Notices by Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)

Here's an unexpected bit of news... https://linuxiac.com/windows-drops-under-60-in-global-desktop-os-share-for-the-first-time-in-years/ (Windows has fallen below 60% desktop market share, with Linux on the rise)!

After quite a lot of life and mulling, I've come to the conclusion that 'the Right' is wrong.

It is an ignoble perspective of the world. That is to say, it is lacking in grace, honour, and nobility. It is selfish and celebrates ignorance.

I can't really remember anyone I know describing themselves as 'right'. Maybe 'right leaning'... And I'd say they were Christian. Guess it's embarrassing to admit it because I guess even right-leaning folks realize it's ignoble.

Can't remember if I've already posted this, and it's worth posting again: Microsoft admits (in effect) that their only path to viability with 'AI' is to make people entirely dependent on it.... like unable to function without it. https://www.404media.co/microsoft-wants-to-make-people-addicted-to-scout-its-new-ai-assistant-internal-documents-reveal/ As some of us have long surmised.

Yikes. I just found out that I overlapped with Alex Karp (multi-billionaire CEO of Palantir) for a year at our very small university ('college' in the US). Don't remember him, but it's scary to see what he's become. Just watching this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H7VOoFwDtU

A bit coarse, but spot on: https://www.otherstrangeness.com/2026/03/14/have-a-fucking-website/

This is POSSE <- to which we should all aspire. https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Wow, serious rite of passage: my younger son playing his first lp... On our turntable unused for a decade or two, with a just-replaced cartridge... These speakers are also getting their first airing despite me having had them for years (gifted by a mate as excess to requirements)...

Huh, cool. A #Fediverse professional network: https://nolto.social/ 🤞🏻 that it makes progress. The current sway of a shit platform like LinkedIn sorta makes me puke in my mouth regularly.

Superb. "For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have employed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty." Boom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFsgXwn9SEI
#Mamdani #NYCMayor

Ok, doing Drupal updates while a wee bit snookered, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Does anyone in the EU (or elsewhere?!) have links to any case studies about migrating from Microsoft to #opensource / #libre / #FOSS that include actual financial figures?

@geerlingguy they're way too late - I switched happily to Linux **checks watch** 31 years ago, almost to the day. But yeah, it'd be very cool if the rest of the digital world realised what they're missing, though, and made the switch. The world would be far better without Microsoft in it.

@gang0lf @geerlingguy There're always the BSDs

Yeah, folks getting locked out of bigtech socials is too bad... https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571326/musician-pacific-leader-northland-grandmother-dozens-of-kiwis-social-accounts-banned but it's entirely predictable. If your livelihood depends on a 3rd party you don't control, you're a subsidiary to their business, not stand-alone... I explain it here: https://davelane.nz/mshostage - the moral of the story: distribute your risk. Having an credible foothold in the Fediverse is probably a very good idea, even if 'your numbers' are initially underwhelming, because it's *fundamentally* different.

Here's how it's different: https://phillipjreese.com/the-social-network-that-cant-sell-out-understanding-mastodon-vs-bluesky/

@ensslen oddly enough, I quite like Mozilla Thunderbird... and harbour a strong disrespect for MS Outlook and its wannabes (like Evolution). In my experience search is a function of the IMAP server that its connected to (assuming you use IMAP)... mine implements a nice search database and I've found it to be quite effective... Not sure about the pre-configuration stuff, as I don't seem to miss it...

My wife is working from home, and I'm listening to her and her colleagues having an online meeting via MS Teams - everything is "Teams" this or "Teams" that. 🤢 🤮 Poor folks being forced by their *gov't funded institution* to contend with such rubbish, poorly conceived, elitist (overpriced) digital technology, created by such an unworthy & psychotic entity (the Microsoft Corporation).

@captainepoch Yeah, I agree re Slack (I wrote this: https://davelane.nz/notslack) - but, to be fair, Slack doesn't have that limitation if you're paying for it (a similar amount to what our gov't is paying MIcrosoft for MSO 365, probably). In any case, anyone paying either vendor is getting ripped off in more than one way.

The IT Professionals institute has been wringing its hands: https://www.digitalequity.nz/blog/windows-10-desupport-who-will-be-impacted and pleading with Microsoft to come up with a less exclusionary process. Of course, Microsoft couldn't care less. The problem is that our national edtech system is conceptually flawed from the start & needs a fundamentally different approach. Dependence on 2 US corporations (neither known for honest dealings or 'not being evil') for *all* our schools most basic edtech is ridiculous. So, what approach?
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