LOL Ubuntu Pro actually has some advantages, like life-patching and support for like 10 years.

So, there's some benefit. I guess it's a 'win' from an enterprise standpoint and for sales.

If you want some fun, search this site for 'VMware' and then go back to the very first article posted with that term.

Trust me. It's hilarious. The 'smart' people decided it was impossible and more than a few thought that dual booting was the solution. The comments got virtualization all wrong.

Seriously, go look it up. It'll amuse you. Go back to the very first time it was posted, some time in the mid-90s. I recall that there were comments about using Win95 in the thread, so it's pretty old.

Hold on... I spent like three minutes and did it for you...

https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...

It's a short thread. You can skim it in a few minutes.

Or, you know, QEMU. I'm pretty sure it's even available for Windows, but I'm not sure how many businesses are running their virtualization software on Windows.

No, I mean that legitimately. I have no idea. It seems like a wasteful idea if you ask me, but who am I to judge?

The Broadcom fuckers have already made it difficult to find and download the free Workstation installer for Linux. I didn't check, but it's probably equally annoying for Windows users. Player and Workstation have been free for personal use for a long time. They still are but finding them is a bitch and requires an account to access the downloads.

It's not all that difficult to do.

Depending on your skill level (for wont of a better word), there are a ton of solid distros available, some with varied goals and configurations. You don't even really need to use a terminal for anything - though you can - for most distros. There's no archaic installation processes, unless you seek those out specifically. It's a point and click affair with a GUI-centric experience.

Though, at the end of the day, they're all Linux underneath. You don't even need 'geek cred' to use Linux.

Sure, you can install Arch or Gentoo and maybe feel better than you felt before that. You can even do LFS and BLFS to create your own Linux. But, you don't need to. There are hundreds of distros out there to pick from (though I'd stick to the 'parent' distros, or close to the 'parent' distros) if you want.

Grab something like Mint. You'll be just fine. Odds are very good that your hardware works without any intervention. If you have issues, there are forums full of people willing to help - and some of those forums aren't full of jackasses with a chip on their shoulder because they edited a config file once and now feel like they're hacker kings.

Oh, I'm very familiar with the history. I'm just not sure why they'd think Ubuntu had any such traits today.

Hell, I don't even mind Ubuntu. I'm not a zealot and happily use proprietary software when it suits me. Ubuntu should grab what they can get. They make a viable distro and send bug fixes upstream. I could give two shits about their quest for cash.

Hell, I like RHEL and they, perhaps inadvertently, gave us systems.

I have pretty low expectations from businesses, including those who wish to appear altruistic. But, to view Ubuntu as 'humanist' in 2025? That's just crazy.

Though, Ubuntu Pro is available for free for up to three devices!

I have no idea why they thought Ubuntu is 'humanist' and even less of an idea as to why they'd find it offensive enough to dislike the distro.

I don't want to out anyone, and my username is at least fairly consistent across sites (though there are all sorts of people using this moniker and are not me), but I fairly recently had an online conversation with a gentleman. I was quite surprised, taken aback even...

They said that they did not like Ubuntu (it was a Linux-related site) because of Ubuntu's "humanist" traits.

As far as I can tell, they're a bit religious but not like into 'racial superiority' types of things. They seem to be fine with me, and know I'm only a little bit white.

But, they just didn't like 'humanist' behavior (for whatever that's worth) and didn't like it to the point where they refused to use Ubuntu. (They did use a derivative of Ubuntu, which was a bit interesting.)

I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to never give it much thought again. We humans are just so mentally broken that it's not my job to fix them. As far as I can tell, I agree that we're not rational beings - we're rationizing beings.

It takes an email address to post as AC now, at least that's how it was explained to me.

I wrote a journal post and someone answered it. I had been gone for quite a while. I'm not sure how much I'm back, but I've posted a bit here an there.

We've even had malware that made it through the air gap.

Stuxnet and GSMem come to mind.

Oh, and let's not forget this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Even an air gap isn't necessarily a solution for a dedicated attacker.

In my opinion, that's good to hear.

But, I've taken the time to find out things like the numbers behind it. Even with all the nuclear events, it's still safer than other forms of electrical generation. If you look at things like kW production vs. accidents, or even vs. pollution, nuclear energy often ends up near the top.

Now, this has changed a bit. Back when I looked, the numbers had more people dying while working on wind turbines. So, they (at the time) had less energy produced than nuclear energy had produced. I figure that'll change with the increase in energy generated by the wind.

But, even living locally... Generating electricity with coal was more dangerous for those living near the power plants. They had more deaths overall due to cancer and various ailments with the lungs.

It has been a number of years since I went through all the data I could find. I think the last time I looked was soon after Japan had their failure.

I should do that again. I shared it the last time I did it, but I'm not sure if it was shared here. It was a lengthy process, so I doubt I'll do it again, even though I should.

While interesting, that seems more theoretical than reasonable.

I can't think of a situation where I'd trust those caveats to be a guarantee.

And, in places where that is a guarantee, they're going to still want security to be built into the application. At least I'd hope so.

But, yeah... I don't think I'd ever trust such a system to that degree. There are humans involved. Someone will get frustrated with that system and it won't be long before you'll find someone has figured out a way to sneak in their cell phone to use as a hotspot after IT enabled networking to troubleshoot something.

It'd be great in a perfect world and I'm sure some systems exist like that - for now. Some moron will fuck it up.

This is going to be long. It's something I'm a bit passionate about.

I realize this is quite a late reply. I figured I'd explain. It's a subject that 'deserves an answer'.

I love to drive. In the past seven or so years, I've moved a lot of assets around, more so than I'd done since I first got into this position. More specifically, I've been collecting various automobiles. Well, more accurately, 'motorized vehicles', as they're not all 'automobiles' by definition. I've moved money from assets that appreciate to assets that I appreciate.

So, I own cars from the 1920s all the way to cars built in 2024. (I don't own anything from 2025 yet.) I have invested a lot in this collection.

Modern tend to be much safer, have more creature comforts, are more efficient, are more performant, etc...

I love the older stuff as well. I want a vehicle to give me the same thing it offered the buyer when the car came off the showroom floor. I even get a bit annoyed (but it's not a deal breaker) when they've changed the radio out to something modern. I love those experiences.

I also love the new stuff. I'm looking to replace my 'daily' (good weather only, might get used a few times per week) driver. My daily driver is a 2019 BMW F13 M6 Competition. It's absolutely amazing. It's a 'homologation special' that shares more parts with the race car than it shares with the regular M6. It was made so that they'd meet the FIA's homologation numbers and be able to race it in the GT3 class.

Every week, I take out a second car and I'll drive that more than anything else during that week - weather permitting. If I told you what this week's car is, you'd be pretty skeptical. (Well, I'd be skeptical...)

I love the experience new cars give. Obviously, I'm not talking about the Honda Accord or anything (even though that's a fine automobile). I also like the features. I love the technology and the advancements in that technology.

But, I appreciate the older stuff and have a bunch of classic (and antique) cars in the collection. If you are anywhere near Maine, you can probably stop over. You won't be even remotely the first person I've met from Slashdot. I've met a bunch of people from this site already.

If you're curious about the 'how', I mostly buy (I've slowed down in the past year) at Mecum auctions. I stay sober and level-headed during the auction, so that I don't start bidding out of passion and spend more than I should spend. I do a bunch of research on the values of the cars. I want my collection to do the rare thing that car collections do, and that is increase in value. So, I'm pretty careful with what I buy.

I don't just buy sports cars. I do own some hypercars but no 'megacars' because those are still stupidly expensive for anything that'll retain its value. I also own the lowest-mileage Dodge Omni on the planet. Though, it is the GLH version.

But, I pick around the edges - buying the things when there are few people bidding. I avoid getting excited and I am patient.

I mention the 'how' because it's not too hard to get into collecting. If you manipulate your collection well, you can make money doing so - both on paper and in the real world. You just need to be cautious while still willing to take some risks. You need to manage your money well. If you're at all mechanically inclined, you can start out even cheaper.

I could go on but this is long enough. I love old cars. I also love new cars. Some new cars offer amazing experiences.

You could also argue that you're not being authoritarian but rather ceding authority to the people involved.

That's what pro-choice is in a nutshell.

Their trying to paint you as authoritarian is illogical and holds no real water.

You could point out that the very definition of 'life' is that it can sustain itself. A fetus can not survive on its own. There is no scientific evidence of a 'soul' or 'afterlife'.

Their 'ogic' has no merit.

HOWEVER...

There is the conundrum of late-stage abortion. While EXCEEDINGLY RARE and generally done ONLY TO SAVE THE MOTHER, there are some instances where there's a chance (albeit a tiny chance) that the fetus could sustain itself with the help of neonatal care and modern medicine.

So, there's a bit of concern they could raise at that point. That said, anyone getting an abortion late in their last trimester is absolutely mortified by doing so. It's done as a matter of survival, a medical need to preserve the existing patient.

Well, that and we have a whole bunch of life already. Man, we've got billions of us humans. I doubt any deity really sees a need for more of us. They've got enough shit to do already. I'm not sure why they'd want to make a person have a child they do not want. It seem punitive, rather than caring.

Oh, I agree...

The state of mental health care, especially access to it, is disgusting in this country.

I'm not sure why you'd think I said anything contrary to that.

"Oh, look! You have food in your belly. Millions of kids are starving."

That'd be true and just about as relevant. Perhaps you responded to the wrong person, or misread what I wrote? I'm the guy who actually has empathy for the mentally ill. I can't even fathom what it'd be like to have clinical depression. Can you imagine your days filled without any hope? I can't. It'd be horrible.

But, yes, I am seemingly not hindered by my mental quirks. They're just who I am and are not something that makes me mentally ill. I still function fine. My day-to-day life is not hampered by any mental illnesses. I'm not sure why that makes me some sort of ogre to you.