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The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it's time to consider Linux and LibreOffice

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  • GF recently wanted to buy Ms office because she had a nice looking CV template for it that would not work well in LibreOffice. So I spent some hours making a good one without Ms crap, just so they would not get anymore money.

    Pretty sure the template would work fine with OnlyOffice.

  • It's not all quite as rosy.

    Yes, Linux is much more capable now than it was 10 years ago and it's much more capable of being used as a main system. I myself have been using Linux as my main system for a few years now.

    But it's also a fact that a lot of stuff might not work (even if it works for someone else) and that some things are still more difficult than they should be.

    For example, on my laptop cannot wake from sleep since kernel 6.11. I have manually sourced a 6.10 from an older version of my distro and keep holding it back, so that I can use my laptop as a laptop. For someone without technical skill, this would mean that their laptop just can't sleep any more. Hibernate also doesn't work.

    Another example is that LibreOffice still makes a lot of formatting mistakes when it has to open word documents. And sure, everyone could just switch to odf, but it's not quite as easy to make everyone else switch to odf. It makes it really hard to use LibreOffice in any kind of professional environment. Wouldn't want to make a powerpoint presentation that then looks like shit when it's played on a different PC.

    Lastly, Nvidia sucks, but it's also close to the only option for laptops with dGPUs. When I look for laptops with dGPUs available in my area on a price comparison platform, I find 760 laptops with Nvidia GPUs and only 3 with AMD, all of which are priced at least €500 more than comparable Nvidia devices. So if you want to go for a gaming laptop, Nvidia is pretty much the only option, and under Linux it really sucks. Steam games generally work ok for me, but trying to use Heroic Launcher to play anything from my gigantic library of free Epic/Amazon/GoG games, about 10% of the games I tried actually work. And even with those that work, my laptop sometimes just decides that a slide show with 3 FPS is good enough. That stays even after reboots and resets, and after a few days it returns to normal. Only to go back to slideshow mode a few days later.

    If you just use your laptop to run a browser, I can recommend Linux 100%.

    If you want to do anything else and don't have any technical skills and/or don't want to spend hours fixing things that should just work, I can't fully recommend it.

    I am a developer and Linux is my native environment in production systems. I wanted to use Linux on my laptop but sleeping / waking up never worked well enough. It could not switch from integrated video card to a discrete one ending up always using the discrete one which drained the battery in 30 minutes. All in all, it was usable but the details didn't work so I gave up. That was years ago and eversince no customer really allows Linux...

  • What is the highest spec pc I am likely to find for sale when people realise it cant go to windows 11?

    I had a look and it looks like you will not get anything special. The cutoff is around 2015. So for example Lenovo T440s will support Win11 but T440p will not. Looking at backmarket T440s is cheaper than T440p. So looks like you will only be able to get something ancient and the price will be pretty standard.

  • I've been a full time dev since 2012 and needed a Mac, I had barely used windows over that time but beforehand ran a PC service business.

    Anyway, Ive been using Linux as a daily driver for the past 6 months for reasons.

    ... The other day I got a new cheap laptop I needed to setup for run a single application.

    Holy fuck what a shitshow.

    It took me 2 hours just to get to the desktop. Shit didn't work, bullshit login screens, ads everywhere.

    It was a massive pile of dog shit.

    After battling to get the system setup for the rest of the day I gave up, chucked Fedora Kinoite On it... Took 30 minutes from creating boot media to getting a desktop going, chucked the app I needed to run in a Flatpack, chucked it on a USB, and it was up and running.

    No bullshit.

    Just works.

    Truly the year of the Linux desktop.

    I'm guessing the cheap laptop was running Windows? You didn't mention, it sounds at first like you're saying you were using Linux on it.

    What ads were everywhere? Why did it "take 2 hours to get to the desktop" - you mean, that's how long it took to install or something?

  • Pretty sure the template would work fine with OnlyOffice.

    I just rebuilt mine and can confirm that most of those resume template builders utilize a lot of word doc "hacks" to format everything, and loading and LibreOffice breaks it.

  • Consider running the LTSC version. It gets extended support.

    If one were to run Win10 Enterprise LTSC IoT, "activated"... would it continue to automatically receive updates?

  • back in 2017, the company I worked at had a win 2K server. Crazy shit. It was for a critical system (ran the phone system)

    Fucking phone systems! That's what these are, and we have to snap them any time they're rebooted because sometimes they just shut the bed randomly, but the client doesn't want to buy a new system....

    But, it's their wallet and they're willing to pay the "fuck you pay me" legacy surcharge.

  • I'm between living locations and can't carry my desktop around.

    So I grabbed an old laptop and put Linux mint on it. It's been near perfect. Extremely smooth experience.

    It detected my printer and auto installed. I installed steam and played Terraria without issue. Small performance problem but I don't have a GPU. Even works good with my docking station.

    My only complaint is the audio device doesn't switch automatically when I dock/undock.

    I'd recommend making a USB and boot into it for a test drive.

    Awesome, thanks for the insight. I was actually looking at Linux Mint myself. I need around 4Gb on a USB to boot it, correct?

  • If you keep forgetting them for another ~15-25 more years they might have value in the retro space.

    Shadow retirement fund

  • EOL means no more security updates, which means attack vectors don't get patched.

    If you keep using a Windows installation (or any OS for that matter) that isn't patched regularly you are very likely to be victim to some malicious actor eventually. It's not manual hacking anymore, it's bots scraping the whole internet exploiting known vulnerabilities completely automated.

    The risk is much lower if you're in a home network with NAT, where your PCs IP is not publicly reachable, but if you communicate with any webservices you're still vulnerable.

    As example. If you nowadays put a Windows XP machine live on the internet with a public IP, it will be compromised within minutes.

    So yeah. Good call switching to Mint, but please don't use unpatched Windows.

    Nat is not a security feature.

    Just use ipv6

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    No, no its not. I get it lemmy has a hard on for Linux and libreoffice. But unfortunately its just not gonna happen windows is king. If you like or not its the main dog on the market and enterprises are not going to switch.

  • I'm guessing the cheap laptop was running Windows? You didn't mention, it sounds at first like you're saying you were using Linux on it.

    What ads were everywhere? Why did it "take 2 hours to get to the desktop" - you mean, that's how long it took to install or something?

    People here so full of shit. I just reimaged my lenovo t570 with windows 11 took less then 10mins to install. Another 5 to remove all the bs built in software like solitaire Cortana etc and then another 10-15 to apply all windows updates. Bam done.

  • Awesome, thanks for the insight. I was actually looking at Linux Mint myself. I need around 4Gb on a USB to boot it, correct?

    That might do it. I don't own anything smaller than 16 GB sticks. I used Rufus on windows to make my stick.

  • No, no its not. I get it lemmy has a hard on for Linux and libreoffice. But unfortunately its just not gonna happen windows is king. If you like or not its the main dog on the market and enterprises are not going to switch.

    With a couple of governments making the switch I honestly think that things are changing to some degree. Will windows die and be forgotten by everyone overnight? Of course not. But I think there’s a real chance their piece of the pie will start to shrink noticeably. Chrome OS is dominating in schools for a few years now and Microsoft is seemingly trying hard to alienate the current windows users.

  • Why is that? What's the problem with ubuntu? I mean ubuntu-based distros seem to hate my bog-standard RTX3060 GPU for some reason, but besides that. I'm pretty happy with nobara tho, and wouldn't switch back to ubuntu even if I knew it'd work with my GPU.

    You just hit both of my points,

    1. Newer hardware has compatibility issues due to Ubuntu's slower update cycle

    2.ubuntu doesn't do anything particularly better than any other distro, the marketing pitch normally ends up being "we're Linux, and we've done it a while" because there isn't any feature that makes it stand out so they advertise on their stability which isn't that much more pronounced in comparison to a fedora or debian based distro.

    What's the problem with ubuntu?

    In general I wouldn't say it has a problem, it does what it says it will do, it's just that it's distinct features are quickly becoming the standard or obsolete.

  • People here so full of shit. I just reimaged my lenovo t570 with windows 11 took less then 10mins to install. Another 5 to remove all the bs built in software like solitaire Cortana etc and then another 10-15 to apply all windows updates. Bam done.

    You can even skip step 2 by using one of the IoT editions (either Win10 or Win11) which come minus the prepackaged bloatware.

    Microsoft is mostly interested in making everything bullshit for home users. If you convince them you're an enterprise customer, preferably by running up the old Jolly Roger, suddenly your life is a lot easier.

  • People here so full of shit. I just reimaged my lenovo t570 with windows 11 took less then 10mins to install. Another 5 to remove all the bs built in software like solitaire Cortana etc and then another 10-15 to apply all windows updates. Bam done.

    Takes a lot more to fully deshittify it, though. I've been down that road. So much registry diving, so many third party apps, strongarming uninstallations of bloatware through brute force, and just all around weeks of work.

    When the screenshot shit was announced the first time, I just got tired of looking for workarounds to disable or remove Microsoft's active attempts of policing, spying, and triple-dip profiting off it's paying customers.

  • Why is that? What's the problem with ubuntu? I mean ubuntu-based distros seem to hate my bog-standard RTX3060 GPU for some reason, but besides that. I'm pretty happy with nobara tho, and wouldn't switch back to ubuntu even if I knew it'd work with my GPU.

    my main gripe with Ubuntu right now is the way they are forcing snaps into my system under the covers. if i wanted to install a snap, i would be using snap install instead of apt install. forcing a snap install when i use apt install is just total fuckery. fortunately i only have to use ubuntu at work; home is fedora and alma

  • The first paragraphs on https://endof10.org/ tell you why you should install Linux followed by telling you how to get in touch with someone who can explain things to you and even install it for you. Most of them do it free of charge. I'm not sure how you can improve on that.

    Because theyre eithet vauge, blatant lies, or not something people care about:

    No New Hardware, No Licensing Costs

    Most people are willing to buy new hardware, and nobody pays for a Windows key tbh. Even if they did it would be a free upgrade from 10 to 11. Also the terminology is very enterprise focused and objectively some distros (ex REHL) are paid.

    Enhanced Privacy

    Once again not something people strictly care about. In addition if you use Linux exactly like Windows with Chrome, Whatsapp, Discord and other non privacy respecting apps you're not improving your privacy by much.

    Good For The Planet

    The implication that carbon emissions is something an individual can do something about has been objectively disproven. For any meaningful change you need societal change from the top (especially corporations and rich people).

    Community & Professional Support

    Online Linux forums and chats especially for new people can be extremely overwhelming. Especially when a Windows user comes in and asks why something isnt exactly like Windows. Also once again movements like this is why people dont like the Linux community.

    Better User Control

    Most new Linux users not only wont use them but especially in KDE software will actively be overwhelmed by the amount of options and menus. Additionally what this critically leaves out is the fact that more advanced customization requires more skill and experience the more advanced it is. There is a clear skill difference from installing a widget in KDE Plasma to compling and installing a custom kernel.

    Now lets talk about the things they should have mentioned:

    1. Less commercial software: adobe especially but most professional grade editing software for both video and photo does not support Linux (yes I know Davinchi resolve technically does but the Linux version is so awful you might as well not use it)
    2. Linux is not Windows or MacOS: Linux does its own thing, sometimes this is good sometimes bad sometimes its highly debatable (and Linux users will debate it). Because of that if you expect to use Linux exactly like Windows you'll get confused and frustrated.
    3. Package managers: Almost every major DE has a graphical package manager frontend, this is a good thing and should be talked about.
    4. Desktop Environments: Show what they look like, KDE Plasma and Gnome. It should be explained their differnces and who they're made for.
    5. Distros: Explain a few of the most common distros and who they're made for. Debian is the most stable but gets few updates, OpenSuse tumbleweed is bleeding edge, Fedora gets updates once every few months, Arch is unstable and not reccomended for beginners, Pop_OS is great for gaming (see ProtonDB for compatibility)
  • No, no its not. I get it lemmy has a hard on for Linux and libreoffice. But unfortunately its just not gonna happen windows is king. If you like or not its the main dog on the market and enterprises are not going to switch.

    What the hell are you on about. This is not a "everyone or no one" thing. You can consider it. I have, I switched. I still use mac at work but I absolutely can switch at the homefront. Some companies use Linux, most use Windows. And they absolutely can consider switching.

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    This is interesting to me as I like to say the llms are basically another abstraction of search. Initially it was links with no real weight that had to be gone through and then various algorithms weighted the return, then the results started giving a small blurb so one did not have to follow every link, and now your basically getting a report which should have references to the sources. I would like to see this looking at how folks engage with an llm. Basically my guess is if one treats the llm as a helper and collaborates to create the product that they will remember more than if they treat it as a servant and just instructs them to do it and takes the output as is.
  • Texting myself the weather every day

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    Even being too lazy to open the weather app, there are so many better and free ways of receiving a message on your phone. This is profoundly stupid.
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    Niemand hat geantwortet
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    professorchodimaccunt@sh.itjust.worksP
    GOOD lets chance of spAIyware on there
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    Now we need an open source browser runtime...
  • Catbox.moe got screwed 😿

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    archrecord@lemm.eeA
    I'll gladly give you a reason. I'm actually happy to articulate my stance on this, considering how much I tend to care about digital rights. Services that host files should not be held responsible for what users upload, unless: The service explicitly caters to illegal content by definition or practice (i.e. the if the website is literally titled uploadyourcsamhere[.]com then it's safe to assume they deliberately want to host illegal content) The service has a very easy mechanism to remove illegal content, either when asked, or through simple monitoring systems, but chooses not to do so (catbox does this, and quite quickly too) Because holding services responsible creates a whole host of negative effects. Here's some examples: Someone starts a CDN and some users upload CSAM. The creator of the CDN goes to jail now. Nobody ever wants to create a CDN because of the legal risk, and thus the only providers of CDNs become shady, expensive, anonymously-run services with no compliance mechanisms. You run a site that hosts images, and someone decides they want to harm you. They upload CSAM, then report the site to law enforcement. You go to jail. Anybody in the future who wants to run an image sharing site must now self-censor to try and not upset any human being that could be willing to harm them via their site. A social media site is hosting the posts and content of users. In order to be compliant and not go to jail, they must engage in extremely strict filtering, otherwise even one mistake could land them in jail. All users of the site are prohibited from posting any NSFW or even suggestive content, (including newsworthy media, such as an image of bodies in a warzone) and any violation leads to an instant ban, because any of those things could lead to a chance of actually illegal content being attached. This isn't just my opinion either. Digital rights organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have talked at length about similar policies before. To quote them: "When social media platforms adopt heavy-handed moderation policies, the unintended consequences can be hard to predict. For example, Twitter’s policies on sexual material have resulted in posts on sexual health and condoms being taken down. YouTube’s bans on violent content have resulted in journalism on the Syrian war being pulled from the site. It can be tempting to attempt to “fix” certain attitudes and behaviors online by placing increased restrictions on users’ speech, but in practice, web platforms have had more success at silencing innocent people than at making online communities healthier." Now, to address the rest of your comment, since I don't just want to focus on the beginning: I think you have to actively moderate what is uploaded Catbox does, and as previously mentioned, often at a much higher rate than other services, and at a comparable rate to many services that have millions, if not billions of dollars in annual profits that could otherwise be spent on further moderation. there has to be swifter and stricter punishment for those that do upload things that are against TOS and/or illegal. The problem isn't necessarily the speed at which people can be reported and punished, but rather that the internet is fundamentally harder to track people on than real life. It's easy for cops to sit around at a spot they know someone will be physically distributing illegal content at in real life, but digitally, even if you can see the feed of all the information passing through the service, a VPN or Tor connection will anonymize your IP address in a manner that most police departments won't be able to track, and most three-letter agencies will simply have a relatively low success rate with. There's no good solution to this problem of identifying perpetrators, which is why platforms often focus on moderation over legal enforcement actions against users so frequently. It accomplishes the goal of preventing and removing the content without having to, for example, require every single user of the internet to scan an ID (and also magically prevent people from just stealing other people's access tokens and impersonating their ID) I do agree, however, that we should probably provide larger amounts of funding, training, and resources, to divisions who's sole goal is to go after online distribution of various illegal content, primarily that which harms children, because it's certainly still an issue of there being too many reports to go through, even if many of them will still lead to dead ends. I hope that explains why making file hosting services liable for user uploaded content probably isn't the best strategy. I hate to see people with good intentions support ideas that sound good in practice, but in the end just cause more untold harms, and I hope you can understand why I believe this to be the case.
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    Won't someone think of the shareholders?!
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    I use it for my self hosted apps, but yeah, it's rarely useful for websites in the wild.