Perhaps someone could make a business of it then.

Chromebooks sold well enough. Google made $30 billion on that in 2023.

Anyone willing to put together a physical Linux machine, market and support it could take a chunk of that.

It would be nice if it was possible to simply go to a website, check off on the stuff you want and then get a full package.

I liked the idea of AV Linux, because it comes in a bundle of stuff that I need, but it also comes with a lot stuff that I don’t need, and I’m not sure the desktop is my choice. It also didn’t really work at the time I tried it.(Some years ago).

So… if I, a stupid user, could simply go to a website, check mark at the desktop, check off which office package, music apps, browser, etc.etc. and then get a download of that in one go where it’s all set-up and works, it would be a lot easier than having to go through the process of installing the OS and then installing/removing apps, and then making it work…

Like, let’s say I want a PC just for music creation, I should be able to download the the OS with the DAW of my choice, all the VSTis and potentially also the most common free sound banks. In one file.

If I wanted an office PC, I should be able to get the OS, the office suite of choice and all the misc. PDF tools, email client and whatnot of choice. All in one go.

Windows and macOS sort of came with everything before, but these days they’re just as annoying to set up as any Linux distribution. Linux as a whole could take advantage of that situation by offering a prepackaged but custom installation.

Of course it would also help if someone made a Linux installer for windows, so users didn’t have to use windows to create a bootable USB. I think this is the step that normal users hesitate on. I don’t know if it’s possible, but it ought to be possible from software to partion the disc and install dual boot or something.

Yes. Linux Mint works “straight out of the box”.

It comes with a preinstalled browser (Firefox), so if you only use your computer for online stuff, then you dont need to do anything at all. Just use it.

The only technical thing you might want to do is to enter the WiFi password and find the software manager to install any additional apps you need.If you can install apps on your phone, then you can also install apps on Linux Mint.

I actually found that it was a lot easier to install Mint than setting up a new Windows pc. The most difficult part was using a windows pc to download it and making a bootable USB stick. Your friend can help you with that or you can follow a guide.

I have had zero issues and I have never written a single command line. It just works.

The ads have reached a breaking point.

If I can’t block them, I’m just not watching the YouTube. I’ll never pay.

It used to be funny to link a relevant YouTube clip, but it’s not funny if you have to sit through half a minute of ads just to see something silly.

It’s also not really a long time streaming service like TV channels or netflix etc., because the homemade content sucks in comparison to an actual documentary that I can also watch without ads on other services.

It’s like Google completely misunderstood the point of the service they initially made. Also following a decade of users attempting to “monitize” their fucking crap, you can be sure that there’s nothing worth watching on YouTube that couldn’t have been better presented in a gif or in text.

Then the player is also fucking up lately. Usually if I go there, I’ll check the written description while the ads play, just to see if the content is worth the wait, but nooo… you can’t even do that anymore, because the app will start reloading between the multiple ads and the screen scrolls around and minimizes the description and comments. They’re literally hiding any information on the clip except the title until you’ve watched the ads.

It’s fucking garbage. Enshittified to death.

Repeating: Google, if you’re listening: I’ll never pay for YouTube, no matter how intrusive you make the ads. Enshittification is not encouraging me to pay.

It’s interesting how most of Musk’s wealth is in stock and such, when people start cashing out on it. What’s his liquid wealth?

I assume he’s been wealthy for long enough that he’s been able to cash out interest and dividends to make him a wealthy man, constantly accruing money simply by having money.

Seeing him tank on everything he touches( bringing down the value), I have to wonder if there is a limit to his liquid funds. The world’s richest poorest man or something.

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

Exactly.

I’m surprised to see users on Lemmy being this dead set on banning stuff for kids just because "we tried nothing and it doesn’t work*

Social media is bad, phones are bad, I get it, but banning is not the solution.

Kids will grow up in a world with both social media and phones. IMO school should prepare them and be a practice ground for it, so they don’t make the same mistakes as we - the parents - did.

Like posted elsewhere, my kids are better at it than I am. Banning phones is projection all the way.

I’m perfectly fine with disallowing phones during class, but an outright ban is an extreme reaction completely missing the problematic issues and potentially making it worse.

Social media is a problem for sure.

Also, thank you for asking what schools are supposed to do.

The problem is schools not managing to encouraging pupils towards learning.

I know I’ve said this before, but the teachers curse is that nothing is taught until the pupil understands it themselves, and is willing to absorb the material put in front of them. Encouraging pupils to want to learn ought to be top priority for any school. Banning phones is a lost cause, because they’re already lost at that point. They’re bored, so they rock on the chair or fiddle with a phone. I seriously don’t think that social media addiction is the core issue here. It’s an issue for sure, but it’s not what is keeping kids from learning. Boredom is.

Regardless of technology, paying attention is entirely up to their own willingness to learn. Teachers should be feeding the desire to learn, not in a “fellow kids” kind of way, but by showing them why the curriculum is important to them.

I totally acknowledge that there’s no reason to have a phone in class and that social media is bad, but it’s relevant not issue in teaching.

I think you’re missing my point.

I doubt the sports jocks use their phone during sports ball practice?

Seems like a sports jock attention problem more than a phone availability problem.

Their friends are pretty good too. Whenever they hang out they do other stuff. They plan to meet for some purpose and that’s what they do. Keeping up to date on social media is something they do on their own time when they’re bored.

It’s like they grow out of it, once they’ve seen enough crap.

I have children, including a teen, and they have phones.

One thing I do notice is that they’re quite a lot better at putting the phone away when they’re with friends doing stuff or at family dinners than their grandparents who keeps checking notifications and answering calls regardless of when and where.

They grew up with phones and they have a much better understanding of when it’s socially acceptable to use it.

They know not use the phone during class, so there’s really no good reason to ban it entirely.

Before phones, students were distracted by fidget toys, tamagochi, bubble gum, various collectibles, comic books, ordinary books, paper notes, drawing, pen twitching, etc.etc.

Students always find ways to get distracted. Take away everything and they’ll still be rocking on the chair.

So if the purpose of banning distractions is to make students more attentive, well… it’s just not going to do that.

Then there is online bullying. Has bullying actually increased or are we just seeing it more, because it’s now documented? Banning phones in school won’t stop it from happening outside school hours anyway.

I’m not advocating for allowing phones in schools during lectures or anything, but it’s pretty clear to me that an outright ban is an outdated solution that will only hide the issues instead of solving them.

“flex index”… I don’t know what they do, but it’s a proper description of what employers used RTO do do.

This seems to be jumping to conclusions.

I recognise the waste in waiting time, but I also think we are still increasing productivity more than enough to make up for it.

Personally I solve it by multitasking harder. Whenever there is a waiting time for a download or other stuff I simply start doing something else. I’m not going to waste my life watching loading bars for a living.

I don’t think increasing user-friendlyness is a good solution. It’s pretty much what caused the issues to begin with. Every time Windows or the apps make something more user-friendly it always results in more buttons to click and more updates to keep up.

I also spend an unreasonable amount of time just rearranging the windows in comparison to back when apps had keyboard-only GUIs with functions layered in different pages or tabs. I obviously don’t think that is a good solution today either, but it goes to show that the bloated operating system has a lot of the blame.

Say you want to do something simple like renaming a file, you’ll need to open an app to show the folders and files and also 100 different functions that are of no use for the specific task, position and scroll it where it’s visible, navigate by mouse or keyboard and then do whatever you wanted. My point is that just operating the operation system is something that requires 10s of seconds over and over again every day. There’s a long way from thought to execution for the simplest task.

The good thing is that it enables a lot of people to do so without any training at all, so maybe that makes up for it in total.

So, what happens if you order a bomb at the McD?

Those mistakes would be easily solved by something that doesn’t even need to think. Just add a filter of acceptable orders, or hire a low wage human who does not give a shit about the customers special orders.

In general, AI really needs to set some boundaries. “No” is a perfectly good answer, but it doesn’t ever do that, does it?

Your quote is not from the OP article, or maybe it’s been changed.

The article linked at he bottom has a picture and more info on the wooden satellites.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/japanese-scientists-wooden-satellite

He has more than 4 upvotes, but en passant doesn’t care about that. It had 4 upvotes at some point.

That’s not exactly the take I was expecting, but alright.

The person who posted it is apparently addicted to abusing other peoples labour. Now, as a labour dealer, I can’t provide them with one guy with 10 years experience. That’s too high of a dose.

However, if they’re willing, I can probably find 10 guys with 1 year experience, but the price is going to be 10 times the going rate, because that’s how much it’ll cost me to hire and manage those 10 people off fiver.

Am I cutting the shit? Go find another dealer then. It’s not my “need”. That’s a “your problem”.