But if you install Linux, it will cut disk usage in half and RAM use by perhaps 25%.
True, for workloads that don't involve a lot of web browsing. For web browsing, I've seen a single article on Ars Technica open 40 or more Firefox content processes: one for each origin that is running its scripts in the document.
How is one supposed to build and test a program for macOS on Apple silicon and a program for Windows or Linux on x86-64 without owning a Mac with Apple silicon and a Windows or Linux PC?
Even Linux Distros have "Arbitrary support dates". I guess there are not too many distros that will support a version released in 2021 beyond 2032 without making you go to the next version of the distro
Most well-known GNU/Linux distributions aren't charging for the next version, nor increasing the system requirements quite as sharply as Microsoft did from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The system requirements of Windows 10 differed little from Windows Vista's recommended specs. Windows 11 began to require much newer features in the CPU, particularly mode-based execution control (to limit the damage that an old vulnerable driver can cause) and an ongoing commitment from the CPU manufacturer to update microcode with new Spectre mitigations. (See williamyf's post on Ars OpenForum.)
There's also the small issue of Linux dropping 32-bit support going forward.
Some GNU/Linux distributions are indeed ending i686 kernels. But by 2010, practically all desktop and laptop CPUs were supporting x86-64, even netbook CPUs such as the Atom N450 in the Dell Inspiron mini 1012 that I used to have. So that's at least 16 years' worth of used PC hardware that you can repurpose. Anything older than that probably has 2 GB or less of DRAM sockets, and Wirth's law has corrupted the websites that people are required to use for work or for life administration for so long that 2 GB is inadequate.
But you have others like some mini-boxes, where there is RAM soldered to the motherboard, but they still have DIMM sockets to add extra RAM, if needed
I suspect that in the long term, after the memory crunch, this sort of design is the way to go. Instead of swapping to the soldered SSD's SLC intake buffer, as Macs appear to do, they could swap to a RAM disk in a CAMM socket, the sequel to SODIMM.
Unlike in the 90s, when there was a rapid growth in the demand for computing resources, today w/ multi-core CPUs, 64-bit computing and 8GB of RAM and higher, most laptops are likely to last longer
That's not the impression that I got from doomers griping about Windows 10 end of support coinciding with the memory shortage.
If anything, a K/V/M switch has become more useful for programmers who maintain software for both macOS and other platforms ever since the Mac mini switched to Apple silicon.
Android phones have supported ipv6 natively since 4.2 (2012).
Even if your device supports IPv6, if it's associated to a WLAN whose uplink is IPv4-only, it'll still have to operate on IPv4. The uplink of Frontier fiber Internet subscribers is IPv4-only.
I thought the government couldn't compel speech, the 1st amendment and all that.
The government compels a Surgeon General's warning on packages of cigarettes and nutrition facts on packaged food.
GeoCities is unarguably worth removing from search indexes.
This claim deserves greater scrutiny in light of the possibility that Microsoft could use its Windows monopoly to promote hosting a website on Azure over hosting it on Neocities.
Microsoft is indeed private sector. However, Microsoft is public in several other ways, which invite regulation in Slashdot's home country:
1. Microsoft is a publicly traded corporation. This is regulated by SEC.
2. Microsoft sells hardware products to the public. This is regulated by CPSC.
3. Microsoft operates websites used by the public. This is regulated by an army of private-sector civil lawyers that enforce ADA.
4. Most importantly in this case, Microsoft has a monopoly on desktop computer operating systems in Slashdot's home country, and the Department of Justice has already prosecuted Microsoft for leveraging that monopoly to unduly promote Internet Explorer (now called Edge) and MSN Search (now called Bing) to its Windows customers. United States of America v. Microsoft Corporation, 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001). A repeat offense could land Microsoft executives in jail come the next administration.
S.1201 very clearly makes anti-circumvention a crime regardless of fair-use. See DeCSS, Sony's case against George Hotz, etc.
The Supreme Court ruled in Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) that the fair use defense makes the copyright statute compatible with the First Amendment. If some part of the copyright statute prohibits someone from exercising fair use with respect to a particular work, that's likely to invite more First Amendment scrutiny.
17 USC 1201 explicitly states that light "received through a camera lens" is not circumvention [or at least a specific type of circumvention].
When prices rise and subscribers are pressured to pay for still-more-expensive tiers of service to avoid advertisements, something has gone wrong. The provider is double-dipping. They're making their profit off the price you pay plus whatever the ad industry gives them. It's because they want more profit.
Printed newspapers and magazines have been double-dipping since before the Internet opened to the public. Is there a material difference?
any serious effort to compete with Adobe would be met with large price drops from Adobe until you're out of business
It's hard to compete on price with free software. OpenToonz is 3BSD licensed (allegedly as a loss leader for the Toonz Premium add-ons), and Synfig Studio is GPL2+.
The oldest GIMP gripe I've consistently heard relates to CMYK. If you're rendering things for digital use, that doesn't matter.
In the past year, I've needed CMYK for printing the box, label, and manual of a video game cartridge. (Yes, companies are still making new NES games on cartridge.)
Does Photoshop have features and UI that GIMP lacks? Of course! Do you need them? Can you even name any of them[^1]?
GIMP has been improving so fast that some GNU/Linux distributions haven't been able to keep up. GIMP 3, released in March 2025, added nondestructive adjustment layers like Photoshop. Ubuntu LTS still has GIMP 2 and is expected to get GIMP 3 in third quarter 2026, though that isn't a problem for Flatpak or Windows users.
the product will continue to work, but just stop getting updates on that date.
Maybe I misread, but it sounded like Animate would also stop getting activated on replacement PCs on that date.
The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong -- until the next person quits or is fired.
