SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Linux reviews notes that
The popular Linux Mint operating system has decided to purge the snap package manager from its repositories and forbid installation of it. The motivation for this drastic move is that the upstream Ubuntu Linux distribution Linux Mint is based on will stealthily install snapd and use that to install Chromium from the Canonical-controlled SnapCraft instead of installing a regular Chromium package like most users expect.
The Linux Mint blog has this to say about Ubuntu's use of snap to use their chromium package to subvert apt:
You've as much empowerment with this as if you were using proprietary software, i.e. none. This is in effect similar to a commercial proprietary solution, but with two major differences: It runs as root, and it installs itself without asking you.
Is Ubuntu turning evil?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Friday July 10 2020, @02:34PM (2 children)
Also, MXLinux, I'm currently using that on my resurrected Laptop/Tablet that a friend gave me. It's "ancient", but it was able to fill some gaps when my wife's computer died. (Not actually ancient. I have at least one functional IBM Thinkpad A21m, now that's ancient. It's also the only device I have that has a functional 3.5" Floppy Drive.)
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:07AM (1 child)
That's hardly ancient. I've got one of those kicking about too, though I haven't booted it in some time. It can boot from CD, has USB ports, and has built in networking. Ancient has none of those things.
I'd venture it'd probably run a current Linux distro like Slackware, though perhaps a bit sluggishly.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 13 2020, @03:49PM
'eh, over 20 years in the computer industry is ancient. At least at this point. I keep it around, because it's actually useful. I didn't keep any of the old 5 1/4" devices I had or any of my older desktops that had 3.5" floppy drives. They just weren't practical. I might even have a USB Floppy Drive somewhere, which I haven't used in over 10 years. It's infinitely better to fire up a Virtual Machine, use the all-in-one package of my old IBM Thinkpad, or use something even more powerful, like a Raspberry Pi. The VM is much more convenient and the Raspberry Pi is more practical while saving me $$ on electricity.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"