I can't help but think that Google's decision to abandon JPEG XL was based, at least in part, on the development of their own image format: WebP. I can only assume that their reversal on JPEG XL means that their plans for WebP haven't been as successful as they had hoped. In any event, this is good for competition among image formats.

Anybody who has been around long enough knows that once Microsoft developers have had a bit more time to fine-tune the software and Microsoft marketers have had enough time to soften the blowback of this anti-feature, Microsoft will enable it by default. And while you'll be able to disable it, a future Windows update will silently re-enable it or it will be discovered that it still collects and silently leaks information back to Microsoft to help train their algorithms. Microsoft has been disrepecting Windows users' wishes for decades now, and while some users take pride in spending lots of time to figure out clever workarounds to get Windows to behave the way they actually want, at a certain point you'll realize that if you have to work that hard to get your computer to do what you want, it's not really your computer.

Real nerds run Linux From Scratch. And serious nerds write their own.

I don't think that attempting to coerce people into your preferred forms of socializing is going to make them more receptive to the idea of enrolling their children in public schools. If anything, they'll perceive the coercion as reinforcement of their beliefs that public schools intend to indoctrinate their children.

I need an OS that I can plug a sound card into, start up my machine and it installs the driver and starts working

That's weird because these days I find that Ubuntu does that way better than Windows. If I just plug in some random device, it won't provide all of the bells and whistles but I often get the basic functionality with zero clicks. For many devices, that's enough for me.

I need my system administration routine down around 30 minutes per month

That's possible with Windows Update? I've seen Windows machines take nearly that amount of time just to install one feature update. My Linux maintenance is usually around 2 mins per month, but maybe that's just because I've been using it for so long and know how to optimize the workflow.

I want GUIs for all common tasks and I want it intuitive enough the I'm not spending hours looking up which command line options to use or installing package managers to install drivers to install features to install programs.

This is especially curious. My job requires me to assist Windows users sometimes and I've been amazed at how many times the solution requires firing up Powershell and asking a completely non-technical user to execute commands. It's one of the most frustrating parts of my job.

I'll try Linux, but it has failed me in this respect several times in the past, despite the insistence among lovers of Linux that it's actually just as low-maintenance as Windows.

There's this notion that Linux is difficult because it takes so much effort to get everything initially running and that Windows is superior in that regard. After well over a decade of not using Windows, I decided to install it on my desktop and I was blown away by how much effort it took to get even basic things working. What I learned is that installing Windows from Microsoft's default image isn't easy and that the reason Windows seems easy is because most people are using a version of Windows that was highly customized for their hardware by the manufacturer. Therefore, since you're probably using such a version and you're already comfortable with that, it may not make sense to switch unless you're really motivated for some reason. But once you get your Linux system running the way you like it (and that's easier now than ever), you'll likely spend far less time on maintenance in the long-term.

It really shouldn't be a political stance. Psychologists (and common sense) show that children *need* contact with other children

I don't contest that, but your statement heavily implies that socialization must be done in a public school. School consumes half of the day and the other half can be full of social activities with many children from public and private schools. With sports, music, playgrounds, after-school library programs, martial arts, dance classes, etc there are plenty of opportunities to socialize that aren't inextricably connected with education.

I think the problem is that you're expecting Windows or macOS to conform to you. Microsoft and Apple are Big Deals and users like us are just lucky they let us play in their waters.

Homeschooling should be illegal

I'm a leftist, but holy fuck! In your world, should private schools also be outlawed? Also, I hope you realize that the threat of forced participation only feeds into the fears parents have that public schools intend to indoctrinate their children.

Do you think there would be so many young nazi and evangelists if everyone was going to public school ?!?

Do you have any proof of causation between Naziism and homeschooling?

Homeschooling is used to control how kids think and act

Ah yes, the horror of parents instilling values into their children! You don't have to look very far to find the horrific consequences of parents not doing that.

This is completely true. And yet the problem is that limp-dicked cowards all over the country comply with these orders anyway, despite the lack of legal basis for their enforcement. In that regard, the effect goes far beyond the legal basis.

Instead of having to click accept or reject on a cookie pop-up for every website you visit in Europe, the EU is preparing to enforce rules that will allow users to set their preferences for cookies at the browser level

This was already largely possible thanks to add-ons, which actually prevent the browser from ever sending cookies to that domain unless I explicitly authorize it. That's vastly preferable to the EU method of specifying which cookies I want to send and then hoping that the web site abides by that preference instead of just collecting everything due to a "bug that affected a small number of users".

The problem with the EU approach to cookie management is that every fucking web site throws up a banner that they collect cookies and then asks for your cookie preference. And the answer to that question is saved... in a cookie! So when you block all cookies to that domain using an add-on, you get that banner on every...fucking...page. This is an objectively worse experience than I had before and I don't even live in the fucking EU!

Is it unreasonable to conclude that a surge in a disease most Americans are vaccinated against might have something to do with thousands of illegal aliens from countries without such vaccinations pouring across the border?

It is not unreasonable to conclude that. It is unreasonable to assume that is the only reason, or primary reason, while completely ignoring the fact that more than a decade of misinformation about vaccines causing autism is preventing many parents in the U.S. from opting to vaccinate their children.

And yet it has more comments than most of the tech articles. It's all about engagement. And by reading and posting comments on this story, we both just validated the editor's decision.

What strikes me as odd is that 20% of ALL sites use cloudflare. Why?

- Caching all around the world
- DDOS protection
- Gatekeeping bots

I have no affiliation with Cloudflare and I use almost none of their services, but I can understand why 20% of the internet does.

MAGA's Reality Distortion Field is trying to give Apple a run for its money.