this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 99 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Short answer: yes

Long answer: yeeeeeeeeees

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 35 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Detailed answer: Yankee Echo Sierra

Repetitive answer:

yes
[–] vipaal@aussie.zone 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Answering the question with a counter question

Why do we ask a question whilst already knowing its answer?
[–] tla@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Clicks (bait).

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[–] nexussapphire@lemm.ee 53 points 4 months ago (2 children)

My household is a Microsoft free environment. There is no place for the royal we in this conversation.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can almost say the say thing, but I actually have a small Windows laptop dedicated to some software used for reprogramming the computer in my truck. I've never tried to run it under wine, so I might not need the laptop, but I very rarely use it anyway. Everything else in the house, from our android phones and tablets, to the entertainment system running from a raspberry pi, up to our laptops, desktops, and my stack of servers all run linux exclusively. Funny how they all run smoothly for years at a time.

[–] nexussapphire@lemm.ee 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Honestly, if your programming your ECU or something. I wouldn't risk potentially bricking your car. It is a tool after all, something like how I prefer mikita over Milwaukee but I'll use it to get the job done if needed.

Edit: ECU software can be a little finicky. Jayztwocents built a PC for his mechanic friend and the application refused to start because it wasn't an Intel CPU.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 8 points 4 months ago

Yeah I think at the time it was a known issue that this software wouldn't run properly in wine and I just never tried again in the last 14 years. I'm not worried about bricking the ECU, I actually have a spare sitting on the shelf, and even if it did get bad enough that I couldn't fix it, I could probably take it to the dealer and have them re-flash it for me. Funny thing is, after going the rounds with their service guy trying to get the programming corrected from changing my gear ratio (I ended up giving them a VIN of another vehicle that came with those gears), they weren't able to change the programming to my own VIN but the truck still ran. No worries, because my software CAN change the VIN, so once I got that squared away it's been perfectly happy with all the new programming. I have to admit, there's a satisfaction in telling the dealer THIS is how you fix the problem, and when you're done with it I'll fix the rest of the stuff you can't do.

[–] leopold@lemmy.kde.social 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

If it is a royal we, then you are excluded from the conversation and the amount of Microsoft in your household is irrelevant.

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[–] EnderMB@lemmy.world 35 points 4 months ago (14 children)

No. If everyone were on Linux and there was a breaking change introduced by a third-party there would be similar problems.

The problem is that critical infrastructure isn't treated like critical infrastructure. If something you rely on can go down due to a single point of failure, maybe don't fucking use it?! Have backups, have systems that can replace those systems, have contingency! Slapping Windows on to a small machine and running some shitty Chromium app to work as a cash register is a fucking stupid idea when you consider that it is responsible for your whole income.

The problem was never Windows. It was companies that were too cheap to have contingency, because an event like this was considered extraordinary and not worth investing in.

[–] K4mpfie@feddit.org 2 points 4 months ago

I mean this is sort of like what the new NIS2 Regulations tries to achieve. Make critical infrastructure producers and maintainers aware and force them to treat their infrastructure accordingly.

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[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 32 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's nice that major news outlets are saying what we nerds have been screaming for the past two decades. Microsoft only shares a small portion of the blame for the recent outage (they could have built their OS better so software vendors don't feel the need to use kernel modules, but the rest is on CrowdStrike) but we are too depenent on them.

[–] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Not to change the subject, but your italicized "are" made me realize that Lemmy uses a different font for italic content (see the letter A). There's another message down below deleted by creator which has the same style. I know, it's a weird thing to notice, but there was a blog I saw this week mentioning that scammers are using websites with a (I think?) Cyrillic 'a' that looks just like the italic one here to fool people into thinking they're visiting a legitimate site, so that little discrepancy stood out to me today. At least now I know I'm paying attention! 😆

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[–] palarith@aussie.zone 29 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Imho. We are too laissez faire about our dependence on computers.

Currently doing disaster planning for compliance. What I really want to put in the docs is “If power or internet goes down we are just fucked. No planning needed. “

[–] FalseMyrmidon@kbin.run 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean disaster planning is about finding ways to mitigate things like power or internet going down to minimize or eliminate their impact. That said, accepting the risk of downtime because alternatives are too expensive is a perfectly valid decision as long as it's an intentional one.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It depends on the industry. Some industries have very critical systems that can't go down period.

[–] FalseMyrmidon@kbin.run 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah, in which case you wouldn't accept the downtime and would drop the cash on redundant systems.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

The more nines you add the more exponential growth you see in cost. This is because you end with lots of idling hardware.

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Too cheap to buy UPS, generators and redundant fiber or something?

[–] palarith@aussie.zone 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

We are a small medical practice. It would cost approx $15k in batteries to give us about 3 operating hours. Not economically viable.

But do you think something like an airport would have enough diesel capacity to contiune operating in a power out?

[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 months ago

UPS should only be sized enough for the generator power to spin up.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago

If you are taking about human lives it could be important. Many hospitals spends a significant amount to make sure there isn't any downtime.

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 months ago

Hospitals and airports typically have their own backup generators, yeah. Not entirely sure how long they're prepared to operate off-grid.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes.

Entire companies and (worse) government depending on a single vendor knows for it's 30 year long history of attitudes like "we before our customers" and "well tell you anything to sell you, but well barely do the basics on our products" and"we'll make sure we're compatible with nothing, going as far as sabotage, so you can't escape our greedy claws" is a very bad idea (tm). Forcing customers and citizens to use that crap is even worse.

With Linux ( and the open source world) you have an open System that has been independently verified by millions, you have actually inter system compatibility oozing out of the wazoo. You have vendors selling software that you can actually rely on.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Even with Linux though, so much of it relies on Github (think Nix Flakes, the AUR, and just general random apps that live there etc.) which is owned by MS. Not that they would necessarily just nuke Github one day (because that would be an insane thing to do) but just the general idea that MS is in a position to disrupt so much of the Linux ecosystem if they really wanted to makes me uneasy.

[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I love nix but it's my main gripe with nixos. They really should switch to an alternative service.

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[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn’t it be wild if all government work was located in Microsoft’s M365 services? Like imagine all government data living on a SharePoint site on an E5 M365 tenant. Like if every single citizen processing service was a PowerApps application? Imagine what would happen if Microsoft had an outage or a hack?

How easy would it be for a foreign adversary to take out a country by only focusing its attacks on a single company? Gosh what a hellscape that would be.

[–] imnapr@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 4 months ago
[–] Granixo@feddit.cl 13 points 4 months ago

The only answer: y e s

[–] witx@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes we need variety. Imagine if all cars were from the same brand ..

[–] K4mpfie@feddit.org 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nervous sweating from the Audi-Bentley-Ducati-Lamborghini-Seat-Skoda-Volkswagen-Porsche-Conglomerate known as "Volkswagen AG"

[–] witx@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They are still different brands with different features and price points. The fact that a faulty part was detected on Bentley doesn't 100% mean a Seat will have the same issues

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[–] abogical@lemmy.one 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't like the implied false dichotomy between opening up the kernel and better security. You can definitely have both. Otherwise it's a good report.

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[–] kyub@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

"We", no. "Too many", yes. In general, hard dependencies on proprietary software or services are often overlooked or ignored as potential future problems. Recent examples of this are Microsoft and VMware. Once the vendor changes things so that you don't like anymore, or drives up prices like crazy, you'll quickly realize that you have a problem you can't solve other than switching, which you might not even be prepared to do short-term.

The Windows world now experiences this because Microsoft is no longer interested in maintaining a somewhat quality operating system, they are mostly interested in milking their user base for data, and don't hesitate to annoy or even disrupt their user base's workflows in a try to achieve that goal.

Many Windows users are currently looking at Linux because of this, but the more your whole workflow is based on dependencies to proprietary Windows-only software, the harder your time to switch will be. If you still use Windows today, you should at least start using more open source or cross platform software, which also will work on Linux, because you are on a sinking ship and there will probably be a time when you can't take MS' BS anymore and want to switch. Make it easier for you in the future by regarding Linux compatibility in the hard- and software you use today.

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[–] Mio@feddit.nu 5 points 4 months ago

Well, as long as you have prepared a backup system then you should be fine. Like dual booting into Linux

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think the issue has more to do with the "cloud"

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[–] sirico@feddit.uk 4 points 4 months ago

I deal with whole I.T support companies built on the Microsoft partnership platform. All their dev is c#, servers are windows, no concept of other os when it comes to support. It's a real basket of ms eggs situation.

[–] Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
while True:
        print("yes") 

Cant use tab as I'm on a phone

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes. All world uses the weird os that is incompatible to everything else. Which makes transition of propietary software even harder.

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago
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