Flatpak is just a software, I guess you may refer to the Flathub repository. And even then did not ban "AI" just submissions generated by AI. This is a very sensible policy, as they have to review each submission to guarantee a minimum level of safety and quality for the end user, they cannot afford to be flooded but AI slop.

Also this ban does not prevent anybody from setting up an alternative Flatpak repository with all the AI slop they wish, if there is request for this type of software, they'll be undoubtedly successful.

I would really prefer the other way around, invoking Windows containers for the few Windows apps that I am stuck running.

You have been able to do it for ages. Two relatively streamlined recent options are Winapps and Winboat. However, there is little interest and not much community support on these solutions, and although one could in principle have everything, they require some tinkering to have GPU passthrough. Also, you need to have a window system running, which gobs up a lot of RAM just by itself.

The main problem is that Linux can be easily reduced to a really minimal setup, while even minimal Windows is bloated

I'm not a massive fun of systemd, I find that the unit files myriad of options difficult to remember and despite the documentation it is often hard to find what one wants to do.

However, I also remember the situation before systemd. Every service had its one bash script to start/stop/status, maybe written initially from a template but each with its own bugs and idiosyncrasies. Many were hundred of lines long, and included several other files. Now, once a bug has been corrected in systemd, all the services benefit from it.

It also took 3 minutes to boot a desktop system. SSD do play a huge part in how fast boot has become, but the ability of systemd to transparently parallelize services startup also plays a significant role.

Sure, if a service is failing to start I need to find out why, instead of hacking a couple of "sleep" in the startup script and hoping for the best.

The USA was already planning a coup in Italy in 1964 in case the people would have elected a left wing party.

I've noticed in a British channel dedicated to public transport that "tube" (UK English for underground train) was consistently being transcribed as "Jew". With borderline libellous results such as "can you beat the Jew?"

Lenovo and HP have an exclusive contract with French public institutions to provide desktop and laptop computers, it is a contract valued in the hundred of millions of euros. Still, the option to have Windows 11 pro preinstalled is charged around 100 euros.

Yes, Collabora is one of the largests (they say THE largests) upstream contributors of LibreOffice

There is already modern euro-centric rework of LibreOffice, it is Collabora. It used to be just a rebranded fork of LibreOffice, but it then evolved in an online suite, which integrates with Nextcloud. And most recently, a completely new interface, based on LibreOffice but (if I understand correctly) written in python and with all the java legacy code stripped off. The first public version was only released a couple of months ago, it is still a bit unstable and missing some features, but completely usable.

I'm pretty sure you cannot copyright an UI interface design, except for the graphics on the buttons. However, they may have had some specific patent on the ribbon design.

Every time I see my mother in law, she's a list of " I don't know what fo do" problems with her phone. The solution is always the same: I read out loud what is written on the screen, then I ask her if she want it or not, and I click yes or no accordingly.

The OS has your birthday, but it only reports minor/major when a web services asks. This is better, because when a minor becomes a major, he can keep his device without having to ask parents to unlock it .

It works like this in Android Family Link.

As a parent and a system administrator myself, I think it is brilliant actually. You need age verification somewhere. Having it in the website is bad, because you force people to send their id around. At the DNS level is verg unreliable. Being able to simply set a flag for non-admin accounts and expect legit websites to respect it, makes the DNS solution much more reliable, and removes the need to send your ID and picture around. If it is a tool for parents, it is good.

It becomes bad if the OS is required to DO the age verification, via some DRM-like service that handles your ID and personal data.

Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.

You can be totally scammed with apps downloaded from Google Play store.

There definitely is solvent involved in the ifixed.it instructions for a MacBook pro. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/M...