sbird

Again, you have dodged all my other points. Plus, using it as a tool (checking for bugs, running tests, that sort of stuff) is very different from telling your staff to only vibe code software!

And it’s still not working, the Linux client for Epic Games failed spectacularly with lots of issues. The recent vibe coded replicas of Photoshop and friends have lots of bugs and crashes too (morally grey area in my book due to Adobe being an awful company, less people paying their exorbitant subscriptions is always better, but undeniably the “clones” are broken)

My personal opinion is that LLMs shouldn’t be used at all except for certain use cases, namely translation and processing large data sets (computers are good at repeating tasks, LLMs are no different). However, of course, some people will be using LLMs for programming. I do not and am against it, but people do what people do, however there is a difference between using it a tool and claiming that it will replace human programming. Neither is particularly amazing in my book, but almost everybody would agree that the latter is much, much worse, for jobs, the maintainability of the codebase, and user experience (broken apps are bad!)

Epic Games are claiming to “vibe code” all their software and repeating the rhetoric of the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. Turns out, everybody does not like it when companies ship broken software that doesn’t work at all, and boasting about it will hurt your image.

that matters very little here

I would imagine most people would prefer supporting someone who doesn’t donate to racists! LLMs, especially corporate ones, are typically associated with the far-right because it’s literally giving a handful of companies supreme power over your information, your code, your independent thinking, and most importantly in this case your creativity (a fascist’s wet dream).

Also, you seem to have ignored my main points about Valve. Their monopoly is bad, we should support other third-party stores like itch.io and GOG more! You have also ignored Valve’s contribution to Linux gaming and their genuine innovation in hardware (see Steam Deck, Frame VR headset, Steam Controller 2, etc.)

Hi friend! Epic Games actively promoting that they are “vibe coding” all their software and being all cocky is not good.

The effective monopoly by Valve is not great, and DRM games are not good at all, but prices aren’t being driven up like the console market is, they are awesomely supporting Linux with projects like Proton, they are innovating with hardware (albeit unfulfilled orders are big problem that they need to fix!), meanwhile Epic is boasting about a broken vibe coded Linux client and they are not offering anything much of value to the open-source community, nothing like Proton at the very least!

I would encourage everybody to purchase games through GOG and itch.io if it’s available there, with Steam as a last resort e.g. for some multiplayer titles! Lutris, Heroic, etc. exist if you use Linux :D

The CEO of Epic Games has also donated lots of money to Omarchy, and tells you all you need to know about their beliefs (if yapping about LLMs replacing human programming wasn’t enough).

Just because code isn’t copyleft doesn’t mean it does not require attribution or consent to being scraped by LLMs!

Also, I don’t think there’s any model out there that has asked for permission for scraping, and if any claim they do, they’re almost certainly liars.

In my opinion, you should ideally avoid LLMs if you can do the task yourself. It definitely has some genuine applications, especially translation, but functionally, ethically, and legally, it is not a suitable option for most people.

ah ok

It worked for me, so dunno if this is a widespread issue. I now use Sable though since I prefer it over Cinny (it’s a fork with extra bits I think)

For me, I would first replace the smartwatch, since that’s the most intertwined with the “ecosystem” (more like a hellish prison, but whatever…), then try and replace the computer(s), since Linux devices will work better with iPhones than Mac does with Android (and mobile Linux) devices.

I used to use an iPhone, and moving to an Android device was relatively smooth bar WhatsApp, which was incredibly annoying to deal with. It is possible to transfer message history though, and my family (now on Android) are very happy to get much better battery life!

If you need specific recommendations, I would go for the Fairphone if possible, else Sony Xperia and OnePlus devices are pretty neat too (former if you like headphone jack and notchless display, latter if you want top spec mobile gaming). You also have mobile Linux being a real option nowadays with the Jolla Phone (SailfishOS) and Nura devices (OnePlus 6/6T, Pocophone F1, Fairphones, etc.)

As for smartwatches, you have WearOS watches of course, but jumping into another ecosystem isn’t great. Pebble is really fun, and if you are into fitness Garmin has lots of options, and both work for iOS and Android (nice!), meaning it is an easier transition.

For Android tablets, OnePlus ones are pretty good though, and GrapheneOS can run on the Pixel Tablet. You of course have the various x86 tablets that can run Linux, as well as many ARM devices that support Nura (formerly postmarketOS), the latter usually being some sort of Chromebook (please don’t use ChromeOS)

And of course, the laptop. If it’s an M1/2/3 Mac, Asahi Linux could be an option, then you don’t need to buy any hardware! Old Thinkpads are awesome on budget, and you have a variety of Linux oriented laptops (System76, Tuxedo, etc.), and most Windows laptops will run Linux just fine as long as you’re not running an old kernel (e.g. Debian) on very new hardware.

As for desktops, you have endless amounts of Windows mini PCs and old workstations to choose from, buy used because memory prices are insane. Go for the ones available on the nearest used marketplace for cheap! It’s amazing how compatible Linux is with older devices, even more so than Windows.

If you need good alternatives to proprietary software, you have LibreOffice, Pinta (or GIMP if you are fancy), Inkscape, Kdenlive, Audacity/Tenacity, an endless number of code editors, etc. If you want to game, Linux is a lot better than Mac in this respect nowadays with Proton and such, Steam, Lutris (all-in-one, super customisable), Heroic (for GOG), and Minigalaxy (also for GOG) are awesome

Personally, LLMs are too often wrong and overly confident to be useful for me. Plus, unless you’re running a local model, yet another subscription is not fun, especially by the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. And you have all the ethical issues with LLMs that I’m sure you’ve heard about already.

It would be much better if you used the vast swath of online resources we are very lucky to have nowadays, don’t take it for granted as the internet becomes increasingly saturated with low-effort LLM generated garbage.

Again, the only scenario where LLMs are potentially useful is translation in my opinion, and even then, you have to mindful it is often pretty wrong.

If you want to try game development, game jams are always a fun experience! Godot is an excellent for this and is what I use (GDScript is very nice, less resource heavy compared to the proprietary options too). As for guides, GDQuest and HeartBeast are awesome!

There are a bazillion different online resources to learn programming, whether you want to make websites, mobile apps, whatever. As long is it’s not an obvious cashgrab (a small fee to support them is fine!)

Personally, I learnt Python by reading a book. Dunno which one, but it was a very good book!

And don’t be afraid to search for the answer (p.s. Google is not your friend, but Ecosia and Qwant are!), I still sometimes forget how to make a for loop in Python. Try to avoid using LLMs if you can, they often promote not so good programming practices or are simply flat out wrong (and confidently so!). The only instance where it could be useful is explaining concepts to you in your native language if you are not a first language speaker of English (not vibe coding, mind you, that helps nobody!), but again, you have to be mindful that it often gets stuff super wrong!

Cinny is an awesome desktop client, as is Element, Fractal (GNOME, no spaces support though) and NeoChat (KDE)

For mobile, I personally prefer FluffyChat, but there’s other options too.

edit: I currently use Sable (a fork of Cinny I think), still using FluffyChat on Android.

For one to one chats and the occasional group chat? XMPP is pretty awesome and has lots of good clients (Conversations on Android, Monal on iDevices, Dino, Gajim, etc. on Linux)

If you want something closer to Discord and host public communities or very large chatrooms, Matrix is very good. You can self-host it with Continuwuity, and there are lots of clients too (Cinny, FluffyChat, Element, Fractal, NeoChat, etc.)

If you just need voice chat, Mumble is simple and works well.

Oop ok!

Blender is already open-source, no?

If you didn’t know, CoMaps has a desktop Linux and macOS version! I believe GNOME Maps (also on Linux) recently got better offline maps support too

So I’m doubly wrong! That’s kind of neat

That’s actually pretty cool, I’ll be making an XMPP account then. Adding to my collection of chat apps!

Oh whoops, I didn’t know that! That’s kind of neat, didn’t know had encryption. I will amend my comment

Well, there’s also IRC and XMPP. Could those work better for older devices? Dunno, but neither are encrypted, so don’t use them for anything sensitive. Signal is good if you want security, they’ve been audited a lot, but they are based in the U.S. which isn’t great.

I’ve also heard of Stoat (formerly Revolt) and Fluxer, both are relatively new, but I would prefer Matrix over both since it’s more easily self-hostable (+ all those different clients to choose from!)

edit: I really didn’t know, but looks like XMPP does support encryption! (and it’s enabled by default on most clients!)

I have tried it before, it’s neat, but notifications are not reliable since it is peer to peer (both devices need to be online for a connection), a bit like Briar if you’ve used that before. I don’t think it uses the Tor network, so it might be faster than Briar (but also less anonymous?)

I don’t have experience with the jami daemon though, so can’t comment if that solves the peer to peer issue.

I personally like Matrix the best, since you have federation, options for encrypted chats, self-host able with Continuwuity (or Synapse), lots of alternative clients for nearly every OS (even mobile Linux, you have Fractal! FluffyChat also works but it’s definitely oriented towards Android devices)