@kabel42 @OpenComputeDesign

16-bit/early-32-bit was my favorite era. (Basically, the #68k era ;)

Computers were just becoming capable, but not too big for their britches.

@rl_dane @kabel42

Yeah, tbh, we really should have stopped at 32-bit

@kabel42 @OpenComputeDesign

I think computers were honestly better when they were limited to absolutely no more than 1GB RAM, no more than 256 colors, and no more than 1024x768 screen resolution.

1GB RAM: no LLMs
256 colors: no horrid low-contrast soupy interfaces
XGA Resolution: no horrid empty spaces and bloated interfaces

I keep wanting to make that as an OS 😄

(If only I had the skillz)

@rl_dane @kabel42

Yeah, older GUIs were _so much better_ it's actually impressive just how fast and how hard GUI design has fallen off a cliff

@OpenComputeDesign @kabel42

Yeah, and the pushback I get from statements like that is insane to me.

"But we don't want to go back to Windows 95."

I don't either, it was a crap OS, but the interface was better than the crap interfaces they're shipping today, so ?!?!????!?

@rl_dane

I'd rather w95 with its software suite and interface than w11 with its.

W11 is a worse OS than w95 was.

@OpenComputeDesign @kabel42

@pixx @OpenComputeDesign @kabel42

It does have memory protection, though. That was Windows 95's most glaring weakness.

Edit: I meant to say that it doesn't. derp.
Edit2: No, I was saying that W11 has memory protection. lol

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Modern software still absolutely _sucks_ with anything to do with memory. Any claims modern OS's make are, at best, just giving people a false sense of security.

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

Brofam, Windows 95 used to crash on me daily.

Linux? Basically never.

FreeBSD? Maaaaybe once a week.

@kabel42 @rl_dane @pixx

Have to reinstall linux at least once a season :P

@OpenComputeDesign @kabel42 @pixx

I have linux installs last me years. Except for Arch-based. :P
Also had bad luck with Solus, but I only tried it once.

@rl_dane @kabel42 @pixx

Well, the problem is, even if you have an install that lasts a few years, you'll still have to reinstall once the mirrors for your version shut down.

@OpenComputeDesign

Only with a badly desifned os.

Never had thst problem with gentoo

@rl_dane @kabel42

@pixx @rl_dane @kabel42

It's fairly intrinsically tied to the dependency hell nature of Unix, though

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

I don't know what you mean by "Dependency Hell."

What OS does a good job of managing dependencies?

If you say Windows, I'mma MSCVRT40.DLL NOT FOUND ya face. XD

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Well, true, all OS's _do_ have dependency hell. But that doesn't make it _ok_

We can and _should_ do better than this. Rather than working as hard as we can to keep it the status quo

@pixx @OpenComputeDesign @kabel42

And keep ancient library cruft and vulnerabilities embedded in every single executable?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

I'm so afraid of getting hacked through things like Imagemagik :P

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

That's a very real attack vector.

If you've never worked in infosec, you may lack the essential professional paranoia. XD

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Well, I actually was interning at a college IT department when reports started comming in that people suddenly couldn't open PDFs and it turned out they were using a font that Adobe deemed a security risk and blacklisted in an update, so everyone had to install none Acrobat readers to recover their documents :P

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

Yeesh, Adobe software is an attack vector.

Then again, so is #OpenBSD. all software is an attack vector. It's just a matter of how big of a silhouette you want to give the attacker.

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Yeah, true. But, feel like at some point, you've just gotta pick your battles. And also remember that for every bug fixed, there's probably one introduced as well :P

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

Simplicity is always preferable.

It's up to you if that means running Alpine Linux instead of Fedora, or FreeBSD, or OpenBSD, or NetBSD, or QNX, or Plan9, or a Commodore 64. ;)

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Actually, it's up to the websites I need to run :(

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

Nah, just have one computer for perusing the crappy modern web, and another for personal enjoyment.

That's how I used OpenBSD until someone got Firefox working well on it in the latest version.

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Problem is, which ever computer runs ebay, my email, and matrix, _has_ to be my main computer :/

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

ebay -> no help there, sorry
matrix -> iamb, gomuks (terminal)
email -> aerc, *mutt, *pine, elm, or if you need OAUTH, claws-mail

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

Do those work with gmail and protonmail?

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

claws-mail supposedly works with gmail, but I haven't tried that, myself.

Protonmail requires you to run their own bridge service, and then you can use the IMAP client of your choice, pointed at localhost.

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

iirc you have to pay to use their bridge

@OpenComputeDesign @pixx @kabel42

Extra? It's a paid service to begin with, n'est-ce pas?

@rl_dane @pixx @kabel42

They have a free tier. I'm _way_ too poor to afford any monthly fees. I only make $1,000 a year, in one lump sum, and half that goes to pay off debts