• madjo@feddit.nlEnglish
    4·
    21 hours ago

    Yeah, fuck Windows. I just had a focus stealing pop-up from HP that demanded a reboot.

    I had put the pop-up to the side to finish some work before I’d let it reboot. Pressed enter to finish the message I was composing, only for the pop-up to once again steal focus, and given that “restart” was the only button on that pop-up, it immediately restarted the PC.

    • limelight79@lemm.ee
      4·
      15 hours ago

      I do not understand why Windows lets windows steal focus like that. I have to use Windows for work, and I’ll be typing in my password or token, and it’ll steal the focus WHILE I’M TYPING. It’s infuriating behavior and potentially a security issue.

    • limelight79@lemm.ee
      1·
      15 hours ago

      Oh god. I started with Slackware in 1998 and used it on the desktop until around 2008, then on the server until 2017 or so.

      In later years, the last panel definitely felt like Slackware. I was afraid to upgrade for fear of breaking things. Installing new software was tough because it was like, well, I need this dependency for that package, but what about this one? Will I break package A if I install the dependencies for package B? Only one way to find out!

      Slackware is probably much easier to handle now, with the proliferation of docker and the like, where the software includes the libraries it needs and doesn’t rely on the system libraries. Just run everything in a container.

      • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
        1·
        8 hours ago

        I use it on a webserver (that is actually just an LA, no M or P), it’s not really updated much any more. Part of why i use it, more complexity = more vulnerability

  • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukEnglish
    67·
    2 days ago

    I love Mint for this reason.

    When my OS works well enough that I don’t even have to think about it day to day, it’s doing its job.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      4·
      2 days ago

      That’s why I love Ubuntu/Mint too.

      It’s boring stable.

      I’ve been tempted to try out other distros, but honestly, when it works as well as it does for me, it’s too hard for me to give it up for something that might not be as stable of an experience.

    • 474D@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 days ago

      As someone who used Linux Mint for a while and will always keep it in my heart as my stable transition from windows, Pop OS is just about as easy with a much nicer out-of-the-box UI (especially love the native dock). So for anyone like me, try it out.

      • LordCrom@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 day ago

        Pop Os is nice. I went and bought the same hardware that system76 uses and then loaded their popOs on it. Going on 4 years of use now, zero issues. Battery life is challenging… Solid laptop otherwise.

      • tehevilone@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 days ago

        I’m not OP, but I also prefer KDE over Cinnamon. The size/spacing of the buttons on the left side of the start menu/application launcher looks weird to me, and while I’m sure there’s merits to Cinnamon that was enough to sour my tastes.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 days ago

        A windows like linux isn’t really attractive to a windows user, they just want an intuitive but also customizable system. Chances are Windows users trying linux still have their old windows system, anyways. Why would they want a windows and also a fake windows?

        • monotremata@lemmy.caEnglish
          8·
          2 days ago

          There are a lot of reasons people might want to switch to Linux from Windows, but I don’t think it’s usually the GUI that’s the main problem on the Windows side. I think it’s pretty reasonable to want the GUI to work in the way you’re used to but still want an OS that doesn’t shove ads at you, install AI without your permission, bug you about Teams and OneDrive, reboot every time it needs to update anything, etc.

        • MaxxieEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Because modern windows is garbage and old windows is full of holes. Or at least that’s why I switched 🤷

  • Thorry84@feddit.nl
    29·
    2 days ago

    I use Arch BTW.

    Today the liquidctl integration of cooler control died, making all my fans go into a safe profile which makes a lot more noise than normal. Imagine having to listen to that for an hour trying to get it working again. I did get it working luckily, somehow the coolercontrol-liqctld python module didn’t register properly. Once I got the module registered everything was working, for now…

    • Mikrochip@feddit.org
      9·
      2 days ago

      Not gonna lie, I’m glad I’ve moved from Arch to Tumbleweed. Media codecs are handled worse somehow, but I haven’t had to deal with crap like this ever since…

        • Mikrochip@feddit.orgEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          I tried that already, didn’t really help. That repo is currently deactivated on my machine, I think I had some (more) annoying problem with it (don’t remember all the details), but after spending quite a few hours on this problem, I essentially gave up trying to fix it. Right now, video playback works well enough that I don’t want to deal with it anymore.

          And, honestly, I haven’t had a Linux installation where everything related to multimedia and graphics drivers just worked flawlessly. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch and Suse all had different issues. Switching from Nvidia to AMD didn’t help, either. Sometimes the flaws were minor and easy to ignore, but it has never ever worked as well as it does on Windows.

          • toothbrush
            2·
            2 days ago

            hmmm, did you try switching(vendor change) all system packages to pacman? (an option in the yast software installation module when you select the repository)

          • Petter1@lemm.ee
            1·
            1 day ago

            Best job with auto driver configuration (etc.) on most machines did endeavourOS for me. Just make sure to choose the correct vulcan / mesa packages while installing steam

            I generally install steam as one of the first apps on most machines in order to get all the GPU dependencies sorted.

      • Thorry84@feddit.nl
        7·
        2 days ago

        No, but depending on what’s wrong that might not be the best thing to do. If the new version is broken, rolling back to a previous working version might fix it. But when the update broke something, it might not fix it and could even make it worse. I’d rather figure out what went wrong and how to fix it, it’s a good skill to have. And if the new version does turn out to be broken, it’s good to have dug into it so you can make a proper bug report.

          • Thorry84@feddit.nl
            6·
            2 days ago

            Luckily there is a distro for anyone. There’s plenty of super stable distros out there. But if you want the cutting edge, stability will be comprised. And the cutting edge is pretty cool at the moment, so for me it’s worth the issue once and again.

            • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              I use Fedora and it seems to provide a pretty good middle ground. I know some like to fix broken systems but for me I want something more recent without breakage. (I actually use Fedora Silverblue so I can easily roll back changes)

  • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
    16·
    2 days ago

    Debian stable, I guess, has both people sleeping on cruise control. Fine until it stops being fine, and then a flurry of activity.

    Edit: or maybe a train. Boring, except for updates and dist upgrades.

      • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
        6·
        2 days ago

        At one point I rebuilt a server by fully abandoning the package database and reinstalling everything as overwrites. Converted a slackware install into a Debian install in situ by cannibalizing it from the inside out. Pretty proud of that one, even 20 years later.

        edit: oh gods… more like 24.

      • utopiah@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 days ago

        upgrades when you’ve neglected a server

        In times of containers, does it even matter?

        Edit: to clarify, yes you MUST keep your server up to date (and have backups) but what I’m questioning is… if the OS a server actually matters much when most of the actual “serving” is done by containers, which might themselves get updates, or not, but are isolated.

        • cybersin@lemm.ee
          2·
          1 day ago

          Yes, it matters.

          Also, the actual isolation of container environments varies greatly, on a per container basis. Containers are far less isolated than virtual machines, and virtual machines are less isolated than separate hosts.

          Neither containers or VMs will will protect from attacks on the host, see regreSSHion. You may be able to limit access to your host by using containers or VMs, but container escapes and VM escapes are not impossible.

          There is much time and effort required to maintain each of these layers. With “stable” distros like Debian, It is often the responsibility of the distribution to provide fixes for the packages they provide.

          Given Debian as the example, you are relying on the Debian package maintainer and Debian security team to address vulnerabilities by manually backporting security patches from the current software version to whatever ancient (stable) version of the package is in use, which can take much time and effort.

          While Debian has a large community, it may be unwise to use a “stable” distro with few resources for maintaining packages.

          OTOH, bleeding edge distros like Arch get many of their patches directly from the original author as a new version release, placing a lower burden on package maintainers. However, rolling releases can be more vulnerable to supply chain attacks like the XZ backdoor due to their frequent updates.

          • utopiah@lemmy.world
            1·
            22 hours ago

            Thanks for the in depth clarification. I had in mind how quick re-installing a system was after a failure but indeed security itself is fundamental.

            So to try to better gauge the risk here when you say

            container escapes and VM escapes are not impossible.

            what level of efforts are you talking about here? State level 0-day required with team of actual humans trying to hack? Script kiddy downloading Kali and playing for 1h? Something totally automated perpetually scanning the Internet in minutes and owning you without even caring for who you are?

            I did read about blue pilling years ago (damn just checked, nearly 20 years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_(software) ) but it seems that since it’s the 1 thing solutions like Docker, Podman, etc and VM propers (and then the underlying hardware) have to worry about, it feels like it would be like trying to break-in by focus on a lock rather than breaking a window, namely the “hard” part of the setup.

            • cybersin@lemm.ee
              2·
              2 hours ago

              Yeah, containerization does make it much easier to just throw away the base system and start fresh. This way, you don’t have to worry about possibly straying the recommended upgrade path and accidentally breaking something.

              More code adds complexity, complexity leads to more bugs, more bugs means more vulnerabilities. Virtualization takes a lot of code. With all this extra code, it is possible that you are actually expanding the attack surface instead.

              It is likely inconsequential for most people just running a couple personal services at home, but organizations are pretty frequently targeted by sophisticated attacks, where the consequences of a breach can be severe.

              Yes, many of these vulnerabilities are difficult to exploit, either requiring local access or the existence of another vulnerability to achieve local access.

              However, there also exists a massive market segment whose entire business model relies on selling local access to VM compute resources, cloud server providers. An attacker could simply rent a VM on a vulnerable platform to gain the needed local access, launch an attack on the host and thereby compromise the other guests on the same machine.

              There have been an incredible number of flaws found and fixed (for now) in the isolation provided by virtual machines. VMware had a spat of critical vulnerabilities in 2024.

  • brokenlcd@feddit.it
    13·
    2 days ago

    My shack pc is a tv box with a custom version of armbian, basically it’s barely holding itself together, but it still works decently for digital modes, so i’m not complaining; i couldn’t imagine the torture that would be daily driving that monstrosity

  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    10·
    2 days ago

    By the wire that powers the PSU, by the CPU on all-high! By the bus and system fans, blessed be… There she lies… The Magnum Opus!