There was just a thread on the privacy community about how Linux has a similar machine-id that could be used to identify and track you.

Far from a Linux power user, so I don’t know the veracity of that claim or how far it goes, and at least it isn’t tied directly to a company that you know is tracking you. Just pointing out that Linux generally seems to have a similar machine-id it presents to browsers with a lot of information that could be used to identify you.

Literally in the last month or so Windows pushed an update that messed up the BitLocker check and locked a ton of company laptops . I’d point out this was also a major security update.

But at least we agree updating for the sake of updating is bad policy on any software if you care about stability, so we can set that argument aside now, yes?

For this new argument you’ve moved to: Distro hopping is for fun for people who like tinkering with computers. You wouldn’t get it. It’s not for everyone, plenty of people just pick a long term support release and call it day.

As opposed to forcing updates that break basic functionality?

Anyway, it’s certainly not common to do no upgrading, just not mindlessly pushing every single new release when you don’t need it (ie, not a major security fix or something). Which is a good thing if you value stability in your system, no matter what software you’re running. The ones dealing with the BitLocker locked company laptops right now after the last Windows update kerfuffle could probably tell you all about it. It’s a lesson hard won by neophyte system admins.

Lots of reasons today, but I started out of necessity: a poor kid that couldn’t buy new hardware, much less a windows license. Discovered the magic when I picked up a little pre-Chromebook XP mini laptop that the person gave me for $20 because it just couldn’t run usably with windows’ overhead. Put one of the light Ubuntu distros on it, and damned if that little thing didn’t get me through college.

Honestly stoked a real passion for how Linux can be a really effective way to repurpose what would otherwise be e-waste and get it to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to really get into technology all with an opportunity to learn how the machine works.

I’m likely relocating soon, but I’ve really considered afterwards setting up a local non profit dedicated to flipping old machines like that to get them into poor kids’ hands, maybe even with pipelines into basic Linux/terminal learning, security basics, programming, etc for those that show an interest.

This was my understanding, but I really am not in the loop enough to say it with certainty, so appreciate the confirmation. I agree, I think we’re seeing from contributions made by people like Valve that there’s real value in requiring derivative work to give back to the community it drew from. But again, I’m really not super well informed. I just tend to pick GNU options when available.

I feel like there’s a lot of concern about more and more free software moving over to the MIT license.

I honestly don’t know the ins and outs, but it’s probably relevant to people concerned about it.

Yakuake. Nothing major but a nice quality of life upgrade for terminal work.

Easy block.

The only real excuse for digital only is DRM free

And cheapness. Steam has always gotten away with this because it’s just plain cheap. Their distribution costs are way, way less per game and it’s easier for them to pass on savings, which I think is a big part of how they can push games for so cheap compared to most phyical media sources.

Using faschist terminology like this waters it down

Or takes the piss out of it. Just depends on your point of view.

No, it’s worse. Currently, if anything were to happen to my data, I could redownload it freely. If anything happens to your data with physical media, like the disc getting scratched and damaged, lost, or stolen, you’re just SOL.

Sure, if GOG goes belly up that goes away, but that’s what you’re stuck with in physical media the second you walk out the door with the disc.

GOG has managed to put out DRM free games though on a digital distribution platform. I can have my entire library backed up and it isn’t possible for them to nuke it in any way, as far as I know. It really isn’t a problem inherent to digital downloads, only the way some are trying to do it.

Valve gets away with it because you can get games for dirt cheap there.

I suspect if we were looking at the same image as above except buying Dead Space for $6 like you can on Steam, we’d be seeing a lot less pushback. Part of the excuse they had was physical media having a way bigger distribution cost compared to digital. They’re kind of trying to have their cake and eat it too, here.

And yeah, GOG is DRM free so that’s a pretty big difference.

I’m still a couch and controller gamer primarily, I just use a PC to do it lol. Honestly, with Steam, it’s really easy to just change Steam Big Picture mode as the default shell for Windows, so even if you don’t want to install SteamOS, you can still have the console experience of just turning the machine on and booting right into your games menu.

Text based CLI browsers also seem to get around it often. I’ve used w3m to good effect, but there’s still a few that just won’t even talk to you without js enabled…

Yeah, I was particularly irked by that 16 limit I encountered the other day.

And I stand corrected, then, and color me impressed. I’ll look into doing this for those passwords I need to remember, like masters.

How many characters are we talking, though? I’ve had passwords as limiting as 16 characters for some services (unfortunately)… that seems small to me for generating real randomness with passphrases.

That said, fair enough, but as someone who has administered a network before, I would never, ever want my users relying on their brain… the security from a pass manager is practically going to be way better than the standard practices of an average user without one. IMO.

But hey, color me impressed, honestly.

What composition though? I’ve got well over 100 that are 20+ characters including special characters. I can’t believe this is possible without use of words or something easily guessed.

I do have a few passwords I keep to myself, and even with my method of taking the first letter from a key phrase or set of song lyrics and switching most to leet speak, I still don’t think I could possibly remember more than a dozen reliably.