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blog via finger

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  blog via finger Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-08 18:00 -0700
    Re: blog via finger Daniel Cerqueira <dan.list@lispclub.com> - 2026-06-09 09:50 +0100
    Re: blog via finger gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-09 09:31 +0000
    Re: blog via finger "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-5g5-this> - 2026-06-09 07:32 -0700
      Re: blog via finger Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-09 12:02 -0700
        Re: blog via finger "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-vti-this> - 2026-06-10 06:58 -0700
          Re: blog via finger Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-10 11:35 -0700
            Re: blog via finger Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-10 23:51 +0000
              Re: blog via finger gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-11 11:09 +0000
                Re: blog via finger Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-06-11 19:02 +0000
                  Re: blog via finger Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-12 13:44 -0400
                    Re: blog via finger Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-06-12 18:52 +0000
                      Re: blog via finger drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) - 2026-06-12 19:54 +0000
                      Re: blog via finger Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-14 15:36 +0100
                    Re: blog via finger gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-13 06:34 +0000
                      Re: blog via finger Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-14 15:39 +0100
                  Re: blog via finger Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-14 15:30 +0100
                Re: blog via finger Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-12 00:10 +0000
                  Re: blog via finger gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-12 15:20 +0000
                    Re: blog via finger Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-12 23:50 +0000
                      Re: blog via finger scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-06-13 14:46 +0000
                        Re: blog via finger Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-14 13:27 -0400
                          Re: blog via finger Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-14 23:48 +0000
                          Re: blog via finger "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-25-this> - 2026-06-15 07:10 -0700
                          Re: blog via finger John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-06-15 08:17 -0700
                    Re: blog via finger mechanicjay@sol.smbfc.net (Mechanicjay) - 2026-06-13 01:09 +0000
                      Re: blog via finger Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-14 15:52 +0100
                    Re: blog via finger Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-14 15:49 +0100
                      Re: blog via finger gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-14 16:21 +0000
          Re: blog via finger Thomas Prufer <prufer.public@mnet-online.de.invalid> - 2026-06-11 07:50 +0200

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#234998

Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:20:45 -0000 (UTC), Koen Martens wrote:
>
>> Linux is as bad as windows these days. With one big poorly
>> documented daemon that does everything and is opaque as heck.
>
>What daemon would would that be?

Try not to be an idiot.  You know quite well which
daemon is being referred to, as you defend it frequently.

That particular daemon violates most of the philosophy
of unix.

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#235014

scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:

> Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:20:45 -0000 (UTC), Koen Martens wrote:
>>
>>> Linux is as bad as windows these days. With one big poorly
>>> documented daemon that does everything and is opaque as heck.
>>
>>What daemon would would that be?
>
> Try not to be an idiot.  You know quite well which
> daemon is being referred to, as you defend it frequently.
>
> That particular daemon violates most of the philosophy
> of unix.

To be fair, saying that $thing "violates the philosophy of unix" feels
like more of a religious argument than an actual technical one.  I think
that the UNIX philosopy (of having multiple small, tools that each do
one thing well and can be piped together into more complex workflows) is
very powerful and valid, but it's not the One True Way(TM).

That said, if that's a thing that someone is looking for, then yes,
systemd is a bad choice, but that's a big if.

I'm personally not a fan of systemd's complexity, but it has--like it or
not--become more or less a de-facto standard in the world of Linux.  I
mostly use it because it's already there and I can't be bothered to swap
it out for something else.

If I wanted something simple and no-nonsense, I'd probably use a BSD.  I
have toyed with this idea in the past.  So far though, pragmatism has
won out for me.

Everything is always a trade-off, and different people are going to make
different choices based on their own personal needs.  Isn't it wonderful
that they have that option?

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net - PGP: 9CF2CE03EBF08E8C8B66C3660198463E3CF3FFD1
I � Unicode

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#235016

On Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:27:48 -0400, Jonathan Lamothe wrote:

> To be fair, saying that $thing "violates the philosophy of unix"
> feels like more of a religious argument than an actual technical
> one. I think that the UNIX philosopy (of having multiple small,
> tools that each do one thing well and can be piped together into
> more complex workflows) is very powerful and valid, but it's not the
> One True Way(TM).

It’s a half-truth. The small pieces wouldn’t work without the big ones
(e.g. kernel, shell, C compiler, X11 server -- thankfully that last
one is going away).

> I'm personally not a fan of systemd's complexity ...

Systemd myth number 11: “systemd is complex”
<https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/the-biggest-myths.html>.

If you’ve got a problem with systemd, at least let it be an original
one ...

> If I wanted something simple and no-nonsense, I'd probably use a
> BSD. I have toyed with this idea in the past. So far though,
> pragmatism has won out for me.

So, is “pragmatism” not compatible with “simple and no-nonsense”?

Maybe the BSDs are not so “simple and no-nonsense” after all ...

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#235027

  To: Jonathan Lamothe
-=> Jonathan Lamothe wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

 JL> If I wanted something simple and no-nonsense, I'd probably use a BSD.
 JL> I have toyed with this idea in the past.  So far though, pragmatism has
 JL> won out for me.

 BSD was all fun and games until I left a typo in rc.d and rebooted
 remotely.     :(

 I'm of the same mindset. When I run a Linux desktop, I spend way too
 much time twiddling with eye candy, when a BSD running a simple window
 manager like XFCE would minimize the amount of time playing with the
 environment and result in more time working/creating/etc.

         kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
                     | http://realitycheckbbs.org
                     | 1:218/700@fidonet




 
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Win32 NewsLink 1.2
 *  realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

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#235031

On Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:27:48 -0400
Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

> If I wanted something simple and no-nonsense, I'd probably use a BSD.
> I have toyed with this idea in the past.  So far though, pragmatism
> has won out for me.

I need to have a go with NetBSD again; I do like the no-nonsense bare-
bones approach, but I never did figure out what the local alternatives
to wicd/etc. were the last time I tried getting a daily driver going.

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#234992

On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:20:45 -0000 (UTC), Koen Martens <gmc@metro.cx> wrote:
>Linux is as bad as windows these days. With one big poorly documented
>daemon that does everything and is opaque as heck. With competing
>
>And I haven't even started to talk about the different bloated desktop
>management systems and their associated GUI libraries and plethora
>of daemons that need to be running to start the most basic of graphical
>applications (and yes, you'll need all of them running for all of the

Gentoo with Openrc, X11, and the i3 window manager has made my computing life
much simpler and responsive.

--
Sent from my Personal DECstation 5000/25

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#235012

On 2026-06-13, Mechanicjay wrote:

> On Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:20:45 -0000 (UTC), Koen Martens <gmc@metro.cx> wrote:
>>Linux is as bad as windows these days. With one big poorly documented
>>daemon that does everything and is opaque as heck. With competing
>>
>>And I haven't even started to talk about the different bloated desktop
>>management systems and their associated GUI libraries and plethora
>>of daemons that need to be running to start the most basic of graphical
>>applications (and yes, you'll need all of them running for all of the
>
> Gentoo with Openrc, X11, and the i3 window manager has made my computing life
> much simpler and responsive.

Heh. That combination might be why I still use GNU/Linux.

-- 
Nuno Silva

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#235011

On 2026-06-12, Koen Martens wrote:

> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:09:51 -0000 (UTC), Koen Martens wrote:
>>> A Raspberry PI is just a modern linux system, and comes with all the
>>> annoyances of modern software that is abstractions on top of
>>> abstractions on top of abstractions on top of ... to the point that
>>> no-one knows what's going on anymore and stuff breaks all the time.
>> 
>> It’s not a Windows system -- it’s not a black box, so don’t treat it
>> like one. Linux has inbuilt tools so you can diagnose problems and fix
>> them -- there is no big sticker across the cover saying “NO
>> USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE”. It’s designed for tinkering. If you’re
>> a retrocomputing enthusiast, you’re probably already a hardware
>> tinkerer, but perhaps you’re not accustomed to thinking of software
>> the same way?
>
> I've been using Linux since the nineties, never used MS Windows
> otherwise than at gunpoint for customers that refused to let me use
> a Linux or BSD machine. My servers, at home and in the datacenter,
> are mostly FreeBSD with some Linux VMs here and there. Throw in
> some IlluminOS, NetBSD and OpenBSD for fun as well. Yes, I'm
> pretty much a 'software tinkerer', thank you.
>
> Linux is as bad as windows these days. With one big poorly documented
> daemon that does everything and is opaque as heck. With competing
> audio standards that all fight for access to the underlying ALSA sound
> device, sometimes emulating each other, sometimes not. Wayland that
> makes screen capture involve at least 3 daemons, of which many variants
> exist and you need the exact right combination for it to work, and
> that makes your screen flicker constantly. And if you file a bug report,
> everyone's pointing to the other project.

Does make for somewhat funny moments as some people will do things like
insisting you can't stay with ALSA because it "does not support"
concurrent applications.

As for bug reports, this does touch a quite big issue, the amount of
projects that nowadays require using such bloated sites, with limited,
if any, browser compatibility. And that's besides sites being
Cloudflared. At least stuff like Anubis is better designed, besides
working on more browsers these days, it also has a default setting that
enables users to access the sites if there is a problem passing the
challenge. Unlike Cloudflare which actively changed their offering so
that it'd not support more than a few browsers. And that's besides their
ability to screw-up, like when they required Origin: in every request
other than the first and turned their Browser Integrity Challenge in a
self-DDoS, as their services kept redirecting non-Origin: browsers to
square one...

> And I haven't even started to talk about the different bloated desktop
> management systems and their associated GUI libraries and plethora
> of daemons that need to be running to start the most basic of graphical
> applications (and yes, you'll need all of them running for all of the
> variants if you use a decent selection of applications). Oh, and they
> all have their own equivalent of what is known as 'the registry' in
> windows, and to change something silly like a font or DPI scaling,
> you need to make sure all those registries agree.

I keep finding this funny given that two decades ago I've found changing
resolution (and thus scaling the UI) to be something supported under
X11, but I've been meaning to do further tests to see what did I forget
and what does happen nowadays. And I'm still not happy with how some X11
drivers seem to override the EDID-provided information by forcing a
hardcoded resolution (96?), instead of retaining the one computed from
EDID, but I might be missing something here...

> I still use Linux on the desktop (various distros on different
> machines). It's just the least bad of the lot, but only marginally.
>
>> Running a Linux system like a Raspberry Pi is much less work (and less
>> money spent) than trying to keep old authentic hardware running.
>
> I prefer the simplicity of CP/M on the RC2014 over the pain of
> managing a modern Linux install on a Raspberry PI. Also, RC2014 is not
> old authentic hardware, it's brand new. But even old authentic hardware
> takes a lot less effort to keep running than modern Linux. And I have
> ample experience of both.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Koen

-- 
Nuno Silva

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#235013

Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> As for bug reports, this does touch a quite big issue, the amount of
> projects that nowadays require using such bloated sites, with limited,
> if any, browser compatibility. And that's besides sites being
> Cloudflared. At least stuff like Anubis is better designed, besides
> working on more browsers these days, it also has a default setting that
> enables users to access the sites if there is a problem passing the
> challenge. Unlike Cloudflare which actively changed their offering so
> that it'd not support more than a few browsers. And that's besides their
> ability to screw-up, like when they required Origin: in every request
> other than the first and turned their Browser Integrity Challenge in a
> self-DDoS, as their services kept redirecting non-Origin: browsers to
> square one...

Not to mention that among cloudflare's customers are the same people
who will sell you ddos-as-a-service, the very thing they claim to
protect you from.

Cheers,

Koen

-- 
Software architecture & engineering: https://www.sonologic.se/
Sci-fi: https://www.koenmartens.nl/
Retrocomputing videos: https://retroscandinavian.eu/

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#234981

On Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:58:11 -0700, "Kurt Weiske"
<kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-vti-this> wrote:

> I love self-contained, lo-tech systems. I started using a 2-way pager
> for outage notification and had a lot of fun finding data that you
> could scrape and send via email, either on-demand or in cron. With a
> little twiddling, I was able to get my Outlook notes and address book
> on it as well.

Met a guy fiddling with Meshtastic transponders in a maker lab. Self-contained,
low-power radio, open-source, think SMS over ham radio. 

Solar cell, battery, receiver, transmitter, mount it in on a tower -- needs
enough for reasonable coverage, and there's your connectivity...

Interesting for me to see: Hardware is bought, cases 3D-printed. Unnecessary to
etch you own PCB, a multilayer with mulitcolor art is just a few dollars/euros,
and a few days. SMD components that could get lost under my fingernail make
soldering difficult. 

Software is the same: maybe different tools, different languages, same
problems...  

Thomas Prufer

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