Skye

Honestly this part of the XKCD meme never sat right with me. No self respecting emacs person would ever bind a command to C-x M-c

Meta after Ctrl rubs me the same way languages that use Subject Object Verb order do.

Like, you can do it, but it feels icky.

Also, you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a ‘butterfly’ key. Just use that.

Yeah the “tech tips” distro feels vaguely abusive and toxic

The implication, of course, is that the only way someone stops using Debian is if they die

I agree. I think that’s why nix-os is getting so popular these days.

I love the idea of declarative system builds even beyond just reproducability. The idea that you can essentially make your own distro without much difficulty is really cool.

Plus all the benefits of roll backs, light backups, etc.

Plus if you can dig deep enough you can craft a system that never breaks by pinning certain versions.

One of these days I want to check it out. As well as LFS. Oh but for the want of time.

Yeah, you will invariably remove something crucial haha. The nice thing with arch is that usually you can fix it without too much fuss.

Me learning to use Linux was like teaching a child that can’t feel pain to not touch fire.

I don’t know if that’s a widely recognized term.

Pacman used to be really bad at removing unneeded dependencies. I think pretty much every package manager has this facility now. For instant apt auto remove.

Suppose you installed gnome to try it out, gnome installs like 1000000 packages. The thing about some of those dependencies is that they’re really useful. It’s not uncommon for another package you have installed to use it as an optional dependency. In that case it doesn’t get flagged for autoremoval when you uninstall gnome.

When you apply this logic a couple layers deep they start to compound.

Also libraries and random python scripts tend to just exist forever in your system long after you used it lol.

I started developing the habit of checking what dependencies are being installed and to uninstall immediately when I realize I don’t need it.

This logic applies to language specific managers like cargo or pip too.

They all have really good tooling to figure out leaves, orphaned nodes etc. I just didn’t start using those until I got into the arch hype.

Arch breaking grub has happened to me twice. Second time I couldn’t even recover the install.

You learn a lot of good practices by using arch, eg a separate home partitjon, git repositories for your config files, maintaining a clean package tree etc. Installing Arch is also really useful for noobs like me to learn some Linux basics.

I use Fedora, btw.

Sounds like a skill issue. Some people just don’t know how to use Arch.

Signed,

Someone who has spent more days reinstalling Arch than using it.

I’m Indian. I’m willing to bet a bunch of kids who just built their first pc didn’t realize windows was paid just googled free OS and installed Linux lol

(This is a sarcastic whit at the frugality of my people. Truth is a lot of Indians my age are extremely tech savvy and care about privacy)

The right answer is to use bat

Then, we’d have to shift the jokes to which editors can run in emacs.

If you’re in South Asia, we can hang out I guess

Do you mean like neomutt, mu4e etc kinds?

Hey, I get what you are trying to say, but I suggest you try reading the original article. Here it is for reference.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html

The second para starts in the original article by saying - In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice has been done”

In the ChatGPT version it says - In a late-night address to the nation from the East Room, President Obama declared “Justice has been done”.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions

Here’s the chatGPT text for anyone who is interested-

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan, President Obama announced on Sunday.

In a late-night address to the nation from the East Room of the White House, President Obama declared, “Justice has been done.” The death of Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who had eluded international forces for nearly a decade, marks a significant turning point in the global fight against terrorism and a pivotal victory for U.S. intelligence and military forces.

Bin Laden’s demise, the result of an operation that unfolded over the course of a few tense hours, is being hailed as a triumph of U.S. military and intelligence efforts. The operation, carried out by a small team of American forces in Abbottabad, a city north of Islamabad, ended a worldwide manhunt that began in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The President, in his address, detailed how the United States had received an intelligence lead last August about Bin Laden’s possible location. Over the ensuing months, intelligence officials worked to confirm the information. “Finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” Obama said.

The raid on Bin Laden’s compound, described by officials as a surgical strike, was a high-stakes operation. U.S. helicopters ferried elite counter-terrorism forces into the compound, where they engaged in a firefight, killing Bin Laden and several of his associates. There were no American casualties.

The news of Bin Laden’s death immediately sent waves of emotion across the United States and around the world. In Washington, large crowds gathered outside the White House, chanting “USA! USA!” as they celebrated the news. Similar scenes unfolded in New York City, particularly at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once stood.

The killing of Bin Laden, however, does not signify the end of Al Qaeda or the threat it poses. U.S. officials have cautioned that the organization, though weakened, still has the capability to carry out attacks. The Department of Homeland Security has issued alerts, warning of the potential for retaliatory strikes by terrorists.

In his address, President Obama acknowledged the continuing threat but emphasized that Bin Laden’s death was a message to the world. “The United States has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” he said.

As the world reacts to the news of Bin Laden’s death, questions are emerging about Pakistan’s role and what it knew about the terrorist leader’s presence in its territory. The operation’s success also underscores the capabilities and resilience of the U.S. military and intelligence community after years of relentless pursuit.

Osama bin Laden’s death marks the end of a chapter in the global war on terror, but the story is far from over. As the United States and its allies continue to confront the evolving threat of terrorism, the world watches and waits to see what unfolds in this ongoing narrative.

So I copied the first paragraph of the Osama Bin Laden Killed NYT Article and asked Chat GPT to give me an article on the topic “in the style of NYT”

Even before the thing had finished generating, it was clear to me that it was high school level “copy my homework but don’t make it obvious” work.

I put it into a plagiarism checker anyway and it said “Significant Plagiarism Found”

Ah. My bad. I guess I was a bit needlessly aggressive with my comment too.

Ok? I never said it was cheap. Also, the whole “I want it for cheap” mentality is what got the world to where we are right now. I can afford to pay 10 dollars a month for a search engine because it saves me exponentially more in privacy and more importantly- time.

Why the drive by? elispOS is a perfectly valid operating system. It even has a built in editor!

Absolutely. It’s really nice that the middle tier now has unlimited searches too!