The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

A lot of what people think is "bad about Linux" is simply due to the fact it's a different operating system from Windows, which means that it won't do everything the same way as Windows, and there will be unique behavior from both operating systems, not the fact that the thing they're complaining about is "bad" in any way.
 
Is there a way in the Linux to "merge" two windows in one? I was watching Twitch stream with VLC and using Chatterino for the chat, so I tilled them together but alt+tabbing only brings VLC and I have to do additional action to bring chat. I am using Fedora with KDE.

This is unironically one of the things I like about BeOS/Haiku, being able to combine muiltiple windows into a single tabbed window. Sorry for shitting up the Linux thread with "ACKSHUALLY I USE ARCH".
 
This is unironically one of the things I like about BeOS/Haiku, being able to combine muiltiple windows into a single tabbed window. Sorry for shitting up the Linux thread with "ACKSHUALLY I USE ARCH".
That's been a feature in fluxbox for over two decades now.

Tabbing is a nice feature that allows you to tab windows together. This can be combined with the “autogrouping” feature that is provided via the apps-file. This will make certain applications tab together by default.

 
A lot of what people think is "bad about Linux" is simply due to the fact it's a different operating system from Windows, which means that it won't do everything the same way as Windows, and there will be unique behavior from both operating systems, not the fact that the thing they're complaining about is "bad" in any way.
It is at the point now, I would argue, that none of the desktop operating systems really operate that differently conceptually.
I would go as far to say (if you remove spyware from the equation) that they aren't even all that different.
If there are things that are wildly different, compatibility layers exist or you can just bridge the two environments.

e.g. Until this week, I was doing 100% of my development at work on Windows, Jetbrains IDEs and Git Bash.
I got really pissed off with Windows basically being quite slow for some operations, and this is to do with NTFS, anti-virus, corporate policy etc.

So I moved everything to WSL (2). Because all the tooling I used was cross-platform and I wrote everything assuming bash, it all just ran.
So I use Windows as a way to run Outlook/Teams and Linux.

I could do all the same stuff on the Mac if I wanted to.

So we are now in the era where:
  • A huge amount of software will work on Linux, Mac OS or Windows. Often without any issue.
  • A number of major things that you could only do on Windows or MacOS are now possible on Linux.
  • Windows basically ships Linux as a developer compatibility layer.
  • Windows now requires command line fuckery quite often to unfuck it.
  • Privacy is far better on Linux than any other OS.
  • Software development is now far better on Linux than on Windows (and probably better than on Mac OS).
Realistically, outside of corpo-land and certain software, macOS and Windows don't have any real advantages over Linux if you're a power user/developer/technically savvy person. Windows has a marginal gaming advantage because of kernel anti-cheat crap.

This wasn't the case 10-15 years ago.
 
Linus discusses LLM usage in the kernel. Linus also says, linux is "*NOT* some kind of "social warrior" project, never has been, and never will be."

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linuxfoundation.org>
To: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>
Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>,
Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@kernel.org>,
Derek Barbosa <debarbos@redhat.com>,
Matthieu Baerts <matttbe@kernel.org>,
Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>,
Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ziepe.ca>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
users@kernel.org,
Linux Media Mailing List <linux-media@vger.kernel.org>,
Stephen Finucane <stephenfin@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: Linking Patchwork with Sashiko?
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:06:14 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAHk-=wi4zC+Ze8e+p3tMv8TtG_80KzsZ1syL9anBtmEh5Z40vg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4928C919-7999-4E76-ADCB-F8643FED105B@linux.dev>

On Tue, 14 Jul 2026 at 19:01, Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev> wrote:
>
> I think it makes the point of sashiko - helping maintainers - unachievable. If the point to not use
> LLMs in general, let’s discuss this, not how to make each use case more complex.
>
> It seems like [1] expresses a very anti-LLM position in general

Yes.

And no, that's not the position of the Linux kernel.

I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area
where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level
maintainer.

Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues
with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.

Or just walk away.

AI is a tool, just like other tools we use. And it's clearly a useful one.

It may not have been that "clearly" even just a year ago, but it's no
longer in question today.

There are other questions around AI (like what the economy of it will
actually look like in the end), but "is it useful" is no longer one of
those questions. Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn't actually used
it.

Yes, it can also be a somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer
workloads and just from a "it keeps finding embarrassing bugs"
standpoint.

But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing "La La
La, I can't hear you" at the top of your voice like some people seem
to do.

The solution is to make sure those LLM tools _help_ maintainers
instead of just causing them pain. There's no question on that side.

We're not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore
people who try to argue against other people from using it.

And no, AI isn't perfect. But Christ, anybody who points to the
problems at AI had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at
themselves at the same time.

Because it's not like natural intelligence is always all that great either.

The kernel project has been and will continue to be about the technology.

Sure, the social angle of working on open source is important and
often a very motivating part of the project, but in the end that's a
side benefit, not the _point_ of the project.

This is *NOT* some kind of "social warrior" project, never has been,
and never will be.

In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better
technology, not because of religious reasons.

And so we make decisions primarily based on technical merit. Not fear
of new tools.

Linus
 
AI is a tool, just like other tools we use. And it's clearly a useful one.

It may not have been that "clearly" even just a year ago, but it's no
longer in question today.

There are other questions around AI (like what the economy of it will
actually look like in the end), but "is it useful" is no longer one of
those questions. Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn't actually used
it.
Linus has the correct take on this. I think AI, when used correctly is very useful
 
Linus has the correct take on this. I think AI, when used correctly is very useful
Something can be useful in an immediate context, sure. But that doesn't mean it won't be damaging for society in the long run.


I don't think we need to stop researching AI, certainly, but my problem is how any attempt to even discuss how the technology might cause problems unless guard rails are enforced is shouted down immediately by those who are bullish on the issue. We should be making sure this isn't going to magnify the societal problems the internet has already created before we start shoving it into every single application we possibly can.
 
What would you actually do with a haiku desktop though
You are supposed to marvel at the wonders of 1990s multitasking.

BeOS enthusiasts are in a similar quagmire as the Amiga enthusiasts. They all got blown away by a piece of technology that might have been cutting-edge at the time, but ultimately the world moved on, caught up and surpassed them. However, they pretended that never happened, and it was the pinnacle of OS engineering.
 
What would you actually do with a haiku desktop though
I have a mini PC running haiku but idk WTF to do with it because it does almost nothing
By that same logic I can ask what I would actually do with Linux.

Its got a web browser. Its got games. Good enough for a bulk majority of what I do on my computer.
 
Something can be useful in an immediate context, sure. But that doesn't mean it won't be damaging for society in the long run.
Any new piece of technology has both positive and negative impacts.
I don't think we need to stop researching AI, certainly, but my problem is how any attempt to even discuss how the technology might cause problems unless guard rails are enforced is shouted down immediately by those who are bullish on the issue.
You know why people shut it down immediately? Because most of the discussion and criticism is coming from people that don't know anything and are repeating media talking points or are just haters.

The moment I see shit like "guard rails". I roll my eyes. Margaret Thatcher said something along the lines of "You can't uninvent a nuclear bomb", meaning that the technology existed and the world is forever changed and you need to deal with and understand the new reality.

The new reality for me is this (and I've barely scratched the surface of what the tech can do):
  • Earlier this week I literally went out and met a friend for lunch while I had OpenCode work on a deployment problem and solved it correctly. This was non-trivial, requiring both communication with the server and looking at generated template code in YAML. Sure I could figure this out, but it may have taken me several hours.
  • Today I had OpenCode write me a program in less than 15 minutes to fix part of a missing onboarding process, while I was on the phone with my boss. At the same time, I had it migrating the entire codebase from Jest to Vitest. I then had it auto-write the commit, roll up related changes, push and merge the code once CI had finished.
  • I could use Hermes Agent via Telegram, and while I was sitting on a bench taking a breather during a long evening walk, I had it write me a new skill. I am running Ollama on a 6-year-old GPU. Newer cards will let me run better models that can do more and do it faster.
My brother, who is tech illiterate and works a blue-collar job and doesn't own a proper computer, worked out how to use ChatGPT to automate 90% of the boring office shite he has to do.

So when anyone says "the tech might cause problems". It would be like someone saying to me back in 1908 after the Model T was released, "Well, the motor vehicle is going to put all people that scrap horseshit off the city streets out of work."

Or being in 1892 (when the first tractors were being sold): 'Well, the mechanised machinery in agriculture might cause problems; we should make sure we use oxen for another few years".

That is the sort of conversation you are wanting to have. Once someone understands how much time it can save you, you just sound like a Luddite.
We should be making sure this isn't going to magnify the societal problems the internet has already created before we start shoving it into every single application we possibly can.
Nobody talks about all the benefits the internet has given us. I remember the world pre-internet.

To be able to watch a martial arts movie/anime/any alternative music in the UK that wasn't shit, I would need to get on a train for an hour to go to the next city. There I could go to one shop that had Chinese and Japanese VHS tapes and DVDs. I would then have to get on a bus to go to the other end of the city to the one record store that might have the rare UK 80s hip-hop classics.

I can get any part delivered the next day now for my 30-year-old Land Rover. In the past my father used to have to go see a grumpy old fart, who was the only person in town that had the parts, and he might not give you the parts because he wanted to go to the pub early or some other bullshit.

People from all over the world can communicate instantly and can organise to get projects done that would have been impossible less than 20 years ago. Over the past few months, I've seen people mod the shit out of MGS 1-3 and probably build themselves up a bunch of useful tech skills. I used YouTube to teach me how to repair stuff on my own vehicles.

The discussion you want to have has been answered. The consensus is that these things are here to stay, just like Linus said.
 
Última edición:
Ai is basically having a bunch of interns that are book smart but inexperienced, right?

I just want to be able to afford a new hard drive and gpu for my server.
 
I just cannot look at any post or discussion that mentions AI automation in this vein, especially when they mention buzz words like 'luddite', 'agent', 'build' 'agentic' et cetera as just pure soylent tripe. Its like the kid in the back of the class snickering because he cheated on the test, zero effort to output inhuman shlock and get a big old A+ he can be proud of and show his corporate mommy. I could give a fuck how much $PRODUCT you can churn out when it lacks the divine touch of humanity and is pure demonic contrivance. It actively makes you retarded. If you are old and experienced you can always throw out the boomer cope of 'fuck you got mine', but people in or freshly out of education are already suffering from brain drain induced by everything in the modern world, this will only just dip their agerage IQ further. Mark my words, this $HOT_NEW_THING is going to retard hundreds of thousands of people. Not to mention they are almost entirely proprietary trash SAAS that is always linked to the most soulless corpos in the world. Even if you run local models you are still sucking the spunk from the creamy dreamy steamy tip of whoever trained and fine-tuned them, good luck getting those weights open goy boy. True, nobody really gives a shit about any of this, they gladly use proprietary operating systems, proprietary applications, locked down goy phones, take the vaccine, trust the experts and so on and so forth. 99% of people don't care, but then, 99% of people are cattle.

Niggers also exist. Niggers are here to stay. You can't un-invent miscegenation, but that doesn't mean you have to bend over and start slurping.
linux is "*NOT* some kind of "social warrior" project, never has been, and never will be."
GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG except that one time he had a shit fit over people criticizing the ban of Russian kernel devs due to US sanctions and he hand waved away all criticism by pulling the old 'RUSKIE TROLLS' excuse, or that one time he called himself a "woke communist" and so on. Linux always has and always will be an inherently soylent project because it has been soy from its inception, disigenious platitudes like this just comes across as pandering to the AI cult.
 
GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG except that one time he had a shit fit over people criticizing the ban of Russian kernel devs due to US sanctions and he hand waved away all criticism by pulling the old 'RUSKIE TROLLS' excuse, or that one time he called himself a "woke communist" and so on. Linux always has and always will be an inherently soylent project because it has been soy from its inception, disigenious platitudes like this just comes across as pandering to the AI cult
Oh yeah what happened out of that? Did the Russians fork the Kernel or are they just maintaining their own branch with relevant drivers?
 
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