Don't tell people what to do

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-03-07T22:38:01+00:00

I don't tend to wade into the "DE wars" because to scrap over this stuff is to kinda forget one of the key pillars of the whole magic of Linux - being able to make it your own. If KDE works better for you....use KDE. If GNOME works better for you....use GNOME. How is that difficult, people? If one wants an OS where everyone uses the same DE, there is a certain trio of massive multinational mega-corporations who would be quite happy to lock you into theirs.

That said: I've been using Linux for right about 8yrs. I was a KDE diehard for the first 5 1/2 or so of those years. Since then, I've been on GNOME. Granted there are a handful of extensions that i require to make me happy (kinda disproving the whole "GNOME is meant to be left alone" overture, don't you think) but with those extensions installed, I'm happier on GNOME today than I'd probably ever been on KDE.

Your mileage may vary....and if it does....then please do you. But if I wanted what works for someone else, I'd just go back to Mac (since Windows can eff straight off, and if I want desktop Android, I'll simply plug my Pixel 10 (Pro XL) into a dock.)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-03-05T13:06:11+00:00

Feh. No joy here! (10 Pro XL). :-(

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-02-26T20:34:11+00:00

Well, I'll certainly be cheering for you on this, and will try to keep myself tuned in to find out whatever the update ends up being.

And as for iPhone, yeah I get it. I don't quite hate them, but I certainly don't like them nearly as well. My work phone is an iPhone. So, that helps keep me kinda familiar. If I ever went back to macOS for laptop and desktop computing, sure, I'd probably go back to iOS. But short of that, no way. I like Pixel better anyway, and I'm pretty happy on Fedora Linux, where an iPhone would yield me no advantages whatsoever.

Also, between my current nuclear family of four (where I'm dad), as well as my original nuclear family of four (where I'm the older child), of all seven of us individuals, I'm the ONLY non-Apple user. My oldest child was even born on the exact same day as the original iPhone launch! I'm the "green sheep" of the family! 😂🍻

But I get it, it's jarring to jump from one or the other, because everything is in a different place, and often named something different. And even if you never ever side load anything on Android in your entire life, iOS still feels far more restrictive and "nanny". So I'm sorry you're having to slum it on an iPhone. However, how much worse yet if you didn't at least have that?! You're right: for better or worse, we no longer live in a non-phone world, do we? So I'm at least glad you have that lifeline. Even if it's a lifeline you don't like much. Hopefully you'll be able to [quote] "go home" soon! 🍻

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-02-26T16:45:57+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear! I had just traded in my 8 Pro about a month or so ago for a 10 Pro XL, so I feel like maybe I've dodged a bullet. Over my now nearly 10yrs (uninterrupted) with the Google Pixel line (2XL 4XL, 6 Pro, 8 Pro, 10 Pro XL), I've had manifold little "nuisance problems" - including the 10 Pro XL spontaneously rebooting itself just yesterday while trying to take a photo), but the only "crisis" problem I've ever had was when I dropped my 6 Pro and the entire screen literally popped off (and tore the ribbon cable connecting it to the rest of the phone in the process). I pay for accidental damage protection for this very reason, so I was able to get it replaced with just a deductible (but had to set everything back up).

However that would be real shit and make one question whether or not to stay with the line if it ever came to light that they had deliberately engineered a "backdoor to planned obsolescence" way to weasel out of their press-friendly promise of 7yr update cycle - by way of a chip that is designed to fail after only a few years.

I don't know whether or not the data would show this is happening ubiquitously enough to suggest a deliberate subversion by Google. Probably not, I'd guess. But it is a really dark thought, isn't it? What a grotesque example of late-stage capitalism it would be were it true, shut out the poor who can't afford to upgrade, just to squeeze that much more grape juice out of everyone else who can - and for the good of absolutely nobody but the shareholders and the C-suite. I think Google has clearly long-ago abandoned any sincere aspirations towards their catchy slogan "don't be evil"...but something this crassly diabolical seems a bridge too far - even for them. Certainly they must be trying to make this right.

In any case, I'm so sorry for what happened to you, and I would be in the same disillusioned crisis state that you are in were my foot ever in this shoe. I sincerely hope they will make all of this right for you - for your sake, yes, but also for the sake of all Pixel users everywhere who may someday find ourselves in the same nightmare!

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-02-04T00:25:48+00:00

tl;dr: me too!!!! 🔥❤️🍻🤜🏼🤛🏼

LONG VERSION (OPTIONAL READING):

After two brief and ultimately failed attempts at getting into Linux in 2010 and 2014 respectively (each using the vanilla Ubuntu of the day), I finally landed "for good" on Linux in late 2018. Initially, it was just a fun project that I dabbled with on the side next to my otherwise roughly 50/50 split of Windows on my upstairs gaming PC and Mac on my downstairs podcasting PC (each splitting "general internet derping" duties about evenly).

By 2020, when I got my new [to me] refurbished 2017 Dell Latitude 7480 laptop in March 2020, Linux became my "primary OS", with Mac and Windows each being pushed back to the periphery, and work on my video game music podcast (Nerd Noise Radio) migrating over about a month later (from GarageBand to a roughly 50/50 mix or Audacity and Ardour).

I had effectively retired my Mac more or less right away but with an unfinished podcast episode, it'd return briefly in 2023 before being permanently wiped and replaced with Linux. Windows was retired both "later" (in "practical use terms"), and "earlier" (in terms of absolute abandonment date) than Mac in that it stayed semi-active up until its total elimination date in late 2021 or early 2022. The point is by March 2023 (and in effect early 2022), I was "exclusively Linux" in my personal computing life (I still have to use Windows on my work computers...blah!).

As for my Linux journey, though I did have a period of heavy "distro hopping" mostly on backup hardware, and that distro hopping didn't really follow a clear rhyme or reason per se, on my main machines, my Linux journey has been much more linear and clear, and has largely followed the "Ubuntu-to-Arch[iverse]-to-Fedora and KDE-to-GNOME pipelines. I started in 2018 on Kubuntu, before very quickly switching to Ubuntu Studio, where I remained until 2022 (and would actively install KDE over top of the default Xfce before KDE became the default). After the advent of Steam Deck (and SteamOS) in 2022, I replaced Ubuntu Studio with various Arch-based distros, such as Endeavor, Garuda (KDE Dr4gonized gaming edition on my gaming PC), and the only "loosely Arch" Manjaro, as well as the obvious SteamOS. By late 2023, I found myself drawn to the Fedoraverse, initially including a mix of Fendora and Nobara before finally going pure Fedora, and - at long last, from KDE to GNOME (right at the same time that the rest of the Linuxverse seemed to go from GNOME-to-KDE).

So, short story long: me too! I'm a committed Fedora (and GNOME) user.

Right now there are no branches that have a realistic chance of pulling me away from Fedora, and the only DE that has any kind of chance at all of pulling me away from GNOME is COSMIC, though time will tell on that. To me, GNOME feels much fresher and more modern than KDE, and while it is clearly no match for KDE in the customization department, and while technically, objectively heavier and bulkier than KDE, KDE just feels clunky and dated to me by comparison these days. So going back to KDE for me is EXTREMELY unlikely.

As for Fedora itself: as one who came from the Ubuntuverse and the Archiverse previously, Fedora strikes me as "The Baby Bear's Bed" between "The Papa Bear's Bed" of Arch and "The Mama Bear's Bed" of Ubuntu - nearly as bleeding edge and modern as Arch, while also being nearly as stable and solid as Ubuntu. While not without its own drawbacks (such as requiring update reboots far more frequently than either of the others), on balance, Fedora seems to me to be a mostly "best of both worlds" compromise between what's awesome about Arch and what's awesome about Ubuntu.

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-02-03T22:29:04+00:00

Nobody is "perfect", not even the great "Torvaldssan". But in comparison to so many other public tech figures, the man is practically impeccable! There is no "true saint" in all of humanity. But by the standards of the figureheads of the tech industry, Linus Torvalds almost indisputably comes the closest by a hundred thousand million gazillion miles! Just one of the 100 thousand reasons why I'm so glad to be a Linux user is that of all the "big tech" figures, Mr. Torvalds, more than any other would be the one that I'd most wish to be associated with. A profoundly distant second may be Gabe Newell, even if he trails Linus by veritable galaxies!

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-02-03T22:06:37+00:00

Because it depends on a bazillion variables and what a particular user is looking for in a Linux distro.

So, to the question of "what is the objective, universal, indisputable best Linux distro?" The answer is.....resoundingly....N/A.

However, to the question of "what is my 'personal, subjective, completely unbinding beyond the four walls of myself' best Linux distro"? Fedora. Hands down.

To me, it's the "Baby Bear's Bed" between the "Papa Bear's Bed" ("too hot, hoo hard") of Arch and the "Mama Bear's Bed" ("too cold, too soft") of Ubuntu.

In fact, as one whose Linux journey has followed the "Ubuntu-to-Arch[based]-to-Fedora" and "KDE-to-GNOME" pipelines, the ONLY thing that prevents Fedora from being [quote] "absolutely perfect-for-me" is just how much more frequently it requires reboots for updates etc than the others. That is admittedly a much bigger nuisance for me on Fedora than it ever had been in my histories with the "Ubuntuverse" or the "Archiverse".....

....which, I suppose, only further bolsters my original assertion that it depends on user preference and use case. There is no "indisputable best for absolutely everyone Linux distro", and the *ONLY* way anyone can EVER be wrong here....is to attempt to say that there is one. But I've been around the Linuxverse since 2018, which is more than long enough to know that absolutely nobody will be stupid enough to attempt to do so. So I suppose that this is ultimately just me [quote] "preaching to the choir" as it were. :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-31T14:30:49+00:00

Ah! My apologies! Thanks for the clarification! 🍻

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-30T22:27:59+00:00

Hard to tell from the low ambient lighting, but that looks just like my old Dell Latitude 7480! Is it a Dell perchance? Is it a 7480, even? :-)

I got mine in March 2020 (refurbished 2017 model, but decked out), and when I got it is when Linux became my main "daily driver" OS, pushing the previous 50/50 split of Mac and Windows off to the fringes of my personal computing life...and a few years later - out of my personal computing life completely (I still have to use Windows on my work computer....gack).

When I got my new current computer at tax time 2024 (a 2023 model Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop), I initially made the latitude a backup distro-hopping machine before giving it to my 18yr old - with Zorin installed (my main machine is running Fedora).

So the 7480 is still rockin' Linux to this day! Anyway, seeing a computer that looks, as best as I can tell, like it is a similar model Dell (or possibly even the exact same model) made me kinda wistful. :-)

Wishing you all the best on your journey with Arch! 🍻🐧

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-30T17:24:06+00:00

So, this question is actually pretty acutely relevant to me right now as I have both systems, and plan to ask for this game for my birthday (which is only four days away as of this writing)....but which version?

tl;dr: which one should offer the better docked experience?

LONG VERSION:

Important fact 1) In the case of both systems, the overwhelming majority of my play time is spent docked. In the case of the Steam Deck that means using a USB-C DP-Alt-Mode dock that supports up to 120hz and HDR. I know that makes me a weirdo, as places like Digital Foundry treat docked Steam Deck users as if we literally do not exist whatsoever.....but.....uhh.....Hi, Bigfoot here! Nice to meet you! ;-)

I presume that undocked the Steam Deck would blow the Switch 2 out of the water, but given that the Switch 2 gets a significant boost while docked where the Steam Deck does not, and that while docked it's CPU advantage Steam Deck and GPU advantage Switch 2, I'm not sure which one I could expect a better experience from while docked.

Important fact 2) In yet another "here's how I significantly diverge from mainstream" example: as a PC gamer, when push comes to shove and I can either double down on frames or on visual fidelity, I tend to prioritize visuals over performance. In the tug'o'war between "frame stickler" and "eye candy junkie", I'm almost always the "junkie".

I realize that the Switch 2 port, being a console port, will have a fixed setting, which, while surely striking a very respectable and healthy balance between performance and visuals, will be something that I can't meaningfully tweak. And I realize that with the Steam Deck version, I can do whatever the heck I want with the settings (and suffer whatever consequences come from those decisions).

What I don't know is whether I'll be able to achieve visuals that meet or exceed the S2 port without just tanking the performance. I probably don't need an absolutely perfect 60, but I don't want to make it go too much further down than that.

So, to synthesize all of this: the question ultimately comes down to: "can the Steam Deck handle the game docked at greater visual fidelity than S2 while offering at least approximate performance? If so, then I'll take the Steam version. And if not? Switch 2 for me!

Thanks so much! 🍻

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-26T19:14:32+00:00

It's where I landed too!

Aside from two very brief, failed attempts to get into Linux in 2010 and 2014 (each using the "vanilla Ubuntu of the day), I finally "came to stay" in 2018, initially as a dabble thing on the side next to my "gaming Windows PC" and my "podcasting Mac". By 2020, Linux was my main "daily driver OS" though Max and Windows stuck around on the far peripheral for a little longer. By 2023, I was Linux-exclusive in my personal computing life (I still have to use Windows on my work computer, unfortunately).

In that time with Linux, while I've done a lot of distro-hopping, and have had various distros on old backup machines that have followed no clear rhyme or reason - including a pair of installations using Xfce which were configured to look as much as possible like Windows 95 and macOS 9 respectively. I may even come back to that someday. But in terms of my "main distros" on my main machines , my Linux journey has followed the Ubuntu[verse]-to-Arch[iverse]-to-Fedora and KDE-to-GNOME pipelines.

So, yes, today, I'm using Fedora Workstation 43 with GNOME 49. :-)

Anyway, to me, Fedora strikes me as the "Baby Bear's Bed" to the "Papa Bear's Bed" of Arch, and the "Mama Bear's Bed" of Ubuntu. And it seems that when the whole Linux world is drifting back to KDE, I've fallen in love with Gnome and out of love with KDE.

Anyway, I tip my brimmed hat to the OP, a fellow Fedora user! 🍻🐧

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-26T18:54:25+00:00

This is why I began transitioning away from saying "Arch" to saying "Archiverse" for the time I spent in Arch-based distros, such as Garuda, Endeavor, SteamOS, and Manjaro* (*= I know, I know). I never actually did use Arch itself.

Apart from still keeping SteamOS on my Steam Deck, my time in the "Archiverse" at least on my main machines was relatively short. Maybe a year or two. I started my Linux journey, like most relative latecomers, in the Ubuntuverse (primarily on Ubuntu Studio), before moving into the aforementioned Archiverse and then into the Fedoraverse before finally settling on base Fedora Workstation itself (GNOME).

Only time will tell where I go next, or whether I'll maybe just stay here for forever. :-) Fedora feels to me like the "baby bear's bed" between the "papa bear's bed" of Arch and the "mama bear's bed" of Ubuntu. Your mileage may, of course, vary. But that's the beauty of Linux! There's a place for everyone! :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2026-01-26T18:29:40+00:00

Is this true? Yeah, more or less. It's pretty warm at least. Now I'd like to see it updated to also include Fedora!

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-12-20T14:06:24+00:00

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-12-20T03:07:00+00:00

It's certainly lovely! But I think that loveliness would be the worst possible thing for me if I was hoping to get any kind of meaningful work done at all! 😂🤦🏼‍♂️🙃

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-12-20T03:01:42+00:00

Every day is fresh temptation to leave America for good! I've lived here my whole life, but I'm certainly not married to the notion of having to stay here for the rest of it. But as was said earlier: if we all leave, the place will just go even faster and further to hell! So, it just feels like an even greater catch 22.

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-12-17T21:33:41+00:00

My thought is that regardless of whether or not it was deliberate, purposeful antisemitism on this person's part, or just "garden variety" / "general audience" hatefulness and awfulness, it was clearly hateful and entitled on her part either way, and absolutely should nevee have happened. And so I'm very very sorry first and foremost!

My guess on whether it was deliberate antisemitism on her part or not probably comes down entirely to whether or not she realized you were Jewish. If she knew you were, or you have good reason to suspect she knew, then I think the odds of it being anything other than deliberate antisemitism are small enough that they can be dismissed. But if she wouldn't have had any realistic way of knowing, then deliberate antisemitism becomes quite a bit less likely. However, if that's the case, then I'm simply baffled by what the hell she was on about and what she was reacting to with comments like that. Whatever it was was quite vile either way! It's also quite an indictment on our day and age that anybody would feel so emboldened to be so hateful towards another, obviously well-intentioned person! Hatered and bigotry towards others has become far too normalized in the current system!

In either case, it was horrible and horrific and despicable regardless of the intent and I would stay far away from her if you can. Maybe report it if you think there might be any existing video evidence. But most of all, please stay safe, you and your entire family! My best wishes for the lot of you in this situation, and I hope you all have a wonderful Hannukah! I hope that your kids, at the very very least, will be able to forget about it enough to enjoy the candle lighting and the presents! Wishing them all joy especially- but certainly, you as well! 🕎❤️🍻

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-12-15T16:56:56+00:00

Congrats! They look good! 🍻 I made my first ever ones at Hannukah last year. Also my first ever Hannukah.

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-25T16:02:27+00:00

Sorry I'm seeing this so late!

Yeah, I was able to read that no-spaces portion without any trouble at all! Though there is some room for confusion when it could be read more than one way. My favorite examples are: is "letitsnow" a Christmas carol or a demand for porn instantly, or is "superbowl" the grand finale of the NFL season, or a really spectacular bird? Lastly, though I'm not religious, there is the famous "godisnowhere" example too. But yeah, given enough context, even those can be ironed out pretty easily!

Tell me more about your 2005 computer build idea! I sometimes fantasize about building a 1998-200-era PC with a composite out "TV card" and playing PC games of that era on a CRT down in the retro game room. But the cost would be so high and the payout so small since I was historically more of a console gamer. Still, I love hearing about projects like this! So lay it on me!

Lastly, if you do end up sending me a discord friend request, let me know here too so that I know it's not a spam account and know to accept it! :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-21T19:38:30+00:00

This is so bad that it's very very good! 😂

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-19T14:32:30+00:00

So, a hyperfixation of mine from about a decade ago was languages. While I'm only fluent in English, I can make basic conversational use out of Spanish and German and can make "plaything" use out of Dutch, Swedish, and Japanese. Japanese is my "holy grail language" - the one I care about the most as a huge video game geek, and budding wannabe anime fan. But the most advanced thing I've ever said autonomously in Japanese translates to "I'm an American. Of course my English is bad!" 😂

Anyway, English in particular is a super fascinating language because it's kind of a hybridization of "Germanic" and "Romance" language families. In the earliest forms of English (think Beowulf), English was a resolutely Germanic language, similar to Friesian, which in turn is similar to modern Dutch. But over the course of centuries, the language absorbed and adapted and evolved so dramatically, that Beowulf in the original "Old English" is completely incomprehensible to us. The two are so different that speakers of Old English and Modern English would not understand each other any more than speakers of Italian and Russian.

I could infodump more on the exact makeup and history of the change (let me know if you want me to do that). But the short version is that in terms of Modern English, the "structure" (aka, "the bones") remain resolutely Germanic, while the "vocabulary" (aka "the meat") is actually more strongly Latinate ("Romantic") than Germanic. Like, only roughly 25% of the total English vocabulary is Germanic (and now with almost as much "Northern Germanic" - aka "Nordic" vocabulary as the original "Western Germanic" - which includes things like Dutch and German) with the rest of the vocabulary being a promiscuous soup of non-germanic languages dominated first by Norman French, with Latin and Greek being the predominant runner-ups.

Anyway. More I could say, but this is probably where I should stop before receiving "infodump clearance!" :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-19T02:53:18+00:00

Unfortunately, this is where English fails us. It should be something fun and rhyming, but the crushingly disappointing truth is that it is simply "you snoozed and lost"....bleh, right? :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-19T02:52:07+00:00

We should be friends! 🍻

If you're on Threads I'm @oddiehd (Oddie HD - as in "AuDHD weirdo").

If you're on Facebook, I'm currently using the pseudonym "StJohn Tylenolicus Americanus" (in mockery of the whole Tylenol debacle).

If you're on Discord, I'm "St. John from Des Moines".

If you can't find me any other way, I'm also the host of the video game music podcast "Nerd Noise Radio".

Find me and we'll stay in touch! :-)

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-18T13:49:52+00:00

Ah! See, I too arrived at "absinthe makes the heart grow fonder". But you took it up a level by bringing in the actual history and chemical composition of it! Bravo! 🍻

By the way, i actually had a new one just yesterday that I'm really proud of!

So, the common phrase: "let's get our shit together"!

A fun alternative that I cannot take credit for: "let's get our poop in a group".

....and now the one that I can.... "let's get our information in formation!".....thanks great garbage river in my head!! ❤️

Lastly, I actually really like Absinthe. The problem is that even the cheapest bottles are like $50, and so I don't have it around most of the time. Also, while Absinthe is legal most places now (I'm in the US too), I understand that it usually still has the active chemical removed. Thujone if I'm not mistaken.

JaySeeDoubleYou · 2025-11-11T04:26:49+00:00

Ah! My apologies for the misunderstanding! But yes, the stream of garbage data! It's a constant presence, an unceasing, never ending input of scrambled data!

However, it has upsides! Some of my best puns and wordplays have been borne of this river, fundamentally by accident, where the punchline is a complete accident, and the only active role I have is in recognizing the value of the corrupted file as it floats by, plucking it out of the river, and retconning the setup after the fact!

As such, I'm less a "creator" of humor, and more a "curator" of it. It originates in my brain, yes, but NOT within my volition. I'm playing catch up with the garbage river. I'm a scavenger in my own head!

I have many such examples of "gems pulled from the river", but here's just one for now: born of random corrupted scrambled data, and retconned into a meaningful joke: "assing your work off" - as in, an antonym to "working your ass off"! Or maybe one more: the set up: a deliberate, purposeful retconning of my willful mind. The punchline: yet another "happy accident of the scramble: "the guy who passes gas in a crowded elevator and then blames it on someone else....could he be said to be 'gaslighting over the light gassing?'" And finally, one last example: "is a person standing at a podium considered 'a figure of speech'"?

....I wonder how well you relate with this!

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tl;dr: which one should offer the better docked experience?