KindaABigDyl

KindaABigDyl, 19 days ago

My biggest disagreement is this:

Do not unnecessarily use braces where a single statement will do.

Always put braces around if statements. It will bite you in the butt

KindaABigDyl, 20 days ago

because they used Metal for rendering

That in itself is a suspicious choice tbh

KindaABigDyl, 24 days ago (edited 17 days ago)

I agree. We’ve let the standards for what is good drop.

I think it’s mainly because the “just works” mentality has become infectious among engineers. It’s one thing when just starting out, but as you learn more and gain experience you should care more.

People do the designing and architecture and programming just because it all pays well, not because they have a love for the craft.

I think the second, slightly less strong reason is because many engineers do not know how to effectively communicate with management when something will result in terribly written software and just do it anyway. Another skill I see less and less amongst my brethren.

KindaABigDyl, 24 days ago

This is already how the military works BC they lost the source code for ancient machines. They’ve gotta now hire reverse engineer researchers to help out

KindaABigDyl, 25 days ago (edited 17 days ago)

No no no no no no

It’s not fragmented in that sense.

No, it would not be more popular if there was one distro. That wouldn’t solve any problems.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding I see among many people, especially those outside/new to the Linux world. They talk about having too many choices where it’s overwhelming to pick from. But it’s not like ice cream flavors where “Oh I like chocolate and vanilla and strawberry? How can I choose?” where some people can get choice anxiety; if you think that’s comparable you just don’t know about how Linux fragmentation works.

Now, that’s fine; not everyone will know everything, and this concept is not always obvious to everyone. That said, an argument made from ignorance is not a valid argument.

Let me explain why fragmentation doesn’t work this way.

In every piece of software that is fragmented in the Linux world, it’s not arbitrary. It’s not people making hundreds of different things “just because.” There’s always a correct choice for each person. Different tools in the same area to suit different needs. No, not all tools are on equal footing lacking unity. They all benefit from the same standards but implement the features that matter to that tool. Unifying them solves nothing. We may not even get a tool out of it as people would fight over the directions of the projects.

For instance, why are there different DEs and WMs? Because not every DE has the workflow a person wants. I can’t stand the Windows way of UX; I think it’s terrible. If there was only one distro, and it came with KDE, I’d be very frustrated as there’s no good tiling options!

The different distros are not ice cream flavors; they exist to fulfill specific needs. You pick your distro, DE, etc to suit the way you want to use your computer. Everyone has a way they want their computer to work whether they realize it or not, even if that way is just how Windows does it.

There’s not an overwhelming amount of distros; that’s a view stemming from a lack of understanding. Fragmentation is not a problem.

then that distro would probably be better than Windows and more people would move to Linux

So as you can see, this wouldn’t be the case. That distro wouldn’t serve people’s needs, just like Windows doesn’t serve people’s needs.

The problem with Linux is not its fragmentation - that’s it’s superpower; there are distros that will meet the needs of everyone already. You just have to figure out what you want from a computer. If it’s just how Windows does things then, well, there are DEs and distros out there already made to function like Windows! Give Mint a try, for instance.

The reason Linux isn’t more popular has nothing to do with not having a good-enough distro that can beat Windows. What that looks like is different for different people, and I guarantee all of them exist somewhere.

Tbh Linux already is better than Windows (and Mac) on every front except two:

1. Lack of industry-standard software for certain fields as well as a handful of specific games
2. Normies will use whatever their PC comes with and will be too scared to reinstall, and Windows and Mac come on almost all devices by default.

P.S.

similarly to how most of us use the same kernel

This isn’t the case. We don’t even use the same kernels!

First, many distros use very different versions and second, some come with kernels that have major tweaks and customizations.

Not to mention the various modules and kernel parameters that get enabled and added.

There are plenty of kernel tweaks.

EDIT: I like what another user said - “Linux is modular, not fragmented.”

KindaABigDyl, 26 days ago

LibreOffice is the superior IDE for Delphi

KindaABigDyl, 29 days ago

I installed Nix on WSL and then used that to get home-manager and thus my zsh and neovim configs working on Windows

KindaABigDyl, 1 month ago

Great reason to push more code out of the kernel and into user land

KindaABigDyl, 1 month ago (edited 28 days ago)

This is honestly so frustrating to see bc I’ll still never understand why Python isn’t just statically typed.

It’s right there in the Zen:

Explicitness is better than implicitness

It wouldn’t even have to be less simple as it could still be weakly typed, a la Rust or Haskell, but not as robust.

You wouldn’t need these extra special tools if the language was just built right!

Same goes for the try/catch exception system where runtime errors can pop up bc you don’t have to handle exceptions:

Errors should never pass silently.

Unless explicitly silenced.

Python is a good language that could’ve been a great one smh

KindaABigDyl, 1 month ago

Haskell

KindaABigDyl, 1 month ago (edited 29 days ago)

Purpose made for Data-science

Uhhh… R?

That, MATLAB, and Python are the only languages I know of used in that field, and it’s not MATLAB or Python lol. I don’t know anything about R tho

KindaABigDyl, 1 month ago

The way I like to think about it is that Proton essentially provides a standard, stable API across both Windows and Linux for gaming (Win32). We typically talk about it as a translation layer, and it is, but also to some degree it’s also “here’s an implementation of Win32 for Linux.”

If game devs can, say, buy a steam deck and know their game works on it, that means it’s gonna work on other steam decks and probably most Linux machines. It’s making it easy for devs to test and develop for Linux, even if it’s not really “on Linux.” Copy the Windows files to the steam deck, run your release checklist, and you’re good to go.

KindaABigDyl, 7 months ago

teams-for-linux

KindaABigDyl, 7 months ago

Mint is currently my recommendation for Windows refugees and has been for a while.

• Cinnamon desktop environment works like Windows’ UX
• Ubuntu-based, so you’ll find help online for basically anything
• Not just Ubuntu; follows more popular, community decisions rather than Canonical’s (e.g. things like Flatpak instead of Snap) which will help you in the long run since you’ll be using what everyone else is using
• Ubuntu-based, so Debian-based, so pretty stable with lots of available software (even outside of Flatpak)
• Significant amount of work put into UX with less you have to do

If you’re not worried about high-performance gaming, you’ll be fine with whatever. For developers, any Linux distro is gonna be leagues better than what you’re used to on Windows. For Assembly, NASM + VS Code will be great.

KindaABigDyl, 8 months ago

So let’s break the dang web

KindaABigDyl, 8 months ago

Return to the office. Forced to use Windows again

KindaABigDyl, 8 months ago

• Wayland has several new features like, say, removing screen tearing, but it’s not necessarily “advantages” that are the reason to use Wayland. It’s sort of a redo of how graphics should work in the Linux world, and it will be the standard going forward. X11 development has more or less ceased with those developers moving to Wayland (in fact, Wayland was created by X11 developers to address issues they had with the architecture of X11). It’s not a matter of should you switch to Wayland; it’s a matter of when should you switch to Wayland. The answer is, as soon as you can.
• Gaming varies drastically. Some games are fine. Some games make me launch Steam via Lutris to start (not sure why it works, but it does) but run fine after. Some games can’t reach higher framerates. That said, no screen tearing is a plus. When it works, Wayland is very smooth, but it doesn’t always work yet. An example off the top of my head, no matter what I do, Street Fighter 6 doesn’t get above 45 fps on Wayland. It’s a good idea to have an X11 option as a backup still imo
• The best way to migrate is just to install a Wayland compatible DE/WM. I’ve used both GNOME Wayland and Hyprland extensively and they both work great. If you’re used to i3 (that’s what I used to use and is still my X11 backup), Hyprland is great. KDE like you have on your Desktop already works good on Wayland from what I’ve heard.
• I have made the switch because most of my apps can run on Wayland, and it’s the future. I still have a backup in case there’s a game or something that doesn’t quite work for me. For instance, I can’t share screen on discord. It won’t even recognize the pipewire route. Thus, I’ve gotta switch to X if I want to do that.

KindaABigDyl, 9 months ago

Systemd is a large piece of software. There are ways to make it smaller and disable various modules for it, but usually by default it’s very heavy.

With a traditional init system, it’s just an init system, and you’ll use other other programs to do the other things. This basically means a chain of interconnected bash scripts. Perhaps you’ll run into some integration issues. Probably not though. It’ll be mostly the same.

There is no real advantage to this from a user perspective beyond a philosophical one. Systemd works quite well at doing the things it tries to do, but it’s the Unix philosophy to “do one thing and do it well,” and some people care very deeply that systemd does not follow their interpretation of that philosophy, and that’s certainly a fair reason to not use it.

However, if you’re not having problems with using systemd, I’d say don’t bother switching.

KindaABigDyl, 10 months ago

Often even cheaper

Where can I find a cheaper mini PC? They all seem to be like $250+ on Amazon, Beelink included.

Before RPis went up in cost they were $35. Isn’t there anything in that price range?

KindaABigDyl, 11 months ago

It could be the devs just like programming in Rust. It's a nice language lol

KindaABigDyl, 11 months ago

I feel it's caused by two things:

• In industry, most people do more reading than writing, so you see a lot of other people's mistakes and have to fix them rather than your own. You don't make enough code to feel humbled.
• Out of industry, there's often a vacuum. You code one way and make a thing and you're proud of it. You never hear criticism, and you're defensive of your abilities. This could be programmers who are new or just out of college or do it as a side to their main job. You don't share code enough with people to learn better ways and be humbled. Good enough is enough to be proud of.

There's an in between state that can open up the door to humility. Maybe a person who works at a company and thus deals with customers, non-programmers, and a team but still works on open source and in their free time build lots of side-projects and open sources them. You're making enough code and putting it out there enough to really receive good criticism. Those people would be more likely to be humble I suppose