Yes! This happened to me when I turned off the ‘safe boot’ on a laptop via BIOS. It locked me out but I had never agreed to install Bitlocker in the first place, let alone know what key I was supposed to have. It was a total loss & I had to wipe the drive.

MS is hot trash.

[This comment has been removed after user thought better if engaging with dingdongs.]

Yes.

I’m using Cosmic, which apes Gnome but is not Gnome. I’m being a total purist though & keeping as much KDE & Gnome out of the DE as possible.

That said, Cosmic has no problem updating the menu when Flatpaks are installed. I also don’t tend to run software from a script just for funsies, it’s usually to do with an automated process. Another issue is sometimes, a script will call on a hook for software, like a browser for example, & flatpaks can cause problems with the scripts locating or sharing data with the scripts due to the nature of the sandboxing.

I still have plenty of flatpaks installed because they are pretty good, even with (what I consider) flaws. Imo flatpaks are kind of like Docker in that they’re great & everything, but also kind of a pain in the ass.

As far as appimages, I guess it doesn’t bother me to update manually once in awhile and, as I just explained, I actually usually want software to have access to everything. I installed Ghostty via appimage, for example, & I use it all the time, but it’s not critical that it gets updates, so I just check manually on occasion.

Anyways, I 100% agree with you on the rest. I’ve never considered the AUR as a giant repo but yeah, that’s a good way to think of it.

The distro I use (Pop_os) has a lot of outdated packages in the ‘store’, & I think that’s pretty common for any distro that’s not bleeding edge.

The store compensates with flatpaks a lot of the times, but my issue with those is they don’t integrate with the system very well. To launch Krita (for a random example), instead of using ‘krita’ in the command line, I need to use like, ‘~/.local/var/org.kritafoundation.krita.flatpak’ (I am making that up, but it’s probably something similar). This becomes a real issue when using scripts or needing software to work system wide.

Appimages are actually my current favorite method for universal install. I rename them, then stuff them in my ~/bin/ directory. My gripe with appimages is there is no auto generated .desktop file.

I like building from source, but sometimes it feels like I install 10 gigs of dependencies to build a 400kb piece of software.

Adding repos was invented by the Devil & is thus appropriately cursed to break systems, so I stay away unless there’s really no other options.

I guess what I’m saying is every single method sucks, but still better than Windows lol.

Honestly, an up-to-date store would be the best of all Worlds, which I suppose is Arch’s AUR, but, nah. Arch looks like a headache.

Anyways, I’m blabbing. That happens when I start geeking out about Linux.

Video link for the layzee.

Believe me, I am not advocating that most people only use their Browser, but it is the reality of the situation & actually kind of a good thing in terms of Linux adoption. As you point out, people moved to Chrome w few issues b/c, imo, most normies just need a browser.

As for the rest of it, most people consider the need to download exes one at a time a downside. And again, flatpaks & appimages are the workaround to universal compatibility (anything but adding repos).

That said, you obviously have a lot of experience. I hope you can get to the point where it doesn’t feel like Linux is fighting you.

Good luck!

Thanks for clarifying.

Yeah what you say about launching I agree with, it’s not a big deal anymore.

There are several ways to install on Windows as well. Either installers, a standalone exe, or via the Windows Store. That’s not really any different than what I’m talking about with the exception of there being more than one “type” of exe (deb, rpm, etc).

On Linux, most people just use the store front that comes with their distro while more advanced users can build from source or whatever b/c they need bleeding edge releases or b/c it’s “fun”.

Adding repos is the Devil & my last resort because that shit will break a system, so I’m w you there.

So yeah, if your main argument is the hurdle to changing systems goes beyond the Start Menu, I agree. That said, it’s not that hard & most people just use a browser anyways, tbh.

I don’t understand this comment.

So you think Linux users have to use a command line to launch applications?

Also, there are appImages for Linux that run exactly like .exe files if that’s how people want to run software, but there are also like 3 other ways to install software, it’s up to the user.

I guess the file structure is different if that’s really a big deal to anyone.

But maybe I’m misunderstanding?

Very legal.

How could Democrats have blocked this? Art thou speaking out thine ass?

Red Reader is adless & open source.

Also no account needed (for read only, obvs).

It has gotten more & more tame & lame over there as the bots take over.

What you’re talking about is if AI is actually inventing new work (imo, yes it is), but that’s not the issue.

The issue is these models were trained on our collective knowledge & culture without permission, then sold back to us.

Unless they use only proprietary & public training data, every single one of these models should be open sourced/weighted & free for anyone to use, like libraries.

Thx, that’s exactly my concern as I remember it being an issue when I was flashing ROMs in the past.

I wonder if Square would still work, for example? I haven’t flashed open source ROMs on my phone since like 2012.

Honestly though, I just consider the phone a lost cause when it comes to privacy & use it accordingly. Uncle Googs is always watching, even when the damn thing is turned off.

Mullvad is really for anonymous sessions. It’s meant to blend in with every other Mullvad instance on the Net so it helps make users harder to identify. It’s not geared towards daily use.

On desktop, I switched to Librewolf and installed the Dark Reader add-on.

I will continue using Firefox on Android because I have absolutely no illusions about my privacy on this fucking thing.

Didn’t they also elude to collecting telemetry recently? I know it’s up for some debate but, if true, I’m not sure that’s a thing we can turn off.

I have a theory that this is intentional design.

When products perform smoothly, you don’t interact with them, they become invisible, & Uncle Googs needs you interacting with their products as much as possible.

Thanks to telemetry, Good Ol’ Uncle Googs has millions of hours of behavioral patterns to sift through, provided by all those free Chromebooks for school districts across the US.

So Google know exactly what gets folks engaging with their phones &, I believe, intentionally cause frustration over seemingly simple tasks b/c many many people will forget what they were doing, fix the issue, then get distracted by entertainment apps, doom scrolling, etc.

Dark patterns & behavioral manipulation.

I think we can all agree, Nutsack is being falsely maligned.