Dave

I use it for work. Other than having to think for a second to find weirdly hidden menu items, it’s fine. At least for my purposes, as a .NET dev. One thing I love about it is Windows Sandbox… really wish Linux would could up something similar.

Yeah, it’s weird. I’d been trying it on and off since 1997, and always bounced off because of some annoyance or other. Now… nothing. It’s very low friction.

It’s interesting how far Linux desktop has progressed recently… I don’t hate Windows, in fact I think it’s a great OS for most purposes. But I happened to try Linux Mint a few years ago in a fit of pique about being excluded from the Win11 upgrade for spurious reasons… and it just kind of stuck.

Two years later and I am full on Linux now. Don’t even have a Windows partition (though I do keep a VM). And I’m about to buy a new laptop that I intend to buy without an OS, it will never be touched by Windows, there’s just no need.

For my purposes, Linux does everything now. OS, software, the games I want to play… I never even think about it. Also, everywhere I look, I see Linux - my Steamdeck, my MiSTer, my Pis, my Miyoo Mini. It’s everywhere…

Great stuff! I’ve been using Alexandrite for the last few weeks and it’s become my default UI. I love that you can pin the navigation bar open and favourite communities (click on the icon to star it).

On mobile, I’m using the Voyager app, which lemmy.world has installed as an alternative front end. Seems to work great.

On desktop, I’m using the amazing Alexandrite UI (https://alexandrite.app/) which solves all of my interface annoyances with the regular Lemmy UI (infinite scroll, opening posts without losing place in the feed, easily accessible communities list).

I love how flexible Lemmy is proving with its UI options… there really does seem to be something for everyone!

1997, I was 22, it was m68k on an 030 Amiga 1200… for some reason.

I seem to remember I had to buy an FPU to plug into my 030 accelerator, specifically to get this to run. I have no idea what I wanted it for, other than curiosity. I got it working, played around with it for ten minutes, then deleted the partition.

I tried Linux on and off many times after that, but always bounced off it. The last time, 2021, I installed Linux Mint and it has finally stuck.

All workers are required to enjoy 30 minutes of mandatory social engagement at a designated “Fun Area”. Enjoyment activities can include: hearty laughter, corporate value appreciation, appropriate camaraderie. If the enjoyment you wish to experience is outside of these allowed forms, please speak to your department’s Enjoyment Adjustment Officer.

I guess that explains why they’re going to such great lengths to convince us that talking about Game of Thrones around a water cooler is such a tremendous benefit to humankind…

I think an important part about choosing instances (across the whole fediverse, not just Lemmy) will be to inspect an instance’s plan for paying the bills. As you say, this stuff isn’t free and even the most enthusiastic admin isn’t going to foot the bill for very long on their own.

It seems clear to me now that the traditional way of paying for services via ad revenue doesn’t work for the end user. It is open to abuse by those selling the ad space, detrimental to the users, and ultimately doomed to… well, Reddit.

The only other viable alternative is a system based on user donations, with everyone contributing within their means, plus a bit of transparency on the part of the server admins. I’ve made my peace with having a small amount of money per month being my “fediverse budget”, a couple of quid here and there to support the services that I enjoy using. I hope that enough users also come to this realisation too.