Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Met a nice lady at the grocery store (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Today at the grocery store a sweet older lady approached me and asked if I knew anything about computers. I said yes I do, and she produced a mouse saying that her son set up Linux mint for her and she was wondering if the mouse was compatible. It needed kernel version 2.6 or newer so I said that the mouse should work, guessing mint itself was probably newer than that kernel. Happy with my answer, we chatted a little, then she thanked me and left.

It was a nice experience, so I thought I should share!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Mouse? Sure. Those are standardized and interchangeable. 99.999% chance of success.

Graphics card? Wi-Fi interface? Now you've got problems.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My experience is still a good success rate there. Back in ~2015 my family got an USB WiFi card which needed an out-of-tree module, which the manufacturer had on Github, complete with DKMS instructions. It was upstreamed after about a year, though!

The only completely unsupported device I've had is my laptop's fingerprint sensor.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You won't be having such a good experience with a Broadcom Wi-Fi chip. Broadcom and NVIDIA have nothing but contempt for the Linux community.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Except if it's for their own gain

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