kyub

Microslop Crashpilot

I'll always call it Microslop from this point on. Although that term, while true, also detracts a bit from the other problem this causes: 100% surveillance by Microsoft and 0% ownership of your documents/data. Personal and business alike. But anyway, it's a term that Nadella doesn't like so please keep using it.

This behavior is to be expected since the EU is heavily vulnerable to blackmail due to its many hard dependencies on US-based software and services. I suspect that many EU leaders can easily be bullied into submission by the current kleptocracy in the US.

This behavior is to be expected since the EU is heavily vulnerable to blackmail due to its many hard dependencies on US-based software and services. I suspect that many EU leaders can easily be bullied into submission by the current kleptocracy in the US.

Just remember that correlation is not causation. Yes, such things distract from the Epstein case and that's a welcome effect for the US dictator. But he's not thinking "hmm I really would like to have a distraction from that so that's why I'll just commit another war crime or atrocity so they'll all be distracted". He commits new atrocities anyway, and it just so happens that new atrocities automatically distract from older ones. He is causing way more problems than we are capable of mentally tracking.

Congrats.

Yes, desktop Linux is generally very usable for the majority of users these days. This was already claimed to be the case in the late 1990s, which is probably why many non-IT-professionals had a bad first expression with desktop Linux. But this has changed since (very roughly) about 10 years ago or so, and for gaming in particular it has changed since very roughly about 5 years ago. This is also the reason why desktop Linux was at like ~1% market share all the time but has suddenly grown to ~6% within the last couple of years already. And with higher popularity comes more developer interest and support. Furthermore, Windows is becoming worse over time because Nadella is more interested in milking his user base instead of nurturing it, and many want more independence from US-based proprietary software due to the current political situation, and so it's very likely that desktop Linux is going to keep snowballing upwards. The trend is looking very positively for desktop Linux, it will probably reach MacOS market share within the next couple of years. For gaming specifically, it's already #2.

The most important thing about the Linux ecosystem is of course that most of it (at least the core components) is free/open source software and this is necessary to have digital sovereignty.

Other users interested in making the switch can make their transition easier by doing it in 2 steps: first, replace all important applications you're using on Windows with Linux-compatible applications (for example, no MS Office, no Adobe), then adjust to the changed workflows while still using Windows. Only after that, install Linux as the primary OS (or set up dual-boot, but it has disadvantages. Best is to physically disconnect your disk containing Windows (so you still have a backup in case you desperately need it) and use another disk for Linux). That way, the culture shock is a bit mitigated because you'll have at least some familiarity (the applications you need) inside an otherwise unfamiliar new OS environment. That way, the change will feel less overwhelming.

If there are still dependencies which can't be worked around, there's also the emergency solution of using either wine or a Windows VM on Linux. In the latter case it's probably best these days to use winboat, which allows running Windows-only applications which then run inside a specific Windows VM or container on Linux. Or you just use a full regular Windows VM on Linux, with a shared folder between both systems for exchanging files.

Unfortunately it wouldn't change much. The current fascism is structural and enabled by many actors, companies and institutions, not tied to one particular person. When he dies, Vance will just continue doing the same.

The only thing that could initiate real change would be the majority of US citizens revolting (but the majority are currently brainwashed by fascist rhetoric on proprietary social media and Fox News) and/or retaliation from other countries.

Kind of true, although for many, the comic starts at the 3rd panel.

Usually it's corruption, but in this case I think it's even more sinister than that... it's the result of a total and basically irreversible digital dependency which the EU maneuvered itself into, despite warnings of numerous technical experts not to give away full control of your important digital infrastructure to some other country. But they didn't listen because they were constantly scammed by marketing, lobbyists and short-lived tech trends to think that it's surely the best option and there's surely never going to be a problem if you let US-based companies control everything you need in daily personal or business life.

I don't think it's a coincidence that this comes after the US removed/disabled all US company based accounts (E-mail, Paypal, Creditcard, international banking, ...) of one EU judge whose ruling heavily disfavored US big tech companies. (See: https://www.heise.de/en/news/How-a-French-judge-was-digitally-cut-off-by-the-USA-11087561.html) I think this was the main trigger for the EU why this "digital omnibus" now exists - to appease the US-based companies and, by extension, the current US regime. Because otherwise quite a lot of EU businesses and individuals could and would be teleported back to the digital '90s, simply because they chose to give away all of their digital sovereignty - because it seemed cool to do so, and because most others did so too.

The US has demonstrated the world who's the boss in the digital realm, and everyone who doesn't fall in line will be threatened with the deactivation or removal of all "important" US-based accounts. This maybe couldn't have happened before due to friendlier administrations and the rule of law and contracts, but now with the current regime which doesn't have to care anymore about past alliances or laws or regulations or contracts, there's really not much that would stop them from doing whatever they (or the US companies) want. And while everyone is watching the US slide into a fascist authoritarianism, what people forget about is how dependent their own lives and also businesses still are on US-based companies. This will be, or is already, a weapon against whole countries to bully them into compliance with US wishes. And I think the EU is still absolutely the equivalent of a digital colony of the US - and that is fully self-inflicted. Far too many popular mistakes have been made in the past, and now those mistakes are actually having their biggest cumulative effect. Just like with the climate desaster. Which is waiting just in line after we get over this. Buckle up.

Unfortunately, most Windows users have a long history of complaining about it and then still continuing to use it.

There's no way around it: if you keep using abusive software, you'll stay in an abusive relationship.

It's for window management related hotkeys. Obviously. All about windows. With a lowercase "w".

I once said "Some people living in 2025 aren't very far advanced from people who lived in the Dark Ages" (or Middle Age, whatever). Then somebody replied "... but they are wearing nice suits!". That's about the difference. The layer of modern civilization is thin.

Wikipedia has some interesting parts about it as well:

The Dark Ages is a term, now deprecated by most historians, for the Early Middle Ages (c. 5th–10th centuries), or occasionally the entire Middle Ages (c. 5th–15th centuries), in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual, and cultural decline.

The concept of a "Dark Age" as a historiographical periodization originated in the 1330s with the Italian scholar Petrarch, who regarded the post-Roman centuries as "dark" compared to the "light" of classical antiquity.[1][2] The term employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the era's supposed darkness (ignorance and error) with earlier and later periods of light (knowledge and understanding).[

Doesn't seem so far away now does it.