You can save quite a bit by getting a refurbished Pixel - looks like the cheapest “Google certified” option (so it comes with a 1-year warranty) is a 6a for $250, which is nearly half off MSRP. I’ve been using my 6a since launch, so it’s been going for 3 years now and I have no desire to upgrade.

You can definitely get cheaper smartphones, but $250 for a 6a feels like a pretty big bang for your buck.

Lol brother, you were the one that introduced the context of “new Linux users”.

Linux community: why don’t more people use Linux?

I’m not whitewashing anything, I’m not being elitist. The only thing I’m trying to say is that if the Linux community wants to attract more users, we should absolutely be turning up our noses at WSL, like Homelander here in this meme. Because it’s a niche tool, not something a new Linux user should be daily driving.

Saying “don’t use WSL as your first Linux distro” isn’t gatekeeping though, it’s just good advice.

How?

Encouraging the use of WSL to new Linux users is asinine. It’s a niche tool with a shitload of bugs and caveats, not something that should be widely used as a daily driver. It’s not “shitting on” anyone to tell them they shouldn’t be using WSL as their daily driver distro, just like it’s not “shitting on” someone to tell them not to use a hammer to drive in a screw.

One of the main points of using Linux is so that you don’t have to use Windows. Like I get WSL is useful in certain scenarios, but it’s whole existence is basically counter to why the majority of Linux users use Linux.

Not trying to criticize you or anything, just genuinely asking - why is it so much worse to turn your computer off when you’re done with it than putting it to sleep?

You know what, I like this one. And just like KBBQ/hot pot, there’s gonna be people who ask “what’s the point of going to a restaurant if they make you cook it yourself?” And you know what I say to those people?

You’re entitled to your opinion and I respect that - also, more hot pot for me!

implying the big Linux DEs of user-friendly distros (usually Cinnamon, KDE or Gnome) were bad is just utter nonsense

Where did I imply that?

Incomplete at times in regards to very specialised administrative tasks, sure.

Right, that’s all I was saying.

Lol stop putting words in my mouth

You missed my point so bad that I’m unsure if it’s worth trying to re-explain myself

The one enabling people to understand and use their devices on their own.

If you’re using a UI, and you have a question about something or don’t understand what you’re doing, isn’t that a sign that either the UI you’re using is insufficient, or your own knowledge is lacking?

Good UI/UX conveys function.

Exactly. By itself, a good UI should “enable people to understand and use their device on their own”. If you’re a UI user and you can’t figure something out on your own, maybe you need to use the terminal to accomplish whatever you’re trying to do.

Fair enough, sorry for the misunderstanding.

I’ve had the opposite experience with Windows audio though. It’s always been weird for me, randomly switching outputs for no reason, and I stopped even trying to connect wireless headphones because it would always seem to prioritize those, even when they’re turned off. Every 5 to 6 months I’d have to dig deep in the audio settings to fiddle with the gain on my mic so I’d stop blowing out my friends’ ears on discord.

I had a heck of a time finding a distro that would properly do 5.1 out of my integrated ASUS audio device

That’s not even close to a common use case though. Using that as an indicator of how user friendly Linux is is unfair.

Even the Nvidia graphics card sentiment is becoming outdated. There have been sizeable improvements in their drivers over the past couple years.

If they have the ability to accurately detect/enforce any of that, I’d be way more impressed with their fingerprinting techniques than any of the hardware they’re selling

To make settings inaccessible on purpose or even alienate people deemed “too stupid” for them is called Tech Paternalism, and it fucking sucks.

You’re referring to Windows Registry right?

C’mon man, this is just a textbook fallacious slippery slope argument. Rust isn’t some brand new language whose stable release was less than a year ago, it’s over a decade old now. Scheme and Lisp are interpreted languages for God’s sake, it’s borderline* impossible to use them for kernel programming.

Also I’m pretty sure the whole point of the Rust project that all this drama is centered around is to keep Rust code separate from the kernel. From what I understand the whole point is to maintain Rust bindings to the kernel API as a separate project, so that if developers want to write a driver in Rust, they can without having to rewrite those bindings themselves. But the kernel code itself will still be all C code. Now I’m not a kernel developer, and the last time I wrote a driver was for my operating systems class in university over a decade ago, so take that with a grain of salt.

* I say borderline because anything is possible with code if you’re creative enough, but anyone trying to submit Scheme or Lisp code to the Linux kernel is gonna get laughed off the Internet

So are the brick veneers and cookie-cutter layouts

Like my code, it’s ugly but readable

That experience is highly dependent on the Linux distro you’re using. Steam comes preinstalled on gaming-centric distros like Nobara or Pop!_OS. More “general purpose” distros like Mint or Ubuntu might require adding an apt repository before you can install steam from their GUI package managers, but adding an apt repo can be easily accomplished with a GUI as well.

Basically, if there’s no guide for installing steam for a given distro, or the process of installing steam is more than a couple easy steps, that specific distro probably isn’t well suited to run steam.

I know you didn’t ask, but you don’t need a weird fork of emacs to run a Clojure REPL, that just works in regular emacs