>"Both GNOME and Firefox are considering disabling middle-click paste by default, arguing it's a confusing, accident-prone X11 relic that dumps clipboard contents without warning."

PLEASE DO NOT. How about having an environment variable and LETTING THE USER DECIDE. I use middle-click pasting all the time. PLEASE DO NOT use the stupid gsettings stuff. I don't use GNOME, and that stuff is annoying and confusing.

And this crap Firefox does with single clicking in the URL bar selecting the ENTIRE LINE is beyond annoying. PLEASE LET US CONTROL THAT AS WELL!!!

>>"We don't combat it, we die. That's why epidemiologists have been warning about the overuse of anti-biotics for decades."

>"Antibiotics do nothing against fungus"

Correct (and it is baffling why the article mentions "antibiotics") they are not used to treat fungi.

But what "sdinfoserv" was probably talking about is that bacteria often keep fungi in check. When antibiotics are used (and over used), it can wipe out all the "good" bacteria and the fungi start spreading out of control because they have free reign. This is a common problem for women with internal yeast infections after taking antibiotics, for example.

>"But what about the bedsheets and the chair cushions in the waiting room? Hmm...."

Yeah, that list, 100% of them are on "hard nonporus" surfaces. So apparently useless for carpet, clothing, bedding, curtains, etc... And then there are the spores which are probably in the air all the time, just waiting to re-establish colonies when conditions are right.

>"Sure... switch to *Nix. Except my video project files are all Vegas"

There are always cases where someone uses proprietary software applications that aren't going to run on a different platform. However, video editing is possible under Linux with several systems, and they can import existing footage (but not a project). No OS/app switch is without some amount of pain, adjustment, relearning.

>"all my office document files are Office 2016 (I know about Libre... tried it, it mangled the formatting)"

It is unlikely LibreOffice "mangled the formatting" and more likely the documents were poorly formatted or has different fonts that were not installed. MS-Office files can look/wrap different even from one system using MS-Office to another using MS-Office, or from version of MS-Office to another.

>"I can run my games in a VM and live with the performance hit."

I am not a gamer, but it seems most are now using Steam, which supposedly not only runs very well under Linux, it is often considerably faster. There will be some games that have issues, most specifically those with incompatible anti-cheat. But the situation has apparently changed significantly more positive since even a few years ago.

>"And, if I have a problem, I can search 500 forums for a solution."

As if nobody ever has problems in MS-Windows and has to search online for answers? All my systems have run Linux for decades. I guarantee you if I tried to switch to MS-Windows, I would be online searching lots of things trying to fix/understand.

>"Sure, the user is in "more control" of everything, but a lot of users aren't people I'd want to give 'admin' permissions to... they'd be more likely to delete their harddrive than download a malware scanner."

No doubt there. With more freedom, choice, and power, comes new possibilities for things to go wrong. Never wrote it was for everyone or every purpose. I just wrote that with MS's recent hostilities, it is no wonder more people are leaving MS-Windows. MS apparently continues to loath its customers with more and more force.

>"The idea is to create a boundary between the agent and what the rest of the system can access."

The idea is apparently to create a boundary between the OS and the user's control and authority. Sorry, I just don't see how this is a good idea, at all.

This is "out of bounds" and it is no wonder more and more people are moving to Linux and MacOS. Especially with Linux, the user really is in total control over everything- what the OS UI looks like, what is loaded/installed, what and when updates are installed, what hardware is used, what runs and when, whether or not to use "cloud" logins, whether TPM or encryption is used and where/when, who has control over resources, what browser they want to use, etc. They don't even have to suppress ads in menus, uninstall bloatware, or "register" their machines so they have permission to fully use them. What a concept.

>"Go fuck yourself, Ivan. Fuck yourself today, tomorrow, and every other day, and when you have fucked off, fuck off some more."

How is this productive? Although the poster made a personal attack, which is not good (and I do not condone), this type of response is even worse. You go nuclear and don't even address the issues.

Sinij actually made a valid point- in a free market, consumers *do* decide what products they want and are willing to pay for and companies *do* respond to consumer demand. It isn't perfect, for sure. Especially when consumers and companies do not have full information. What is the alternative? To have the government decide what is sold and at what prices? We know how that usually turns out...

No system is perfect, but the free market is the least bad.

Indeed. I am always shocked when I see many of the same employees year after year. That is just unheard of anywhere else in retail. And they are all pleasant and helpful. And, generally, seem happy.

And the checkouts are AMAZINGLY fast. Walmart is orders of magnitude slower. Unfortunately, Costco has little that I need/want, and Walmart has most of what I need. There is just enough at Costco to keep me coming back and barely justify the annual fee.

My main problem with my Costco is parking is a zoo, as is the lot, in general, taking way too long to get in and out because there of poor design (often forcing much of the traffic to flow through the pedestrian zones). And on many days, getting gas is a double zoo- same parking lot problems and then long lines that are slow and pumps that are "2 deep", making them less effective. And no matter which lane I pick, it usually ends up being the slowest (but not always).

>"How Will Rising RAM Prices Affect Laptop Companies?"

There is nothing special about laptops in this regard. This is affecting laptops, desktops, servers, and will affect phones and other devices as well. We are all screwed.

I was thinking about updating/replacing our hundreds of Linux desktops at work that are now approaching 10 years old (yes, we can do that with Linux) next year. Now I am thinking that isn't going to happen :(

I am glad I decided to get an AMD Radeon card. I used to always use NVidia (although I don't game) and got tired of jumping through hoops. When I built my last home system (Asus/AMD) five years ago, the MB had no on-board video. So I just reused my old cheap fanless NVidia.

But last year, I needed better hardware video codec support, so I was looking to update the card and was annoyed, because I really don't need much of a card and wanted something cheap and fanless, and nothing suitable was available. So I went with an ASRock AMD Radeon 7600 RX 7600. Not fanless, and not that cheap ($250), but works great under Linux. No fuss, no proprietary drivers, no video issues. Ironically, when I test it, the fan is off almost all the time (so I wish they made a slower version and with a large passive heatsink).

[quote]Fuel taxes aren't usually a percentage, and that's part of the problem.[/quote]

Yeah, I realized that was a mistake in my posting (someone else pointed it out). I never paid it much attention.

[quote]A fixed 18.4 cents per gallon means a lot less today than it once did.[/quote]

True, they should have built in some index for inflation. I wish my paycheck had that....

>"Even with a physical inspection that records the odometer reading, the odometer does not indicate where the miles were driven. 90% of then could be in another state which would deprive that state of revenue"

How is that any different from gas tax? I can fill my car in another state and put all the miles in a different one. For most, it won't matter, due to averages.

>"You can have a fixed tax, let say $0.5/L. Problem solved."

Yeah, that is true. In fact, I think that might be the way it works. Never paid it much attention. So a big fat "duh" on my part ;)

>"Gas tax is far less easy to cheat compared to odometer reading, however."

I don't think either would be easy to cheat. There is a lot of security in the car around the odometer (for obvious reasons).

>"So as long as there are less than 10% EV on roads, I think gas tax is the best solution."

For now, it will probably be OK. But the states are already hammering EV owners. I have been. I now have to pay a fat annual EV tax based on the "average miles driven by EV owners", which is incredibly unfair, since I drive under 2,000 miles per year and the "average" person is something like 7,500. Sigh. And this is DESPITE the fact that the state ALREADY has my odometer readings, because I live in a state that requires annual inspection and that information is keyed in and submitted by the inspection station.

>"Some may drive little or at all, but all of them rely on goods and even services that traveled over those roads. Roads and bridges benefit every tax payer."

Of course. But the benefit is certainly proportionally larger to those who drive proportionally more. As far as goods, the transportation cost is baked into the prices consumers pay.

I am OK with a blend, which is kinda what we have now. We tax the machine, we pay with general taxes, and we pay with use taxes (right now mostly fuel tax). My issue is when EV/HEV greatly disturbs one of those three legs and what replaces it is just more general taxes and registration/personal property taxes. It becomes overly punitive to those who need to drive, but not much. I would rather see tolls used than yet more vehicle fees or general taxes used. But I see that is a privacy killer and route disrupter. Which is why an odometer-based fee seems to make more sense, as long as it can be done without decimating privacy.

>"Not a very exciting future is it?"

No, it isn't. And it scares the crap out of me for what it means for both privacy and freedom. We are right on the verge of a disaster. Once more of these systems are interconnected and AI gets involved, it will be a type of mess that most people can't even comprehend. And I am not sure we can put that genie back in the bottle.