Linux

"I deal with enough tinkering on computers at work, when I get home I just want it to work" Proceeds to spend hours getting mod packs installed on games they play for a week, month tops

I recently bought a new computer and decided to go Linux only. And because it was a new computer, it's bleeding edge. I got the 9950X3D, I got 64 gigs of DDR5, I got the 5090. And by all measures, it is a fantastic machine.

That being said, getting Linux working on it flawlessly was a several day long adventure.

The motherboard has a driver for its 5 gigabit ethernet connection and I have 10 gig in the house so I assumed that it would work flawlessly out of the box, and instead it was only working at like 100 megabits.

The actual fix involved learning a new set of commands to modprobe in the correct driver after downloading it from the site, which was much more difficult than I feel like it needed to be.

That being said, I'm not a Linux noob. I have used Linux in servers for a decade now, easily, and I've never run into quite this level of difficulty getting hardware to work correctly.

And ultimately what I ended up doing was installing LM Studio and an abliterated AI so that I could throw all of the errors that konsole was spitting at me into the AI and let it work it out, which worked a treat once I realized I had the ability to do that.

I can't think of a good story from personal experience, so I'll share a wild objection from some guy on the internet from, I think 2007. The story pops into my head from time to time. This guy insisted that it would be impossible to create an entire OS that can run from start to finish without the resources of a major software company. He argued that therefore Linux must actually be a pirated, reskinned version of Windows. https://danielandrade.net/posts/linux-windows-misconceptions-tech-story/

I checked the Wayback machine to try to find more messages from that thread because I think he kept posting and doubling down. But pulling up ancient ZDNet forum posts is slow enough that I gave up.

The only people I know that I’ve not been able to convince are absolutely attached to their competitive shooters. That seems to be the last bastion for many.

I’ve tried to explain (in very subtle ways) that their lives would genuinely be better off without those types of games reeling them in, but it’s a genuine addiction for them.

"Will I get attached to a subscription for it or something?"

"It's not a subscription service!"

"Oh, okay... well, I don't know... I don't want to get a virus on it."

"You can't get viruses on it!"

"It's not gonna make me wanna have sex, is it?"

"It makes sex even better!"

"Sounds kind of expensive."

"It's the cheapest operating system there is."