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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: September 13th, 2023

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  • You should switch to Rust. Through massively impressive feats of compiler engineering and a phenomenal amount of novel syntax constructs that make Rust the hardest language for existing programmers to learn, the rustc team has successfully managed to move this agony from after the program compiles to before.

    This is clearly an improvement.


  • Literally what? “Linux is good on the desktop because Apache isn’t available for Windows” is a non-argument. End users don’t care that Linux can run server software, and people who own servers don’t care that Linux can run a desktop. The fact that both can use the same kernel, userspace, and package manager does not change the fact that there is a very real dichotomy. You might as well argue that MacOS is good for gaming because it can run productivity software just fine, and the latest Macs have GPUs that are (according to Apple’s inscrutable benchmarks, anyway) as good as a midrange NVidia chip.

    Authors of server software develop primarily for Linux. This is great, but not especially useful to desktop users, who have no use for server software, and who productivity software developers and game developers frequently ignore. None of that has ANYTHING to do with whether or not Linux is a “real” operating system. What Polar was trying to argue was that Linux is not viable for desktop use since it is rarely if ever considered by authors of software that desktop users actually need.






  • Linux isn’t trying to compete with Windows for the desktop market. Making fun of it for failing to do that is dishonest at best. It caters to the very specific needs and wants of programmers, and it does that incredibly well. The fact that it can now run some quite high-end art and video production packages is a bonus, and if Linux is one day able to present itself as a viable alternative to Apple’s walled garden and Microsoft’s data-mining adware, so much the better, but no one with an ounce of sense (coughgardinerbryantcough) would seriously argue that Linux will be ready for mass adoption at any point within the next ten years.