Mastodawn

Charlie Stross Jan 4, 2024

NO FUCK OFF GET AWAY FROM ME YOU CREEP— https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/ai-comes-for-your-pcs-keyboard-as-microsoft-adds-dedicated-copilot-key/

Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards for the first time since 1994

Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards, though not yet.

Ars Technica

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Charlie Stross Jan 4, 2024

Seriously, if Apple copy Microsoft with a stunt like this, that'd be my cue to buy a Framework laptop and switch 100% to Linux for work.

(Which would be enormously painful as Scrivener isn't supported on Linux and it's been my work platform for the past 15 years.)

NB: only distributions with X.org ranther than Wayland and sysv init instead of systemd need apply.

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alex

now on shonk.phite.ro Jan 4, 2024

@cstross why not wayland

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Charlie Stross Jan 4, 2024

@graphite Because Wayland AIUI isn't compatible with all previous X apps. And I want compatability. (Also, it's needless change for change's sake, just like systemd.)

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flere-imsaho 🇺🇦Jan 4, 2024

@cstross at this stage systemd is an old, stable building block for most linux systems. if you don't demand to tear out launchd from macosx, why would you care what does precisely the same job on linux?

ditto with wayland, which, by the way, is developed by the same people who worked on x(free|org). regarding xwayland – how frequently do you use quartz's x server on macosx? xwayland it's like that, but much better integrated than xquartz.

@graphite

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Charlie Stross Jan 4, 2024

@mawhrin @graphite Stop trying to shame me into learning something new that I don't need! I'm about 80% of my way through my life expectancy, and I want to keep my remaining brain cpu cycles for stuff I find interesting and that bring me joy. Being forced to learn new software just because some devs think it's cool and neat to have something to work on does not bring me joy (or help me write my novels).

Only reason I can't stick with old kit is: security holes grow and hardware decays.

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flere-imsaho 🇺🇦

@cstross i don't, and i'm not recommending switching (back) to linux if other options work for you.

it's just that these days actively ignoring wayland and systemd requires more tedious work from the end-user, not less, and people considering linux must be aware of that.

systemd is not new: it's old, stable and boring (debian switched to systemd in 2014), and unless you want or need to know about it, you probably won't even touch it. (hence my launchd parallel; they do precisely the same low-level set of jobs).

as for wayland and xwayland, xwayland is the only x server that receives active development these days. if you want to use only x on linux, you either need someone handling all potential issues for yourself (like with steamdeck) or you're setting yourself up to deal with various little problems with bitrotting code base, with dwindling number of people who actually want to engage with them.

(for example, you might encounter a mysterious case of electron apps infuriatingly crashing mid-typing – something that made me ultimately switch to wayland-based desktop last year.)

@graphite