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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Mint was a reaction to Gnome 3, the unique workflow upset a lot of people and the people behind Mint decided to build Cinnamon desktop (its Gnome 3 made to look/work like Gnome 2). They needed a distribution to build/test their work and so based a distribution off of Ubuntu and called it Mint.

    As a bit of explanation, there are only a few projects which attempt to build an entire linux distribution from scratch. This involves finding code from thousands of sources, work out packaging, etc… We call these ‘base’ distributions, Debian is the base distribution for Ubuntu, Ubuntu is the base distribution for Mint.

    Ubuntu tends to be slightly ahead of Debian in the software versions it uses and automatically enables the ‘non-free’ repositories. Ubuntu tends to push some Canonical specific things like Snaps (which everyone hates)

    I believe Mint rolls the Canonical specific things out of Ubuntu and you get the latest version of Cinnamon.

    Its all a bit…


  • If its for work I would suggest picking a “stable” distribution like Debian, Kubuntu or OpenSuse.

    A lot of people recommend Arch or Fedora but the focus of those is getting the very latest releases, which increases your chance of stuff breaking.

    A lot of people will suggest niche distributions, those can be great for specific needs but generally you will always find Debian/Ubuntu/RHEL support for commercial apps.

    I would also suggest looking at the KDE Desktop, many distributions default to Gnome but it is unique in how it works, KDE (or XFCE) will provide a desktop similar to Windows 11.

    Lastly I would suggest looking at Crossover Linux by Codeweavers.

    Linux has something called WINE, its an attempt to implement the Windows 95 - 11 API’s so windows applications can run on linux.

    WINE is how the Steam Deck/Linux is able to play Windows games. Valve embedded it into Steam and called it “Proton”.

    WINE is primarily developed by Codeweavers and they provide the Crossover application that makes setting up and running a Windows application really easy.

    People will mention Lutris but that has a far higher learning curve.

    There is an application database so you can see in advance if your applications would work: https://appdb.winehq.org/


  • This advice isn’t grounded in reality.

    Management normally defines ways to track and judge itself, these are typically called Key Performance Indicators.

    KPI’s are normally things like contract value growth, new contracts signed, profit margin, etc…

    So if the project manager is meeting or exceeding their KPI’s and you walk up to their boss telling them the PM is failing as basic job functions, the boss won’t care.

    This is because the boss might have set the KPI’s or the boss might also be judged on them. In either situation its to the bosses advantage to ignore you.

    The boss will only care if there is a KPI you can demonstrate the PM failing to meet.

    Every person/group will have various incentives and motivations. To affect change you have to understand what they are.



  • A project manager has responsibility for delivery of a project but they typically lack domain specific knowledge. As a result they can’t directly deliver something, merely ask subject matter experts for advice and facilitate a team to deliver.

    Most PM’s cope with the stress of this position poorly.

    This cartoon is an example of micro management (a common coping mechanisim), the manager has involved themselves in the low level decisions because that gives a sense of control. If a technical team then tell them its a bad decison the team are effectively attacking their coping mechanisim.

    The solution isn’t to tell them their technical idea is terrible, when you’ve fallen down this rabbit hole you have to treat the PM as a stakeholder. They are someone you have to manage, so a common solution is to give them confidence there is a path to delivery, a way to track and understand it.




  • Tesla actually market it as a positive.

    Car manufacturers have to setup different manufacturing lines to provide different feature levels. Tesla argue this makes them more expensive. Tesla cars have all features installed, just disabled and the optional extra packages are cheaper compared to their rivals as a result.

    To be honest there is a certain logic, if you’ve ever been in a Ford Focus LX (bottom range) its pretty clear they had to spend quite a bit of money on more basic systems. I honestly thought each LX was sold at a loss


  • I have a Mac book Pro for work.There is just a lot of random weirdness.

    There is no right click, your supposed to do a light two finger touch for right click.If you click too hard it opens the dictionary.

    If you plug in a mouse you can get right click, but it isn’t consistent in working.

    By default scroll is inverted (up is down, down is up), also windows can have scroll bars but they aren’t clickable, you have to do a scroll gesture.

    Almost every Left control + Button action is now Meta key + button. But not everything, its annoyingly inconsistent also new random shortcuts.

    For example lock screen isn’t Meta key + l like on Linux or Windows. Its Meta + Shift + Q, shut down is Meta +Left Control + Q.

    The keyboard doesn’t match the your countries layout, so keys move around and is missing traditional keys like print screen. To do that you press Meta + Shift + 4 to switch the mouse to a screen cut tool and select the area you cut.

    I could go on and on, none of it is obvious and I wouldn’t say any of it is an improvement at best its just different.


  • @ergoplato I didn’t suggest that.

    Personally I don’t think its ego. I think you have two issues.

    The first is people go through stages learning DevOps. Stage 1 has people deploy a CI because its cool, they build a few basic pipelines and then 90% of people get bored. The 2nd stage is people start extending those pipelines, it results in really complex pipelines requiring lots of unique changes based on the opinion of the writer. You move to the 3rd stage when your asked to recreate/extend for a new project and realise how specific your solutions are.

    Learning how to make minor tweaks and hook in a few key points to get what you want takes years. Without that most packagers will want to make big changes upstream which won’t go down well.

    The second issue, I have met quite a few developers who become highly stressed when the build system is doing something they haven’t needed to do or understand.

    A really simple example I have a Jenkins function which I tend to slip into release pipelines, it captures the release version and creates a version in Jira.

    I normally deploy it first as a test before a few other functions to automate various service management requirements.

    Its surprising how many devs will suddenly decide every problem (test failed, code failed review, sharepoint breaks, bad os update, etc…) is due to that function.

    For me this little function is a test, if the team don’t care I will work to integrate various bits. If they freak out, I’ll revert decide if it is worth walking them through the process or walk away.


  • One of the reasons for the #DevOps movement is developers see building and packaging as #notmyjob.

    The task would historically fall on the most junior member of the team, who would make a pigs ear out of it due to complete lack of experience.

    This is compounded by the issue that most C/C++ build systems don’t really include dependency management.

    Linux distributions have all tried to work out those dependency trees but they came up with slightly different solutions. This is why there are a few “root” distributions everything branches from.

    That means developers have to learn about a few root distributions to design a deb/rpm/aur package systems to base their release around.

    That is a considerable amount of learning in a subject most aren’t interested in.

    The real question is why don’t package maintainers upstream a packaging solution?


  • stevecrox@kbin.socialtoReddit@lemmy.worldLemmy banner on r/place
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    2 years ago

    Clearly you haven’t used Kbin.

    KBin’s have two distinct views “Threads” (Reddit Style) and “Microblogs” (Twitter), the default view is “Threads”. You won’t see posts in the Thread view and you won’t see Articles/Threads in the Microblog view

    Its an option similar to Top/Hot/Newest its existence doesn’t hurt


  • stevecrox@kbin.socialtoReddit@lemmy.worldLemmy banner on r/place
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    2 years ago

    Maybe I am old but I don’t understand the NEED for a mobile application.

    The kbin website works well on desktop and mobile web browsers with no render issues. The lemmy mobile apps all seem to be “alpha” quality.

    Why is a buggy app better thana working website?

    I choose an application or website based on which one works best. For example I browse Amazon via the web browser on the phone since the mobile application takes 2-5 seconds to load.


  • stevecrox@kbin.socialtoReddit@lemmy.worldLemmy banner on r/place
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    2 years ago

    If your goal is to advertise the fediverse You should have used ‘kbin’.

    People can go directly to “lemmy.ml” but the site might disappear due to Mali re-establishing ownership of .ml domains, also its run by a tankie which will upset some people.

    “Lemmy” provides 10 google sponsored results and then ‘join-lemmy’, the join-lemmy website has you ‘join a server’ and then presents you lots of options.

    During the first Mastodon surge one of their issues is people felt overwhelmed by the options and it hurt Mastodon adoption, so a single website does make a lot of sense. Personally I would suggest lemmy.world its a general instance and the admins aren’t linked to any extremist views, but you said that would be too long.

    If you put ‘kbin’ into search the top result is kbin.social, that makes it seems like a reddit alternate. It keeps user choice limited and brings them into the fediverse. That means people aren’t confronted with the complexity of the fediverse immediately and can learn and understand it at their own pace.

    So if your goal is to advertise the fediverse I would push kbin, if your goal is to specifically get people to use a Lemmy based website I don’t think you have a good option




  • If Firefox, MS Teams, etc… were on a website called “nazis.social” would you still happily sign up?

    Tankies will tell you the rape and abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian soliders is western propoganda and Russia is right to invade because Ukraine isn’t a country and provoked them.

    Tankies will tell you China’s forced sterilisation of Ughurs and their mass execution for organ donation is just western propoganda or justified because the west has done worse things.

    This is why I asked my original question, their views are as extreme and unpleasant as Nazi’s. The only difference is general awareness of how vile they are.

    Personally I don’t care what communities are on lemmy.ml or lemmygrad.ml. Those instances are administered by Tankies, everyone on those instances has chosen to associate themselves with Tankies.

    I choose not to associate with Tankies.



  • Thinking of Apple kit as Jewelry makes so much sense.

    I have a pair of £40 Bluetooth earbuds and recently asked a group of co-workers why they owned Airpods.

    They all admitted the sound quality was worse but it has a nifty find my airpod function. Which put me off buying Airpods.

    Thinking of them as £200 earrings explains alot. The reason you buy them isn’t for a practical purpose but to be seen in them or look pretty (which is entirely subjective).