I agree with you, but there’s two sides of the coin.

I would rather pay for a finished product that is good. Sure I can download Linux for free, but I’d rather pay for it. I’d rather support teams that are putting out a product to ensure it is the best it can be and be continually maintained.

FOSS doesn’t have to be free. Nor should it be.

However when projects get organized like that they become organizations. Organizations become businesses. And that’s fine. Let’s support them so they can eat and feed their kids.

So it begs the question, if I feel that way about them is it fine to support non open source orgs and software? Of course it is.

So it basically comes down to the complaining that the software is not good enough.

Of course “good enough” isn’t binary, so if its on the threshold of usability I use it and if its severely lacking then I don’t. No big deal.

If its free, then there is no reason to complain regardless. If you’re paying for it, I think your opinion has a bit more weight. Of course there’s still a scale. If it’s so far removed from usability then I just don’t buy it. Windows is a good example of that. But if its close, voicing your opinion that you want certain features is more than fine. It doesn’t remove your support. Wanting Affinity on Linux is a fine desire. If they haven’t said they aren’t going to then asking isn’t a complaint. It’s a want.

I use Affinity because its the best solution I can find. I would love to have it on Linux. Maybe one day it will happen, but I’m not holding my breath. Supporting Affinity in hopes that they make it better for me (for my preferred platform) is OK, because I’m finding a way to use the product that suits me today. If that way becomes too much hassle tomorrow, I’ll move on. But if they make it easy for me to stay with them then I won’t. But either way, supporting Gimp won’t make it Affinity. It’ll just make Gimp a better Gimp.

I guess it boils down to, do you support something that isn’t what you want in hopes it becomes what you want it to be or do you support something that is exactly what you want, hoping it will go to where you want it?

Sorry I rambled on there (I’m tired). I do agree with you but there’s a counter point I also agree with. I don’t think they are exclusive.

When the acquisition happened they made a pledge to keep affinity as a separate product and to have perpetual licenses.

Technically they can always introduced a subscription in addition to perpetual licenses but the implication is that they wouldn’t do that.

For what it’s worth, they understand their user base and were vocal about their plans. Maybe they’ll disappoint, but they haven’t really given reason to doubt so far.

What iffy dealings are you referring to? Because they were acquired? They’ve been established, and restablished after being acquired, as being completely privacy focused.

My only criticism is that they don’t always play nice with VPNs.

But yes, SearXNG is a great way to go too.

I haven’t used DDG in years. I’ve been using Start Page and its fit all my needs (its basically old google before enshitification).

I’ve played with searxng which seems promising but I haven’t given it enough time. But it seems like I might eventually move there.

Lol. Well, that’s most people’s take on privacy. OMG they are taking our data and showing us ads that we hate. But I guess we can’t do anything about it. Oh well.

Correct. While there are many (good) programs available for no money, that is charity based on desire and passion.

Free in FOSS isn’t about price, it’s about freedom.

I take the stance that I’m privacy minded and while I think everybody should be I don’t force my opinion on them. I do express myself and usually my “odd” behavior makes people I know question me, which I then give an answer for.

Most people don’t understand why they should strive for privacy. I usually start soft with ads because it’s a universal that nobody likes ads and they’ve experienced all the listening and tracking stuff but not connected the dots.

If they are responsive then in later conversations I can go more into deeper thoughts regarding it all. If I rake them down the rabbit hole right away their head will explode and run away.

I recently swapped to Mint and have been enjoying it. I still have Windows as my daily driver and I have a handful of things that I still need windows for, but I have a media center and a gaming PC set up both on mint. There was an odd quirk with Steam where it didn’t launch after some update, and it was a bit asinine to be honest. But after a few hours of research online I found the issue and modified a file so it loaded properly. Stuff like that sucks, but it gives me experience navigating the OS and understanding how it works.

To your point though, it overall just works. My wife uses it no problem and is getting use to where things are. I maintain the system though, ensuring updates are applied and searching for solutions when needed (for instance, we use caffeine to stop the monitor from going to sleep when playing games with a controller)

Have you checked out Affinity? They support Mac and iPad, and are comparable with the core Adobe suite. Its a buy once scenario (per major version release). My only problem is they don’t support Linux.

Of note, they were purchased last year by Canva, but it has been stated they will keep the Affinity products separate for purchase.

deleted by creator

Don’t kid. I did that with a folder in my testing just to eliminate the variables. Of course I put it back.

My issue was that my initial setup was accessing it from a different machine, and windows at that. I had to simplify in order to make it all mentally make sense.

Thank you for this. I appreciate the write up, learning a few things, and just the general let’s all get along heart behind it.

Just as a tip, set up and use a spare machine if you have one to make the transition easier. I’ve been running Mint now for a few months.

I have a test machine that I am learning and getting familiar with, setting up a virtual machine to learn that (I have some windows apps I will not escape from so running in a VM is my solution), etc… And all of this is with the freedom that if I break something I can wipe it and not care. I have since set up a media center and a gaming machine as well.

That experience is getting me feeling better about he whole thing. Honestly learning little idiosyncrasies like folder permissions not being inherited (I say as I set up my media center) are the things you juat need to learn through practice. Just my two cents as I am only a step ahead of you in a similar journey.

This just happened to me. I purchased shoes and they shipped via Amazon even though I didn’t buy them there.

I think that’s part of what people don’t understand. Amazon isn’t a website that sells stuff, they are a dozen infrastructure based industries.

Shut down their website and they still have the logistics to fulfill for the sites you shop on and their servers are probably hosting them too.

Goes to show, he should have made a run for it and hit a bunch of people with his car. Then he’d get a reduced sentence.

I don’t actually agree that your analogy applies, because it ignores my point.

Neither “side” (as if there were only a binary choice but that’s how they want you to think) wants you to have privacy. Be united with those who want to fight for those rights instead of divided on other policies which are political smokescreens.

Maybe a better analogy is that we are drowning in water that is not cold, maybe it’s tepid and maybe its boiling. But arguing over which is worse really doesn’t matter because we’ll be dead in a minute anyway.

Neither did he last administration and neither will the next. They want us polarized and fighting each other so we don’t fight them.

I’m assuming the windows machine is a work PC and the Linux is yours right?

Because what you describe doesn’t sound like a “windows” issue but rather an IT management issue.

You can put off updates and reboots a very long time. And always be able yo postpone them.

Applying updates on boot daily sounds dumb to me. But I’m also figuring your IT dept has poor (or no) sense in managing their inventory well. Most updates can be applied silently at a scheduled time.

Also, your machine sounds old and/or poorly maintained the way you describe it. If its more than 5 years old your company is just cheap.

I’m all for griping about Windows but this seems off to me.

I use two domains.

One is my name for people that actually know me.

The other is something random (it has meaning to me but nobody else would think that). I use that for all my “private” emails, creating aliases that forward to me.

The most important thing is to pick something easy to understand so its easy to convey. My domain is actually quite long, which normally is a bad thing but its distinct words so people understand it when I give it to them verbally.

If they only spent this time and money on training the managers to…well, manage their employees.

Stop thinking “time at your desk” is a kpi and start measuring results instead. It cuts the crap employees that are worthless and that in and of itself is a reward to good employees and team morale.

I would rather have a productive employee get results in 4 hours and then leave than a crap employee who needs the full day to get the same job done. Then the good employee will learn to streamline it so they can get the job done in 3 hours and I win because my efficiency went up. They win because they get another hour of their life back daily…or dare I say, they want more work and I give it to them along with a pay increase.