For 99% of Windows or MacOS users who work in their browser and within simple applications, day-to-day Linux usage is as easy or easier than Windows. Microsoft’s monopolistic practices and lack of government intervention/regulation led us to this point plain and simple.

Ah yes your comment represents the convergence of suburbanhell and capitalisthell!

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Yet

A name is just a simple reference to a system composed of interrelated and essential OS components: Kernel, windowing system, networking tools, virtual memory, user interfaces, the list goes on…

Yes GNU is an essential suite of tools but so is X (or Wayland) and many other unnamed yet critical subsystems.

Now GPL licensing on the other hand, THAT is a foundational precept to FOSS that deserves sole credit back to a single project.

Just wanted to follow-up on my comment. I was thinking about it today, and I believe ProPublica or some professional journalist or grad school student should engage in a project to study the underlying factors that drive poor VA outcomes. I’m sure it’s been done, but it would be nice to see some more research.

I would be willing to bet there are significant correlation in terms of VA system health outcomes and a range of socioeconomic variables (demographics, voting patterns, etc.).

My hypothesis is that, just like most government outcomes, the most conservative areas also treat veterans the worst and disapprove a shockingly high percentage of disability claims. Having this information in the public domain might influence reforms at the worst-offending VA / VBA systems.

I’m sorry to hear that. I think so many problems stem from the vast differences in quality of care between VA / VBA systems. If you get lucky, it seems amazing. If you are in a bad system, it’s a bureaucratic nightmare.

Same with all my extended family except maybe 2 people who will use the “both sides” BS to not vote. It’s very depressing.

Typical MS gaslighting and manipulation to subvert meaningful regulation.

It’s entertaining to me that our brand of monopolistic / oligarchic capitalism itself disincentivizes one-time costs that are greatly outweighed by the risk of future occurrences. Even when those one-time costs would result in greater stability and lower prices…and not even on that big of a time horizon. There is an army of developers that would be so motivated to work on a migration project like this. But then I guess execs couldn’t jet set around the world to hang out at the Crowdstrike F1 hospitality tent every weekend.

Ah I see what you mean(t). You would have to have working systems with clean-enough data in the first place to integrate with in order to develop a system like this. Not just the expertise to develop it.

If you ever want to go down a depressing rabbit hole, read about the tax-avoiding antics Microsoft pioneered between 2010 and 2020. They’re still refusing to pay a measly $29B tax bill (likely a minute percentage of what they laundered / evaded). It is a truly evil corporation.

Edit: changed M to B. Yeah they are delinquent on $29B in taxes. Different rules and laws apply for the rich & megacorps.

That’s a monopoly I appreciate. Although it’s marginal depending on a number of factors.

Comparing run of the mill government services with something as advantageous as a social credit app is not apples to apples. It’s not like they assign utility administrators to work for GRU hacking units. The people that build this tool will be highly paid technical experts. And there is no shortage of them in Russia. It’s definitely not 100% but there’s a decent chance they can cobble together a working system that tracks social scores for the vast majority of Russian citizens.

I wouldn’t underestimate the engineering competence of Russians especially when it comes to autocratic surveillance tools. There are plenty of Russian-built tools and web apps that function quite well - Yandex, VK, etc. The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.

Yes! Linux Mint is such a great project - it made me excited to get on my desktop again.

If it’s any comfort, it took me a few tries to get it to work. It was over a year ago so the details are a bit rusty. I started out trying to install Debian, and it also crashed during installation, so I went back and tried some of the bug fixes. (One was something to do with the MOK). Debian didn’t work after that but Ubuntu did. It was a strange experience, and there’s nothing that would motivate me to switch after I finally got it to work.

Perhaps you can give it another shot sometime and it’ll work. If you hate the custom arch that’s on it, and you don’t use it, you might as well try.

Mint 21.3 as my main Desktop OS - almost zero complaints after over a year. Everything just works.

Ubuntu using Linux-Surface on my old Surface Pro. Breathed new life into a device I had abandoned (after all 8gb of ram isn’t enough for Windows malware these days). Gnome works really nice on a touchscreen two-in-one. Kudos to the Linux-Surface folks. They took one of the few positive developments from Microsoft (Surface hardware) and made it possible to remove the worst part (windows). Not that I’ll ever buy a Surface again. It also allowed me to retire my iPad.

Fedora Linux on a cheap Dell laptop as my media client. Fedora is nice and runs well, haven’t done too much with it other than Firefox and Calibre. Nice to see a different ‘branch’ in action.

I’m pretty basic and generally lazy so I don’t delve into some of the smaller distros or distro hop. Maybe later I’ll do it with VMs, but eh not sure it’s my kind of hobby. Too many other things to do.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

They also buy lots of guns from the US. This is one of the real reasons. Lockheed Martin’s profit margins would decrease by a significant amount if our relationship with SA changed at all.

Even if the Saudis and other major countries in the reason were able to decrease tensions with Iran, Lockheed Martin and its associated propagandists and lobbyists would start beating the war drums to increase tensions and thus sales.

Edit: *one of the real reasons. Added para. on LM ensuring tensions in the region always remain high even when the people that live there and their government’s reduce tensions.

And duopolies or tri-opolies. Most American industries are dominated by 2-3 players that own the majority of their respective markets, acquire or crush anyone who dares challenge them and use their media and lobbying arms to maintain the status quo. Land of the unfree, home of the bootlickers.