People from the U.S. (and even parts of Europe) do not understand how corrupt, stupid, and unstable majority of the world is. It is genuinely unfathomable.

This does not excuse the fascism of the current admin, nor the war-crimes of the U.S. as a whole, but they are nowhere even remotely close to the likes of Moldova.

There is a reason I said this was consistent.

I checked on four different servers (feddit.nl, lemmy.ml, lemmy.world, and sh.itjust.works) and all of them reproduced the automatic download for only this post. Of course, this can be due to an error with lemmy’s source itself - which is why I said it isn’t necessarily malware.

Secondly, I did a non-trivial check of my network for MITM when the error first occurred - and there was no evidence of MITM. I also highly doubt that the browser itself is compromised, as it is up-to-date and is focused on both privacy and security.

I posted it as a warning for those to check their machines if the browser (or other mechanisms) didn’t catch it. I am also not above reproach; it is okay to criticize my claims - but they were not made without reasonable cause.

P.S. The files were blocked from downloading (and I will not be downloading them) so I am unaware of their contents. If it is just PHP, then lemmy itself likely has a edge-case bug triggered by this post (which is bad). But I do doubt it is PHP, considering all other posts do not display this behavior.

[ OFF TOPIC - SECURITY WARNING ]

When opening this lemmy post, it attempts to download content to the user’s device. This is consistent behavior. This is not an accusation of malware, but is a tactic often used in drive-by attacks.

It is recommended to check your download folder for strange files, and perform a general security check.

Is America the only country on the planet?

You seem to forget that the EU and China are starting to mingle; and that China is heavily involved in Africa et al via the Belt&Road Initiative.

Obviously everyone gets hurt in it a trade war, that’s why it’s called a war. But the the long term outlook for China is significantly better than America’s - they will win a war of attrition.

China is also doing their due diligence. Tit-for-tat is the most effective negotiation strategy, you will not beat physics, and they understand this.

The craziest part is that both America and China were benefiting immensely off of the status quo, considering they were the #1 and #2 richest countries on the planet. But since the least qualified person on the planet to handle money (Trump) has unregulated power, it has all gone to shit.

This is the most effective form of protest, that every single American should be doing.

It also happens to be extremely efficient where it needs to be.

We should’ve been calling them this since the 1950s. And even this is too kind - they are terrorists. Their policy platform is (and has been) to oppress, kill, and exploit.

I’ve noticed that many of these cruel and reactionary ideologies are not based in any historical data nor science. This is used to be called hysteria.

They still haven’t answered either; so I can only assume they did not realize the contradiction between accelerationism and paying more taxes. Sad times we live in.

The appropriate sequence of events would be:

Trump starts tariffs > People switch to FOSS > Trump cuts funding to FOSS

This really isn’t double-speak and, if anything, clearly shows the hostility of the admin. They are just incompetent, short-sighted, and overall an enemy of the people.

It’s not about “hating”. It is because you (and the current administration) have no idea what you are talking about and are trying to pass it off as fact.

People really do not like imposters, larpers, and pretenders - and when in positions of power they get people killed. This is not a video game, nor a simulation, educate yourself before you speak.

There are many many expert peer-reviewed studies that show tariffs do not work - especially in the way Trump is using them. Also the U.S. had no “economic failure”, they’ve been the richest country to ever exist. BlackRock and Vanguard also manage a significant amount of U.S. property assets and they are American companies.

The problem was the wealth-gap and no amount of tariffs is going to fix this; people need to pay their taxes. Companies need to be paying the 91% rate they paid in the past, and people need the minimum wage to rise with inflation.

There is more than enough money to do this, but you vote for Trump who actively makes the situation worse. This is not to say Dems would’ve made it better - but Republicans will always make the problem worse, since that is their whole policy platform.

You’re okay with more taxes, but you’re an accelerationist…

What does accelerationism mean to you? And what benefits do you believe society gains from this?

P.S. For the sake of transparency, I’m not liberal; but you can call me whatever you like.

You’re okay with 50 years of widespread suffering to maybe have any society. But not okay with paying increased monthly taxes to guarantee a stable society.

The Greek were right, democracy doesn’t work.

I get what the founders were talking about now. A lot of people really shouldn’t be able to vote if you want a functioning society. They just chose the wrong metric.

If you run a market and take a cut of every sale, you will make infinitely more profit than selling items yourself. This is exactly the position the U.S. was in - which is why it became the richest country in human history.

You also argue that the U.S. is getting “exploited” because they aren’t the ones doing the selling. But who cares? I’ll tell you who, people who don’t know wtf they are talking about.

In your infinite wisdom, the better choice is saddling yourself with more risk and less rewards because “the vibe” feels better.

*Serves you right for using your brain without proof-thinking.

This context does not change anything. Not prioritizing health shows a critical misunderstanding of what wealth is, and how to reap its benefits. You are not likely to be a good business person if you do not understand fundamentals.

That being said, if you’re willing to cheat/lie/steal you can ignore a lot of the fundamentals - which is the route most of these “cofounders” took

You assume that educated people are making the final decision, when that has not been the case in at least 60 years.

Economists can scream from the roof-tops that the wealth-gap is harmful (they have), that ignoring science is regressive (they have), and that tariffs are fucking stupid (they have). But if the people in power (i.e CEO, Lobbyists, President) simply ignore them and do stupid shit anyway, it’s all pointless.

Moral of the story, this is not on the economists. This is on the stupid being in positions of power and the ignorant masses not holding them accountable.

I read the thread you linked. I’m so fucking tired boss.

What do you even do in this situation? The algorithms and propaganda networks are all controlled by fascists and people don’t care. Beyond not caring, they refuse to even protect themselves from being targeted in this way - they do not value privacy nor integrity.

So what do you do? We have to figure something out.

Agreed. There are many facets to this problem, so it’s difficult to get in one post, so I’ll try to reconcile the main points.

The core of what I’m trying to say, is don’t kill Linux trying to become Windows. Linux is great because it diverse, but it also has difficulties because of this. We should not change (nor destroy) the ecosystem for people who do not care to understand it.

That being said, we can also make it easier for people who do care and cooperate to make it over. But if we do this we, as Linux users, have to look at this from the right lens. The question is not “Linux users, what do you find difficult?”; this is survivorship bias. The question is “Windows users, why can’t you get Linux on your machine?”. From this framing, the real issues become a lot more apparent:

• Not savvy enough to set up USB stick
• Driver, and other hardware, issues
• Programs needed for work, or general daily usage, are unavailable
• Too much tinkering required (this is related to, but not the same as RTFM and CLI)

The first two points can be solved by purchasing a machine from a Linux OEM (i.e System76). If this is not possible, then you are going to have to do research; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

AI has a good and valid use-case here, as it can significantly ease this process (even if it’s only right 60% of the time).

Linux may not have an alternative for your preferred programs; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

Developers should follow open guidelines (i.e POSIX). If they refuse to, there is nothing Linux can (nor should) do about it.

The last point can be solved by distro choice, we completely agree here. The problem is finding said distro, which is difficult. For example, I’ve never heard of Ublue until your post. I appreciate distros that handle defaults and don’t push breaking changes. The community can make this better by having a dedicated website (with a decision tree) for choosing a distro, but this has its own set of issues.

No matter, the responsibility falls on the user to pick the right distro; if this burden is too heavy, Linux is not for you.

Linux Mint is a great distro, and I’m happy it works for you.

In terms of mass-adoption though, the fatal point is probably putting a Linux ISO on a thumb drive. Like I said prior, we must be aware of survivorship bias. You don’t care much for the terminal - but you made it through.

The people that didn’t make it through probably failed from the thumb drive step. I only say this from personal experience, because when I first installed Linux, I was very determined and came extremely close to giving up at this step. And I only got through because I happened to find an obscure forum about how Rufus needed a special setting for my machine.

P.S. I also was not tech savvy, but I wasn’t completely lost either - and I still struggled really hard here.

This is actually a really deep rabbit-hole. To avoid typing a novel, I’m going to cut out a lot of nuance.

Windows is installed by default on machines. Since people do not change defaults (many studies have been done on this), this is checkmate. As long as this is true, Linux will not have a major (20%+) market share.

So this has to start from the OEM. Several Linux OEMs exist (i.e Tuxedo Computers, System76, Framework) but they cannot compete with the Microsoft network. Those who are interested in Linux, but are not tech savvy, really really really should buy their device from a Linux OEM.

Driver issues are near non-existent on Linux OEM hardware. So software is the next step; and let me tell you, developing for Linux is rough. There are 2 window servers, 2 graphic stacks, 2 desktop environments, 2 coding standards, 2 C libraries,… you get the point. A lot of this can be abstracted, but it takes genuine work to do - and may be obsoleted in a month; meaning no company will do this.

All to say, creating “magically working” apps - even with a lot of monetary support - is a herculean task. Even Valve (who is FLUSHED with cash) gave up and just decided to make their own distro (SteamOS).

A lot of issues also just require personal tweaks due to open-source software being extraordinarily bad at setting sane defaults. With something like Windows, you can hire people to make this better. Who do you hire to fix the defaults for 300 independent projects? And will the devs even listen to them?

I could keep going, but you get the point, the buck is going to have to stop at the user for a lot of things.

The best solution (in my opinion) is to have specialized distros and have people choose from them. Want to game? SteamOS. Want to dev? Fedora. Want to surf the web? Linux Mint. Creating, and more importantly accurately listing, specialized distros will make lives easier. Leave the defaults to the devs, just download the “vibe” you want.

Windows users and Linux users are not seeking the same thing from their machines. The common mistake I often see from Linux advocates.

From personal experience, when I was a Windows user, I didn’t care (or even know) about privacy, open-source software, nor owning my machine. I didn’t care if I had to sign up for a Microsoft account, and I never changed defaults ever (except for my wallpaper). I just wanted the machine to turn-on, work, and play some games.

Why am I bringing this up? Because Linux requires the user care about their machine and defaults. You need to know your architecture, graphics card, and threat-model. You need to know what your apps are called and where they come from. You need to know what tools you need to troubleshoot (and devs will not help you). This is the biggest the pain-point of Linux. Do not succumb to the survivorship bias of RTFM or command-line.

This issue cannot be fixed from simplifying Linux interfaces (though we should do this anyway!). The soul of Linux is adventure, collaboration, and tinkering. To get the most from your machine, you’re going to have to interact with several communities. This is what makes Linux great, and frankly I do not think we should kill this for the general public - this is how you get enshittification.

The general public needs to understand that incompetence (being brain-dead) will lead to misery. It is simply the rule of the land. You need to care and you need to collaborate. We should not welcome nor accommodate users that refuse to do this.