Thanks for the advice, and I’m certain that I’ve used “things” as a verb a few times in my life.
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I don’t think we’re really disagreeing. If I go to a store and just buy a random printer without checking the label info, it’s really very likely to work with Windows, and not entirely unlikely to work with a Mac. If it says “Mac compatible” or “Linux CUPS/LPD/LPng support” it will probably be at least minimally usable with linux and very likely will work fine with a Mac. But if you really want optimal printer performance under linux, you need to know what your system supports before you even get to the store - as you say, if there’s already a CUPS ppd specifically written for that model printer it’s going to work great. So for unsophisticated linux users that’ve never heard of RFC1179 before, the best bet is to ask their distribution’s user community or check for an on-line compatibility list before going out and purchasing a printer.
I do! Back in the day I found a copy of Yggdrasil on a CD somewhere, and it was just a lot easier to load linux from CD than it was to deal with slackware floppies (no offense, Patrick, if you’re out there - slackware is a great distro).
I think setting up X11 on Yggdrasil was the only time I’ve ever actually set a monitor on fire with software. Burned it right up. I’ve set a lot of hardware on fire over the years, but not by misconfiguring software.
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Um, you do use Windows, yes? You do know you can opt out of the spying, right?
So put down the Hater-aid and learn something:
The first step requires going to ‘Settings’ and clicking on ‘Privacy’ and then going through the 13 different screens to disable everything that relates to caching or collecting your personal data.
The second step involves disabling Cortana. Data collection happens here (just as it does with Google and Apple, BTW).
The third step involves opting out of targeted ads through Microsoft’s “opt out” website. Yes, there is a website dedicated to “opting out” of ads. You have to visit Choice.Microsoft.com to opt out.
So, um, yeah. And stuff.
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actually Ubuntu does push ads at me , if I use the search widget. I’m not sure if they are targeted as such, it all seems to be for handbags, sweaters and something called ‘sneakers’. Is that trainers?
Among other things, in the iOS ecosystem users are obliged to get all their software from Apple’s store, and developers are obliged to sell it in the company store.
Hogwash.
Apple provides all of the developer tools for free, including the ability to load your own software onto your iOS devices. Run whatever you want. It simply doesn’t make it easy for people to distribute and use unsigned binaries, because that path is what leads to malware and the like. Likewise, if you want to sell your software outside of the Apple Store, just buy a Business developer’s license (I think it’s what, $500?) and you can distribute to your customers as you see fit; to be fair, not via the apple store, but that’s what you don’t seem to like, no?
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Me I’m udderly fine.
Thanks to Cory for posting this. The original article explained why my daughter could not play her favourite Movie DVD’s on my Ubuntu Laptop…its because they are encrypted. You need to install (possibly illegal) decryption software to play DVD’s you purchased. I was about to get copy on Bittorrent just to be able to view the movie …which I had bought…in a shop.
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Or alternatively, possibly legal decryption software. It all depends on how enlightened your countries computer laws are.
Well…
[quote]
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.[/quote] -Robert A. Heinlein
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For software updates, for example?
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You know that you can turn that off, right?
Yeah… I’m here… right.
Point taken.
There’s something kinda painful and funny and sad here.
Linux/Ubuntu/etc. are probably the Least of All Evils such as it is. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to keep track of it all because… well… that way lies a kind of madness, no? I sense that there will definitely be a time when I’ll have to cowboy up and just learn up, as several of our clients (human clients, as in “people I send invoices to”) who run Red Hat, Ubuntu and other flavors of Linux have been bugging me to do for years. We are our own host service, and our own sysadmins, etc. so some of the loops you mention are under our control. Clearly, we have to buy our bonded T1 from someone, who buys it from AT&T (cue up the madness).
ETA:
Ahh haha! Can’t quite get us on that one! Our decorating style here falls between Late 20-Century Procrastinator and the much underappreciated ABL (Already Been Looted) brand. And our in-out schedules are pathetically unpredictable most days.
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My sympathies. It’s hard and can take a very long time. But yeah, you need to deactivate that stupid Windows 10 thing. My sisters bought my mother a win7 laptop when she turned 80, due to my father’s deteriorating condition, which was the first time in her life she’d knowingly used a computer of any kind. As soon as that Win10 nag thing showed up I deactivated it! Unfortunately I forget exactly how I did it 
but this link may help.
Older people with degenerating cognitive capabilities are often able to effectively use systems they are accustomed to long after they have become incapable of learning any new system, which is why the Ubuntu devs really pissed me off when they moved the min/max/kill buttons to the left for absolutely no good reason. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time moving those buttons back for cognitively handicapped people.
Yep, for decades now. Several friends used to pay for extra phone lines at my house, and they dialed in to my basement server for internet connectivity. The cost of the outgoing, dial-on-demand line was split between all of us. I didn’t have to pay for an ISP because it was still early enough in the game (before the black ships came, and the secret of hose gartering that never ravels was lost, and September never ended).
Today I’m on FIOS; although I don’t tell random people on the Internet how to get to my system, a fair number of people know how to reach me with SSH and HTTPS. But I’m really not doing anything exceptional for security, just iptables with stateful packet inspection at the host firewall and a cheap (actually free, from T-Mobile) router firewall at the network edge. No fancy port-knocking or destandardized ports or anything like that, so I get hit by SSH scanners all the time, but my users understand good password discipline so it’s not a problem.
Heavy linen pants, 12oz canvass or better, are the most durable and comfortable thing in the world, once you break them in. They are kind of flammable though, so you have to patch holes before they start fraying or you end up being very easily ignited…
Yes, it’s SAE nomenclature for trainers. We don’t train in America, we just jump in and flail about until we succeed, die or give up. You can turn the ads off.
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Well more to the point of if you are that scared of government spooks whats to stop them from gaining physical access to your home server and installing monitoring software… Keep it with you all the time?
Notably, this is a choice you do not have on iOS without circumventing their efforts to prevent you from doing so, which may or may not be illegal depending upon the interpretation of various laws and the whims of the Librarian of Convgress.
http://blog.codinghorror.com/why-doesnt-anyone-give-a-crap-about-freedom-zero/
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read the links I posted. The reporters don’t know what the communication between W10 and microsoft is because its encrypted. Only microsoft knows what the communication is.
It was. But I didn’t just buy it all at once. I acquired things over a few years, adding to the lineup. Mind you, this isn’t all just for fun. It’s work, mainly, and fun some of the time like right now. I don’t play any games. Last game I played was… hrm… I don’t know. Other than the minesweeper and solitaire that come with some of the OSes, I can’t think of any games I have installed or visit.
You can build a sweet Linux box for under $500 USD. My 12-core was something like $1500 all told, which is about half what you’d pay for a prebuilt system. The processor alone was about half of it. The Mac… well, that part has me in the hole pretty good.
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Or alternatively, possibly legal decryption software. It all depends on how enlightened your countries computer laws are.
Now she’s seen the Movie I wish we’d left it encrypted. My theory is the studios have taken their best people off scriptwriting and put them onto DRM.
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Heehee… that’s gonna be a hella big backpack to get what’s on our rack all into a tidy to-go bundle. I was just at the chiropractor’s yesterday. That backpack’s going to need its own anti-gravity whatchamacallits just to stay portable. Those ones in Dune worked pretty well. I should check Amazon…
I can just imagine how well this line of reasoning’s going to be with our tax guy when I bring up expensing myself a decent used Toyota pickup for the hauling-around-part. Hey, DH replaced his truck a while back and I am definitely way overdue to replace mine.
Oh wait, if I’m hauling the server rack around, it’s not connected to the internet… I better get a generator and a nice big satellite dish for that truck. Maybe I should get a van!
; )
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