Posts by ricegf

Re: Meet the New War....same as the Old War

And it can't even run Linux programs natively because it only uses the Linux kernel

I take it you don't use a Chromebook? Despite all of your screaming that it's something else, running Linux apps is still as simple as Settings > Advanced > Developers > Linux Development Environment > On.

I taught an entire Linux programming course at a major university on my Chromebook. Because... It's Linux. Same commands, same package system, same apps.

Re: Sound and fury

What's interesting to me is that the lone developer makes a careful analysis of all existing options, adapts the best fit, and moves on.

What a rare and lovely skill.

Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux

Oh? I started my new Dell PC a couple of years ago. It set up encryption for the drive, upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11, rebooted - and asked me for the encryption key.

What encryption key?

To their credit, Dell people spent two hours on the phone with me trying to break into my new computer. We went to the Microsoft website to recover the key, for example: It literally said "There's nothing for you here". (Who writes Microsoft's error messages?)

Finally they gave up and provided a phone number at Microsoft, but that person just wanted my credit card number before they could help me. I think not.

Just me? Nope. One of my students at university asked for my help. He had bought a Dell computer and it had encrypted the drive and upgraded to Windows 11, too, locking him out. I told him to return it to the local store as defective.

Just Dell? Nope. The university computer I was given came with a one-time login to allow me to set up a local boot password. However, Windows grabbed control as soon as I entered my credentials to install mandatory patches and then rebooted, giving me no opportunity to set a boot password!

Am I just unlucky? Perhaps. But I believe the real culprit is that people tolerate Windows because it's all they have used. They assume all desktops are like that, and since it runs the applications they learned early on, they stick with it. Or as many people I know like my brother who can get away with it, just switch to iPhone only.

Their choice, of course. But from an objective perspective of someone who has used all 3 major desktop OSes extensively starting with Windows 1.0 (it ran PageMaker!), Mac OS 1.0 (bitmaps and an Imagewriter? Priceless!), and Mandrake Linux 7.0 (before they were sued by King Feature Syndicate and became Mandriva and I like so many others switched to the Warty Warthog), in terms of user friendliness, Windows is in a rather distant third place.

Just my $0.02 - but I've paid far more than that in my dues! :/

Re: Chicken and egg

Oddly, you seem to be in much more pain about this than Linux users!

Re: Some concerns though

Why do you assume new distro developers must aspire to mass adoption?

Are you not aware that the huge base of fanfic authors don't expect to write a best seller? They write for the love of writing and exploring their corner of fandom.

Similarly, distro (and free software) developers often develop simply for the love of development and better understanding their chosen technologies.

Your "waste of time" is a normal person's "fascinating hobby"!

No

No. If the Linux desktop grows too much, it will attract rent-seeking corporations who will lock down choice in favor of profits.

The Internet was the great democracy experience. Now we have Facebook and Google.

DOS and Windows brought computing power from mainframes to individual control. Now you pay subscription fees for your web-based apps and cloud storage.

Streaming let you cut the cable. Now you pay the same fees to Netflix, Hulu, and Sling.

Can we please just keep Linux to ourselves?

Re: Thriving

The actual claim was that the project is thriving, not that Waterfox has more users than Firefox.

The Waterfox repository is gratifyingly active based on commit frequency, though not as active as Firefox. But I suppose "thrive" implies long-term trends, which I too would like to see

Re: Surprised

This is a feature, not a bug. But LO has several alternate UI configurations, even the abominable ribbon one.

I actually had to switch my last book from Word to Writer because Word kept moving images outside the margins. The bug report on it was rather old - no idea if it has been fixed since, because I don't see a reason to switch back, being happily non-corporate now.

Re: Use early Microsoft formats where possible for interchange

Or just txt or md - though in all 4 cases complex formatting is lost.

Reveal Codes RIP

WordPerfect's Reveal Codes (which were an unrelated precursor to the web's HTML) was the last time I felt truly in control of a document's content and layout. That Microsoft used their Windows monopoly to cram Word down corporate throats will forever be to their shame - not that Gates' or Ballmer's Microsoft had any. At least Sayella has given up his predecessors' irrational jihad against free and open source software.

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

You'll likely be a late EV adopter. No shame in that. Us boxed in types will thus pay for the research that delivers a 1000 mile range EV that recharges in 5 minutes to your grandchildren. ;-)

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

A tree takes carbon from the atmosphere and sequesters it in wood. You burn the wood and release the carbon. Net change in CO2 this century is zero.

You burn coal, releasing carbon sequestered millions is years ago. Net increase in CO2 this century is significant.

The percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere had been rising steadily since about 1950, indicating that we've saturated the ability of plant life to handle the supply.

We don't know for certain the impact of a higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, but "bad" is pretty likely.

So, investing in not releasing long sequestered CO2 is a very good idea.

Releasing briefly sequestered CO2 is the better option of the two. Capturing and using fusion power arriving daily from the nearest star is even better.

Importing wood pellets from the USA is rather suboptimal for the UK, though. :-)

Re: here are a number of companies out there...

They sell 100% renewable energy. You're thinking power, which is a different thing. You shouldn't mock others because you lack a basic knowledge of science.

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

Your insults are misdirected. Had the author correctly written "Does their supply drop out at night IF there's no wind?", he would have been understood.

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

No. Refrigeration, A/C and heat, water heaters, EV charging, laptop charging, and the like don't require constant power. Demand can be moved around by minutes to balance out spikes in grid demand.

Appliances that require constant power such as stoves and non-battery electronics obviously get priority access.

Really, engineers aren't as stupid as you seem to believe. We've solved FAR harder problems than this!

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

Not at all obviously. I'm an electrical engineer, and (respectfully) you're confusing power and energy.

Energy is the potential to do work, such as moving a car. The "power company" sells, and the battery stores, energy measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

Power is the instant motive force that actually stores energy into the battery or accelerates the car, measured in kilowatts (kW).

The grid isn't the Internet, routing power instantaneously from the wind farm to your house. Power is added to and consumed from the aggregate grid minute by minute in careful balance. So the power feeding my EV battery is "obviously" from a mix of fuels. You're right as rain about that.

But the energy for which I pay is 100% wind energy. That is, if my EV uses 150 kWh this month, the local wind farm adds 150 kWh to the grid during the month, and I pay them $9. This is what EV owners mean when they say their EV runs on 100% wind energy.

So, I can power my EV with 100% wind energy without any grid instability at my house at all.

The UK has actually reached 100% renewable power inputs at slack times, btw. Managing a grid with a large portion of renewable energy requires care, but solving technical challenges is what engineers do. Trust me, it's doable, as is continuing to upgrade grid capacity to continue to track increasing demand. We've been doing it successfully for over a century, and the slow transition from petrol to electricity allows ample time to manage the grid properly.

Re: actually no

Consider a Chevy Bolt, with 238 miles of range, or a Model 3, with 215 miles, or even a 2018 LEAF, with 151 miles (USA EPA ranges).

The average US commute is 30 miles total. Do we expect drivers (who lack workplace slow charging) to plan over 100 miles of errands in the typical evening?

On the rare occasion where they will be traveling to a distance city, say for a concert or sporting event, a quick charge replaces those 30 miles of range in under 10 minutes, even at today's leisurely 120 kW charge rate.

In the next few years, the problem becomes even more moot, with fast charge rates of 350 kW already specified for the Common Charging Standard, and ranges up to 620 miles already announced.

So, I don't believe this is will be a problem for the vast majority of drivers even in the near future.