I’m trying it now, based on your recommendation (thank you, by the way!). Had to grab a file from some PPA to enable EPUB support, but it worked. Just Mint things, I guess.

The lack of UI is a bit meh, but I’m okay with it: mouse and keyboard controls work really well. Way better than xreader’s. And unlike Okular, it isn’t ruining the pictures. I’m keeping it, at least until KDE fixes the Okular bug!

That brings me back to the topic. I’ve been using Linux for, like, 15 years? And in Linux nowadays there are lots of options, but they usually boil down to

1. I don’t need an interface.
2. Half-working, half-broken. Our alternative is also like this, but the working halves are different, so use both of us together.
3. I got a kitchen sink~ it plays Merry Christmas, once you send an e-mail through the pipe!

Then I look at my Android phone and it’s the same. And based on what people say about Windows and Mac, it’s the same too. Perhaps I’m being nostalgic, but shouldn’t we (people in general) be rethinking what we want from software?

For example, Calibre. I personally don’t want a library manager, but plenty people do so that’s fine. Which are the features that they expect, that actually improve their experience when reading books? Do they really benefit from plopping an AI system into that? Isn’t this a bit already too outside the scope of what a library manager is supposed to do?

You know, what I really, really want? A good EPUB/CBZ/PDF viewer. Simple, with scrolling mode that works seamlessly for all three filetypes (yes, including between EPUB chapters), and that doesn’t pretend to be some sort of library or bookmarks system or whatever. It should do that one thing — to show the contents of my ebook — and do it well.

The nearest of that I got was Okular. It would be amazing… if not by a certain little bug, that makes all EPUB/PDF pictures look like arse.

But no, we can’t have that in 2025. Instead we have a bloody book “manager” that was already bloated before the AI bubble, becoming even more bloated so you can ask it what to read next. *sigh*

This looks like a twist of what I call the “cat shit problem”:

A cat shitting on your front yard is bad. But an elephant doing it is even worse. Both are shit and you want neither; but elephant shit is a considerably worse problem.

However, every bloody single time this subject pops up, you’ll see two sets of muppets:

• “They’re both shit, so there’s no difference.”
• “Elephant shit is worse, so cat shit is not shit.”

So. The orange guy in your comic is in the first set.

[rant]
If you trust anything Google in '25 you’re a muppet. Or at least uninformed. Either way you’re part of the problem, and deserve to be treated as such.

I get it’s impossible for some to completely de-googlefy their lives. Myself still use YouTube, either directly or through Piped. But there’s always that bloody risk Google will fuck with you and your digital belongings, that you need to take into account.

So I don’t blame those two for publishing their videos in YouTube. I do blame them however for doing so exclusively. Just publish the same video across multiple platforms dammit — YouTube and PeerTube and Vimeo and Odysee and Dailymotion and everything else you find.

inb4 “AcKsHyUaLlY Rick Beato uploaded it to Instagram too!” — it doesn’t count because:

1. Meta is as trustable as Google; as in, may both die in a fire.
2. Instagram is mostly focused on photos and brainrot videos (akin to TikTok). Not really a good place to share anything with more depth than a puddle.
3. This is just a guess from my part, but odds are Rick Beato only shared the video there after realising something was off with the YouTube version of it.

So my point still remains - they’re still putting all their eggs into the same basket.

Someone might say “But that’s too hard! And the platforms have almost no user!”. Well… then don’t complain when Google goes like “A content creator is a user, not a human being. It’s fine to butcher its videos automatically, no need to ask its permission”. Just like it did.

“AcKsHyUaLlY Ritchie was talking about user trust over the creator” - the same point still stands. Once you have multiple copies online you can reliably say “no, my content is genuine, it’s YouSlop doing this shit. If you want a more faithful version of the video hop into [insert alternative]”.

Some days I really hate human short-sightedness.
[/rant]

HN comments are almost as bad as YouTube ones.

“Two plus two equals five!”
“No, it’s four.”
“WAAH, THIS IS CENSURRSHIP!”

It would be hilarious if not sad.

I am so bloody glad I upgraded my computer last year.

nyaa.si has a bunch. Just be careful to not download the manga instead. (Both are under the same section, “Literature”.)

Yes, and that’s what I’m using. Or trying to - people flat out refuse ditching WA because everyone else is using it. That’s why I’m hoping the barrier won’t be lifted just for Europeans.

Further info on the compound. Wikipedia claims it to be as toxic as chlorine. That was also used in WW1, under the name “bertholite”.

Question: will this interoperability only apply to Europeans? As in, will WhatsApp keep some artificial barrier elsewhere?

I’m asking this because I’m in Brazil. And I desperately want to ditch WhatsApp, but here this would be social suicide, given almost everybody here assumes you have WhatsApp.

Can I send anyone the excess vitamin D I’m getting?

Bloody Spring. (Southern Hemisphere.)

Even then, I think “check nearby people for what they use” shouldn’t be underestimated. Of course you wouldn’t tell them to use Neon itself, but if they’re using Kubuntu you’d probably be abler to help them than if they were to use, say, Mint, right?

My point is, that people underestimate the power of offline help, and having acquaintances who know the system well enough to help you out. And that matters a lot when picking your starting distro.

When “the right thing to do” enters in conflict with “what maximises profits”, businesses almost always pick the later.

What makes this decision particularly stark is the response from other tech giants. The same censorship notice was sent to Apple and Google, as the game has been available on their Russian mobile stores since 2020. Both companies reportedly ignored the request, leaving Flick Solitaire available for download.

It’s a matter of relative power.

Do you know anyone in real life that has some experience with Linux, and is willing to help you out with it? If yes, use the same distribution (distro, or “OS”) as they do.

If not, as others said, Mint is a good start.

TL;DW: an extremely convoluted explanation of the optimal strategy for Guess Who.

Let’s call

• “pool” - the number of characters a player did not rule out as not being the right character. For example, if there are 20 chars and you ruled 8 out, then your pool is 12. Your pool is “a”, your opponent’s pool is “b”.
• “bid” - the number of characters in the pool that a question applies to. For example, if your pool is 12, you ask “do they have a beard?”, and there are 4 bearded characters there, then the bid is 4. And if your opponent asks “does he look like a bitch?”, whatever you do, do not include Marsellus Wallace into the bid.

So. If I got this right, your bid should be either a/2 or b-1, whichever is the smallest. That’s it.

I did because my older computer was a potato, so it was kind of obvious the game took a bit too long to install.

From the top of my mind, Europa Universalis 4. Even the base game takes ages to install, and I don’t think it’s just the Linux version.

Incidentally, I checked it in FitGirl’s site, found EU5 instead, and she’s complaining about the exact same thing:

Installation takes 5-12 minutes (depending on your system, mostly on your drive speed – the game has more than 49000 small files, Paradox never learn from their mistakes)

Yup, pretty much.

Bingo. And this means they’re effectively choosing who their games are for. And then complaining the ones they didn’t choose decided to pirate it.