πͺΏ
I can't stop you from breaking the whole system when you try to configure something and you do it wrong π
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
1063 points (97.6% liked)
linuxmemes
30194 readers
895 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Linux really doesn't get bragging rights for "install[ing] old applications". Linux ironically has been somewhat better for me than Windows for running older Windows applications thanks to WINE, but when it comes to installing old Linux applications, even when I wasn't on a rolling release distro, it's been a total crapshoot.
If, for example, there's a native Linux game that hasn't been updated in a few years, my experience buying it has generally been hoping the Linux version works, it doesn't, and I'm stuck running it through WINE.
PCSX2 1.6.0, which used wxWidgets, released May 2020, and even five years after that, opening it on Linux shows you a frozen, unusable window that you have to manually kill. (citing PCSX2 because it's a use case of mine as a contributor.) IIIRC, on Windows, you can straight-up go back to versions from like 2010 and still have them work.
The linux way to handle it is with a chroot. Used to do this back in the day to get 32bit libraries on a 64bit distro that didn't include 32bit libraries. chroot is the basis for modern containerization technologies. These days, I usually use it for bleeding edge application builds that don't have a build for my distro, yet. Distrobox makes it pretty simple. With distrobox, you can install the application you need in the OS that supports the application you want, then just map the binary into your OS.
See here: https://distrobox.it/useful_tips/#export-to-the-host
Isnβt that functionally what a flatpak is?
Same concept. Flatpak is based on bubblewrap, which was based off another tool that was based on chroot.
Edit: Looks like Flatpak is working towards adopting a different (newer) feature that allows some containerization features at the user level, without requiring chroot super user level.
The reason this is a problem is that devs think they need to save 10MB of RAM by dynamically linking libc instead of statically compiling it or just including the blob with the game.
Puritans on Linux are a real menace. Every time someone calls an OS install image of 3-4gb "bloated" I want to scream uncontrollably. Not statically linking stuff is part of this cultural issue.
Flatpak might solves these issues in the long run. Of course the same people therefore hate it, because it's "bloated" and "convoluted".
The core principal of GNU from which every other principal is derived is "I shouldn't need an ancient unmaintained printer driver that only works on windows 95 to use my god damned printer. I should have the source code so I can adapt it to work with my smart toaster"
If an app is open source then I've almost never encountered a situation where I can't build a working version. Its happened to me once that I remember. A synthesia clone called linthesia. Would not compile for love nor money and the provided binary was built for ubuntu 12 or something.
Linux was probably ready for the 64-bit appocalypse even before Apple for this exact reason. Anything open source will just run, on anything, because some hobbiest has wanted to use it on their favourite platform at some point. And if not, you'd be surprised how not hard it is to checkout the sourcecode from github and make your own port. Difficult, but far from impossible.
Steam games do not distribute source code, which means they break, and when they break the community can't fix them. They can't statically link glibc because that would put them in violation of the GPL (as far as I'm aware anyway). They are fundamentally second class citizens on linux because they refuse to embrace its culture. FOSS apps basically never die while there's someone to maintain them.
Its like when American companies come to Europe and realise the workers have rights and then get a reputation as scuzzballs for trying to rules lawyer those rights.
This shit is the exact reason Linux doesn't just have ridiculously bad backwards compatibility but has also alienated literally everyone who isn't a developer, and why the most stable ABI on Linux is god damn Win32 through Wine. Hell, for the same reason fundamentally important things like accessibility tools keep breaking, something where the only correct answer to is this blogpost. FOSS is awesome and all, but not if it demands from you to become a developer and continuesly invest hundreds of hours just so things won't break. We should be able to habe both, free software AND good compatibility.
What you describe is in no way a strength, it's Linux' core problem. Something we have to overcome ASAP.
load more comments
(14 replies)
load more comments
(14 replies)
What, you don't like role-playing software development & distribution as if we were still in the 90s?? π₯Ίπ₯Ί /j
But srs, most of Linux's biggest technical problems are either caused by cultural legacy or blocked by it. The distribution model being one of the most pungent examples.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Linux version of Rocket League still works but you can't connect to the servers. They stopped supporting Linux when Epic bought them in 2019. So going on 7 years and the Linux version still works fine. Just as a counterpoint.
Yeah, I found quite a few games that I had to go in and specify it re-download and use Proton because the Linux native build was borked.
In a lot of cases devs will export for Linux but not test it.
usually the solution is recompiling it, LD_PRELOADing older libraries or using chroot. Since linus never breaks userspace this can actually provide 100% compatibility.
load more comments
(1 replies)
"I can't run the application you need"
More like "I will run literally anything besides things you shouldn't run because of privacy concerns... Though you may need 3 hours to install it."
"RAM shortage? What RAM shortage? I smell DDR3 somewhere in the room, use that, I will still run fine"
That app that infringes your rights is the one you need to earn a living.
Ok then use wine or dual boot
It won't stop privacy concerns but at least it makes it more complicated for microslop to collect everything about you
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
Remove le French at once I say!!
The updates are unwelcome because currently the updates remove desirable functionality while adding unwanted functionality. If they removed the ads and AI, they might actually stop the bleeding.
A serious software company offers separate update channels for feature updates and security updates. But not Microsoft. They don't offer the bread and the shit separately. You have to eat the whole shit sandwich.
load more comments
(1 replies)
i've used linux and i got to say it's gotten way better than it was a few years ago. most of the stuff works and only had to troubleshoot like a few times
Also, troubleshooting in Linux is different than on Windows. Every time I had to fix a problem with my Linux system I walked away smarter than before. I learned a bit more about how my computer works, so in total it was a slightly positive experience for me.
But anytime I had to troubleshoot my Windows computer it was because Microsoft fucked something up. Fixing Windows feels like wasted time to me, because you never know when they will break it again.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(11 replies)
Wanna remove the only way to boot into the computer? Go ahead, you are in control. But sure hope you have a baxkup boot loader somewhere lol
Oh Windows did mess with me a gazillion times in 2000s, when I was a poor kid with just one HDD, and tried to dual boot.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Just donβt do that then
load more comments
(1 replies)
On Linux you can indeed install old apps. You will just need to spend few hours doing so... or use Flatpak I guess.
I use Debian GNU/Linux ftw.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The funny thing is that the biggest practical benefit to most Linux users is not the access to do these things.
It is the secondary effects of not needing to restrict access in order to preserve lock-in and enshittification. It makes the whole user experience better because it is only doing wider you've asked it to do. For example, I apply updates more quickly on Linux than I ever did on Windows, even though my Linux DEs are way less pushy about it, because the process is an absolute breeze!
Look at each OS option like you were a product development team, and think "who are my stakeholders?"
The commercial products have long lists of what's driving the product features and anti-features. Linux has the developers who want the code to be helpful and stay free, and the users who want it to do what it says on the tin, with the option to audit or modify the system's code. But of course it's still run by humans, so big personalities and bad actors and whatnot do affect things.
One of the levels this joke works on is that ducks and dogs and fish and birds are all among the best adapter to their own niche.
Some people just need what Microslop, Apple or Google aree peddling, at some moments.
Another way the joke works is because Linux is still the best, for anyone with a choice. Lol.
You can add to the dog "I support a global a global human trafficking and child rape network."
Moreso than the Apple dude?
And the Google dudes too?
They're all the same: billionaires.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Obscurething.so not found. You canβt get it either, itβs unmaintained and doesnβt work with anything anymore.
Linux has this problem too. Stop pretending it doesnβt. Everything sucks for different reasons. You are choosing the trades you are willing to make.
Yes. Linux can be frustrating too.
Your post history indicates you're pushing Linux in some (very!) interesting directions, and impatient for it to work. Linux is (usually) free, and free Linux solutions do move at the pace of free.
I get it, it can be frustrating.
It comes across as entitled to be angry at others for enjoying how nice a stock install of Linux Mint can be, while you're fighting to get Steam to recognize controllers on headless Fedora.
Heck, I haven't seen a headless release of Mac or Windows in almost 30 years? I guess I could get my hands on a relatively new headless Windows Server edition meant for automated testing...maybe?
I'm curious if there's a community doing what you're doing on some other OS? It all sounds fascinating, honestly. Any links to resources would be welcome.
Anyway. What you're up to sounds hard and interesting! I hope you will share your solutions with the community!
Linux is a community, and when you're doing something really interesting, there may not be many members of the community doing the same thing, yet.
Lots of people surf the web and check email, and yes, we're having a moment, because many versions of Linux are really nice for surfing the web and checking email, finally.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You can delay Windows updates up to 30 days at a time, and do that indefinitely. Or just black hole the update server in your hosts file to disable updates entirely.
There are also ways to not download updates until a certain amount of time after their release, and then to give yourself something like two weeks before it auto installs during a period when the computer is not in active use.
I haven't had an update happen unexpectedly since Vista.
And lets be real, do we really want to just let the average chucklefuck run around with insecure shit? There's an element of protecting people from themselves going on here as well.
The point is there shouldn't have to be a work around, reg hack or host file modification. I should be allowed to do with my computer what I want. I agree it should be on by default, but, there should be an easy no/off switch.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I would love to try kde3.5 again. The desktop of my childhood. But trinity project takes long to make it happen.
Linux needs to be a Canadian goose. Those cobra chickens are just fine when you let them do their thing and ignore all the shit left behind cause youβre not sure itβs important to the planet, but the moment you start to mess with it and you donβt know what youβre doing they will fuck you up!
That smile is devious xD
view more: next βΊ