Charlie StrossJan 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
Show threadCharlie StrossJan 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.

Show threadalex  now on shonk.phite.roJan 4, 2024
@cstross why not wayland
Show threadCharlie StrossJan 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.)
Show threadhko 😷🪁Jan 4, 2024
@cstross X11 applications can run on Wayland, via Xwayland
Show threadCharlie StrossJan 4, 2024
@hko So they've built an X display server that runs as a guest on Wayland, which is otherwise useful for what, precisely? It seems like a waste of CPU cycles to me (that is: I have no use case for it).
Show threadlonjilJan 4, 2024

@cstross @hko

It seems like a waste of CPU cycles to me (that is: I have no use case for it).

Huh, but you just said higher up that you need compatibility?

Show threadCharlie StrossJan 4, 2024
@lonjil @hko I need compatability = I want to run X11. I am uninterested in whatever innovations Wayland is supposed to bring. I want a Linux desktop like it was in 1999, running KDE 3.5.8 or thereabouts!
Show threadKhleedrilJan 4, 2024
@cstross @lonjil @hko The problem is X was architected around a single standard: VGA graphics provided by the system BIOS. But in this day and age monitors are driven by many different combinations of microprocessor extensions, graphics cards, and operating system facilities, and they are not to a single standard. It is unfortunately necessary to break everything to fix it again, and Wayland is an architecture which can work across the spectrum of modern display devices...
Show threadCharlie StrossJan 4, 2024

@khleedril @lonjil @hko

You are Wrong. X11 had *nothing* to do with the VGA standard.

X11 predates VGA graphics by three years and wasn't intended to run on PCs or deal with a BIOS at all—it was designed for workstations with a variety of graphics hardware. I remember it on Sun 3/60 kit circa 1989 ...

Show threadKhleedrilJan 4, 2024
@cstross @lonjil @hko Yeh, sorry, I made a crap post there. Was trying to put across that it was designed to run on a system with *one* graphics sub-system, not several possibly disparate ones, but never mind my parabolicism.
Show threadRob LandleyJan 5, 2024

@khleedril @cstross @lonjil @hko X11 was a network protocol. It came from project Athena, launched in 1983 as a joint project between MIT, DEC and IBM to produce a "campus-wide computing environment".

X11 was designed to pop up GUI windows on a different physical machine than the program was running on, potentially with different OS on different hardware at each end. That was central to the design.

The xfree86 clowns broke a lot of that over the years "optimizing", but that's not X11's fault.

Show threadKhleedril
@landley @cstross @lonjil @hko The correct answer, thank you.
Jan 5, 2024 at 5:01pmWeb