I've been replacing my Google Homes and Chromecasts with Snapcast streamers, and this is the next thing I've been planning to look into.
It's truly absurd how the Google voice assistant USED to work properly for setting timers, playing music, etc, and then they had to break it 15 times and finally replace it with much slower AI that only kinda does what you want. I'm done.
Selfhosted is the way to go if you want to keep your sanity. My wife has basically given up on any Google/Apple voice assistants being able to do anything useful above "set a 10 minute timer".
I assume for some nonzero percentage of folks it doesn't work right and they have to manually go and set their keyboard layout.
Of course, when you're setting up your OS initially, it will ask you questions about language and keyboard layout. I suspect most people don't switch keyboards after install, and of those who do, the most common case is another keyboard with a compatible layout.
I feel like you can get into a different sort of flow - a low-key flow where you're managing a bunch of different streams as interrupts come in. Different kind of focus, much more big-picture, kinda like playing an RTS.
I've met a surprising number of people who are seriously tied to the specific editor they're used to, some going so far as to not even wanting to change the version they are on.
Setting up printers on Linux is way easier than windows. Usually you don't have to do anything at all special at all as long as it's a fairly well known manufacturer. ChromeOS is just linux after all, and it uses the exact same CUPS infra under the hood, and it works just fine.
On Windows you often have to download and install drivers, which is always a headache.
Manufacturers selling Linux computers could attach little stickers with ""As long as..." Inside", to commemorate the official motto of "The Year of the Linux Desktop", for the last 30 years. :P
Tbh all OSs handle printers that way. Ones that have drivers “just work.” It’s just that if you buy any printer in the store you can be assured that if it isn’t on that list of drivers that ships with the OS, there will be a driver for Windows and Mac from the manufacturer. You don’t get that assurance automatically with another OS.
I've said for decades that from a user perspective, malware scanners and prevention tools are fundamentally indistinguishable from actual malware. They intercept file accesses, block you from doing what you want to do, pop things up all over the place, and make your machine slow aand unreliable.
A few years ago I was in a place where I couldn't type on a computer keyboard for more than a few minutes without significant pain, and I fortunately had shifted into a role where I could oversee a bunch of junior engineers mostly via text chat (phone keyboard didn't hurt my hands as much) and occasional video/voice chat.
I'm much better now after tons of rehab work (no surgery, thankfully), but I don't have the stamina to type as much as I used to. I was always a heavy IDE user and a very fast coder, but I've moved platforms too many times and lost my muscle memory. A year ago I found the AI tools to be basically time-wasters, but now I can be as productive as before without incurring significant pain.
Right, we truly don't have a strong rule about differentiating these in the standard American dialect! Most people say STINE for this one, but if you say STEEN, nobody is gonna be confused or tell you that it's wrong.
It's truly absurd how the Google voice assistant USED to work properly for setting timers, playing music, etc, and then they had to break it 15 times and finally replace it with much slower AI that only kinda does what you want. I'm done.
Selfhosted is the way to go if you want to keep your sanity. My wife has basically given up on any Google/Apple voice assistants being able to do anything useful above "set a 10 minute timer".
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