hydrospanner

You do realize that the humongous, vast, overwhelming majority of the federal workforce is not made up of elected officials and political appointees, right?

The federal government is the United States's largest employer.

Seems that's an insult to the rat.

"What time is it?!"

"It's two o clock in the morning."

"Is it too early for breakfast?"

"Yes!"

"Oh good... suppertime!"

That's totally fine.

It's also easy to say that when you're the living embodiment of the luxury and excess of the establishment/status quo.

Like... dude...of course you don't want to see revolution... every single fucking element of the system tilts not only in your favor but also in favor of perpetuating and furthering your absolute stranglehold on wealth, power, security, etc.

The more interesting answer would be to the question: if, as a society, we became so united in our acceptance of this that it literally became commonplace for CEOs to get whacked and then for juries to nullify the charges and for the killer to walk free...and it was happening dozens of times every year, or month...

...would you support a revolution to change the status quo that was literally killing people like you with zero repercussions?

If not, you're an absolute idiot, or you're actually on our side in this.

If yes, then you know damn well what's going on and, shocker, you're playing dumb for a cheap attempt at sympathy.

Well okay then.

If my only options are, "Continue eating all the meat you want and the planet is fucked."

...or, "Stop eating all meat and go completely vegan...and the planet is still fucked unless everyone else does it too."

Well...

... fire up that grill, man, I've got some steaks and burgers in the freezer.

God, seeing the comments from some people that I'm even nominally on the "same side of the aisle" makes me see how the other side finds it so easy to not only ridicule, but automatically unite in opposition against it.

Like, nothing brings me closer to being understanding and sympathetic to the people I'd normally be ideologically set totally against...like visiting Lemmy and seeing the shit flowing from the people I broadly tend to align with.

You don't think federal employees get healthcare from the same providers as everyone else?

This is the thing.

While I doubt it'll have any actual difference being seen by anyone anywhere, if this killing were followed up by a few more, or even a dozen more in short order, you would see change.

Most of it not the kind we'd hope for (tightened security, lockdown corridors for high profile individuals, even less access and interface with these people, etc....not concessions to decency, honesty, civility, humanity, etc.) but you bet your ass that it'd be living rent free in the back of every CEO and billionaire on the planet for a long time.

I like how you missed the "our legal system" when giving examples entirely outside the legal system in which this killing took place.

Windows 'just works'? What about all the programs crashes that you need to go through endless YouTube tutorials to fix? What about having to fill up a form and register your credit card for every closed source program you need to install?

I've literally never had either of these experiences with W10.

At least not in the past 5+ years.

Yes it was longer than that.

My main thing is that, then and now (based on discussions I read between users), most any user experience that I relate to seems to be equal parts:

"try to figure out the Linux equivalent of what you were doing in Windows and hope it's compatible with the rest of your needs"

"Try to figure out how to get Linux to behave like Windows to accomplish something you did with that os"

"Become a hobbyist...programmer? IT specialist? And get familiar with tweaking and adjusting the details of how your computer works just to get it to do things you want"

Like...for people who enjoy it, I'm happy for them. Really! But I don't want to have to familiarize myself with commands, learn how to boot things up, or learn a whole list of things just to get the simple mindless functionality I have with Windows from decades of time in the system.

I think back then I tried Debian, Ubuntu, and...is 'OpenSUSE' a thing? I even had a group of three friends who were all super into Linux encouraging me and helping me every step of the way, and I was young and technically inclined and happy to have a challenge...and in the end, I went right back to Windows after a semester or two of that, because I just found that my experience was, broadly speaking, "Enjoy a problem solving exercise in software management every time you want to do something, just to get to a basic level of function, with added quirks that you'll just have to deal with...and little real benefit for the order of magnitude of extra effort".

And while I'm sure some of that would have had to get better in the years between, most of the conversations I still see about Linux are enthusiasts enjoying coming up with solutions to the issues of using their chosen system. Which again, that's fine, but I don't want to have to become an enthusiast of an OS.

Given a choice between, "have to learn how to get the OS to do everything" vs "put up with data collection and some intrusive ads once in a while"... I'm happy to go with the latter to have things just work without having to learn a new skill set just to get the same level of functionality.

I'm happy to use W10 well after its official support ends, though I strongly suspect there will be significant extensions to that timeline. Even then, I'm happy to use it until it's no longer the path of least resistance, at which point, I'll reevaluate my options. When we get there, if it seems reasonable, maybe I'll dip my toes into the Linux pool again.

Man, it's a toss up for me as to which I hate more: Microsoft threatening and badgering me toward W11 (and by extension, a new computer) or Linux fanboys evangelizing for their preferred system.

Both are complete non-starters for me. I'm not buying a new machine while my current one does everything I need just fine... And after a few years of using Linux on my laptop back in college, I have no desire to set foot in that environment again either.