25+ yr Java/JS dev
Linux novice - running Ubuntu (no windows/mac)

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  • 253 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • I think maybe it was when I started installing things other ways? Like there’s apt and snap and … one other thing I can’t remember. But not all the software I needed was available through the GUI.

    So it could be that’s related to the breakage. Or maybe not, but that was my experience. If it’s working well for others that makes me happy because I’d like to be able to recommend Mint to some of the less demanding users I know.



  • I’ve known for a while but Linux really isn’t newbie friendly. I’ve tried several times over the years. Most recently I tried Mint and within a week or two the GUI software update stopped working. I switched to Ubuntu because I have a little familiarity and quickly realized the only way to stay updated is apt. Firefox will work for a while and then have days where almost every tab is crashing constantly. Sometimes you can get a page to work with reload or two, other times not. So I installed chrome under protest as a backup. Mostly it doesn’t crash although sometimes it does the same thing as Firefox (but usually not at the same time). Those are really my only complaints at all.

    I will say, though, that gaming has come a long way, especially with Steam. I don’t think SteamVR is there yet, but otherwise I haven’t found anything that wouldn’t run (but I play AAA on PS so I’m not really pushing it hard). I thought I was giving up gaming when I moved to Linux, but not at all.

    I left a big partition free in the expectation of dual-booting windows, but I really haven’t had any reason to at all.



  • She knows not to trust it. If the AI had suggested “God did it” or metaphysical bullshit I’d reevaluate. But I’m not sure how to even describe that to a Google search. Sending a picture and asking about it is really fucking easy. Important answers aren’t easy.

    I mean I agree with you. It’s bullshit and untrustworthy. We have conversations about this. We have lots of conversations about it actually, because I caught her cheating at school using it so there’s a lot of supervision and talk about appropriate uses and not. And how we can inadvertently bias it by the questions we ask. It’s actually a great tool for learning skepticism.

    But some things, a reasonable answer just to satisfy your brain is fine whether it’s right or not. I remember in chemistry I spent an entire year learning absolute bullshit about chemistry only for the next year to be told that was all garbage and here’s how it really works. It’s fine.


  • I don’t buy into it, but it’s so quick and easy to get an answer, if it’s not something important I’m guilty of using LLM and calling it good enough.

    There are no ads and no SEO. Yeah, it might very well be bullshit, but most Google results are also bullshit, depending on subject. If it doesn’t matter, and it isn’t easy to know if I’m getting bullshit from a website, LLM is good enough.

    I took a picture of discolorations on a sidewalk and asked ChatGPT what was causing them because my daughter was curious. Metal left on the surface rusts and leaves behind those streaks. But they all had holes in the middle so we decided there were metallic rocks missed into the surface that had rusted away.

    Is that for sure right? I don’t know. I don’t really care. My daughter was happy with an answer and I’ve already warned her it could be bullshit. But curiosity was satisfied.