Latest Comments by Kithop
Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
9 Feb 2026 at 6:22 pm UTC Likes: 11
I'm similarly pessimistic about governments trying to do this, but it honestly just means we have to be ready with those fallback options, and unless they're going to stop selling WiFi cards and Pringles cans to the general public entirely, they can't win. 😉
9 Feb 2026 at 6:22 pm UTC Likes: 11
Quoting: Liam DaweAnd like every time this happens, VPN / Tor usage goes up, people learn to adapt and overcome. We even have access to mesh networking technology, and could even go back to point-to-point microwave antennas for backhaul (think Ubiquiti AirFibre). Lots of authoritarian countries try to block and censor the internet, with varying (but rarely, if ever total) success.Quoting: pbEven if it isn't yet, there's not much to stop governments forcing ISPs to block IRC servers. We've barely begun to see the effects of all this yet, it's going to expand.Quoting: Liam DaweIt doesn't really matter what alternatives there are - anything chat / social media will end up having to use these types of controls. Otherwise, they will end up getting blocked by various governments.Is IRC blocked anywhere?
I'm similarly pessimistic about governments trying to do this, but it honestly just means we have to be ready with those fallback options, and unless they're going to stop selling WiFi cards and Pringles cans to the general public entirely, they can't win. 😉
Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
9 Feb 2026 at 5:45 pm UTC Likes: 7
9 Feb 2026 at 5:45 pm UTC Likes: 7
Quoting: KimyrielleYes. Politicians wanted to end anonymity on the internet since it became a thing, because they hate it when they can't control or see what theirAs a friend of Blåhaj, even if my ID is 'right' (that was a headache and a half...), I certainly wouldn't to share it with *any* American corporation these days. It just sucks to feel like we're being pushed underground, but I guess I'm 'lucky' to have the stereotypical computer-touching neurospice.subjectscitizens do. The "there is too much crime on the internet" argument didn't work at first, so it's now "for the children!!!!"
Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
9 Feb 2026 at 5:42 pm UTC Likes: 3
9 Feb 2026 at 5:42 pm UTC Likes: 3
Quoting: sonic2kkWhat are the options for video calls and multi-participant screenshare (with audio) without usage limits and with support on Linux and Android? I checked out Element but the usage limit is a bit of a turn-off. TeamSpeak 6 looks interesting and seems to have the features mentioned, but wondering what others have to say :-)I spun up a NextCloud instance locally for my wife and I, and while we just use it to de-Google things like sharing photos and the grocery list and such, I believe it's meant to be groupware that can do those things. It's just... not trivial to deploy and kind of overkill.
Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
9 Feb 2026 at 5:39 pm UTC Likes: 5
9 Feb 2026 at 5:39 pm UTC Likes: 5
Quoting: Liam DaweIt doesn't really matter what alternatives there are - anything chat / social media will end up having to use these types of controls. Otherwise, they will end up getting blocked by various governments.Anything corporate and open to the public, sure, but an invite-only thing one hosts for their friends and no one else? They can certainly try... 😉
Vulkan-based translation layer D7VK officially expands to include Direct3D 5 support
9 Feb 2026 at 5:16 pm UTC Likes: 4
9 Feb 2026 at 5:16 pm UTC Likes: 4
Ooh, Carmageddon 2? It felt so... 'edgy' for its time, but would probably barely draw attention these days. (Admittedly I was way too young to be playing it - and the first one before it - but my parents didn't mind as long as I kept my grades up, and I did... 😅)
I think the original was pure software rendering, anyway, but by the time 2 came out I think we either had a Voodoo Banshee (slightly nerfed Voodoo 2 plus 2D card built in, no VGA loopback required!) or a Voodoo 3 3000 with this then newfangled 'AGP' interface... (that wasn't compatible with the lower voltage AGP... 2x/4x of the Radeon 9800 Pro that I still have in a 'retro' PC!).
I guess the other option alluded to is to run something like nGlide to 'pre convert' that path to OpenGL? I also seem to remember something called dgVoodoo2 [External Link] but it looks like the maintainer there has recently stopped & archived it.
I think the original was pure software rendering, anyway, but by the time 2 came out I think we either had a Voodoo Banshee (slightly nerfed Voodoo 2 plus 2D card built in, no VGA loopback required!) or a Voodoo 3 3000 with this then newfangled 'AGP' interface... (that wasn't compatible with the lower voltage AGP... 2x/4x of the Radeon 9800 Pro that I still have in a 'retro' PC!).
I guess the other option alluded to is to run something like nGlide to 'pre convert' that path to OpenGL? I also seem to remember something called dgVoodoo2 [External Link] but it looks like the maintainer there has recently stopped & archived it.
Discord is about to require age verification for everyone
9 Feb 2026 at 4:10 pm UTC Likes: 6
9 Feb 2026 at 4:10 pm UTC Likes: 6
...and my friends thought I was crazy for deleting my Discord account entirely after $USPolitics thing(s) happened and it became super obvious everything was neatly hooked up to their various three letter agencies. Then rumours of them going public with a big IPO, and we all know how the enshittification train goes when that happens.
They said the same thing when I deleted my Twitter and FB accounts, what, in 2017-2018? (Actually, FB was first - once the band I was in fell apart, no need to post shows there...)
If it's not fully open source and I can't host it myself on my own infrastructure with no hard requirement to even have working internet connectivity once set up, I'm not interested. Same for if the company behind it (*cough*Matrix*cough*) just loves the taste of boots.
They said the same thing when I deleted my Twitter and FB accounts, what, in 2017-2018? (Actually, FB was first - once the band I was in fell apart, no need to post shows there...)
If it's not fully open source and I can't host it myself on my own infrastructure with no hard requirement to even have working internet connectivity once set up, I'm not interested. Same for if the company behind it (*cough*Matrix*cough*) just loves the taste of boots.
Steam Frame and Steam Machine will be another good boost for Flatpaks and desktop Linux overall too
9 Jan 2026 at 4:43 pm UTC Likes: 1
9 Jan 2026 at 4:43 pm UTC Likes: 1
For immutable image type setups like SteamOS, it totally makes sense, but I'm loathe to have a bunch of different versions of libraries around because Flatpak A still depends on them and hasn't been updated yet - but I'm not the target audience if I'm actually reading the list of everything pacman (or apt, yum, etc.) wants to update and actively reviewing and deciding what I'm about to proceed with. (Looking at you, holding back Mesa for months because of that SteamVR regression.)
Containerisation is potentially nice, for sure, for all the same reasons Docker or Podman are. It's also potentially a pain in the butt for all the same reasons, if you have something that really needs a whole lot of permissions in the first place. 😅
I remember the days when Windows Vista(?)'s incessant UAC prompts just pushed people into turning it off entirely, and while my (mostly Steam Deck) experience with Flatpak has never been that bad, I've had to mess with Flatseal more than I want to, for things that 'just worked' on my desktop. I think giving emulators access to Bluetooth and USB gamepads was one of them - minor stuff, but the kind of stuff you'd expect an emulator to have the appropriate permissions for out of the box.
tl;dr, Flatpak is a great option, but I'm not moving from distro-native package management any time soon, and that's okay, because it doesn't have to be an either-or, and that's why Linux (and BSD, etc.) are awesome. 🩷
Containerisation is potentially nice, for sure, for all the same reasons Docker or Podman are. It's also potentially a pain in the butt for all the same reasons, if you have something that really needs a whole lot of permissions in the first place. 😅
I remember the days when Windows Vista(?)'s incessant UAC prompts just pushed people into turning it off entirely, and while my (mostly Steam Deck) experience with Flatpak has never been that bad, I've had to mess with Flatseal more than I want to, for things that 'just worked' on my desktop. I think giving emulators access to Bluetooth and USB gamepads was one of them - minor stuff, but the kind of stuff you'd expect an emulator to have the appropriate permissions for out of the box.
tl;dr, Flatpak is a great option, but I'm not moving from distro-native package management any time soon, and that's okay, because it doesn't have to be an either-or, and that's why Linux (and BSD, etc.) are awesome. 🩷
Mesa 25.3.3 released with more Linux graphics driver bug fixes
2 Jan 2026 at 3:30 pm UTC
2 Jan 2026 at 3:30 pm UTC
Quoting: williamjcmOh, nice, it also has that fix for what broke SteamVR in earlier 25.3.x versions. I'll be able to unpin the mesa packages, then.Was just going to post that, too - looks like I'll get to test that a bit later today! 👍❤️
Mesa 25.3.2 brings more bug fixes for open source Linux graphics drivers
18 Dec 2025 at 7:51 pm UTC Likes: 1
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/836#issuecomment-3665458999 [External Link] -> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/38987 [External Link]
18 Dec 2025 at 7:51 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: williamjcm25.3.0/1 had a bug that forced me to downgrade to 25.2.7 if I wanted to use SteamVR, so let's hope that one's fixed too.Also had to do the same thing here. Not in 25.3.2 but it looks like there's a Merge Request open with a fix!
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/836#issuecomment-3665458999 [External Link] -> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/38987 [External Link]
It just keeps getting worse - Firefox to "evolve into a modern AI browser"
16 Dec 2025 at 8:46 pm UTC Likes: 6
16 Dec 2025 at 8:46 pm UTC Likes: 6
Quoting: ChrisznixNow that i came to love it - can anyone forecast what this would mean for a fork like librewolf?Yes: https://chaos.social/@librewolf/115716906957137196 [External Link]
They surely would take that out, will they? Can they?
- Oh dear - ARC Raiders was logging your private Discord chats [updated]
- Ubuntu and Fedora devs comment on California's new Digital Age Assurance Act
- Many more US states are planning or already have operating system age verification laws
- Bazzite gets a big update with KDE Plasma 6.6, Mesa 26.0.1 and more
- Sony PlayStation reportedly moving away from PC ports
- > See more over 30 days here
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