Unfortunately, for the scenario I was replying to, a lot of the times when you’re doing support, you can’t see the user’s screen and are limited to verbal communication, so verifying what they typed or the output can lead to just as many problems. Any support scenario where you’re talking the other person through a series of tasks will be very dependent on how familiar each person is with the task you’re supporting. And no one Rs TFM these days, if you even get one.

Just try to verbally describe the difference between a bracket, brace, or parenthesis, or forward slash vs backslash. I’m sure it will be fine. But absolutely, a text-based interface is easier to describe in text.

Oh, I have. Now imagine giving those people a command line.

As someone who read at least 2/3 of the DOS 6 manual when it came out, and have used a variety of Linux flavors as well, a command prompt is the least helpful interface devised. What do you type there? How do you let the computer know when you’re done typing? If the answers seem obvious to you, think about why, and what on the screen would point you that way if you hadn’t had training. People are very visual, in general, and a simple interface such as a mouse that directs focus and has a minimal amount of interaction options is far easier to get started with, especially if the GUI has culturally intuitive icons (save needs updating).

I don’t think the power of the command line, or text interfaces in general, can be overstated, but even the most helpful text interfaces, such as those found in some IDEs, require prior knowledge to be useful. This isn’t going to work for the majority of people.

The other argument I’ve heard is so that people will see how much the government is taking from them, and be angry about it. This would be particularly useful for politicians who campaign on smaller government.

“I can fix her” vibes.

I just love how outlook is supposedly their best effort in the email segment, yet I have literally had it show me that a new email has arrived, then hiding it, and the only way for it to become visible again is to restart the app. This happens at least once a week.

I believe we can make a self-driving car with only optical sensors that performs as well as a human someday. I don’t think today is that day, or that we shouldn’t aim for self-driving to be far better than human drivers.

The whole premise of ABS brakes, which all cars made in North America since 2012 will have, is specifically to allow you to maintain control when you fully apply the brakes. Unless you are a professional driver or have a car without ABS, you should just fully apply the brakes in an emergency stop. Please stop telling people that fully applying the brakes will reduce manueverability when it won’t for the majority of drivers in the developed world.

And if someone’s vehicle doesn’t have ABS, they should know how to properly brake without locking their tires, and when it won’t be appropriate to use them.

It has been know for at least a decade, I think, that the GSM chip could still contact cell towers while the phone was powered off. I’m sure its successor hasn’t lost that capability.

Who would be the bad faith actor here? Wiwynn? If they don’t have an order, that’s going to fall flat pretty fast. Seems like a pretty risky bet at $60 million. Twitter? Then it isn’t Wiwynn’s problem, Twitter can take care of their bill, and deal with their internal issues.

I wouldn’t describe taking over a company and then not fulfilling obligations incurred prior to the purchase as good behavior. Would you?

Ah, that woowoo bs health science of germ theory. Using UV light as a disinfectant is such a ridiculous idea that you would never find it being used in hospitals.

Lol look who forgot about Win 98, the version so bad they made an SE version with a free upgrade.

MS has been alternating good releases and bad releases for most of my life.

How useful! I can’t count the number of quarter-pennies I’ve lost…

British Citizen in 1910: India is a conflict that was resolved 100 years ago.

I didn’t realize things had progressed to this point. I thought there were still some mainstream distros that would qualify as Free, but the only ones GNU endorses are ones I’ve never heard of. There do still seem to be some non-GNU projects with a freedom-first philosophy.

There are discussions about open vs. free going back over 20 years, that I know of. The divorce happened long ago, but they’re still neighbors.

…fresh cloned bodies…

I’m not sure what your point is. It is completely orthogonal to mine. In the same vein, no, you aren’t responsible for other people’s choices, and yes, rabid dogs (or people who act like them) are unlikely to listen to reason. Neither of those are good reasons to start fights, and that statement neither says that all fights are avoidable or that one mustn’t defend oneself.