You think LM being “too old” is a problem for newbies? I’ve been running some distro or other since RedHat 5. I it took me 6 weeks of waiting for Fedora to sort out most of the issues, (and I STILL have some minor ghosting issues and I ain’t no gamer), and 4 tries to get Fedora 40 to successfully take the nVidia drivers for the GTX1650 chipset in my laptop.

You think a new wannbe convert is going to put up with that?

It still happens more than it should. It took me 4 tries to get the nVidia driver to take on my “gaming” laptop with Fedora 40, (it wouldn’t accept the public keys for some reason). And I had to wait for some updates that took 2 weeks to show up. But, the onboard Intel chipset ran Nouveau just fine with no waiting and tinkering. I think people are still having some issues with nVidea and Wayland yet. I know I still have some minor ghosting issues with a couple of AppImages I really need to use that would prefer straight X11 over X-Wayland.

Now that didn’t bother me because I’ve been using various distros since buying my first boxed set CDs with RedHat 5 from Walmart of all places for $25US. (I still suffer from PTSD thanks to rpm hell). But I can see how a stumbling block like that can turn newcomers to Linux distros off.

Yep. A traditional forum ages and grows old. And as they get older and older, it becomes harder to draw new members because of the clique of the core membership. I’ve seen a few traditional forums die that death over the years.

And some forums, and I belong to several, the members are literally dying from old age. We are all mostly old and retired. And we lose members every year due to death. Several times a year there is an obituary post for some long time member.

Oh don’t worry, states are already working on mileage taxes for EVs. A few even already have them in place.

It’s kind of like needing the proper units for the scale you need to work at.

So does Slack. But while they are 2 of the foundational distros, neither is the first go to choice of the average user. Neither distro caters to the mainstream user. If you are choosing either of those two distros, you are definitely old school and/or are looking for a solution to problem that is perhaps more of an edge case.

Well, I’m not sure a cat can have a bad work ethic if they just don’t have one to start with…

“Hit the road Jack”

Hey, I replace LibreOffice on my Linux installs every time with OnlyOffice. I don’t really need a full up office suite anymore. And I find OnlyOffice is a bit simpler and easier to use. But it’s not for everybody.

Plus, it keeps me away from trusting Google Docs…

Oh you sweet innocent. Major distros like Ubuntu and RedHat already are peddling open source AI for their enterprise customers.

Debian Pro+ is here and has been for a while…

Most pets don’t work because their owners don’t bother to train them to do any work. And interestingly enough, I have indeed seen a Chihuahua herd cattle. There was No Fear. It was amazing to see that little toothed monster chase a 2000lbs bull around a pen and into another and then into a barn on command from the farmer that owned him. And a Mastiff will gladly hunt fox, cougars, wolves, and even people if you want them to. They will also happily Netflix, popcorn, and chill on the couch with you after chewing up that human also.

Why don’t my dogs talk? Well, they just don’t have the physical voice box to form the sounds of human speech, (as you well know). But that doesn’t mean they don’t communicate with people. Actions, like tail wagging, barking in various tones and volumes, rolling on the ground all communicate emotions and situational reports. And us humans understand them just fine. My little Russian Spaniel does her best to “talk” to me with a near continuous stream of moans and groans, and erffs when she sits with me in my recliner. It’s almost annoying when she doesn’t shut up. And they understand my communications. My dogs understand verbal, whistle, and silent hand signals and respond correctly and instantly to them when I’m afield with them. Parrots, have a natural physical ability to mimic other sounds, (as do a lot of other birds). So they are doing what comes naturally to them - a human is not required.

There are lots of dogs out there that do jobs they were never bred for. Seeing eye dogs, dogs trained for deaf people or assistants to people confined to a wheel chair. Turns out Labrador Retrievers are really great at this kind of work. And I have trained retired Springer Spaniel hunting dogs to work in a hospital as therapy dogs. But that’s not why or what those breeds exists for. Ever see a trained animal act at a circus? They are often what most people would call “mutts”. Mixed breed dogs doing amusing things like ride bicycles and drive little cars around and jumping through burning hoops of fire. And you can often see little Chihuahuas preforming in those acts. All doing things none of them were bred for.

I like the cats that we have. One, a grey and white is an excellent mouser. But he comes from a very long line of barn cats and has a wild streak in him. The other two, are far more interested in cat toys and sleeping in laps and beds than in any mouse - and that’s fine. A warm kitty in the lap purring away is a calming and enjoyable thing to have on a cold winter’s day. But I’m under no illusion that cats or most other pets can be trained to do all the things my dogs can do.

Dogs are humans oldest and closest companions and co-workers for a reason.

Let me know when you can train a cat to herd sheep or train one to hunt and retrieve game on command. I’ve got 3 cats and 4 dogs here. The cats make nice and often amusing lap warmers. But beyond catching the odd mouse, they can’t do work.

Yeah, the signs are starting to manifest. You will embrace the penguin at some point to get what you desire.

Pfffttt, Microsoft has been there, done this, and got a whole closet full of tee shirts for stuff like this many times over the years. In the end the users don’t care and can’t stop it. And they are, by in large, too lazy to change to something else to completely avoid it.

It hasn’t ever affected the bottom line enough to matter to them. They will just pull this bug feature and wait for a better day. Or perhaps they will figure out a way to introduce it piecemeal to disguise it better.

If you want to search for AI solutions to problems because forums are either too slow to answer or you get no answer at all. I’ve been using Phind for my Linux issues with Fedora, (a recent switch and I’m not all that familiar with it yet), and it’s an AI that is supposed to be aimed at programmers and Devs.

So far, for my meager needs, it’s worked VERY well. So between Phind and RTFM, I haven’t found an issue I can’t work through.

I would suggest you get hired by the IRS and start rewriting all their ancient code to build in and allow every deduction rule and that it’s applied correctly every time so everyone can use it.

The tax laws are so large and so complex and the code running all this stuff is so old and now locked in because they didn’t keep up with updating their software as they went along. I’m amazed they got this far. Oh, and like you, I can’t use it either. But that’s why I have an accountant.

Yep. Look at it this way, those $100,000+ machining centers that make nearly everything you use and own, are running on basically 486 chips. And they only transitioned from the 386’s because the dies wore out and the chip manufacturers said they weren’t going to remake them. It caused a noticeable amount of angst in manufacturing when the news got out.

Ask your doctor homeopath doctor

While I don’t think the way Texas has the regulations setup is a good idea, one has to look more at the ‘whole picture’ and do the math. Is the low cost periods low enough that when you get ‘gouged’ by the spikes, what was the total average cost? If the spikes are taken as a average over time, then maybe it works out in the consumer’s favor or at worst break even, then it might be worth it. Or maybe it doesn’t But I honestly don’t know. I don’t have the numbers in front of me to do the math, I’m a 1000+ miles away from Texas.

Edit to add: I don’t know just how much extra electricity Texas will need to buy, but I would assume they will be buying a noticeable amount. And the cost of electricity is VERY expensive in the spot market. It’s why my co-op is doing major upgrades to the hydro-electric dam. To increase the efficiency and reduce the need to buy expensive spot market power.

And without a good way to store the excess power generated, solar and wind aren’t very good for peak loads. You can’t merely flip a switch and spool up more power than a solar panel or wind generator can produce. Clouds reduce efficiency, insufficient or too much winds shut down wind generators. And despite having more alternative generation than everyone’s hero - California, it still not enough to carry the whole load. Consumers are raising demand far faster than enough infrastructure can be built out to supply that demand. So for peak loads, natural gas generators are used because they can be turned on and off quickly as needed. This adds excess cost.

The installation of storage batteries farms is fantastic. But it will take time and it will add cost to consumers electric bill.

And despite some tankie’s beliefs, nothing is free - it all costs something. I’m a member of a tiny rural electric co-op. The co-op needs to make a profit to afford maintenance and upgrades to our tiny grid. Our power is generated by a hydro-electric dam and my rates have gone up this year to to cover the costs of some major maintenance on the dam and the addition of 3 new linemen to keep the electricity flowing to my heat pump that the co-op incentivizes and highly encourages.

Thanks for the explanation!