blobjim [he/him]

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Joined 6 years ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2020

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  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.nettoLinux@lemmy.mldo you miss anything from windows?
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    6 days ago

    Windows does plenty of things better. Like having a stable device driver API, so you can install third-party drivers really easily. And there’s only one Windows compared to many Linux distros, so there’s no need to compile software specifically for many separate Linux distros. Not as much of an issue with things like Flatpak. Windows also uses software library APIs for most operating system features, compared to the patchwork of file descriptors and file systems and sockets and all the other nonsense that makes up the interfaces used by Linux applications. The documentation is also in one place for Windows (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/). WIth Linux, you have to do research just to figure out what APIs are available. If Linux had as uniform of an API as Windows does, there would be even more software for it. The main reason there is more Linux software these days is because Linux is open source.






  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.nettoLinux@lemmy.mlSss
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    4 months ago

    DRI_PRIME is an environment variable. DRI_PRIME=1 gimp is a bash syntax for setting an environment variable for a specific command execution, Whisker probably doesn’t use shell commands, it’s expecting an executable. So it’s trying to look up a file named DRI_PRIME=1 in your PATH.

    You’re going to need to figure out if whisker has a way to set env vars for a command (I don’t use it so not sure what it shows when you click the “Help” button). If not, you’ll need to create an executable script file which executes your command with the environment variable set like you’re attempting to do (DRI_PRIME=1 gimp), and then point whisker at your script.


  • I did an update or something and it corrupted the bootloading for Fedora Silverblue. Had to just reinstall everything. Also was a time when the update url or something was broken and I couldn’t update. That remains the biggest issue. But it might not be an issue for a professionally maintained distro like Ubuntu that has a company backing it. I feel like it’s safe to recommend Ubuntu but not any other distros.

    And it’s definitely true that the average user has more control on Windows. You can download installers and random zip files with executables and they’ll just work. Linux has such a messed up model for executables and libraries that they usually have to be recompiled for every Linux distro unless you use flatpak.

    But I think it’s mostly the learning curve of getting used to how linux desktops work and their idiosyncrasies that makes it hard for people. And tons of bad advice online telling you to run commands.

    Linux actually has lots of GUI apps that can help fix issues and do things in Linux but people keep offering outdated advice about using command line tools and editing brittle config files.

    And some things are distro-specific.





  • The project’s aim is to create an Android-compatible OS. I like the Linux-on-phone approach of postmarketOS better but whatever they end up working on should end up benefitting both projects since they’ll probably just be contributing driver code like postmarketOS. It’s weird that they don’t even mention postmarketOS in the announcement.




  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.nettoLinux@lemmy.mlLinux Tablet?
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    7 months ago

    Searching for “tablet PC” or “Windows tablet” instead of just “tablet” will probably help in your search. Most computers with x86_64 CPUs (Intel or AMD) should be able to run Linux distros fine.

    But tablets don’t seem to be a common form factor for PCs. It seems like the term has really been narrowed down to mean one that runs Android or iOS. Very frustrating.

    If you can’t find anything that doesn’t have an ARM SoC, you can try postmarketOS, but it will require more work and risk than a “PC” that is a tablet. https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices