When it comes to installing stuff, I’m very trigger-happy. So, from experience…

Installing stuff on Windows (safely)

• Hope it’s on Chocolatey (choco install)
• If not, search for the website online
• Scroll past the AI slop and suspicious Softonic downloads
• Click the website
• Find the correct download button
• Download
• Scan with MalwareBytes (don’t want an STI)
• Run setup.exe
• Verify PATH and wanted feature set
• I do not want to bundle Candy Crush or McAfee
• skim the Privacy Policy to see if they’ll grind my bones to dust
• Install Microsoft C++ Redistributable 2014-2018 (wtf? I already have 4 of these)
• Wait
• Sort the installation shortcuts into my folders

Installing stuff on Linux (safely)

• paru some_software
• If on AUR, skim PKGBUILD
• If not packaged at all (rare), git clone it and either skim the install.sh or Makefile
• Done

Sometimes friends, in their curiosity, come up to me and ask me, Jordan Belfort-style, “Sell me this pen Linux.” Why do I like it so much, they wonder?

And I always tell them:

"Linux is like… the vegan OS. (bear with me) Mac and Windows people don’t really care about OSes. People who switch to Linux either find they couldn’t be assed to deal with it, or they love it, and those who love it love it. Then they always tell people lol.

A good thing though: because everyone’s such an opinionated nerd, the lateral set of problems you run into won’t be ‘solved’ by random Microsoft Forums /sfc scannows or arcane regedits, but by a nut who debugged the entire thing 30 minutes after the bug came to exist to find a workaround. True story.

Buuuut Linux is more of a lateral movement in terms of problems, it’s just a tool after all. You solve Microsoft Recall and start menu ads but run into new but tiny annoyances. I find Linux problems easier to fix than Windows ones because of the nerd army thing but if your Windows setup works for you, it works and that’s really all that’s important. If you do start Linuxing though you’ll learn a lot just by osmosis."

And they usually laugh and decide to keep their routines in place. Don’t hate me vegans.

I use Firefox everywhere else, but for my Android I’m on Brave.

Sure, adblock and tab grouping is a plus but my main reason I use it (i.e. over Firefox) is because of memory. When I have six FF tabs open, my Samsung model shoots at least three down the moment I enter another activity or open a new tab. They survive on Brave.

I’d still use Brave on iOS devices too – as another commenter said, it’s a webkit reskin but at least it’s got good Adblock.

First thing I’d ever seen on the darknet was this bad boy. (Not that it was a terribly efficient way to get an epub.)

Such a bottom-up book. Almost gave up back then, thinking I wouldn’t be able to handle assembly, but then what would the point of reading about the hacker mindset be?

Lmao it’s not Lemmy without Linux

_noh8

How do I unimagine that?

It’s scientifically defined (Woods, 2023).

https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2023.2272988

I propose a definition of shitposting that embodies four distinct elements: a reliance on absurdity or “meaninglessness,” the critique or disruption of online discourses, the employment of an “internet ugly” aesthetic, and the use of meta-languaging.

Meaninglessness/absurdity - There’s no intrinsic meaning in the content, but there is in said content’s circulation. Shitposts “mock”, “denigrate”, “construct an image of authenticity”, and “accrue social capital” (he probably means upvotes or Discord reactions)

Disruption - It can be used politically, e.g. the alt-right drowning out opponents, or just plain derailment, using “ironic references… to confound commentary or analysis” (he uses a Twitter example in the article – i.e. among the “Here’s what I did today!” there’s a Jon Arbuckle of in of out, and it disrupts your train of thought)

Internet ugly aesthetic - Kinda obvious. Motion blur on a plastic bag sort of stuff. But he diagnoses an internet-queasiness I didn’t know I had: “[shitposting] provides a critique of the overly streamlined information ecosystem of the internet… an imposition of messy humanity… on smooth gradients, blemish correcting Photoshop, and AutoCorrect”

Meta-languaging - Well, memes evolve. It’s part of their meaningless-content meaningful-use interaction. Like a meme with a random Subway sandwich on it, obviously insanely edited over repeatedly.

Actually a really interesting read. The man quotes dril and talks about how he started a small movement where “corncobbing” was an insult.