windows is shitty but its setup bullshit is very straight forward and clear to deal with

Unfortunately, you definitely get a false sense of simplicity when you’re essentially forced down a lazy river of:

“Accept all these corporate agreements, make an account with our centralized authority structure, try to deny a litany of invasive ad permissions (you can’t turn it all off lol nice try.), enable our one touch AI button, shut up, and click go.”

"(Pulsing blue light) We’Re TaKiNg CaRe Of YoU. . ."

Some setup things in Linux can be confusing at first, like how I’ve agonized over the implications of which file system to use. (Settled on BTRFS for rollbacks, otherwise it doesn’t matter for 99.9% of people lol.)

But also I think we’re just at a sad point in history where computers are everywhere but people have terrible computer education (self included), and it’s left up to private interests who mainly want a cattle-like customer base.

…So everything seems scary and complicated.

I imagine cars would be the same way if we weren’t required to test for a license. They’re getting that way quickly though, people wanting a “Push ignition and turn off brain” machine that seemingly “just works” until it doesn’t and they must take it to Special Wizards. A black box which they ultimately have no control over, but feels “easy”.

I think it’s because people are forced to use these devices. Like driving, some people enjoy the act of computing. Linux is for those people.

When everybody is forced to use computers every day and most of those computers run something by Apple, Microsoft, or Google, anything else feels like yet another stupid thing to deal with.

TL;DR: Linux respects the user, but respect is built on a two way street of understanding. People hate learning because they’re systemically stressed TF out all the time.

"I’m a busy person with a jobbity job and kids and a mortgage on an iPhone 18 Ultra Plus Air and stuff.

If I have to READ to make anything work, it’s not customer ready, and this new thing should take no time at all to completely understand on my part.

It needs to be a perfect ‘free Windows clone’ before I’ll even consider switching from the mega-corporate ecosystem I was coerced into dependency on from the start. If there’s one thing I hate more than reading, it’s asking anybody for help. Especially my friends. The operating system is the problem."

“Fk it. Here’s the entire Qur’an.”

EAC works fine enough, and it turns off when the game is off, and should uninstall with the game, so people don’t hate it so much.

But I dropped all interest in Helldivers 2 because of that crap, which sucks because it seemed like such a fun game. And I’m not touching anything Riot for the same reason. These “just trust us bro” always-on, deeply embedded rootkits are just unethical.

That is too far even for taking school tests, it’s indefensible and absolutely nonsense for a game.

It’s definitely something I can see both sides of though. It would suck to put a huge chunk of time and effort into a multiplayer game just to have cheaters ruin it for everyone on launch. Any game that isn’t moderated or making effort to deter them gets overrun quickly.

I don’t understand the mentality that drives people to buy cheats just to feel better about themselves, but it’s clearly there.

TBH though…I don’t remember stuff being this bad when private servers were more of a thing. Battlefield 2 / 2142 / 3 / 4 had ranked vs. unranked servers. The good private-run ones had mods to ban cheaters, the ranked ones had stricter enforcement. It seemed fine and we had fun…

Maybe I’m missing something…

That’s the only thing I worry about personally, not the users so much, but the capitalists who see “opportunity” once Linux gains a hold, and start figuring out how to make it disgusting like everything else they touch with their greedy little slop mitts.

It won’t be “Well, Linux doesn’t permit anticheat”, it will be

“Okay how do we create some centralized power structure that makes invasive DRM and anticheat that runs on Linux?”

And they’ll move to colonize.

Oh yeah, and disallowing employees from discussing their income, I think was another one.

Lots of anti-union behavior.

“Nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask.”

But I would maybe consider using Linux for everything except for specifically games that require Windows.

That’s the way. I started this way too, and as I got more comfortable well, my Windows partition hasn’t been booted for a couple years now because OpenSUSE Tumbleweed has run all my games beautifully.

Vermintide II even stopped crashing the entire system when I used Linux instead of Windows! On Nvidia BTW.

Even though sometimes it feels like I might be missing out on playing some of the newest hypey-est multiplayer games, I also remind myself that I don’t want something on my computer like the new Battlefield’s or Riot Games’ incredibly creepy and invasive anticheat, no matter the OS!

… Plus, I got like a thousand games to enjoy anyway. Maybe you’ll feel the same, idk?

I will say though, Linux starts to just feel fun to compute on. It feels like a machine that’s yours instead of some licensed appliance. I missed that feeling from the really old Windows days when it was fun.

Do a little exploring, but picking a distro with KDE should feel at home really quick coming from Windows. :)

a job that refused to pay me overtime after a year of working for them as the sole employee/manager of the shop.

Wow, like they would force you to work just under the limit to qualify for overtime, or wouldn’t pay overtime owed? Because that’s straight up wage theft!

I notice businesses that try to be “savvy” by taking shortcuts and skirting labor laws tend to collapse themselves once they run out of employees that are way too good for them and won’t put up with it anymore.

Glad you escaped.

That’s AWESOME. I hope Nextcloud gets better at this soon. So far I’ve been needing to spend some time renaming the files from 64 character CDN hash names to tags like

"Monkey,gibbon,spin,woop,reaction.gif"

It’s worked somewhat well so far if I try to keep it as simple and obvious as possible.

Pointing soyjack squad, deploy! Lol

"OOPS!

Looks like you want a real go-getter who takes initiative in a fast paced working environment!

These added value premium features and advanced pro-company behaviors require a salary boost! Increase my salary for instant access."

(Tier 1)$ "Practically Already Quiet Quitting " Basic Value Employee

• Loves to discuss unions.

(Tier 2) $$$ “Really Need This Job” Moderately effective employee (Most Popular!)

• Shows up, does the work.

(Tier 3)$$$$$ “Happy To Be Here!”

• Ludicrously overpaid but…
• …Saves on hiring a replacement in 6 months.
• “Going places.” Maybe not to your competition!
• “Less likely to curse your name and air your dirty laundry under the cover of various pseudonyms in online discussions and AMAs!”

I felt the same way but also the shock value of the PSA might just save someone too. It’s definitely a gray area this time around, I think.

I’m glad it’s just the xray at least.

Yep! Form follows function, hence, I need my pockets. XD

This is an absolutely hilarious episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Worth a watch! :D

Don’t worry, a not-insignificant number of users probably use “Forgot Password?” every time because they can’t keep track of the correct one. Lol

I suspect this is why we started to see all those “use a temporary password instead” options lately. XD

Mine was studying global information stuff in school. Mainly used a software called “ArcGIS.”

I called it “Arc-jiss.” Which she laugh-hated because it sounds like “Arc-jizz.” XD

Yeah, you might use it to spy on your enemies to great advantage, but your mind is basically wide open for the Dark Lord’s data harvesting.

You know, the name is perfect! Why it has any customers at all is the mystery that shames the concept of human intelligence.

As far as I know those are all this asshole’s ideas too. He’s got some hedge fund called Lembas or something too, among others.

I’m surprised he hasn’t just renamed himself Sauron at this point. (While talking ahout saving the world through his wealth and power, of course.)

Typical villain arc: Some self-absorbed billionaire with a main character complex decides they like a cultural touchstone, completely misses the point ot it, and ruins it for everyone else for their own profit.