Catherine Winters
mccI like my Linux laptop that crashes once or twice a day. I like my Mastodon account where you can't really talk to anyone about anything but webdev or Rust. I like my Lenovo tablet that sometimes switches into Japanese for no reason. I like my Steam Deck that needs unique settings fiddling per game. I'm willing to put up with some friction & frustration from my computers & software. But what I can't ~abide~, and will twist my life into pretzels to avoid from my computers & software, is *malice*.
Do I feel like this computer is mine, or The Company's? Do I feel like The Company is trying to manipulate me? Do I feel like The Company feels that they own me? Does the computer feel like a sort of interloper, in my life, something that's wormed its way into my home, something I can't get rid of, something that will use this foothold someday to hurt me?
Mx Verda@mcc huh. That sounds like my mom and stepdad tbh.
David Penfold 
wirepair
Glyph@mcc dang these posts are making me feel some feelings. and those feelings are _barely_ about webdev or rust, even
Rob Miller@mcc I just read this out loud to my partner to help her understand why I spend so much time fiddling around with my devices and setting up alternatives to the various corporate owned "free" services.
Meg@mcc I would rather be in a mess of my own making than one made by someone else any day.
unattributed 𓂃✍︎@mcc I felt this way about the last job that I had -- they forced the installation of software on my phone that was logging my activities... This was my personal phone. I told them they could issue me a company phone if it was required -- but instead the counter was for me to leave.
@unattributed i am sorry about this
@mcc Well, I'm not there anymore, so there's that... (But the phone situation isn't the reason I left...)
@unattributed @mcc I am glad you could leave, because this kind of demand ought to be a crime on par with wage theft (and also wage theft should be prosecuted a lot more)
The Long Tail@glyph @unattributed @mcc That a company would do this tells you all you need to know about everything else wrong with the company culture.
Better out than in.
It's only a matter of time till they harm you.
Better out than in.
It's only a matter of time till they harm you.
@sleepyfox @glyph @mcc I wouldn't say that... I would say that this was a symptom of what is wrong with the work culture that we are seeing in the west, and possibly globally.
However, understand that the company was doing a lot of things right. My salary was extremely good (I would say in the top five percent for employers in my field), benefits were well above what other companies offered, and they had numerous other perks and benefits. And, in addition, they had a pretty decent work / life balance.
The problem comes down to something that is highly symptomatic of this whole digital age: where do we draw the line for an individual's privacy? IMO - they were stepping over the line in this area, but from their perspective, I can see where they didn't see it that way.
In the end, I didn't leave the company over this issue... I left the company for family issues, which lead right into the pandemic...so I never went back after.
eighthourlunch@mcc I had a Win 10 machine *that I own* block me from doing something because "only an administrator can do that."
BISH, I AM THE ADMINISTRATOR! I'VE BEEN DOING THIS SINCE BEFORE COMPUTERS MADE PRETTY PICTURES AND WINDOWS WERE THINGS YOU COULD BREAK WITH ROCKS! DO THE DAMN THING, YOU SLOPPILY HALF-NEUTERED ATTEMPT AT AN OS!!!
Serious, what does administrator even mean to those clowns if I'm not the highest power on my own goddamned property?
Phil Thane ✅@mcc
Exactly. Sometimes my computers are a pain but they are my pain. I run Nextcloud server on an old headless PC. A failed upgrade left it running but not running Apache. After some effort, some online help and some SSH it's back. I'm 😊 . Microsoft, Google et al don't own me.
Exactly. Sometimes my computers are a pain but they are my pain. I run Nextcloud server on an old headless PC. A failed upgrade left it running but not running Apache. After some effort, some online help and some SSH it's back. I'm 😊 . Microsoft, Google et al don't own me.
Qole
conspicuous-nonlurker-99Same!!!!!! So much same
twodimes@mcc I want AI. I have holes in my brain. I'm completely time blind. I already mentally classify my phone as a medical device because I use it, murderbot style, to manage my anxiety.
But I want a device that will help me. Not Google and Amazon and Facebook employees/algorithms wandering around my house making suggestions to me.
@mcc
"Malice" is such a personal word. The Company isn't personal. It is a machine that grinds everything into currency. It doesn't care, we're just feedstock for the money printer. No love, no hate, just hunger.
"Malice" is such a personal word. The Company isn't personal. It is a machine that grinds everything into currency. It doesn't care, we're just feedstock for the money printer. No love, no hate, just hunger.
Ozzelot 
zrb@mcc my friends all wonder why I was willing to put up with the relentless fiddling to get games to run all these years (it's much better now, thanks Valve!)
The reason is because it was only when I had set up a daily driver that wasn't Windows, that I felt like I truly owned my computer. I was no longer fighting the OS to do what I wanted; I finally had the freedom to make it my own.
@mcc I was talking with one of my friends recently about how I was so happy that I could swap fonts, themes, entire desktop environments, package managers, init systems at will. And all of my enthusiasm left my body instantly when they replied, entirely sincerely "but why would you want to do any of that?"
I love this person dearly but they use the default wallpaper.
Adam ♿@mcc this is worth writing about at length on some kind of blog.
Graham Sutherland / Polynomial
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe
rex❗ (he/him) ♿🏴
Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🌮 🚀 🌗
∴ esoterik ∴@mcc exactly! i don't mind if my friends are confused, or bumbling, or even frustrating, as long as they are my friends.
Tom Armstrong@mcc This has a similar energy to a post by @ifixcoinops, which may have caused me to switch my games PC to Linux. One of the influences, anyway. I give the steam deck a lot of credit, for demonstrating that Linux could do games well enough that I could live without Windows, something I very much wanted to do. https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/112481957392068239
Dan Fixes Coin-Ops (@[email protected])
Linux is a bit shit sometimes, There's your headline. I don't care whether you use linux or not; ten years ago that might have mattered, I might be trying to get more people to use it so that adobe or whoever would put more effort into supporting it, but that doesn't really matter anymore, these days everything either Just Works or there's a native equivalent that's better and I've no selfish reason to recommend linux anymore, so if you're happy with windows stick with windows. If you're *not* happy with windows, here's the other half of that sentence at the top of this post: Linux is a bit shit sometimes - but when it's a bit shit, it's a bit shit in the way of a cat who watches the mouse run across the living room floor, not in the way of a cat who suddenly decides to bite you for no reason. It's not *actively malicious,* it's just a bit shit sometimes, which these days is tbh pretty damn good compared with a lot of stuff. Like, it's not bad because it's being hollowed out for investors, it's not bad because it's spying on you to make more money, it's not bad because its makers know you've gotta take it anyway, it's not bad because it knows it can get a lot worse before you look elsewhere, it's just... bad. But bad in like a normal way, like a bike with a wonky gear shifter and tyres that keep going soft, not like a bike that shows you adverts. There's my linux recommendation. LINUX: It's A Bit Shit Sometimes™
ceetsI love my Linux Mint that doesn't crash on me, but consistently fails to shut down unless I choke her out through the power button.
Comunidad bahá´í de MexicaliI appreciate the recommendation, but im afraid i stay with Linux Mint because i love her in a toxic yuri kind of way. Mil bendiciones
Salman Mehdi@mcc
زندگی ایسی ہی ہے، لیپ ٹاپ میرا بھی پرانا ہوگیا ہے، ونڈو 10 ہے، لینکس چلانی نہیں آتی، گیم بھی پرانی پچس سال پہلے والی کھیلتے ہیں، میں تو چالیس سال کا ہوں ، خود کو بوڑھا محسوس کرتا ہوں۔ اب اس دنیا سے بھی دل اٹھ گیا ہے۔ مسلمانوں پر تو ویسے زمین تنگ ہے
زندگی ایسی ہی ہے، لیپ ٹاپ میرا بھی پرانا ہوگیا ہے، ونڈو 10 ہے، لینکس چلانی نہیں آتی، گیم بھی پرانی پچس سال پہلے والی کھیلتے ہیں، میں تو چالیس سال کا ہوں ، خود کو بوڑھا محسوس کرتا ہوں۔ اب اس دنیا سے بھی دل اٹھ گیا ہے۔ مسلمانوں پر تو ویسے زمین تنگ ہے
Flipper 🐬🏳️🌈
Hak Foo 
@mcc I've been trying to say this to my brother, who spends many hours a day trying to fight with Windows to do what he wants. (Some of this is untreated OCD, but some is legit tech frustration.)
It's not a system you can negotiate with in good faith.
The KPI people took over a long time ago, and that means achieving your personal aims is just a little side effect they may allow if it gooses the numbers for Live 365 Copilot Pass Live Ultimate Live (or whatever they're calling Office now)
KielKontrovers Blog@mcc crashes once ot twice a day? do you press it so hard? mine crashes twice a year maybe.
@kielkontrovers o put it to sleep by closing the lid. Apparently Linux is very bad at S0ix sleep.
suzune@mcc @kielkontrovers Most likely the laptop has buggy ACPI code. If you knew how it is (not) tested, you'd understand. Sometimes firmware updates help.
@nakal @kielkontrovers I install every update and am running the newest version of Debian, and an update at one point fixed it and another update broke it again
@mcc @kielkontrovers I don't blame Linux for that. Mainboard vendors could easily test their ACPI on Linux, because it tries to conform to the documented standard.
The vendors don't do that. They prefer to test against Windows instead of the specification.
The ACPI interpreter in Linux is polluted with workarounds for broken ACPI code which laptops BIOSes contain.
@nakal @kielkontrovers the product was specifically billed on the website as supporting Ubuntu Linux. That is why I purchased it.
@mcc @kielkontrovers This should be the best case. Crashes are definitely not ok on Linux. I don't remember when I've seen a crash last time. I usually replace my hardware before it begins to crash.
@nakal @kielkontrovers the device is about two years old and has had the problem since receipt. Is it so hard to believe the Linux kernel has a bug?
@mcc @kielkontrovers It's rare, but it's possible. I just wanted to point you at probable reasons. ACPI errors are very common. There is a guy from the Matrix Debian channel who amazes me. He can point at the problem and knows how to place a workaround in the ACPI code. But if ACPI is fine, it's maybe a buggy driver.
@kielkontrovers @nakal I switched from Ubuntu to Debian a bit back and my user experience improved drastically, but the sleep/wake bug has not changed.
@kielkontrovers @nakal the Debian irc support recommended I try to figure out which kernels I've had over time and rewind my kernel to see if the bug goes away again. But that's a pretty alarming step and also it's hard to tell if the bug has gone away because it is stochastic. Not seeing it for three days does not mean it is gone.