Proton + Steam now working easily, not to mention things like Heroic Launcher… the daily stuff 90% of users need really is taken care of at this point.

Literally in the last month or so Windows pushed an update that messed up the BitLocker check and locked a ton of company laptops . I’d point out this was also a major security update.

But at least we agree updating for the sake of updating is bad policy on any software if you care about stability, so we can set that argument aside now, yes?

For this new argument you’ve moved to: Distro hopping is for fun for people who like tinkering with computers. You wouldn’t get it. It’s not for everyone, plenty of people just pick a long term support release and call it day.

As opposed to forcing updates that break basic functionality?

Anyway, it’s certainly not common to do no upgrading, just not mindlessly pushing every single new release when you don’t need it (ie, not a major security fix or something). Which is a good thing if you value stability in your system, no matter what software you’re running. The ones dealing with the BitLocker locked company laptops right now after the last Windows update kerfuffle could probably tell you all about it. It’s a lesson hard won by neophyte system admins.

Lots of reasons today, but I started out of necessity: a poor kid that couldn’t buy new hardware, much less a windows license. Discovered the magic when I picked up a little pre-Chromebook XP mini laptop that the person gave me for $20 because it just couldn’t run usably with windows’ overhead. Put one of the light Ubuntu distros on it, and damned if that little thing didn’t get me through college.

Honestly stoked a real passion for how Linux can be a really effective way to repurpose what would otherwise be e-waste and get it to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to really get into technology all with an opportunity to learn how the machine works.

I’m likely relocating soon, but I’ve really considered afterwards setting up a local non profit dedicated to flipping old machines like that to get them into poor kids’ hands, maybe even with pipelines into basic Linux/terminal learning, security basics, programming, etc for those that show an interest.

This was my understanding, but I really am not in the loop enough to say it with certainty, so appreciate the confirmation. I agree, I think we’re seeing from contributions made by people like Valve that there’s real value in requiring derivative work to give back to the community it drew from. But again, I’m really not super well informed. I just tend to pick GNU options when available.

I feel like there’s a lot of concern about more and more free software moving over to the MIT license.

I honestly don’t know the ins and outs, but it’s probably relevant to people concerned about it.

Yakuake. Nothing major but a nice quality of life upgrade for terminal work.

Perhaps, but one could argue it happens so often that the hammer lends itself to hammering this particular nail, and so often devolves into that. The Balkans are this experiment played out, attempting to carve out ethno states, and we’ve seen how that’s gone. Once you start saying things like “this country should only be (or primarily be) for X people”, you almost necessarily have to engage in some degree of genocide (in the wider sense of removing a people and culture that doesn’t fit the paradigm), or apartheid, otherwise the statement ends up a bit vacuous, no?

Israel is, in my view, a very clear example of this; once you’ve decided “this is a Jewish state”, anyone not Jewish by definition become second class citizens.

If we’re just talking general assimilation, that’s more nuanced… I don’t oppose calls for more assimilation, but I think governments have done a very poor job in using more stick than carrot. They tend to not put any effort in helping people integrate, which is, from experience, very difficult. One could argue it isn’t their responsibility, but I think such framings for state action is silly… either the state has an interest in a thing being done or it doesn’t, and in this case I think they very much do. Most immigrants that form insular communities do so not out of any inherent pull to, but because they’re already being somewhat ostracized. In the US, Chinatowns arose as a direct result of ostracization and discrimination.

I do think there is a danger of assimilation programs overzealously wiping out culture… the Sami have faced multiple attempts in the past at trying to stamp out their culture, the US and Australia religiously forced the elimination of many native cultures in the name of assimilation. It is also a fine line to walk. But there is undoubtedly a state interest (and immigrant interest!) in assimilating into society.

I’d argue the binding culture that should be assimilated shouldn’t be things as fuzzy as ethnicity… the culture that binds should be the values of that nation. Which doesn’t really have anything to do with ethnicity.

I still wouldn’t support it and would probably pull my money from someone who is actively promoting it. Often this kind of sentiment is a soft pedaled version of more ugly policies, and I just don’t agree with it in the first place. I think nationalism is generally an ignorant position and the lesson of the 20th century should be that trying to maintain homogeneous states nearly always leads to genocide in the worst cases and apartheid states in the best of times. So this doesn’t assuage me much.

That said, extra context is always welcome.

This is way worse than what Yen did. This guy donated a lot of money to a party that explicitly pushes demigration policies, and if there was any doubt that this was a motivating factor for the donation, he later said he felt those policies were necessary. That’s understandable to not want to give your money to someone who you know is going to go bankroll demigration politics with some of your money.

Yen praised the Republicans at large over an anti trust pick.

I think the other criticisms of Proton’s policy changes are valid, and everyone has different standards for what is enough to divest from a company I guess, but I’ve heard people calling Yen a fascist sympathizer for that statement, and that’s just divorced from reality imo.