You’re right in some ways; Windows is closer to a microkernel than Linux, though it doesn’t perfectly adhere to the philosophy of - there’s supposedly weird things like drawing calls in the Windows kernel that should be in microservice, I’ve heard

However, I wouldn’t necessarily call microkernels a detriment; in fact, Linux is a bit of an odd duck for going monolithic - modern Apple operating systems also run on a microkernel. Monolithic is an older architecture, and there are worries about the separation between components and system resilience e.g the webcam driver can’t crash the whole kernel.

In practice, it’s less of an issue, and there really aren’t any open source microkernel operating systems that are practical for production desktop and server use, which has a microkernel though there are certainly solutions for embedded systems.

QubesOS is built on Xen hypervisor, which uses a microkernel design, but Linux is then run in multiple VMs on top of it, which makes it more of a technicality in my eyes. RedoxOS also runs on a microkernel and is certainly intended as a desktop operating system, but its hardware support is limited; GNU Hurd is even more limited in that respect and not really usable.

Neat. I love Debian, but its documentation is crap! I hope this works out and I can see an improvement.

I mostly agree with you. However, I think there are some caveats to upscaling; there are so many lazy “4K AI UPSCALE BEST QUALITY” videos online that just don’t look good and were clearly put there just to get views.

However, I’ve also found they have their uses; for instance, I wanted to laser cut a TMBG Flood logo once, but there were very few good images online that traced well in Inkscape. I ended up doing an AI upscale of the least terrible one with a white background, and that traced pretty well in Inkscape.

I was messing around with HomeAssistant the other day, which uses the same speech recognition engine, and I found it to be decent.

I think including the word “OpenAI” in the post name is somewhat a misnomer that implies an encrapification not really happening to the FFMPEG project.

Yes, it is true OpenAI originally developed the Whisper model, and I hate OpenAI; however:

• Whisper is actually open source, unlike most OpenAI crap.
• FFmpeg isn’t even directly using the OpenAI version, written in Python - they’re using a port to C++ called Whisper.cpp
• We’ve been able to use speech recognition for decades, so unlike other AI models, I don’t think a speech recognition model that does it better is problem.
• You don’t even necessarily have to compile FFmpeg with Whisper support.

I get the dislike of AI, but the idea of association with OpenAI is overblown and not really reflective of reality. Now I can get not wanting to use open source projects whose developers don’t reflect your principles; however, I think this ethical issue is more indirect than may initially appear and is not a strong reason to quit using what is still the most effective media conversion tool.

No need to panic in this case. While I hate OpenAI, there’s two things to note here:

• Whisper is an open source library for speech recognition rather than generative AI, run entirely locally. It’s just using ML to do something we could already do with computers (speech recognition), but better.
• They aren’t even directly using the OpenAI version - they’re using whisper.cpp, a port of the model.

I was hardly the target audience for Lower Decks; in fact, I was a little mad they had made an adult animated Star Trek comedy. However, after watching it, it has become a favorite. Season 1 is a bit difficult to get through, but once you get through that, overall, it’s a show that’s very sincere to what Star Trek is while still being a comedy. And it should have gotten 2 more seasons.

Same with Star Trek: Prodigy: it takes a second, and it’s still technically a kids show, but when it gets there, it’s worth it.

Honestly, I’m half hopeful for the show just because it’s a “We’re going for the {X} demographic” kind of show that sounds a little like a stupid idea that will actually turn out unexpectedly good but get cancelled before its time.

You know what would be really awesome, though? A Cali class MSD!

Maybe it’s because I only use stable on my laptop with Flatpaks, but honestly, Bookworm never got that crusty to me until recently - it feels like new software versions didn’t introduce a lot of must have features in the past two years. Only hiccup was I had to install the backports kernel to get Wi-Fi working.

I used to use this, but I always found it really janky - window boundaries not updating, weird graphical glitches, etcetera.

It was especially annoying to use with Photoshop and GPU acceleration (I do GPU passthrough to my VM).

In the end, I just abandoned it and just used the monitor the VM’s GPU is plugged into.

I think part of it is people are so annoyed with entertainment companies in general that it’s hard to know if you’re worried about something real about the show or you’re just fatigued.

Also, personally, I feel like people have actually been relatively quiet about STA, although maybe it’s just the community I’m in. Personally, with headlines about Robert Picardo’s character being “deeper”, I’m almost certain he’ll be 100% comic relief, and the show may be unexpectedly good, if Star Trek: Prodigy is anything to judge by.

Mostly, I just hope they don’t do the most basic Klingon plot they can think of - I think it would be great if the Qo’nos Klingons were relatively well off post-burn due to a philosophical shift, but they’ll probably have something like they were devastated by civil war after possibly being a Federation member.

EDIT: I mean, almost all of the better newer series have been forays into a genre - LD adult animated comedy and PRO children’s drama. If STA’s trying to aim towards a tween/teen niche, maybe it will also follow that. The only one to break the pattern is S31 somewhat, in the sense it was an action movie attempt, but still within the general sci-fi drama standard of Trek.

I mean, I think you have pretty based reasons to sail the high seas, frankly.

As a completely new user who’s self-described as “not very tech savvy”, Arch is probably a terrible idea, and you should switch distros.

I really like Debian, but something like Linux Mint or Fedora might be wiser for you; all three hold your hand more, which would be very important in your case. Fedora and Debian specifically are designed to work well with KDE, although Fedora will have newer versions.

You certainly seem willing to learn (you got through the Arch install process), and I think you still have a great opportunity to enjoy Linux, but considering you’re calling the terminal emulator “Konsole”, your self-description is probably apt. FYI Konsole is just one application to access the terminal, kind of like how Firefox and Chrome are both web browsers, but you don’t use “Chrome” to refer to web browsers.

Engage the core!

Cerritos strong!

I’m rather sad to have never attended a convention - I was born in Vegas and lived there the first 15 years of my life.

We could have a convoluted retcon about Trip Tucker surviving somehow, but I kind of just want them to pull a Shaxs; someone brings it up and Tucker says, “We don’t talk about that.”

The early decon scenes are comparatively mild, which is saying something… don’t Google Vulcan Neuropressure; I wouldn’t wish such horrors upon my worst enemy.

I also enjoyed Prodigy, although I will warn the first half of season one is a little difficult to get through, but the rest of the series welds you to your seat!

I second this. It’s basically just an extra TNG-era spinoff that fits really well after Voyager.

The first season is a bit rough (though you’ve got to watch it at least once - important info for the rest of the show’s plot) but then the show starts doing its characters really well and has a sincerity to it you wouldn’t expect from its genre.

When I first heard of the idea of an adult animated Star Trek comedy, I thought it was a terrible idea, but they executed it so darn well, and it’s my second favorite series behind DS9.