If you could ask for any piece of software and it would just exist, what would you ask for?

So I got the opportunity for reasons I'd rather not rehash to test out some DEs on EndeavorOS today. I've been building my own environment for a long time and haven't tried any of them out in years, some in over a decade. My opinion on them all was basically outdated, I figured I'd write a little review on them for you guys looking to hop into Linux as a desktop or having just started.

First I'll start with the biggest disappointment: KDE Plasma. It sounds good on paper: polished, light on resources, modern, Wayland native. But the damn thing wouldnt stop getting in my way. Kwallet? File extension enforcement on a Unix compliant system? Commonly used buttons hidden by default. Kludgy animations. Just all round insane defaults, making choices for the user that a sane user would never choose, the thing wants you to operate KDE and not your machine. I will never recommend KDE again.

Tried MATE. Just as good as GNOME 2 back in the day, which is a double edged sword. It's just missing a bunch of more modern stuff that makes life easier. No text search in the applications menu. No icon only window panel view. A few little bugs I don't remember in it the last time I tried it. And it was fucking huge compared to every other one I tried, and ate the most RAM.

Tried Budgie. Never tried that one before. It was cool. Light, intuitive, there were a couple of quirks, such as needing to right click on "tray" utilities to get to menus. If you like it you like it. I found it's animations made it feel more viscous to use.

Then I tried Cinnamon. I hadn't used it since the year it came out, I tried it out and switched to MATE, it just didn't seem very good. Boy has that changed. It is by far the best DE I have used, ever. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that the warning and prompt dialogs are a little jarring, the whole screen dims, very attention grabbing and focus breaking. But otherwise a very, very fluid experience, lightweight, snappy, sane defaults and customization options, as of right now I've got nothing else bad to say about it.

Before today the only one I still really liked was XFCE, but I stopped liking it because it is heavier than KDE (!) and every dozen updates or so it is certain to break something. Maybe that's changed too. I don't have the time to try it again.

I stopped using DEs a few years ago when I decided to take the dive into wayland and tiling and all that, and I'd never go back for my own environment, but for people used to a mouse and are used to windows and just want to install something and start using it, I've got to recommend something. That something is no longer KDE. It is going to be Cinnamon, from now until a decade later when I try stuff out again.

I just replaced all my main lights from LED to incandescent

I can't believe I was using seed oil lights for so long

Was für‘ne gequirlte Scheiße war das denn? ALLES was der Typ gelabert hat, hätte Putin aber mal 1:1 so unterschrieben. Er liegt quasi zu 100% auf russischer Linie. Ein Spion hätte es nicht besser hingekriegt. Und von euch Pappnasen nicht eine einzige kritische Nachfrage zur langen Liste an Punkten direkt aus der russischen Propaganda. Ich hab nur noch darauf gewartet, dass er behauptet, Polen hat die Wehrmacht zum Angriff gezwungen. Wo seid ihr Spezis eigentlich zur Schule gegangen?

Maybe my comment below will give you a more interesting aspect to think about 🤔

I find the obsession to push for a govt held Bitcoin reserve quite dangerous. We are early on in adoption that if a prominent state like the US starts building a reserve, they can get a significant portion of the 21M coins.

The difference with other holders is, the state continues to be the only one with an exclusive license to use violence.

Since the general trend for larger private entities is to custody their coins with a third party, this puts a significant portion of the supply under a 6102 style confiscation risk. Existence of a significant reserve gives the state motivation to go through with it.

I would rather see Bitcoin remain black market money forever instead of price appreciation by losing the freedom money features.

I used to fantasize about the day when normies would admit that they were wrong about everything, but I’m beginning to realize that that day will never come.

Most people would rather douse themselves in seed oils and die early or double down on fiat and remain poor than ever admit that they were wrong.

Most value their ego more than the truth.

We're now hitting the computational milestones expected from various charts from over a decade ago. These trends have been on track.

Most of us still don't have robot vacuums since they still kind of struggle, but alas.

Power outages have begun in Germany due to a lack of electricity. The city of Tübingen was left without power for several hours.

Es dreht sich alles immer um Öl und Gas.. Das ist so krank

I have to admit, I don't know what this emoji means: 👀

Does it mean "I'm looking at you" like "I'm giving you the slant eye" or "I'm watching you buddy"...

... or does it mean "hey everybody, look at this!"

... or does it mean "I saw this but don't want to emote anything other than this simple fact"

... or something else?

I'm so old.

Synchronizing a node has cost me 4 days, of these 4 days 50% has been taken by the last year.

Terabytes of data read on an ssd...if the bullshit inscriptions continue, in 10 years no one will be able to sync a Bitcoin node at home.

As you can see, it is not feasible to increase the block size, nor is it feasible to allow crappy inscriptions in the chain.

Some of you are either dumb or have never run a node and give hypocritical opinions.

Some of us still believe in decentralization.