I’ve used VLC in WIndows forever, but it started giving me glitchy behavior in Ubuntu. Tried to upgrade to see if it was an old version/Snap thing, got frustrated with it not working. So I went through all the lists of Linux players, tried most of them. I like Audacious. It’s not perfect, but it works well, and I can deal with some of the minor things that are more preferences than problems. That’s all I wanted.

I think it’s because they’ve been taught to go with what talking points they’re fed. There is no moment of looking at the details and thinking, hmmm, this may not be the best idea. Then you add incompetent leaders who are feeding them the dumb ideas, and you get GIGO. This is why removing a single person from the top isn’t the greatest solution, as they might get replaced with someone a bit better at the job, and now you’ve got a worse problem. You’ve got to fix the entire thing (or as much as possible).

See, tariffs do help some people. Just not the ones that need help.

I barely remember WinMe…

As I installed over it with 98SE on a laptop. Didn’t even hear the screaming.

The name of this community is an example of why you need to use the common terms, even if you disagree on it being bastardized for marketing purposes. You can explain in your reasoning why it’s not really the intelligent part, but you aren’t going to get people’s attention if you use other terminology that they aren’t hearing everywhere else.

I can’t say if I’m on a fence here, or something else. I see the dangers, the ethical problems, the claims that aren’t true. I also see some incredible technology and science, even if it’s used badly and wrongly. It would have been great to approach this level from a better route, but we can’t change the past, only fix where we’re going. And I would agree we’re heading to a mess.

But I’ve said before, attacking the core problem by arguing against what most people call it is not the way to get traction.

If I’m wrong, I expect some posts calling for a renaming of this place. That will make it less visible to those not yet realizing the problem.

Except that such idiots often hurt other people in their blundering. If they just gave themselves a Darwin Award, that would be optimal.

I’ve used Gemini for some stuff. It can be good when used intelligently and sparingly. If you know what you’re needing, you can tell when it starts to go off the rails. It’s already been stated before that AI looks magical if you don’t know the field but questionable if you do, and that’s a red flag. So having a government entity use it speaks to what they’re expecting and how they’ll use it, and that won’t end well. Just like many corporate uses that have had to backtrack when they were dead sure this was a silver bullet to spike their numbers.

It changes the argument away from the objective of ethics and safety, and towards the words being used. One can use the inaccurate wording while debating its characteristics and problems. It’s far too late to control what marketing and public ignorance have set. I wasn’t a fan of the AI slop" term, as it’s morphed into a general word or use for dismissing something that’s not liked or agreed on, nowhere near the original narrow meaning. But it’s a word that is now used all the time, and that’s how words are created and become authentic, by usage.

The issue of ethics is still important, even though fixing it is far in the past. We still have to have the discussion. The issue of safety in general for AI is something that has been shelved by both sides, and even though it’s primarily an AGI topic, it still applies to even non-intelligence LLMs and other systems. If we don’t focus on it, it’s a dead end for us. It doesn’t have to be Terminator-like to be bad for civilization, it doesn’t even have to be aware. “Dumb” AI is maybe even worse for us, and yet it’s been embraced as something more.

But if the argument is about what we call it and not what’s actually happening, nothing will be solved. One can refer to it as AI in a discussion and also talk about its actual defining functions (LLM and so forth). It might even make the point stronger instead of deflecting to what it’s called.

That goes back to my point, that there’s choices out there with Linux, from the OS distro on up to the applications. That’s not being different just to be different, it’s trying to fill niches where there are needs. And things change, even the tried and true sometimes go obsolete for newer approaches. Stagnation is a killer. But if it works for the needed purpose, then great.

I just don’t get the internal arguing within Linux. Embrace even the “crazy kids”, after all that’s where Linux came from.

So you’re saying diversity is a bad thing? That seems very anti-Linux. The very fact that you can choose not to change for so long instead of being forced to accept the next version is diversity itself.

Everyone has different needs and preferences. Finding something early on and being able to stick with it is great, but many don’t find that right away, or things change with their needs or the distro.

Plus it depends also on how long you stick around each time. I know I dipped in and out of dual booting for a long time, only now in the past year settling in well. And each time I tried Linux again, lots had changed so I couldn’t just go back to what I used before.

Isn’t part of being in the Linux culture to experiment with things, even if it’s just the window manager, settings, or particular apps?

I saw a video of someone who (for YT purposes) did a marathon watch of all of Andor, both seasons, back-to-back. She was so tired when she got to the pivotal parts in season 2 that she missed a lot of details and was confused. The marathon idea is a cool one, but only for something you’re already well-versed in and enjoy rewatching. The first time deserves full attention. And if it’s well-made, probably a few more watches also need that same alertness for all the nuances. Then your numb mind can enjoy it to the fullest in a marathon.

I thought he was perfect in Bladerunner 2049. He’s got creepy narcissist down.

so 42.

This is what you respond when they ask what you have to hide.

I’ve found the only long-term, totally happy dual boot system is where you autoboot into Linux. And never boot into Windows. Every now and then I have to go back into my Win10 to do something (much rarer now, almost ready to reclaim some space). Boy, Windows hates having any signs you’ve been somewhere else.

A common phrase of mine is, “the truth is, there is no bus driver at the wheel”.

Absolutely no one. At all.

Sol I - VIII

If a lot of guys are asking that question, that’s when you put up a FAQ for them.