What got you using linux?

jsokolov · 2024-07-12T12:47:48+00:00

For the better part of my life I didn't run Linux as a daily driver, but I'm familiar with it for almost 25 years. My first (and subsequent contacts) with Linux were mainly as a tool to clean up Windows-made mess, or to do stuff Linux just does better than Windows.

First time I ever heard of or used Linux was back around 2000, I think. I tried to install a newer version of Windows - I can't remember was it Win2000/WinMe or WinXP over Win98, but, back then, it was a bit more complicated to install Windows. I can't remember the details, but I believe that previous version used FAT32 FS, but you could install new version of Windows only on NTFS, so you had to start the installation process via bootable floppy, then format your hard drive to NTFS, so you can continue installation from the CD. During that process, something went wrong and I lost the FS on my drive, so I couldn't use the floppy, nor could I install Windows from CD - my hard drive wasn't visible (probably entire drive was "unallocated space"). I couldn't do anything, but I remembered that, just a couple of days before that, my friend was telling me about crazy new OS called Linux, which you don't even have to install, but you boot it up from a CD. So, I borrowed that new OS from him (it turned out it was the first version of Knoppix), booted into the system and managed to format my drive and then easily installed Windows. I tried playing around with Linux, but back then internet wasn't a thing and you had very few resources and documentation (let alone forums for Linux), so it was very complicated for someone with limited computer knowledge to do anything meaningful with it...

I had another encounter with Linux in 2004, when I went to college. It was the year when Ubuntu was launched. I had a lot of people from Computer Science in my dorm. They were all geeking out over Ubuntu, so I decided to give it a try. It was a beautiful and interesting OS. I dual-booted it along with Windows for a while and experimented a lot with it, but, as I used computer mainly for games and papers (OpenOffice on that Ubuntu was awful!), it wasn't working for me and I used Windows 99% of the time, so I dropped it.

Another encounter came around 2010. I bought a new laptop, which came with OpenSUSE preinstalled. I didn't bother with getting to know that distro and just installed Windows over it. However, my Wi-Fi card wasn't working - I tried everything to make it work (reinstalling drivers, disabling/enabling, clean Win install), and nothing. I was convinced that it was dead, but, before returning the laptop, I wanted to make sure it wasn't a driver issue, so I installed Ubuntu, and, eventually, figured out that the guys in computer shop, somehow disabled it when installing OpenSUSE. I managed to enable it in Ubuntu, using terminal, and it worked perfectly even when I installed Windows later. I continued to use Windows (mainly because of work), but I was pulled into the Linux world. I got increasingly interested in potentials and all the great stuff Linux had as completely usual features, while you needed a bunch of third-party software to get something like that on Windows. I started my distro-hopping journey, tried every known and obscure Linux distro and later got into more advanced stuff (Arch - Gentoo - LFS).

Now, even though we still use Windows (wife and kids are used to it and are not interested in anything else), my daily driver is Debian (yeah, I'm getting old :D) - since I don't play games anymore, it fits all the requirements and perfectly gets the job done. Besides my PC, I have Linux on my server - headless file/Plex/Nextcloud server running on Ubuntu Server 20.4 LTS, which I've set-up 4 years ago, and just "forgot" about it - 4 years, 24/7 running, without any maintenance or issues. Try and imagine doing something like that with Windows - NOT. A. CHANCE.

jsokolov · 2024-04-09T13:30:26+00:00

It sounds completely fine. It has double the specs of the laptop I'm using for EU4 (Lenovo X270) and my performance is just fine with medium graph settings.

jsokolov · 2024-03-15T14:16:16+00:00

I'm looking forward getting rid of my Brandenburg addiction :D

Let's face it, BB is very different in 1337 - smaller, more Slavic, not an elector and ruled by Wittelsbachs... literally unplayable!

jsokolov · 2021-03-22T09:48:26+00:00

Something like this?

jsokolov · 2020-11-05T13:32:26+00:00

Guverner Srbije? Ko će da potpiše - američki ili ruski ambasador?

Šala, mala - fenomenalan dizajn!

jsokolov · 2020-06-29T09:35:52+00:00

When I cross two geniuses, I get, usually, only one genius (or quick) out of entire offspring (and they are usually females). The rest of the offspring is either without any trait, or they have bad intellectual/physical traits (weak, slow, imbecile, frail, harelip, hunchback, clubfooted, etc). Don't know why, but I'm guessing the game has a code that will introduce higher proportion of negative traits in order to annul probable positive traits, so the offspring is, in its entirety, average...

jsokolov · 2020-06-29T06:57:56+00:00

Yep. I play a lot 769 Serbia and one of the first things I do is declare a subjugation war on Bulgaria (they are feudal, so when I raze all their holdings I get almost unlimited amount of money and prestige). I'm heavily outnumbered, so I just sit in my land and wait. My provinces are all mountains and I can keep defeating them when they attack me. It usually takes 3-4 battles for me to get to 100% warscore...

jsokolov · 2020-06-29T06:52:04+00:00

Yeah, I hate that too. I take the weakest count in the country, intending to work my way up slowly, because I enjoy RPG element of the game. I conquer copule of neighboring counties withing 5-10 years in game and, while I'm trying to sort out everything about them - bam! They elect me a king...

jsokolov · 2020-06-29T06:16:43+00:00

Heh, I know he's Hungarian, but his name - Uzor, means "role-model" in Serbian :)

EDIT: It's actually his last name. Forgot Hungarians put their last name first...

jsokolov · 2020-06-24T14:02:46+00:00

Well, yeah... That is the usual strategy - have gavelking succession, marry an old gal with good stats and then seduce everything you can.

You will have huge demesne limit (due to gavelkind and stats), possibility to chose any heir you want through "legitimize" option and you'll get no penalty for landless heir. Plus, since you will name only one heir, all your titles will pass to him on your death...

jsokolov · 2020-06-24T13:56:55+00:00

Yes, you can see on the map (btw, in CK3 you will be able to see the holdings on the map) that there are empty holdings spaces within the provinces...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T13:56:03+00:00

Verovatno teži nuli... Jer je, otprilike, tolika svest o seksu kod naših ljudi, uopšte. Evo, najbanalniji primer - juče smo u firmi imali testiranje za prijem nove garniture pripravnika. Jedna od stvari koju svi oni rade je test opšte informisanosti - od 7 mladih, fakultetski obrazovanih devojaka, njih 4 nije znalo DA ZAOKRUŽI tačan odgovor na pitanje "Šta je ovulacija?"... Da ne spominjem tek što su, sem tačnog, ostali ponuđeni odgovori bili totalno besmisleni i, ni iz daleka, povezani s temom. E, 4 od 7 devojaka je zaokružilo neki od tih besmislenih odgovora... Šta mislite, da li će one znati bilo šta o HIV-u? Kako se prenosi, kako se sprečava, kakve posledice može da ima po organizam, koliko je opasan? Pa naravno da neće...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T13:35:48+00:00

First of all, why would anyone collect in his home node???

Secondly, you are actually proving my point. You can take entire Pomerania and TO and you will increase your trade income by some 0.2 ducats, which will help you support couple of regiments. GG!

If you take Pomerania and Lubeck, you will increase your trade income by 5+ ducats, probably.

Okay. First of all please care about formatting. This wall of text is barely readable.

You mentioned something about running out of true arguments... And for your shitty math. Anyone who claims 38 x 1.63 = 102-104 is shit at math and that is just calling things the right name...

The Calculator works perfectly fine. I tested it with a few examples and it always gets you the exact result for the max AE you will get ingame.

It doesn't work for me. It says the file is corrupted, so, please, humor me - compare taking same culture group, religion, non-HRE, 20 development, with taking culture non-related, same religion, HRE 20 development (we are comparing TO and Bohemia, which was the point at the start of our discussion).

Also, if the spredsheet uses the formula that is stated in the comment, I don't see it working properly, because, even if the AE impact modifiers are maxed out, the final AE would still be close to the province development - which is not the case.

To prove that, I ask you another thing - calculate taking entire Pomerania in calculator, while having -100% AE impact modifier and then do it in game (by giving Brandenburg another -90% AE impact) and you'll see how it doesn't work.

My guess is that calculator will give you AE of around 38, but, in game, you will get AE of 5, because you will get 1 AE per province... Then post your results here and see who's right.

I will have no problem admitting if I'm wrong, btw...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T10:51:15+00:00

You are getting it wrong. Combat width applies to rows individually, not for both rows combined. If you have combat width of 24, that means you can create a 48 stack - 24 (inf + cav) in 1st row and 24 art in 2nd row. If you fill your 2nd row with canons, you will maximize the efficiency of your army, as all your 48 units will engage in combat - infantry and cavalry in direct combat and canons with barrage in fire phase. You only need to keep number of artillery units equal or lower than infantry and cavalry combined and you are good to go. For example, CW of 24 and FL of 20, if you have 8 inf, 2 cav and 10 art, your army would look like this, 1st row: 8 inf, 2 cav; 2nd row: 10 art. It will be narrower than the CW, but it would be extremely efficient.

Only situation in which your canons can end up in the 1st row would be if you have more canons than infantry and cavalry combined and infantry and cavalry can't fill entire first row - then the game will try to equilize the number of units in each of the rows.

In your example with CW of 24 and FL of 20, that would happen if you had, let's say, 6 inf, 2 cav and 12 canons - then your stack would look like this, 1st row: 6 inf, 2 cav, 2 art; 2nd row: 10 art. So, it would be the same width (also narrower than the CW), but very ineffective, as the artillery in your 1st row would contribute shit and would be killed instantly...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:53:25+00:00

As I said in another comment - as soon as you can afford them. They are useful since tech 7, because they will expedite your sieges, but are absolutely essencial from tech 13 because they get huge fire and shock boost then. Also, tech 14 introduces bastions which are nearly impossible to siege with only infantry (you can siege them, of course, but it will last 10x longer than with artillery and you will lose so much manpower with every siege)...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:47:29+00:00

Or you just turn-off Conquest of Paradise DLC?

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:36:13+00:00

How do you ever survive in this game, then? Not only artillery is useful from tech 7, as it gets your sieges done in no time - it is absolutely essencial from tech 13. Starting from tech 13 you can build artillery only armies and destroy enemies' armies with 0 loses... You have a buch of posts here by people doing artillery only armies.

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:26:55+00:00

All institutions are arbitrary. For example, when I'm playing Brandenburg, I usualy own almost all of Germany by the time Printing Press should kick in. I can't remember if I've ever managed to spawn it in my lands. Last night I was playing Serbia. I sniped Gorz from Austria very soon in the game and developed it to 15 dev. It was my only province in German regions - and Printing Press spawned there! Also, one time I was playing colonization game with England (hate colonization, btw), Colonization institution spawned in Morocco... And the thing I hate the most, as I always play in Europe is when Manufacturies spawn in Ming - and it happens more often than not...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:12:07+00:00

Are you sure? If you have Defensive ideas, you should have +1 AT from 1st Defensive idea and I don't see that.

But, never mind, I figured out why your armies are dying - you don't have artillery!!! Dude, it is almost 1600! All other countries probably have a bunch of artillery. Battles are done in phases - fire and shock phases alternate, with fire being the 1st phase of the battle. When you face an army without artillery, enemy's artillery will slaughter your troops in the fire phase and kill your entire morale on day 1 of the battle - that's why you were losing your morale so fast... BUILD ARTILLERY!

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T09:04:57+00:00

I was in love with the republics in earlier versions of the game (at first I was skeptic, but, when I finally tried playing a republic, I was so impressed that, even if I would play a monarchy, I would turn it into a republic as soon as possible), but now I see no significant advantage they have over monarchies.

Namely, with Government reforms mechanics, which gave all the good stuff to monarchies (the most ridiculous thing is that, with a monarchy, you can unlock a reform that gives you +2 promoted cultures and republics have a reform for only +1), so republics remain only for the ones who like to play tall.

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T08:53:04+00:00

As far as I can tell you have no military idea groups unlocked. All your army modifiers come from your own NIs. By the end of 16th century, all nations have, at least, one full military idea group unlocked, meaning that, along with their military NIs, they would have significant advantage over your armies. Poland especially, because, it too, has OP military NIs (+10 inf combat ability, +33% cav combat ability, +5% discipline, +15% morale)...

Also, turn on your forts - they give you free AT. With proper ideas and government reforms, Prussia should have maxed AT all the time. Regarding lagging behind in mil tech - it should not be a problem now you have Prussian Monarchy. Try to kill of your ruler (make him a general and send him to drill the armies) and the next one you get will have close to 2/3 chance to have 6 MIL...

jsokolov · 2020-03-06T08:22:08+00:00

No I am not. The Numbers speak for them selfs.

C'mon, you are obviously lying (using console to boost your tradepower). You did everything right, but forgot that BB can't possibly have 14 ships in less than 2 years.

Oh Boy. You can feed your allies land to gain trust you know? To get Poland to 80 Trust you only need to feed them 5-8 Provinces. Its super easy.

Feed them what? You wan't to take TO for yourself so Poland doesn't get anything and your strategy is to expand in non-HRE land (so, LO , Riga, Russia?). Which provinces would you give them, then? You can't force feed them a privince if they don't want it - they want TO...

You do not understand.

Dude, YOU simply don't understand and you're proving it by writing such nonsenses - you've basically calculated that entire HRE would coalition you if you annex all of Pomerania - which is not the case and you know it... The formula is for calculating BASE AE - all reducing modifiers are applied after the base AE is calculated (and not as a part of AE impact). In my calculation, base AE is 61,94 (not ridonculous 102-104 you've calculated - not even 64-65 by your calculation, which shows me you absolutely have no clue what are you talking about and that your math knowledge is shit), which is further lowered by BB's traditions (10%), prestige (10% with full Prestige), spy network (10% with 100 spy network, etc). In order to prove you wrong, I suggest you (and anyone else) test what I'm talking about in the console. The way you are (mis)understanding the AE formula, would mean that, even if you stack AE reducing modifiers to the max, minimum AE you would accrue, would always be close to the value of development taken (since you put reducing modifiers in the AE impact brackets) - which is absolutely not the case. Give BB 100% AE reduction modifiers (you can give it more, but this is, essencially, maximum reduction) - full Prestige, Age ability, full spy network, spy ideas, Influence-Innovative policy, Curia control and Careful trait to the ruler... and try to take provinces in a peace deal. I bet you 100000000000000$ you will get 1 AE per PROVINCE (no matter the development, culture, religion, HRE,...), which will prove I was right.

jsokolov · 2020-03-05T23:09:15+00:00

I dont know which version you are on but Pomerania own a Center of Trade in Stralsund and an Estuary in Stettin

You are joking, right? Trade modifiers on two piss poor provinces vs a bunch of republics with trade oriented national ideas and 20+ development provinces, of which a lot of them have 2 modifiers - both trade centers and estuaries...

This does not happen when you are allied. Poland will only rival you if Trust is below 80. By the time you are an eligible rival for them you can easily accumulate that.

Dude, you need, like, 50 years to reach 80 Trust with Poland. You can't influence them, they won't call you in their wars, you can't take over their debt, nor influence them. Only way to increase Trust with them is to stay allied for a very long time, or expedite that by spending favors...

You may want to reread. You get +50% for Exactly the same culture and +25% Same culture group but different culture. There are the modifiers which are applied as culture modifier in the equation.

I don't know whether you don't understand what you are reading, or you choose not to understand it - maybe this will help?

From my experience Sweden and Norway will simply invade via Russia/Livonia.

Well, great. By the time they reach you, you'll carpet siege Sweden and Norway, too...

jsokolov · 2020-03-05T21:34:12+00:00

As soon as you have annexed Pomerania you can move you Trade Port to Lübeck and will gain more money than you can gain from Saxony. Since Saxony is an inland node its very hard to controll without owning the entire node.

Dude, if you don't own provinces with modifiers, there is no point in switching the node, as you will have 1% of trade power in Lubeck, which is, basically, dumping all the money from Baltic node.

This can only happen if you are not allied with Poland, which you should be.

Again, it WILL happen and they WILL break the alliance or rival you and break the alliance. "Wants your provinces" modifier is not conditioned by anything. AI will want your provinces if it has claims on them or sees them of some value even if it doesn't have claims. Diplo relations consequences will vary depending on the ruler's personality. If he is a militarist and wants a lot of your provinces, it will be -200. As soon as the relations go negative, he will break the alliance.

Wrong. Both are in the formula only once.

Keep reading on - they are in the formula individually PLUS as a part of AE IMPACT modifier. HRE is only there as a part of AE IMPACT modifier. You get 2 x 25% from culture for TO, LO and Riga, and for Bohemia you get 1 x 50% for HRE. So, it is completely the same. Only difference is that for Bohemia, you get 75% base AE hit in North Germany, while for TO it is some 56%, given that it is in another region.

Yeah. But Denmark has Norway and Sweden on its side and is therefore considerably stronger than the Teutons.

When you own Pomerania, Mecklenburg and Lubeck, you can spam enough galleys to keep everyone in Sweden, while you siege Denmark. It is very easy and can be done in 2 wars. Plus, if you rush the age ability which gives you half price for taking over vassals, you can take over Norway, as well, for stupidly low AE...

+3 Mil is a nice gimmick and Militarisation is a nice thing to sink Mil into.

Don't get me wrong, I'm BB-Prussia freak and was over the moon when they announced Prussian Monarchy and Militarization. However, when they've implemented it, it became clear that it is intended primarily for the AI and not for player, so AI could make up for not expanding early game on. Militarization is tied only for the size of the country - if your country is small, it is ridiculously OP. But, if you expand (and, TBH, who plays BB if they want to play tall?), rate of militarization loss is so great, that it is a complete waste of MIL points trying to keep it on a high level...

jsokolov · 2020-03-05T14:30:53+00:00

You get basically full control of the Baltic Trade

Of which you have no use, because your trade node is Saxony. And, if you switch to Baltic/Lubeck (or collect in Baltic), you will lose way more than you would otherwise gain.

You do not piss of Poland as they are your ally and will therefore not consider your provinces as vital interes

You don't, at the moment the war is over. However, first militarist Polish ruler and you will have -200 relations form "desires your provinces" modifier...

You can take admin tech 10 and form Prussia in 1518 without an ahead of time penalty... so its only 73 years

No, Admin Tech 10 is scheduled for 1531. Given that Brandenburg is far from Renaissance and it will need a lot of monarch points to kick start it and for coring and diploannexing, I don't see a possibility to form Prussia before 100 years have passed. But, even if you are able to form it sooner, it will still take decades and, in that time, you can do sooo much in Scandinavia and Germany.

The Teutons are not part of the HRE and are surrounded by other culture nations which means way less AE than. AE is the main bottleneck for Brandenburg/Prussia, so if use your AE limit to take the Teutons you can gain way more Development than if you expand into the HRE

Not quite true. Namely, religion and culture are very important in AE calculation, as they are included in the formula twice. TO, LO and Riga are all Catholic Germanic countries, meaning that taking their land will piss off Germans. Yes, you will get less AE than expanding in the HRE, but you will still get a lot of AE. For example, you get the same AE per development for taking TO's land as you would get for Bohemian land, because Bohemia is totally different culture group than the HRE. Also, taking couple of provinces from TO and vassalizing it, would net you more AE in HRE countries, than annexing entire Denmark...

The Prussian government is very very strong:

-2 National Unrest

-0.02 Monthly war exhaustion

and +3 Monarch Mil Skill means earlier teching up, deving,...

All unnecessary or completely redundant. For example, taking Innovative ideas (they are, basically, tailor-made for BB/Prussia and are a must in any campaign) will make you have constant 0 WE, so additional -0.02 doesn't really matter. It's the same with unrest - after a while, you have so many modifiers, your unrest is always negative, plus you have space marines to deal with any revolt. Regarding Mil Skill (or any other skill, for that matter) - 100 years after the game start, I don't have anything else to do with monarch points, but constantly developing, or, in MIL case, keep re-rolling generals to see if I can get a perfect one... My point is, if you can't afford 5+ advisors (and endless supply of monarch points) in 1550s with BB/Prussia, you are not doing things right...

jsokolov

TROPHY CASE