People hand themselves over to Apple in toto. People hand themselves over to some "cloud" or other, in toto.

Why?

Why would any presumably sane person ever do such a thing?

It's already plenty more than bad enough to give away such little as I'm giving away here and now with this comment.

But to hand it all over?

How can people possibly bring themselves to believe things like this could ever end well for them?

I cannot fathom the least of it. It is beyond senseless. It is beyond imagining.

And yet people do it. Every day. In droves.

Read every single comment, all the way down to -1.

Nobody has addressed " What I'd really like to see more of are more non-technical contributors. I mean, yes, we can always benefit from more packagers and coders and engineers, but I think what we really need desperately are writers, designers, artists, videographers, communicators, organizers and planners. ".

Linux has a HUGE communication problem.

Linux not only has a huge communication problem, it steadfastly refuses to even entertain the possibility that communication is even something that requires any kind of serious and polished attention in the first place.

And it fails horribly, with the general populace, right there.

Linux fails to accept that there are "iron laws" of communication, and in so doing, breaks all of them, and in so doing, loses the general populace, who will never in their lives sit still for being talked to, will never sit still for being communicated with, be it linguistically, be it visually, or be it any other way, in the manner in which Linux everlastingly insists in attempting to communicate with them, and then goes off scratching its head, wondering why people "don't get it."

The problem is Linux, not the people.

And by "Linux" I mean the entire community of people who design, build, and implement it.

A minority of which, being so vanishingly small as to not even show up when you're actually looking for them, who actually can communicate, but who exist in numbers so small, and constitute a fraction of the total body of people who design, build, and implement, which is so small that it disappears altogether from sensible view.

An example of one of the “iron laws” of communication, for all the hard-heads out there who double down on their refusal to accept or accede to such things.

If they’re not laughing, then it’s not funny.

Period.

It does not matter if you think it’s funny. Keep it to yourself, if you think it’s funny. Fine and dandy. No worries, mate. But the instant you open your mouth and communicate it to someone else, it had better damn well cause them to laugh or it’s not funny.

Period.

And right here is where Linux fails so horribly as to cause people, normal people, members of the general populace, to cringe deeply, and recoil from Linux as if it was something with a disease that they fear catching if they stay too close to it for too long.

And don’t forget, hard-heads, that I’m not just talking about humor. I’m only using my example of The Iron Law of Humor in an effort to simplify things to the point where even hard-heads can figure it out.

The failures of Linux to communicate, the failures of Linux to engage successfully with the general populace, the failures of Linux to abide by The Iron Laws of Communication, are so vast in scope as to defy enumerating them all.

All the little in-groups in Linux have all their little in-group ways, and inside the group, it’s all so very wonderful, and everything is seen through rose-colored glasses.

But nobody ever seems to want to step outside and find out what the general populace might be thinking about it.

Which is unfortunate to an extreme, because the general populace is having none of it.

The general populace despises all the “cutsey” crap that Linux insists in wrapping itself up in, all of which is clearly (as seen by the general populace) the creation of lamers, social misfits, and tone-deaf idiots, from one end to the other, without exception.

Another example.

“GNU's Not Unix.”

GNU’s not funny, either.

And recursive acronyms constitute felony assault against any attempt to engage with, bond with, or even communicate with the general populace.

And the lameness of the logo that’s associated with GNU is enough to take your breath away. People. Think. It’s. Lame.

And it is.

And that’s only a single example.

It’s only a single egregious faux pas in attempting to communicate with the general populace, among too many to count.

And the penguin is lame, sitting there on it’s ass, feet stuck out in front of it in a posture no real penguin will ever be seen sitting in, with a blank look of deep stupidity on it’s face.

And you people have bonded with it.

You people have bonded with the very thing that causes everybody else in the world to view you with contempt.

To view you as lamers and losers.

And this is the first thing that people see when they’re introduced to Lunux.

And that fox-thing, or dog-thing, or whateverthehellitis-thing that’s plastered across a program that’s called “GIMP”? GIMP ???

No

We’re not even going to be talking about a thing which is that lame.

People hate that crap. They HATE it.

And Linux hates that it’s hated, right back, and right there, all communication with the general populace is ended, and all chance of integrating with the general populace is destroyed.

You like your little cutesy naming conventions.

You like your little cutesy visuals.

You like your incomprehensibly-opaque lingo with little in-group hooks and jokes buried inside of it.

You like all of it.

Ok.

Fine.

Whatever you want. It’s all good.

Just don’t be coming out here with it, attempting to shove it in our faces, expecting that we are going to be liking it too, because we don’t.

You wanna come out here and engage with us, then you’ll do it on our terms, or you won’t do it at all.

You’ll learn how to be engaging on our terms, or you won’t be engaging at all.

And if you want to learn how to be engaging, then the first thing you’ll do is to recognize the seriousness of it all, and stop giving a bunch of amateurs and lamers total control over it.

Hand that kind of work over to the kind of people who know the discipline, and who know how to implement it, in the exact same way you hand coding over to the kind of people who know the discipline and who know how to implement it.

No difference.

None at all.

The exterior surface of Linux, the part that the general populace sees, is the ugliest, and least-engaging, and most impossible to understand, part of the entire operation.

The part that people see FIRST.

WHY?

Why insist on a thing like that?

If you’re going to communicate well then communicate.

Nothing less will do.

Nothing less will ever stand a chance of working.

Obey the Iron Laws of Communication, or go back inside where you came from and quit bemoaning the fact that the rest of us out here are never going to be signing on for your whatever it is that you’re doing, because whatever it is, it’s very definitely not communication.

But I mean sure you could just start immediately telling somebody with a four-digit user number that starts with the digit 1 how this computer stuff works, instead of performing your own due diligence in advance, and maybe stop to take a look around, and then maybe figure out where you are, and who you're dealing with, and then start spouting FUD with a sarcastic tone of voice if that suits you.

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/p...

Ok, Boeing.

...to its original audience. It is 2020 and the "news for nerds" site is publishing polls on software like this ignoring established and well known FOSS options like Jitsi Meet and Big Blue Button.

If you forget about Free and open-source software in this day and age your nerd card is revoked indefinitely. Sorry folks.

This is the answer.

My own implementation presumes Windows as the (very) weak link in the chain, and it's run as a VM inside of Linux. I've given up on ever trusting Microsoft again, in light of the recent, ongoing, and ever-doubling-down, privacy horrors, endless stream of newly-discovered exploitable vulnerabilities, and forced corporateware installations associated with Win 10. So ok. So no Win 10. I went the other way. Win 7 Starter Edition SP1, stripped down to the ground floor, no Windows Updates, no antivirus, no anything, just the bare OS, to run the proprietary software (if the software demands an x64 OS, well then, we'll move up the Win7 hierarchy one notch) that demands Windows, to run smoothly enough, hassle-free. This Win7 VM is considered to be laying on the floor with its legs spread, and it only runs the programs it must run, and nothing whatsoever else. No games. No VOIP. Certainly no web browsers. It's drawbacks are obvious, but with adult supervision, nothing that cannot be dealt with, and it's lightning fast in its stripped-down state.

If he wants a second Linux VM running alongside the Win7 VM inside the first one, well then, ok, so he shall have it. Whatever suits the situation most appropriately.

Toss in a TAILS USB stick with encrypted persistent storage for situations that seem a bit sketchy for the above "standard" setup, and we're good to go.

Again, your answer is the correct one.

while I don't fully agree with the implementation of systemd I do think conceptually it is far superior to what it replaces, and though is more complex is not THAT complex, and in return you get more flexibility and can do more (setting up services to start in parallel, easily make services restart or trigger other actions on failure etc)

In my experience managing systemd unit files is GREAT! You can (and should) leave the ones installed by the package/source alone and maintain separate files with your own overrides. It is super easy to manage services when you actually take the time to learn how it works.

Systemd has its problems yes, and it was foisted upon users too quickly, but it is 2017, the gripes are overstated or outdated, and the old init.d stuff truly is an old rotten pile of crap. Jury is out on the other systemd stuff that does logging etc.

Also systemd is NOT really monolithic technically speaking...it is actually quite modular. It is the *project management* that is modular, and the modules are "tightly coupled" vs. old school loosely coupled though pipes etc. like I and many others prefer and/or are used to.

I wish half the effort that went into b!tching and moaning would go into a decent alternative but compatible alternative/fork to systemd (ie. works with same unit files etc). There are real reasons systemd came to be (and no, it isn't just some conspiracy by a certain Linux vendor)...if you do not like it DO something about it.

...they are just joining the rest of the world's pricing strategy:

* airlines set ticket prices largely based on willingness to pay, which is why a short flight between Calgary and Ft.McMurray in Canada full of oil workers costs more than a flight from Canada to Europe or Asia.

* hotels price their rooms based not only on demand but where their customers are visiting from...Americans often get better Vegas deals than Canadians and Europeans, and room prices go up during conventions so the "special convention rate" looks like a deal even though it is pretty much the same rate as non peak.

* Microsoft and most other closed source software companies charge higher prices in Europe and North America in isolation of actual demand because of their willingness to pay more in licensing.

Uber's pricing model was destined to become more complex and opaque...I'm sure bistro math is incorporated somehow at this point. It's like entropy really.

Except that technology exists today to scan your id...and even use face recognition to compare it to the user to make sure it isn't someone else's ID. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be more reliable than most clerks.

> I can only presume local law enforcement is either very lax, is complacent ("hey it brings money into our local economy, that's good right?"), or is on the take..

"So, this is quite the operation you have here, isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes it is. Here, here's a little something for your wife. And your children. You are a good man and your family deserves to be well taken care of."

"Thank you. And by the way, you wouldn't be using your operation to be contacting any of the citizens of our fine country, would you?"

"No. Certainly not. Not at all."

"Very well then, carry on."

Given away. It is BS to say the use of personal information as currency is "clearly stated" in the terms of service. The Big Five make ZERO effort to ensure users have read and understand how they are paying for the services they offer for "free". They write long form legalese, and they present a little Web link labelled " as have read the terms of service" next to a checkbox in the sign up and there is no mechanism whatsoever to ensure a person has read it.

It is partly our fault for lying by checking the box without following the link, but companies do the absolute minimum required to inform users. They in fact go out of their way to hide their terms.

It's as if a store leaves their stuff on a shelf, without price tags, but a sign saying "take and enjoy!" with fine print saying "you agree to the terms of the agreement available at the customer service desk" underneath. Then when they get home they discover their bank account cleaned out. They go back to the store and they say sorry you agreed to the terms by taking the stuff. It's not our fault you didn't go to customer service desk to get the 5 page agreement stating we have full access to your bank account and can take whatever you want and that we do not take returns.

The point is they are using their services as bait, and their behaviour wouldn't be tolerated when the currency is cash and the product is tangible. Society does not yet appear to value personal information like cash. People give it freely, corporations leverage it however they please without regard to consequences and governments forcefully take whatever they want to further their agendas. Perhaps one day we will live in a Roddenberry style economy without cash and the new currency will be information and it will be valued and respected accordingly, but we are far from that point right now.

So basically what you are saying is that Obama was a pussy and would have accomplished a lot more by growing a pair and shoving his agenda through without compromise...

In short you want Trump except with Bernie Sanders' agenda. Interesting.

I think it is a bit lost on seasoned, technical computer users that if these modern UIs were actually terrible then they wouldn't persist. GNOME 3 is still around because it is actually pretty decent for normal people. It was released before it was complete but in the years since it has become very good.

Microsoft quickly got rid of Bob, and Aero became a flash in the pan. Apple moved past the sometimes awkward, resource intensive photorealistic apps. Some of the modern look is the trend of the day, but the central concepts seem to me to be evolutionary. Maturity coming into computer user interfaces.

I actually really like most of Material Design. I often have to design HMI displays (user interfaces for industrial automation). There are good reasons for much of the design:

* colours should be limited and subdued for user interface elements so as to focus attention on content. Bright colours and animation are intended to call attention to important information.

* textures, gradients, transparency and drop shadow effects for the sake of visual flare cause visual confusion and eyestrain. Important elements get lost in the clutter otherwise

* ability to customize is often good but there can be too much of a good thing. If there are 100 "themes" or "skins" and all controls can be moved around by the user on a whim it severely detracts from usability. There is no consistency with the system and it makes it very difficult to train a group of operators when they all can mess with the UI. Also all the code that goes into extreme customzing is bloat.

* Skeuomorphic Design has no business in UI Design. If it was ever a good idea then MS Windows would have fully embraced Microsoft Bob to this day. Making controls look like photorealistic pictures of real life objects just causes frustration unless they behave exactly as the real object does, and are usually more cumbersome than what can be done on a computing device. Skeuomorphism is especially bad when it badly emulates something that is bad to begin with. Using a Blaupunkt stereo from the 1990s is a miserable experience in real life. Who was the idiot who thought we should have an audio player skin that imitates that crap?!

Good riddance to Bob, to Fisher Price gummi Windows XP and glassy Vista and 7. If you have to sit in front of that kind of garbage continuously for 12 hours a day as an operator in a power plant or refinery or whatever it is refreshing to see this "modern" trend. There are some teething pains as designers evolve, such as obscuring too many options or the wrong ones, lacking visual cues as to what is a control and font choices that are form over function as examples, but I for one am very glad designers are "growing up" and dropping the useless toys.