this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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I should've used it sooner rather than last year when they announced AI integration to Windows. Every peripheral I tried is just worked without needing to install drivers, and it works better and faster than on Windows, just like today when I tried to use my brother's 3D printer expecting disappointment, but no, it just connected and was ready to print right away (I use Ultimaker Cura), whereas on my brother's Windows computer I have to wait like 20 seconds; sometimes I have to disconnect and reconnect it again for it to see and ready to use. Lastly, for those who are wondering, I use Vanilla Arch (btw), and sorry for bad English.

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[–] [email protected] 228 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Every time I see someone write "sorry for my bad english" their writing is several times better than many of the native speakers I interact with on a daily basis.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 4 days ago (1 children)

my ukrainian coworker always apologizes for her bad english. meanwhile she can, and does, write poetry in all four languages she speaks

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Probably a habit from when they really did have bad English, but they learned, and surpassed the average american at this point.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 days ago (1 children)

i think it has more to do with dialect than anything. i speak appalachian dialect so sometimes i'll use an archaic word. the irony is she usually figures it out faster than most other english speakers since our archaics are largely eastern european in origin, but to her in that moment it feels like "oh, i don't know what this native english speaker is saying, i guess english is still a skill i'm working on"

i always am like "oh no, i talk funny" but it's been happening more as she's become closer friends with me and my fiance and we all talk on metaphysics and shit

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

"oh, i don't know what this native english speaker is saying, i guess english is still a skill i'm working on"

I'm no native English speaker as well, and that's how I often think as well. In my mother tongue I know so many words, their meaning and their sound. In English, however, I'm still learning new words now and then, and it opens my world to the language every time. This is true for dialects as well.

Learning a new language is quite hard in the beginning, but it's so satisfying and world opening when you start to actually use a new language.

edit Ohh, and sorry for my bad English ;)

[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 days ago (1 children)

"I proffer my contrition for any infelicities in my English articulation, as my proclivity for linguistic precision may yet be inchoate."

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

what was that about felix and anchovies ?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

When I TA-ed, I swear 75% of the non-Americans students wrote almost perfect papers whereas less than 25% of Americans couldn’t even write and less than 5% had comparably good essays. Honestly depressing.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

American culture is one of the few I've found to be actively "anti-knowledge". It's not just their educational system being bad, it's a genuine cultural tendency of not just dismissing experts, but straight out refusing to learn and snobbing those who do.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

We have somewhat similar in Canada, not as dreadful as USA, but still what you would say anti-knowledge.

I saw this in gradeschool, kids actually trying to learn and better themselves were bullies and labeled brown-noser losers.

At University the Uni newspaper editors would dumb down articles purposely, since they thought the general reader may not understand the topic fully ( which defeats the purpose of knowledge articles ).

And random times. Some guy talking about making his tent lines taut, and the rest laughing saying you mean tight. And him saying , no tension on a rope or cable is taut, tight is for fastening bolts, etc. Then everyone being "yeah whatever idiot"

And overseas teenage relatives visiting , knowing 4-5 languages, and saying "Sorry, my English is not the best" and me trying to explain it is way better than half of the coworkers I have who only speak English. And then trying to explain to a teenager that these full grown adults have no desire to learn correct terms, grammar, spelling or punctuation.

Trying to read my wife's family's facebook posts is like a course in stroke cryptography.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Haha thanks, My English is self thought, so maybe that's why I'm still afraid of making mistakes (also relied on keyboard auto correct)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

*taught :⁠-⁠) No worries, your intent is coming across clearly.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Linux is awesome

& so are you ^🥁 1, 2, 3, 4… 🎸^

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 4 days ago (4 children)

You went straight from windows to vanilla arch ?

Quite impressive

[–] [email protected] 47 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Haha thanks but it's not actually my first distro, I'm distro hopping on my first week of switching to Linux, my first ever distro is EndeavourOS>Nobara>Fedora>OpenSUSE>Vanilla Arch

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's a lot of different distros in one week. How do you give each one enough time to evaluate it before you choose to move to another?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

At the time my main goal is to have to all of my games working, while I can make it run on every distro I tried, I found Vanilla Arch is the better one in terms of performance and ease of use (yeah call me weird for saying Arch is easier to use than other distros XD), so I keep using it ever since.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

Vanilla Arch is the better one in terms of performance and ease of use (yeah call me weird for saying Arch is easier to use than other distros XD)

Not weird at all, I use Arch on my main system exactly because I'm lazy and it's easier to use. It's harder to install, but a lot easier to use.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

I remember the USAF handing me an M16 at 18 years old where all I've ever handled before that was even close was the NES zapper.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Vanilla arch is nothing like the manually installed arch of old. It's as easy to install and use as any other distro. I started with arch too, and my now permanent distro is arch based

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My personal experience has been frustrating each time. I've tried to switch over at least 3 times over the years, but I always gave up. This time, I installed Ubuntu and immediately had to spend 3 hours trying to get my Xbox controler dongle to work, but just couldn't do it. Found a driver online that people said would work, it didn't because it wasn't properly signed, tried to sign it but the signing app just didn't create the certificates needed. Gave up, I have Bluetooth so I'd live, though I'd rather use the dongle if I can.

I then immediately encounter another problem that couldn't be fixed (for the life of me I can't remember what it was exactly) and just gave up.

The previous time I tried it I remember that among other things, one of my main problems was the lack of clipboard history (which I use extremely often). I tried installing an app for it but all of them either didn't work or didn't work the way I want them to or I just didn't like their look and feel.

I also hate the font rendering on Linux, it always looks blurry compared to Windows, and the double titlebars most apps have (e.g. Discord, at least on Ubuntu), I like my screen real-estate.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Most of my library just works under Linux.

1000046693

Plus it is a pleasure to code under Linux.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

You would be suprised how cool Linux can get when you go deep down the rabbit hole, if you really want to go deep into Arch I reccomend trying a tiling window manager like Sway or Hyprland :3

(Btw these are the dotfiles I use: https://github.com/koeqaife/hyprland-material-you)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The Hyprland dev is enough to make sure I never use Hyprland

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 days ago (12 children)

Welcome!

For a while now Linux has been better at most personal computing things except gaming. And for server uses an even longer time.

There are some specific hardware/software situations where you'll need Windows but it's unlikely to happen at home. Unless you have very peculiar hobbies.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (10 children)

Unless you have very peculiar hobbies.

Or you take your photography a bit too seriously! Good noise reduction software is next to impossible to do on Linux. It's the only reason I have a windows box in my house

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Just a thought… Don’t use AI noise reduction! I’ve seen the “magic” they produce and am not impressed. I take pride in capturing the image, not relying on software to recreate it the way I wish it had been shot (I recognize this is a bit hypocritical given that I do use noise reduction in Darktable).

Additionally, I stopped caring about (luminance) noise a long while ago, now, and am perfectly happy with the results I get out of Darktable. In fact, much like film grain, I find modern luminance noise quite pleasing, especially on smaller sensors, and it can add texture and feeling to your image. Still, my default style includes the fantastic, camera model specific, noise reduction profiles by default, which effectively removes color noise and brings luminance noise down to appropriate levels.

The rise in clinical photography and “AI” tools has only given me a stronger drive to be creative and embrace the flaws of my camera and my tools. Call me a romantic, but I want people to know my photos were taken and created by a human, not a machine.

Ok, getting off the soapbox, now xD

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I take pride in capturing the image, not relying on software to recreate it the way I wish it had been shot

Unless you're shooting flat JPGs with no photo modes enabled, and not doing any post processing, then you're not getting that result. And even if you do that, two cameras shooting the same scene will produce different images, because the process of converting RAW sensor data to the reduced colour palette and bit depth of a JPG image, involves an algorithm deciding how best to recreate (not capture) what you saw with your eye, and no two cameras do it the same way, and neither produce a "true" capture of what you saw.

Ultimately, it's a meaningless distinction. My camera does in body image compositing, using firmware to stack multiple frames in to a single exposure, giving you light trails, without overexposed static light sources. It uses AI subject recognition to drive its auto focus. It has a 120frame buffer than records records directly to the buffer whilst holding the shutter button half down, and then writes them all to the card when you press, effectively letting you capture moments that you would normally have missed, because human reflexes are imperfect. And the RAW software that comes with the camera literally uses AI noise reduction.

So for me to draw the line and say that AI driven noise reduction (non generative AI at that) is a problem would be a bit hypocritical of me.

As it is, the camera hardware itself does solid noise reduction on the JPGs it produces (using algorithms built in to the firmware) giving really nice results even at high ISOs. But the only way to replicate that with a RAW file, is using the camera supplied RAW software (which doesn't work on linux), or by using a 3rd partyAI noise reduction app (which don't work on linux). If I don't use them, then I'm in the strange situation where my high ISO JPG preview photos look better than an end to end post processed RAW file.

If I was "embracing the flaws that my camera creates" I would be shooting in JPEG mode, using images mostly straight out of the camera, and they would be less noisy than what I can achieve with current linux tools.

I've been doing this for 20 years, and using m43 (or four thirds before it) for most of that time. I know what I want from my photography, and I know the tools that give it to me. What I want is for the image to look like the scene that I saw. I don't care if it's a pixel perfect match for it. I don't care about embracing the flaws that a camera introduces, flaws that don't exist when viewed through the human eye (reduced dynamic range, sensor noise etc), out of some sense of "purity". Purity that was lost the moment I pressed the shutter on a digital camera that has to encode the image in software to make it visible.

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[–] MajorHavoc 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah. I've been trying to get the word out.

I've been screwing with Linux for decades, but somewhere along the line, Linux got easier and more reliable than Windows. I was as surprised as anyone. My last couple Linux installs were a cake walk.

I also like Linux more than Mac, but I'm a tinkerer at heart, and Mac's (relative) lack of fiddly bits (customization options) has kept me from staying on it long.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And if something doesn’t work, it’s all your fault somehow. Which is both a blessing and a curse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's fine, I can look up the Arch Wiki for solutions, which is also a learning process for me and if it still doesn't work, I can just duct tape the workaround myself XD

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Tip from long-time arch user (btw). Avoid installing or making changes to system installation without going through pacman. I.e., don't use install scripts or make install invocations requiring sudo. More often than not that will cause headaches long-term. PKGBUILDs are actually reasonably simple to create if you need to install something not in the AUR, and it will keep you from overwriting files and leaving files behind after uninstalling.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago

Welcome to the brotherhood.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (2 children)

These kind of posts make me a little happy. I don't know exactly why but it does.

Having used Linux on for 25 years or so and now hearing about people who switch from Windows and really enjoying the experience warms my heart a little

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I've been using Linux for almost 9 years now. Shit is never so smooth for me but I still love it.

The only device it has been smooth on has been my Thinkpad T530. Every other install I have has some annoying issue, usually small

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

Yes. Yes it is.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Hell yes it's awesome.

It's awesome like physics. It just works.

I use Debian.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I recently made the switch to linux as well and I have it on my laptop and gaming PC. I do keep a portable install of windows on an external drive for more niche cases, such as music production which I had terrible luck with on Linux. When I booted up my laptop with the windows drive, I noticed that my keyboard backlight wasn't working. And it took me a second to realize that Windows doesn't come with basic drivers... In Linux mint, my keyboard backlight worked right away. I also wish I made the jump to Linux much earlier.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Can anybody comment on their experience using Arduino and ESP with Linux? Especially does Linux handle COM ports better than Windows? There's a seemingly immortal problem of COM ports becoming unusable until you go into Device Manager and uninstall them (again and again) - and if that doesn't work, reboot Windows. I experience this less often now than say 5 or 6 years ago, and sometimes it's my fault, but jeez.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (7 children)

Yes, com ports work way better than in windows. I've done a lot of embedded development on linux and it's way more pleasant than in windows. One thing you do have to keep in mind is that access to com ports (USB and real) requires root access by default, but once you've set the udev rule up, it becomes accesible to normal users and/or group of users. After that, it works flawlessly. Android dev also works great and imo better than on win. Proprietary jtags may be an issue, but I've never actually had an unsolvable situation.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

I regularily program Arduinos in Arduino IDE v2 (https://flathub.org/apps/cc.arduino.IDE2) and ESPs via the ESPHome web flasher and the esphome CLI tool.

Works flawlessly once you added yourself to the dialout group as mentioned by @[email protected].

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Awesome!

and your english is perfect, dude. no worries. the only suggestion I have for you in that regard is to watch out for run on sentences :)

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