Getting Into Linux

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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Smith1776 » Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:07 pm

shekels wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 10:38 am

That is the why I use Linux and got away From Windows after XP.
There are some programs Windows runs that is not build for Linux, but with a VM Windows is all but a memory.
Right, I remember the ol' XP days. I was in high school then... those were good times.

Installing 3rd party firewalls, AVG antivirus scans, playing Counter-Strike 1.6 after school, and watching the show Pure Pwnage.

Reminiscing aside, my setup currently is a dual boot Ubuntu and MacOS. I figure I'll still need MacOS if I ever want to develop anything for the iPhone. Additionally, I've got some distros ready for liveboot on a few USB flash drives.

pmward wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:37 am
You can get Visual Studio Code on Linux, which can be configured to be a pretty good C# and SQL IDE (as well as being a really good Javascript IDE out of the box). Also, JetBrains Rider is on Linux. I prefer Rider to Visual Studio these days. It's basically like VS and Resharper in one, and unlike VS it's actually 64 bit so it isn't limited in the memory it can use so it runs much smoother. Highly recommend Rider, and it's available on all of the major OS.

I will look into this. If I can't figure out how to set it up I may end up PMing you for extra wisdom. ^-^

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 5:55 am
Are you still in school? I thought in the other thread you said you had started in 2008.
Yeah, my first degree was in business administration. I worked in finance for a while, decided it wasn't for me, and elected to go back to school. Now here I am: 31 years old; in school; working part time; and back living with my parents. (Just till I graduate, I swear!) Living the dream. ::)
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by pmward » Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:12 pm

Smith1776 wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:07 pm
pmward wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:37 am
You can get Visual Studio Code on Linux, which can be configured to be a pretty good C# and SQL IDE (as well as being a really good Javascript IDE out of the box). Also, JetBrains Rider is on Linux. I prefer Rider to Visual Studio these days. It's basically like VS and Resharper in one, and unlike VS it's actually 64 bit so it isn't limited in the memory it can use so it runs much smoother. Highly recommend Rider, and it's available on all of the major OS.

I will look into this. If I can't figure out how to set it up I may end up PMing you for extra wisdom. ^-^
Also, if you're a student, you can get a free all products license from JetBrains. That will give you access to Rider, as well as Webstorm, IntelliJ, Resharper, and all their other tools.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Smith1776 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 5:21 pm

Have you guys noticed how much more efficient with system resources Linux is compared with the major commercial operating systems? Man, Ubuntu really flies. And it's not even the most lightweight distro out there.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by dualstow » Thu Mar 26, 2020 2:42 pm

Just to summarize a multitude of posts from pre-Smith times:

I tried Linux, but I'm not really smart enough to take advantage of it, even on a secondary computer.
I started with system-on-a-stick and that Wubi website.
Then, dual-boot with WinXP.
Next, a $300 hp notebook that had Windows on it, which I had to delete for space. That's how I learned that some hardware is not really linux friendly. Never got wifi, even with a special dongle. It is now collecting dust.
Finally, I bought a dedicated Linux laptop. Not System76- what are they called-- ZaReason, I think. So many issues.

I was goofing around with too many distros and a Kevin(?) here who is very good with BSD said, "Just pick a distro and learn it." I got the furthest with Linux Mint, which I probably heard about from PointedStick. I silently vowed to read the entire BSD manual and I did start it in the bookstore. You know that scene in The Frisco Kid where the Native American chief -- that's First Nation Chief in Canadian -- says "I have read this Torah -- did not understand one word." That's how it was going with the BSD manual.

Maybe in the next life. If I had children, and one of those knew Linux, I would enjoy having her maintain a Linux machine for me.

So, now I'm one of those contented idiot Mac users. But, I like to read these threads just to see what you guys are up to.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by shekels » Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:07 pm

dualstow wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 2:42 pm
Just to summarize a multitude of posts from pre-Smith times:

I tried Linux, but I'm not really smart enough to take advantage of it, even on a secondary computer.
I started with system-on-a-stick and that Wubi website.
Then, dual-boot with WinXP.
Next, a $300 hp notebook that had Windows on it, which I had to delete for space. That's how I learned that some hardware is not really linux friendly. Never got wifi, even with a special dongle. It is now collecting dust.
Finally, I bought a dedicated Linux laptop. Not System76- what are they called-- ZaReason, I think. So many issues.

I was goofing around with too many distros and a Kevin(?) here who is very good with BSD said, "Just pick a distro and learn it." I got the furthest with Linux Mint, which I probably heard about from PointedStick. I silently vowed to read the entire BSD manual and I did start it in the bookstore. You know that scene in The Frisco Kid where the Native American chief -- that's First Nation Chief in Canadian -- says "I have read this Torah -- did not understand one word." That's how it was going with the BSD manual.

Maybe in the next life. If I had children, and one of those knew Linux, I would enjoy having her maintain a Linux machine for me.

So, now I'm one of those contented idiot Mac users. But, I like to read these threads just to see what you guys are up to.
Distro have come far in the last few years.
But Yea there is a Learning curve.
MX LINUX
Knoppix
Mint
Ubuntu
and about a dozen others I have tried.
It just depends on what you are wanting or expect using Linux.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by dualstow » Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:30 pm

One correction: BSD ⇢ I mean FreeBSD
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by anato » Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:37 pm

</rant, since I couldn't resist> ::)

Linux user since the mid '90s, first Slackware (6m), then Debian for around 10 years, then Ubuntu.

Linux was the perfect OS when I was a (eng) student: good local university groups for chatting and problem solving, plenty of very accurate and hands-on documentation (I spent endless nights reading the priceless howtos and guides).
True, you did need to study and understand something to make it work, and that could have taken weeks of late nights, but after you made it work, it was going to work FOR EVER. I carried pretty much all of the configuration of my debian untouched through 2 desktops and 1 laptop, and it always felt like working on the same machine, just faster and with a larger screen.

Then it tried to become popular... (looking at you, Ubuntu), and that was the end of it. I had to move to Ubuntu since a few applications I needed were not going to be made available on Debian, not even the unstable branch. I still regret it to this day...

So ok, let's make again a configuration that is going to "last for years". Yeah, good luck with that!
Every few releases, sometime every release, some slight change in how services are started, or configured, or just "are there" comes up, so you need to spend AGAIN time to make it work what was working yesterday.

Howtos are still useful, but Ubuntu and all those other user-friendly distros have put so much sh*t in between the user and the actual underlying OS and basic daemons, that they become useless to solve configuration issues... since those issues are always in the sh*t in-between. Sh*t that changes every year or two.
You try to find decent documentation online, and good luck with that: the documentation is usually out of date, forums are full of newbies who just copy/paste a solution that worked for them for a problem that they didn't understand and doesn't match yours (they don't have enough knowledge of the system to even understand your problem).

Then you start balancing: do I want to spend the next weekend hiking the Pacific Trail or trying to make that f*cking VPN service work? (after having been defeated already for 3 late nights)

So Linux is OK if somebody else maintains it for you (IT dept for your laptop/desktop, Google and a _real_ shitload of engineers at Samsung, LG, NVidia, Qualcomm, Intel, etc. for your phone or chromebook), otherwise hiking wins hands down.

</rant>

That said, I still love POSIX as a programming interface, but that doesn't need to be on Linux: buy a Mac, and pay in cash instead of paying in time.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by dualstow » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:22 pm

ha, I love posts like the above, too, because they remind me not to get back into it. Life’s too short.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Libertarian666 » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:27 pm

anato wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:37 pm
</rant, since I couldn't resist> ::)

Linux user since the mid '90s, first Slackware (6m), then Debian for around 10 years, then Ubuntu.

Linux was the perfect OS when I was a (eng) student: good local university groups for chatting and problem solving, plenty of very accurate and hands-on documentation (I spent endless nights reading the priceless howtos and guides).
True, you did need to study and understand something to make it work, and that could have taken weeks of late nights, but after you made it work, it was going to work FOR EVER. I carried pretty much all of the configuration of my debian untouched through 2 desktops and 1 laptop, and it always felt like working on the same machine, just faster and with a larger screen.

Then it tried to become popular... (looking at you, Ubuntu), and that was the end of it. I had to move to Ubuntu since a few applications I needed were not going to be made available on Debian, not even the unstable branch. I still regret it to this day...

So ok, let's make again a configuration that is going to "last for years". Yeah, good luck with that!
Every few releases, sometime every release, some slight change in how services are started, or configured, or just "are there" comes up, so you need to spend AGAIN time to make it work what was working yesterday.

Howtos are still useful, but Ubuntu and all those other user-friendly distros have put so much sh*t in between the user and the actual underlying OS and basic daemons, that they become useless to solve configuration issues... since those issues are always in the sh*t in-between. Sh*t that changes every year or two.
You try to find decent documentation online, and good luck with that: the documentation is usually out of date, forums are full of newbies who just copy/paste a solution that worked for them for a problem that they didn't understand and doesn't match yours (they don't have enough knowledge of the system to even understand your problem).

Then you start balancing: do I want to spend the next weekend hiking the Pacific Trail or trying to make that f*cking VPN service work? (after having been defeated already for 3 late nights)

So Linux is OK if somebody else maintains it for you (IT dept for your laptop/desktop, Google and a _real_ shitload of engineers at Samsung, LG, NVidia, Qualcomm, Intel, etc. for your phone or chromebook), otherwise hiking wins hands down.

</rant>

That said, I still love POSIX as a programming interface, but that doesn't need to be on Linux: buy a Mac, and pay in cash instead of paying in time.
I have to use Linux in my development work because my product has to work on both Linux and Windows.

I do as much development as possible in Windows because of Visual Studio, which although certainly not perfect is light-years ahead of anything on Linux.

So far I've been able to get a free subscription to Visual Studio Professional as part of my Microsoft Alumni membership. However, they are supposed to start charging us a reduced fee for that, maybe this summer.

I haven't decided what I'll do then. There's a free version but I'm spoiled by all the features in the Professional version, as well as the included support incidents. I've had to use only one of those in several years but it's nice to have them available if needed.

I guess it will depend on how my project is going when they start charging.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Smith1776 » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:57 pm

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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by anato » Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:13 pm

Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:27 pm

I haven't decided what I'll do then. There's a free version but I'm spoiled by all the features in the Professional version, as well as the included support incidents. I've had to use only one of those in several years but it's nice to have them available if needed.

I guess it will depend on how my project is going when they start charging.
Visual Studio Code is is light years behind VSP, especially for C/C++ development and debugging.
It "could" probably do everything you need using plugins (everything is a plugin), but the plugins suffer from the same problems as much opensource/freeware, with "free" as in "free to spend your time trying to make it work".
I had a shot at using it for simple cross-arch debugging (x32 on an x64 w/ LLVM toolset on Linux), and after 3h of swearing and useless forum posts and github tickets, I just resorted to printf...
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Xan » Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm

I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by PrimalToker » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:08 pm

Smith1776 wrote:
Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:52 pm
How many forums users here are regular Linux users? I've noted in some other threads that I've switched to Ubuntu Linux and am wanting to learn more.

What kind of learning resources or tips and tricks do resident experts here perhaps have to share?

Also, what can make switching from MacOS web development to Linux web development easier?

My biggest gripe so far is the lack of a turnkey backup solution like Time Machine in MacOS. Also, there is no Microsoft Visual Studio Code, so I've elected to use Atom as my IDE. It's not as good, though.

Hopefully, once I'm truly comfortable with Linux I will no longer be hostage to expensive Apple hardware.

Please, share your Linux wisdom with me!
I have been using OpenSUSE since 2009, back when I switched from Windows XP. I have never used Mac. OpenSUSE has a filesystem backup built in, you can easily revert the system back to where it was before the update. Your personal files are separate. I don't know if thats what time machine does. I have tried almost every distro and end up back on OpenSUSE. If you want the most Mac like interface, I would use the desktop GNOME.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by l82start » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:34 pm

using Ubuntu and about to start experimenting with pureOS... wish me luck
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Libertarian666 » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:48 pm

anato wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:13 pm
Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:27 pm

I haven't decided what I'll do then. There's a free version but I'm spoiled by all the features in the Professional version, as well as the included support incidents. I've had to use only one of those in several years but it's nice to have them available if needed.

I guess it will depend on how my project is going when they start charging.
Visual Studio Code is is light years behind VSP, especially for C/C++ development and debugging.
It "could" probably do everything you need using plugins (everything is a plugin), but the plugins suffer from the same problems as much opensource/freeware, with "free" as in "free to spend your time trying to make it work".
I had a shot at using it for simple cross-arch debugging (x32 on an x64 w/ LLVM toolset on Linux), and after 3h of swearing and useless forum posts and github tickets, I just resorted to printf...
No, I wasn't referring to Visual Studio Code, but Visual Studio Community (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/compare/).

Either way, I'll keep doing most of my development on Windows and porting to Linux.

Fortunately, my code doesn't have a tremendous dependency on the OS; probably 1% of the code is conditionally compiled based on the OS.

Unfortunately, debugging can be extremely annoying in Linux. Kdevelop has a reasonable interface to gdb but it stops working on occasion and I've never been able to figure out what causes that.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Libertarian666 » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm

Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Xan » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm

Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
Well:
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Libertarian666 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:20 am

Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm
Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
Well:
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
You can also observe network traffic on a Windows machine. And if you disconnect a Windows machine from the network, it would have trouble reporting back.

I'm not sure what it would be reporting anyway other than OS operations. Presumably traffic through the browser is encrypted, if I understand what "https" means. And I use Firefox, which is an open source browser.

As for my email, I'm sure the NSA is spying on it regardless of your OS.

So I'm not sure I'm in significantly more danger of being spied on than Linux users.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by anato » Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:30 am

Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
There isn't a single owner to report to, but so many different entities, private individuals and companies, can contribute code to it, that it's very easy to insert chains of bugs (maybe even in different drivers) to create ad-hoc vulnerabilities. The spotty code quality of the kernel, moreover, makes it even more difficult to audit (honestly, it's a mess, with some driver or subsystem being of stellar quality, and other parts being just.... bad).
How do you know if that bug in that old driver is a "genuine" bug or something inserted to be exploited at a later time as part of a chain leading to a exploit?

So yes, with windows you know MSFT is spying on you (and the US gov), with Mac you know Apple is spying on you (and the US gov), with Linux you are pretty sure an undisclosed number of entities (including the US gov :)) is doing the same.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by vnatale » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:07 am

Libertarian666 wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:20 am
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm
Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
Well:
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
You can also observe network traffic on a Windows machine. And if you disconnect a Windows machine from the network, it would have trouble reporting back.

I'm not sure what it would be reporting anyway other than OS operations. Presumably traffic through the browser is encrypted, if I understand what "https" means. And I use Firefox, which is an open source browser.

As for my email, I'm sure the NSA is spying on it regardless of your OS.

So I'm not sure I'm in significantly more danger of being spied on than Linux users.
To what is NSA spying on us (me)? How are they able to process all the information in all my emails? I get 400 to 500 a day and I only deal with a small fraction of them. And, that is just me. One person. How are they keeping on top of EVERYONE?

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by Libertarian666 » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:12 am

vnatale wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:07 am
Libertarian666 wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:20 am
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm
Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
Well:
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
You can also observe network traffic on a Windows machine. And if you disconnect a Windows machine from the network, it would have trouble reporting back.

I'm not sure what it would be reporting anyway other than OS operations. Presumably traffic through the browser is encrypted, if I understand what "https" means. And I use Firefox, which is an open source browser.

As for my email, I'm sure the NSA is spying on it regardless of your OS.

So I'm not sure I'm in significantly more danger of being spied on than Linux users.
To what is NSA spying on us (me)? How are they able to process all the information in all my emails? I get 400 to 500 a day and I only deal with a small fraction of them. And, that is just me. One person. How are they keeping on top of EVERYONE?

Vinny
They capture all emails and phone calls. They don't analyze them until they have a reason.
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by vnatale » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:18 am

Libertarian666 wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:12 am
vnatale wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:07 am
Libertarian666 wrote:
Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:20 am
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 pm
Libertarian666 wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:51 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:38 pm
I'm really surprised to hear that you're into telemetry-loving Windows, Tech, rather than your-computer-belong-to-you Linux.
I like the idea of Linux but the implementation is quite painful when I'm trying to do software development.

And do you understand every line of code in that millions-of-lines code base that makes up Linux? How do you know it isn't spying on you too?
Well:
* There isn't any particular "owner" to report back to.
* I can observe my network traffic.
* It's certainly better than using an OS that I know for sure DOES spy on me!
You can also observe network traffic on a Windows machine. And if you disconnect a Windows machine from the network, it would have trouble reporting back.

I'm not sure what it would be reporting anyway other than OS operations. Presumably traffic through the browser is encrypted, if I understand what "https" means. And I use Firefox, which is an open source browser.

As for my email, I'm sure the NSA is spying on it regardless of your OS.

So I'm not sure I'm in significantly more danger of being spied on than Linux users.
To what is NSA spying on us (me)? How are they able to process all the information in all my emails? I get 400 to 500 a day and I only deal with a small fraction of them. And, that is just me. One person. How are they keeping on top of EVERYONE?

Vinny
They capture all emails and phone calls. They don't analyze them until they have a reason.
Good luck trying to analyze the many GBs of mine! I know that they do searches on key words but still. Just today trying to keep on top of an email discussion between myself and two other coworkers who are all cooperating with one another can be a difficult task in itself!



Vinny
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Re: Getting Into Linux

Post by dualstow » Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:31 am

When I chat with my brother or certain friends, I sometimes include something interesting explicitly for the NSA and marked as such. Usually if a word like bomb comes up, I say "Not that kind of bomb, NSA." Then I put in a story for them so they don't get too bored.

In my journal, I insert sporadic comments for the future cyber-entities who will eventually break all encryption when we're all dead and gone. I try to help them get a handle on what life is like as a human.
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