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Interesting point for the military: If you build a rocket that contains GPL software, and shoot the rocket towards your enemy, you are obliged to send another rocket containing the source code.

Why would anyone ever need more than 80x25?

So you’re saying that it’s easier to learn C++ than git, because you only need one command (g++ foo.cpp -o foo) instead of many?

Everything since the abacus, just a bunch of crap. https://piped.video/watch?v=YRlPTbKHIPQ

My favorite error message of all times:

You don’t exist, go away!

Weren’t they also the first ones to add ads to their start menu, a decade before Microsoft? I’m not an Ubuntu user, so I didn’t care enough to remember the details, but I recall something about them sending your search strings to Amazon to present you with ads.

They were developing software for Windows Phone, so: No, in retrospect they didn’t do anything useful.

In my last job I had colleagues using Windows, and they were super chill. When they turned on their computer in the morning, it took 20 minutes to boot, install the latest updates and log on. I had to start working right away, while they were having their third coffee and second cigarette, waiting for their computer to get ready. I’m sure it wasn’t healthy, but relaxing.

I have switched ESC and Caps Lock for years now. It really makes things so much easier, but now I am the guy in that meme. At least partly: I struggle to find the ESC key on other people’s computers, but sadly I’m not 23 anymore.

It’s “setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape” btw.

Volkswagen is a brand; PC is not.

IBM-PC is a brand as well, (or at least it has been, in the 1980s). And just as with the PC, the term didn’t start as a brand, but it became one by being used like one.

That’s why we differentiate between desktop PCs and laptop/tablet PCs in the industry.

I don’t know who “we” is, but I don’t differentiate between desktop PC and laptop in my industry, I differentiate between desktop and laptop. And a tablet PC is a tablet that is (in principle) compatible with the IBM PC (as it’s running on x86 compatible processors) as opposed to “tablet computer”, “Android tablet” or “iPad” which are tablets that are not necessarily PC compatible.

When they added PC to software designation back in the day, they were letting you know it was specifically for a personal computer; not a VHS, not a record, not a game cartridge, not a cassette tape, etc.

Oh, that must be the reason for software packages that were labeled as “PC/Mac” when they contained both versions. So I would know I could run it on any personal computer AND on macs.

When Apple started marketing their PCs, they built their own unique system that wasn’t compatible with other PCs

Now this is plain bullshit. In the era Apple started making their personal computers, there was no standard they could have been compatible with. There were Comodores based on the 6502 processor, there were Tandy’s with Z80 CPUs, a few years later there were Atari’s 68k based computers, and none of those were compatible with each other. Only when IBM released their PC and other companies started to build PC compatible systems, a standard emerged. But even then, it took another decade for all the competitors to die out, to make the PC the default platform. Apple didn’t refuse to be compatible, they were just the only other platform of that pre-PC era that survived.

I’m pretty sure, the government didn’t just refuse to buy Apple computers because they were not compatible, but because they were not the market leader. And deciders like to buy the market leaders products even if they are crap, because then you’ll always have the excuse that you bought from the market leader. They wouldn’t have bought Amiga or Schneider either.

They’re still fighting against Right to Repair laws, as they want to force you to return to them directly for any maintenance.

As do dozens of other companies. Don’t get me wrong, I have no sympathies for Apple, they are a shitty company that rips off their customers as well as their employees and the environment. They do the bare minimum of what is still legal, just like thousands of other shitty companies out there. But they do not sell PCs (at least since 2023).

PC stands for Personal Computer, but that doesn’t mean that every personal computer is a PC. Just as VW stands for Volkswagen but not every wagon used by folks is a VW.

Calling any personal computer PC would cause all sorts of confusion, as PCs are able to run specific pieces of software (which were literally marketed as »PC 3,5"«, »PC CD ROM« or something of the like) such as »PC (or MS) DOS«, Windows etc. It would have been pretty annoying if someone sold you a game, telling you that it runs on PCs, leaving it to you to guess which kind of personal computer they meant: Atari ST, Apple II, C64, or IBM PC. All of them are personal computers, but only the PC is a PC.

Btw, all that was set in stone already in the 1980s and 1990, decades before Apple launched the Mac Vs. PC campaign in 2006. If your teacher called an Apple IIe PC, he was wrong about that, even before it was cool.

TBF, most of the time (with a small exception for the period from 2006 to 2020ish) it would have been wrong to call a Mac a PC, as PC (and PC compatible) is the name of a specific platform based on the 8086 and compatible processors with a specific BIOS and a specific IO-interfaces. And Mac’s most of the time are not PC compatible. And I’ve never heard anyone say, that a MacBook is not a laptop.

That’s because the Gnu/Linux-Version of killall is as weak as a stoned penguin. You have to try the real stuff.

killall is your friend. But the UNIX version.

Linux has proven quite well that an OS doesn’t need a registry.

Gnomes dconf would like to have a word with you. It’s really interesting how the Gnome people seem to get rid of every useful feature as it might confuse the user or be complex, but on the other hand add this registry-like anti-feature to make the system just as unmanageable as Windows.

There is no single definition, for what a word is, which is exactly my point. Some linguists even argue that “word” is inherently undefinable and refuse to use it as a category.

One common (but still ambiguous) definition is though, that a word is the smallest unit in a language that can stand on its own and conveys a meaning. By that definition, “Ruf … an” is one word, as “an” is not a word by itself. It might not be too obvious, as “an” can also be a word by itself , just not in this context. Another example, where it’s more obvious, is “innehalten”. “Inne” is not a word, it has no meaning by itself, it cannot be used on its own, so in the sentence “halte kurz inne”, “halte inne” is one word. Another example would be “Stelle etwas dar”, where “dar” is obviously not a word by itself.

Fun fact: Verb literally means word in Latin, so saying they are the part of the same verb, but not the same word is kind of an oximoron.

That is totally a non-trivial problem, which requires a lot more conception before it can be solved. Even for English, this is not well defined: Does “don’t” consist of one or two words? Should “www.google.com” be split into three parts? Etc.

And don’t let me start with other languages: In French, “qu’est-ce que” is one word (what). In the German sentence “Ruf mich an.”, the “Ruf an” is one word (call) while mich is another word (me). In Chinese, you usually don’t even have spaces between words.

If I got that feature request in a ticket, I’d send it back to conception. If you asked me this question in an interview, I’d ask if you wanted a programmer, a requirements analysis, or a linguist and why you invite people for a job interview if you don’t even know what role you are hiring for.

Linux has you covered. Just call

insmod -v pwr_perpertuum_mobile.o

The -v is short for --violate and allows you to violate the laws of thermodynamics.

To be fair, he is not completely wrong. Gnome is an idiotic DE for idiotic users. I use Gnome, btw.