I gave up running an email server long ago - I thought it was basically impossible because too many spammers were doing it for nefarious purposes.

I came across a bowling arcade game that ran Linux. Still kind of wishing I’d bought it.

Pretty sure it’s this one.

Pretty much. Oh but the updated dependency required for your new program breaks an old program you’ve been relying on for years!

“If you want to know how Linux works, ask a Slackware user.”

I’ve mentioned this a lot lately, but I used Slackware from the late 90s (3.x days) until about 2009 on my desktop and laptop, and about 2017 on my server. I just got tired of dealing with dependencies and switched to Debian (all three run Debian now). I had the CD subscription and would automatically receive the latest version about twice a year.

Patrick Volkerding (if my memory is accurate) has my utmost respect, and I do feel a little bad about abandoning it, but I just didn’t have the time to deal with it any more.

That reminds me - for my Lenovo laptop, no issues at all with suspend and resume (just like Kubuntu). But my desktop was going to sleep when I first installed Debian, and it was NOT waking up gracefully; in fact I had to reboot it each time. Since I didn’t want it to go to sleep at all, I didn’t attempt to diagnose the issue beyond turning off the suspend mode in power management.

I just had to change a few things - KDE, dark mode, X11 when I couldn’t get screen power off to work under Wayland, and it’s basically good to go. There might be a few other things I changed, but in general out of the box was pretty close to what I wanted. It even installed the AMD driver for my graphics card.

That sounds like it’s mostly about the default install, and I don’t have a problem with them making the default a snap - as I said, sandboxing a browser probably is a good idea from a security perspective, and most people probably aren’t going to care about snap vs. deb installs, so why not go with the safer alternative?

My issue was that it kept switching back to snaps even after I tried to go to .deb installations. It happened at least three or four times. It would be fine for several months, then something would happen during an update, and it would switch back.

I didn’t have the concerns the article mentions about it automatically updating; it would only update whenever I told software in general to update.

I can’t find it at the moment, but a few weeks ago I made a comment that I didn’t really care for the paddle shifters in our car (it’s an automatic, but you can switch to “manual mode” and shift it manually), because I know it’s not going to let me do something stupid, whereas a stick shift will usually let me do stupid things that can damage the engine. That’s partially what prompted the measuring power as ability to screw things up comment. :)

You know, I assumed Canonical was pulling something, but it’s possible it was also just incompetence. I didn’t think they even distributed a .deb version of Firefox, so it definitely felt like they WANTED me to use snap Firefox…and then I’d start wondering why it was so important. What vested interest would Canonical have in me using snap Firefox? Maybe it was just honest mistakes.

Linux is about freedom to make our own choices, and whatever is happening with Canonical (malice or ineptitude) was getting away from that. Kubuntu feels like, “We’ve made this garden for you and we recommend you stay inside it.” Debian feels like, “Hey, man, you wanna go hose your system? Here’s the apt command to do that. Have a good day.” (Apparently, I measure true power as ability to screw things up.)

Slackware: “You have all of the power. Right now. And all of the responsibility.”

I just switched away from Kubuntu to Debian.

The snap thing was annoying, but not a major problem for me, except for one thing: I switched Firefox back to a debian package, following the directions online to do so, and every few months it seemed somehow I had been switched back to a snap version. I removed the snap and all of that, but every now and then I’d realize I was using Firefox in a snap. (It became obvious when I tried to unlock 1Password - the snap version relies on the plugin, but the non-snap version fires up the standalone 1Password program.)

In general, I’m not opposed to the concept of snaps, and a browser is probably something that should be in a sandbox. But, I preferred the standard Debian package installation, and somehow that kept getting overridden. And that is the kind of thing that I hate about Windows.

The install was smooth, or would have been if I hadn’t had a slightly unusual setup with my drives. It works just like Kubuntu, by switching to KDE with X11 (I had a few minor issues with Wayland), but without Canonical. I don’t need bleeding edge, I just want my system to work reliably.

My Linux background: Spent a lot of time with Slackware starting in the late 90s, both on server and desktop. Switched desktop and laptop to Kubuntu around 2010. Server got switched to Debian in 2017 or so.

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I think, for me, the proverbial straw was the Unifi controller. I was just like, “No. I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.” My desktop was running Kubuntu at the time, so installing it on there temporarily was a breeze (confirming I was making the right choice), until I got the server switched to Debian.

Whoa. So I grew up on Slackware but switched to Debian some time ago, and I can say I’m MUCH happier on Debian. The dependency hell on Slackware just killed it for me. I know they have some management of it now, but I just couldn’t take it any more - I was spending way more time administering the machine. I held my breath updating, which made me reluctant to update, which isn’t a good thing from a security point of view…

I’m starting to think this really is it, because it again worked while I was away eating lunch - it turned off my monitor that is hooked to the Intel integrated video. The other monitor is currently switched to my work laptop.

Thanks. That gives me something to look into. Wonder why it didn’t happen under Kubuntu…I kept it up to date, but it still might have been too old in some way (X11 instead of Wayland or something).

Interesting. I’ll try the kscreen2 kill again.

Interesting, but I haven’t changed that either.

And, gah, it just worked normally. WTF. I haven’t changed anything yet this morning.

You’re missing the point. That compromised xz made it into some production distributions. The point here is that shit can happen to Linux, too.

I love how quickly everyone has forgotten about that xz attack.

I use and love Linux and have for over two decades now, but I’m not going to sit here and claim that something similar to the current Windows issue can’t happen to Linux.

I started playing with Linux in the late 90s while I was in grad school. Slackware 3.x. I think I might have tried one or two others, but since I was somewhat familiar with Unix, Slackware was the easiest for me to learn.

I got them via CD ROMs; I’m pretty sure they came with a book on Linux (I think it included several distributions on CDs). I don’t think I have that book any more; I likely got rid of it long ago as it was badly out of date. But my memory is that it was published by Que, a publisher that I had good experience with on other topics. (dBase III, for example) I’m pretty sure it was this one…leave it to Amazon to still have it.

I recall recompiling kernel because it was “so much faster” (I cringe at myself now for thinking that - it probably wasn’t even true on my Pentium 133 machines). I also remember spending time trying to get X-windows configured, but I was successful. I think I was using fvwm95 window manager, a Windows-like experience. I started using Linux essentially full time pretty quickly.

A few times I got frustrated with Linux and tried to switch back to Windows, but the headaches of Windows always quickly drove me back to Linux. Linux is not perfect, but Windows is even worse.