Multiple posts pointed out that openrazer is missing features that Razer Synapse has, but I didn't see any listed. Curious, I looked it up. AFAICT, that list, for mice, is:
* Key Rebinding - but this is natively supported in X, so it probably shouldn't be in the app.
* Hypershift (like an Fn key?) - again, use other standard key binding software.
* Firmware updates - OK. That's one. Razer's firmware updater is 18mb and Windows only (I'd call that bloated still, but it's a far cry from 300+mb)
* Onboard memory profiles - OK. That sucks, but has little meaningful impact. Plug it in and Linux applies the settings.

All in all, those don't account for the bloat. Apparently, Polychromatic, RazerGenie, and Input Remapper cover most of the rest of it, and they're under 1mb. Firmware updates would be nice, but Linux has fwupdmgr for that (IE: it should be done through that, not the app).

Yes (AFAICT)

Yes (though I accept that you disagree)

No.

Kinda the definition of software bloat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

... which, in most cases, I would label as bloat. Also, supporting all those other devices is NOT the main contributor to the size of their software. You're being disingenuous at best.

And there is the main contributor to the bloat!

I could say the same of you - why are you so defensive of this practice? Do you sell hard drives or something? LOL
Honestly, these just seem like the most obvious and blatant cases of unnecessary bloat to me, and I wish that at least this group here could agree on that much. It's hard to have meaningful dialog when we can't agree on what words mean. Besides, you're directly asking me things. Why wouldn't I answer?

Sheesh! Way to shit on unrelated groups of people! But no. In fact, I work mainly in interpreted languages (ex. Perl, Python, PHP... not sure why they're all P's). These have often been chastised for not being as small and fast as a compiled alternative would be. Maybe Electron and Node.js and such are the modern day equivalents, but those C guys had very valid points back then that still apply today, and Electron stuff is orders of magnitude larger and slower than the aforementioned P's. Plus, sending a Perl script doesn't require sending the entire interpreter as well.

IE: it's opt-out, not opt-in. And there's no indication that it will auto-install stuff. And there are no instructions included on how to avoid that situation. If there wasn't a buried config item to disable that behavior, it could be argued that you could just keep your machine offline or otherwise block the download. Essentially, it's installed whether you wanted it or not.
It reminds me of the CD autorun stuff. Sure, that could be turned off (and that was MUCH easier than this), but we can still blame it for autorunning exploits. There's a reason Windows no longer defaults to autorunning software when disks/drives are attached. This is the same bad decision, shifted to the cloud.

Must be missing a TON of features. No way it should be smaller than a CD!</s>

No. It's not just "a GUI and the associated software to use the features of your mouse". And though I haven't bought a Razer mouse, I wouldn't call those that do idiots for simply avoiding their bloated config GUI. OTOH, defending their implementation doesn't seem to bright.

Who's being an idiot now? Where do you draw the line on "standalone"? That windows package won't run without Windows and all its libraries either - are you counting those? Python ships with the OS as its used for many OS utilities - why would I count that?

And what of the other Razer GUI options for Linux? Polychromatic, RazerGenie, Snake, razerCommander, etc.. As an example, RazerGenie is a 755KiB download and is a QT6 application. Do you want to include the QT dependencies in that size estimate?

Just be honest. Those Windows applications (for LG, Logitech, Razer) are bloated AF. TFS outlines how the LG software displays ads for McAfee - do you really believe that's worth defending?

Dishonest is the wrong word; Maybe I was incorrect? AFAICT, the open source utilities are feature complete, but I'll admit that I have not used any of them on any platform. What features are lacking? Have you tried the companion apps, such as Polychromatic, RazerGenie, Snake, razerCommander, etc..? Regardless, do said missing features justify a difference of 200x - 400x in size? IE: does it change my point one iota that these vendor supplied utilities are quite bloated?

Is displaying ads for entirely unrelated things (McAfee) the type of feature that is *missing* from the open source counterparts?

Since you're the one that disagrees with that assessment, how about you define bloated?

If one implementation with all the same features is ~1MB, and another is ~400MB, the latter is clearly bloated. You're not only accepting that garbage, but defending it. If you're stuck on Windows, and you've got one of these monitors or mice, and WIndows just autoinstalls this garbage whether you want to or not, I honestly understand accepting it as just another shitty thing you have to put up with. But to defend that behavior?!? Why? Stockholm much?

Disclaimer: I'm not up to speed on all the details of 5g, so I'm making some assumptions. Please feel free to correct them.

While a true MitM attack on 5g may not be feasible without close cooperation with the telcos, that does not necessarily rule out the tracking of individuals, as opposed to intercepting the communication details.

I suspect that transparent HTTPS proxies are much like these:

* If the proxy has a copy of the server certificates, it can pretend to be the server and intercept the communication.
* If the proxy cert is installed on the client, it can intercept the communication and forward the traffic to/from the server.
* Otherwise, the proxy can simply forward on all packets as-is in both directions. It can not decrypt the contents, but it can act as a router. It will know the users apparent IP, the server IP and, if I'm not mistaken, the server hostname.

That last one is how I suspect these trucks are dealing with 5g clients. The truck is the most powerful station in range so your phone uses it. All the 5g handshake stuff and message content simply gets forwarded along to the real tower. The truck can then record all the IMEI's (or similar identifiers) that pass through it, as well as the time, location, and number and size of packets. That's enough for them to reliably place you (or your phone) at a location.

Hypothetically, if they drive through a protest, they can snag all those identifiers. Later, they can subpoena the telco's to get the subscriber identities for all of those that were at that location at that time on those identifiers. They then have the list of protest attendees.

And cell traffic isn't the only thing they'll be picking up. Of course, they'll pick up WiFi broadcasts, bluetooth, etc etc.. which can all correlate to help identify people.

We're well into the dystopia. The only way to avoid this is to leave your phone/etc at home... but then you'll stand out like a sore thumb in your average crowd, as you'll be the only one that's not broadcasting all this info.

Partial list:

* Fourth Amendment: Protects your person, house, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, requiring the government to secure a warrant based on probable cause.

* First & Fifth Amendments: Safeguard your private beliefs, right to free association, and protection against self-incrimination.

* Fourteenth Amendment: The Due Process Clause protects personal liberties from state infringement.

* Ninth Amendment: Clarifies that the enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution does not mean other unlisted rights (like privacy) do not exist

OK. RazerGenie is a 755 KiB download. That only reinforces the fact that those 200MB - 400MB installs are insanely bloated.

That's ridiculous! WOW

$ du -h /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hid/ | tail -n1 | awk '{print $1}'
4.7M

That covers all mice. The individual mice drivers sizes range from 13K - 277K.

I'm sure that 382MB Windows driver for your Razer mouse includes GUI utilities and such as well though. So here's the corresponding utilities on Linux (Debian version):
openrazer-daemon : 560K installed size
openrazer-driver-dkms : 837K installed size
openrazer-meta : 37K installed size
python3-openrazer : 144K installed size

I thought 10-20MB would be bloated, but 382MB?!!? What are they packing in there? And is that just the download size, or the installed size?

Does this accomplish the same thing on Windows 11 Home?

Settings app -> System -> About -> Advanced system settings -> Hardware -> Device Installation Settings : No

Honestly asking; I have no Windows 11 Home installs.

Apparently, that is NOT an option on Windows 11 Home (only Pro or Enterprise have it). So the vast majority of consumer installs do NOT have this option.

I'm curious what the Microsoft apologists have to say about this. Is there another option for them? Will it be victim blaming / should have bought Pro? ...

WTH?!? Calling the user ignorant and an incapable useless thing in defense of MICROSOFT screwing up updates such that settings get reverted??? Do you not think that much of that blame should lay with the root cause of the problem (Microsoft - mistakes or nefariously bad decisions)? What a dumb coward.

Addendum: checkout new artists instead - local bands, small venues, etc.. somewhere between free and cheap. And buy a shirt or CD.
This goes for all of the arts.

You could delete all of that and AI companies would still need/want nearly as many new data centers. Besides, pictures are real things, made by people, capturing a moment in time - what else is as deserving of that space? Meanwhile, a single tiktok can be 20mb-500mb, while the average iPhone photo is 3-4mb (and uploads thereof are usually MUCH smaller).

Many of them can be checked: https://www.quiverquant.com/Do...
I thought I'd just scroll back to Aug 2025 and see (I don't see a search by date), but there are way too many to go though.