kadup

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

Yep! Okular is amazing, and it's available on Windows too. Install it for someone and they'll never bother you again about PDFs or EPUB documents, it's performant and everything works: printing, resizing, selecting text, searching, signing, adding comments. Never worry about paid PDF software or shady slow apps that keep trying to gatekeep features.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (6 children)

Honestly, there isn't much to it when setting up Linux for elderly people - in fact, I find it less troublesome than setting it up for a teenager.

Most often the issues regular users face with Linux are related to installing packages from external sources or broken updates. Elderly people tend to not do that.

Set up a stable distro like Debian, Linux Mint or Ubuntu LTS with KDE Plasma or Cinnamon, install LibreOffice, Okular and a browser with strong ad blocking, and any other applications you think they might need. Enable a simple firewall, hide the root / folder from the file browser's sidebar, and you're done. Perhaps set up scaling to make everything bigger on their monitors, disable mouse acceleration and set the speed slightly slower than usual.

I wouldn't bother with immutable distros, Flatpaks are nice and all until permissions turn using a simple app a confusing chore with broken interactions.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago

The Coca-Cola thing is just a widespread myth. Red was already used for Santa and Christmas in general before Coca-Cola's ads.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 17 hours ago

Ah yes, so we went from "no DRM whatsoeverr!" to "there's DRM but on a DLC I don't care about!"

I see. Sound logic, great argument. Sounds like GOG is amazing then, they're probably doing great with their current business model! No, wait...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Usually the Redditors wear the fedora without knowing how to pair it correctly with the rest of their outfits, so don't worry, if you wear a nice attire and a fedora people won't get you confused with the guy wearing an ahegao t-shirt two sizes too small and cargo shorts.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

you value Steam's honesty

Both are multi-millionaire if not billionaire companies. There's no way to attribute virtues like "honesty" to corporate entities.

But GOG is a much worse store than Steam, lacking features Steam had a decade ago and, most importantly, being loudly indifferent to how the games work on platforms other than Windows. Any gaming thread gets flooded by GOG fans talking about how we should support them anyway, because they're great and anti-DRM... Except I'm telling you they aren't, if their own games are at risk of being pirated they add DRM, if somebody wants to publish games protected by DRM on their platform they allow it. That's not anti-DRM.

Steam's DRM is disabled by default, and Valve is aware it's trivially easy to bypass and said multiple times they don't care. That's just as "anti-DRM" as GOG if we go by their actions, rather than their marketing claims.

Don't fall for marketing claims when they themselves are using DRM, it's ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

anti-DRM policy

What anti-DRM policy? They included DRM into their own game, what kind of policy is that?

"I have a strict, non negotiable anti-beer policy! Except every weekend when I drink a 12 pack! And sometimes in social events! And at night to take the edge off! Sometimes on Wednesdays too!"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Did I ever claim Steam is a "strongly DRM free platform"? Did Steam ever sell itself as the non evil alternative due to a quoted "lack of DRM?"

If you're trying to follow my argument, you're not doing a good job.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

strong DRM stance

They have allowed content protected by DRM into their store four times already, which is not surprising, given GOG is owned by CD Projekt Red who included DRM into their own DLC for Cyberpunk, including on GOG. That's not "strong" in any sense of the word.

So in other words, they sell you the "feel good" anti-DRM narrative but quickly look the other way when it's good for business. At that point, might as well purchase on Steam, where DRM is common but optional and Valve actually cares about making the games platform-agnostic, easy to backup, easy to share, etc.

EDIT: cool downvotes, doesn't change the fact that GOG provides software protected by DRM on their "strongly anti-DRM platform". There is no amount of downvotes in this world that can change this reality.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The N64 is got objectively better graphics - being able to do perspective correction, having actual awareness of the fact that 3D objects have depth (z-buffer) and floating point precision. It's just extremely harmed by the low storage of the cartridges.

The PS1 can barely do 3D, being forced to calculate polygons but having no idea what to do with them, with warping geometry and textures deeply distorted.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Even though the myth is quite prevalent, the red and white color scheme for Santa is not related to Coca-Cola.

A massive amount of this world's plastic waste is related to Coca-Cola, though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I use it as a "laptop" a lot, using a case with a stand and Logitech's mini Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I like it.

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