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Latest Comments by walther von stolzing
System76 tease shots of their custom Keyboard and release the source code
11 Feb 2021 at 3:42 pm UTC

Quoting: JanneSize looks perfect. I wonder what switches they use. I'm partial to Topre myself but I guess they're using Cherry or some other maker.
It sounds like the switches will be user swappable; so I'd expect the default models to be customizable as well.

I've been longing for a mechanical keyboard since my Unicomp died on me last year; but good ones are really expensive & usually don't even ship where I live. This Sys76 keyboard is sure to be on the expensive side as well — though I have to say I really like that they're using a solid aluminum chassis.

Linux on the Apple M1 takes another step closer with Ubuntu working thanks to Corellium
21 Jan 2021 at 3:11 pm UTC

Quoting: KohlyKohl
Quoting: LinasRunning Linux on Apple hardware has always been a quirky endeavor. Every time I try it, there's something uniquely non-stadard and almost compatible, but not quite. Then it would randomly forget which drive is a boot drive, mess up NVRAM, or something else to ruin the day.

In my experience it is just not worth the hassle.
I have Linux running on Apple hardware and it still amazes me how different the experience is depending on the distribution used.

Even something like Ubuntu vs KDE Neon which in theory should be the same somehow isn't.
The particular model also makes a huge difference. I have the notorious 'mid-2007 Mac Mini' that almost drove me mad before I figured out how to install Linux on it -- nowadays it has Debian 10 64 bit on it (& is very useful); but the only way I know how to install it is to start from a patched bootloader & a 32bit Ubuntu 14-something, then upgrade that Ubuntu to a more recent 64 bit version, then use debootstrap to sneakily (?!) place Debian on the disk.

Getting Linux running properly on Apple M1 Silicon has begun with Asahi Linux
8 Jan 2021 at 8:09 pm UTC

Quoting: kaimanI simply won't buy any of their computers any more. And software wise, things went basically downhill after OSX 10.6.

So yeah, guess there's an argument for getting Linux to run, after all :-).
Yeah I bailed after 10.8; and never looked back. Though the one thing that I sort of do miss from OS X is the ease with which you could make applications message one another, tap into each other's objects, etc. using AppleScript, or even Automator. I've been trying to learn some dbus messaging lately; and the lack of documentation — not to mention the half-assed way in which applications implement its resources (*if at all*) drive me crazy.

I wasn't aware that this new initiative was entirely a matter of reverse engineering, though. That's disheartening, to be honest.

Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor delisted for Linux and macOS on Steam
4 Jan 2021 at 12:30 pm UTC

Don't the 'original rights holders' get a cut whenever something with the 'lotr' or 'mad max' trademark gets sold? Why would they want the licenses to expire? So they could resell it to someone else at a higher price?

Lightweight desktop Xfce 4.16 released with a visual refresh and fractional scaling
29 Dec 2020 at 1:49 pm UTC

Quoting: IzaicToo bad it doesn't support Wayland now that Xorg is abandoned.
Speaking of Wayland, I found out about this Openbox clone the other day:
https://github.com/johanmalm/labwc [External Link]

Another Openbox clone project does exist, but this one has already come pretty far.

-- and not just Openbox; replacement projects for xmonad & dwm also exist; and there's a pretty exciting compiz clone in the works too (wayfire). These are all based on wl-roots. So I'm cautiously optimistic that the XFCE team can come up with something similar reasonably soon. 4.16 already deprecated GTK2; so that's one hurdle cleared.

Portal 2: Desolation standalone mod gets a first proper teaser, coming to Linux
21 Dec 2020 at 4:58 pm UTC Likes: 2

Sounds great.

(I have to confess the "Mel" game was a bit of a disappointment for me — it wasn't really the 'difficulty'; it was rather the fact that a number of solutions involved subtly breaking the rules the way a speedrunner would, like finding that precise pixel that would allow an otherwise impossible jump, etc. Not the most elegant examples of forcing the player to 'think outside the box'. Make it 'difficult' given the existing rules of the game world; expecting the player to guess (more like brute force) the precise way in which you've bent the rules doesn't really foster creative thinking.)

GOG are doing their own Black Friday sale with lots of DRM-free games
27 Nov 2020 at 5:14 pm UTC

Quoting: ageresBatman Arkham games are on GOG now.
Nice. Though I have to say, the non-discounted prices are a little steep.

Steam Autumn Sale and the 2020 Steam Award Nominations are now live
26 Nov 2020 at 12:12 pm UTC

Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: scainePrey [External Link] is platinum, and they've recently removed Denuvo, which was preventing me from buying it until now. At 80% off, only £4, I'm picking this up, finally.
Oh! Removing denuvo does indeed change things. Still, over my 5 euro general guideline of spending no more than 5 euro on a proton game. Seems that the pound price is better for this one. What would make me more hesitant is sending money in the direction of Zenimax.
Pretty weird to release the game on GOG, and keep the denuvo on Steam.
It's a *great* game, by the way, I absolutely loved it.

The Internet Archive are keeping Flash creations alive with the open source Ruffle
24 Nov 2020 at 6:32 pm UTC Likes: 5

Thinking about Flash I get memories of mid-90s 'multimedia CD-ROMs' put together with groundbreaking Macromedia technology. The internet archive has loads of those as well, by the way — and it's usually shocking how little content they actually had.

By the way, this is my favorite 'flash content' of all time:
https://youtu.be/qE6emvdmg-M [External Link]

Say hello to PLATYPUS, the latest CPU security problem
11 Nov 2020 at 12:50 pm UTC

Well, well, well...

You know who has a platypus mascot [External Link]? The Darwin project [External Link], of course...

... and yesterday, Apple released their first arm-based line.
COINCIDENCE? I think not...