc also created by SONY.

How is it considered physical media when the devices to play it are not being sold anymore? I'm sure there are a lot of Sony walkmans being sold nowadays. I can totally pick up a VHS player right now at the store and enjoy my treasure trove of vhs tapes that haven't already withered to dust.

People older than me (I was born after Al Gore lost the election) are having nostalgia for the "age of physical media" when really it was an age of physical bullshit compared to streaming bullshit. It's always capitalism, capitalism will burn down all art if it means that someone didn't get to skip paying for it. Here's what I say, just pay a couple a dollars a month for a VPN with port-forwarding and just torrent all your media. Your torrented file has done more for media preservation and archival then any DVD bullshit ever did. The only use for physical media is to digitize it and share it.

The bootlegged Cinderella movie sold in the Global South has done more for media preservation than Disney ever has. A seedbox in Russia is more of a art library compared to any video store.

Don't get me started on video games. Where every generation of devices there's a new standard and new way to do things. Nothing says media preservation like buying a disc from a store and then waiting an hour for your device to download updates online.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3770297

I think I've finally found it: The elusive Firefox fork for my day-to-day needs. It needed to have sane defaults like Librewolf but also as user empowering as Vivaldi (as well as not being proprietary which is cringe).

Zen I believe accomplishes both of that. It's a relatively new project but it does have active development with new changes added every release. Here's the rundown:

• Licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, the same as Firefox. So enjoy that warm feeling you get when using open source software that won't pull the rug from under you.
• Follows Firefox release cycles: If a new Firefox version comes out, Zen is not behind.
• Instead of horizontal tabs, Zen only uses vertical tabs for navigation. If this is a deal breaker, then Zen isn't for you :(
• Supports split view, workspaces, browser profiles, side panels, tab unloading (saving memory by deactivating a tab), theming, mods and everything else that base Firefox supports (like firefox sync).
• Cannot play DRM-protected content as of yet on Windows and MacOS (rare Linux W?) due to license fees. This is your netflix, your disney+, your spotify.
• No mobile version (nor does it seem to be planned), though firefox sync is still supported.
• Looks GORGEOUS. I never realized how ugly Firefox looks by default, esp on desktops like GNOME and KDE where it tries to integrate itself into the system theme.
• Performs FABULOUSLY: Optimizations from the firefox level to even providing an optimized binary executable for modern CPUs.
• SANE defaults like HTTPS everywhere, no link prefetching (where the browser loads links that it thinks you're going to go to), uncluttered Firefox home.
• Probably more I'm not listing

Download here: https://zen-browser.app/download

How do I use Zen?

Well firstly, Zen doesn't come with any extensions by default. So I made sure to chuck in my Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, ClearURLs, LibRedirect, etc. It also uses secure DNS by default with Cloudflare so you might want to turn that off (I have a DNS homeserver that does encrypted DNS through other means).

I also really like using the side panel to put my wiki sites and dictionaries in. I've only been using Zen for a week now and it seems to be my forever browser of choice.

I think I've finally found it: The elusive Firefox fork for my day-to-day needs. It needed to have sane defaults like Librewolf but also as user empowering as Vivaldi (as well as not being proprietary which is cringe).

Zen I believe accomplishes both of that. It's a relatively new project but it does have active development with new changes added every release. Here's the rundown:

• Licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, the same as Firefox. So enjoy that warm feeling you get when using open source software that won't pull the rug from under you.
• Follows Firefox release cycles: If a new Firefox version comes out, Zen is not behind.
• Instead of horizontal tabs, Zen only uses vertical tabs for navigation. If this is a deal breaker, then Zen isn't for you :(
• Supports split view, workspaces, browser profiles, side panels, tab unloading (saving memory by deactivating a tab), theming, mods and everything else that base Firefox supports (like firefox sync).
• Cannot play DRM-protected content as of yet on Windows and MacOS (rare Linux W?) due to license fees. This is your netflix, your disney+, your spotify.
• No mobile version (nor does it seem to be planned), though firefox sync is still supported.
• Looks GORGEOUS. I never realized how ugly Firefox looks by default, esp on desktops like GNOME and KDE where it tries to integrate itself into the system theme.
• Performs FABULOUSLY: Optimizations from the firefox level to even providing an optimized binary executable for modern CPUs.
• SANE defaults like HTTPS everywhere, no link prefetching (where the browser loads links that it thinks you're going to go to), uncluttered Firefox home.
• Probably more I'm not listing

Download here: https://zen-browser.app/download

How do I use Zen?

Well firstly, Zen doesn't come with any extensions by default. So I made sure to chuck in my Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, ClearURLs, LibRedirect, etc. It also uses secure DNS by default with Cloudflare so you might want to turn that off (I have a DNS homeserver that does encrypted DNS through other means).

I also really like using the side panel to put my wiki sites and dictionaries in. I've only been using Zen for a week now and it seems to be my forever browser of choice.

TL;DR:

The Windows File Explorer is now dependent on Microsoft Recall being installed on Windows 11 24H2 editions and likely later.

This means that if you wish to use newer versions of the Window file explorer, you have to install recall on your system. Recall is a deeply-rooted, non-negotiable feature on all modern versions of Windows.

Solution

If you wish to strip out recall from your system, you are no longer able to use the built-in graphical file explorer and must use a third-party tool, and if you're not allowed to do that on the machine, then you are forced to have recall running on the system as it doesn't appear on any graphical settings pages.

The other solution is to prepare for transitioning into a free operating system such as GNU/Linux with distributions such as Linux Mint which is designed specifically for that transition. You can also run an older version of Windows and refuse to update.

Errata

Turns out that this issue has been exaggerated and that there are ways to disable co-pilot on Windows machines (or at the very least, command Windows to do so). Also it's debatable whether this program does any harm on non "copilot" computers but you can be the judge of that.

• Context: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Russian-Linux-Maintainers-Drop
• Source: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=whNGNVnYHHSXUAsWds_MoZ-iEgRMQMxZZ0z-jY4uHT+Gg@mail.gmail.com/ CW: Russophobia, Finnish man speaks on politics

A group of maintainers with a ".ru" top level domain have been removed for "compliance issues" and that if they met those requirements they would be brought back in. People noticed and started voicing their concern.

• https://lore.kernel.org/all/20241023080935.2945-2-kexybiscuit@aosc.io/

This reverts commit 6e90b675cf942e50c70e8394dfb5862975c3b3b2.

An absolutely no-one-ever-reviewed patch, not even by the maintainers who got removed themselves - at least not on the mailing list. Then the patch just got slipped into an unrelated subsystem pull request, and got pulled by Torvalds with not even a comment.

What about the next time? Who next would be removed from the MAINTAINERS file, the kernel.org infrastructure? What if the compliance requires another XZ backdoor to be developed without further explanation? Is the kernel development process still done in public?

Are the "compliance requirements" documented on docs.kernel.org? Who are responsible for them? Are all that are responsible employees of The Linux Foundation, which is regulated by the U.S. legislature?

This specific email, (noticeably not from a .ru domain) elicited a negative reaction from Linus Torvalds, the leader of the Linux kernel

Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about.

It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, and using multiple random anonymous accounts to try to "grass root" it by Russian troll factories isn't going to change anything.

And FYI for the actual innocent bystanders who aren't troll farm accounts - the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing.

If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, you should try to read the news some day. And by "news", I don't mean Russian state-sponsored spam.

As to sending me a revert patch - please use whatever mush you call brains. I'm Finnish. Did you think I'd be supporting Russian aggression? Apparently it's not just lack of real news, it's lack of history knowledge too.

The Linux Foundation is a 501c non-profit organization based in San Francisco and is therefore under US jurisdiction. The Linux Foundation also receives support from the leading oligarchs of the US digital empire (Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, Microsoft, etc.).

Going from Linus' rash response to the foundation being stationed in the heart of the digital silicon valley empire, it's more than likely that the Linux Foundation and the kernel maintainers are abiding by US-led sanctions against Russia. The Linux kernel's lead developer aligns himself with the imperial core, and it seems he has no regrets doing so.

With the recent Israeli terrorist attack on Lebanon via remote detonated pagers (which have maimed children), the US is now cashing in its unchecked dominance on computer technology in its vain attempt to keep its empire afloat. The threats have now become actions. The Russian SMO has not gone well for the US-led NATO forces as the war begins to enter its 3rd year and the recent rise of the Chinese digital power has spooked the Silicon Valley oligarchs into acting.

What does this mean for GNU/Linux users and others using the Linux kernel?

The development of the kernel is fundamentally decentralized via the version-control program that Linus himself spearheaded: git. Most orgs keep their own git tree of the kernel and have their own development branches. The GNU Guix project also maintains/ships a completely libre kernel that removes all form of binary blobs (mostly for enabling yankee-made hardware, go figure). Unfortunately, it seems like all the people who lambasted the GNU Hurd project for being too slow and idealistic didn't realize the danger of a singular monolithic kernel (pun not intended).

I doubt this means the introduction of backdoors (because why now? If backdoors were implemented they wouldn't do it just now).

TL;DR

Linus Torvalds had the feds knock on his door and ask him to remove certain Russian maintainers, Torvalds, being a millionaire finnish neckbeard, gladly granted this request. Too bad he hasn't gotten over his anger issues because his furious response only confirmed the yankee involvement and that Torvalds is not allowed to discuss this issue.

It all started because he was shitting on the NY Times for being an ad-ridden mess where you have to call a human in order to cancel your subscription. Someone called NY Times woke communist propaganda and Linus went nerd rage on them.

original post

An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends. The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media. We are pursuing this in two ways:

TL;DR this is an EU petition aimed at making sure that companies are obligated to distribute binaries of the server code of their multiplayer and live service games. Currently, video game companies of online/live service games use a form of SaaSS (Service as a Software Substitute) model where the "game" someone has purchased is simply a license to run the game in only the way the company sees fit (their servers, their platform, their rules). If a company were to go under or simply not run the servers required for the full game to function, then the user is out of luck as they've effectively had the game taken away from them.

This is just another example of why ALL leftists must strive to fight for free software. If we don't consider software which respects your freedom an important endeavor to uphold, then we make ourselves vulnerable for further and further exploitation. If you're reading this, this includes you as well.