Kabe

It looks cheap and poorly made, though. With this budget, they could have just made scale armor that actually looks like scale armor. Especially for prominent characters.

The costumes are good, but the armor in the show is all over the place.

According to this blog post by a military historian, that “scale” armor you linked is the worst of a bad bunch:

Perhaps the worst offender (which unfortunately gets a lot of screentime) is the odd Númenórean scale armor. Now scale armor was not necessarily a bad idea here (it could make for an interesting visual motif connecting the seafaring Númenóreans with fish-scales, for instance), but there are two immediate problems with this armor. First, it doesn’t seem structured like scale armor. The strong cording around the edges and rigid spaulders make it look like rigid armor made to look like it is composed of scales. The effect is only increased because the backing is shaped to give it pectoral muscles (and chests for women, which is doubly silly). But that’s not how historical scale armor hangs on the body.

Scale armor is [supposed to be] a lot more flexible (with the downside that the very flexibility of the scales means that a strike from below can pass beneath them and through the armor) and would thus hang and shape to the body. This armor does not do that. Instead as noted what this looks like are solid plates that are made to look like they are made out of scales. And that’s also not a terrible idea except that the actors are then also wearing scale-armor-print shirts underneath the armor which makes it clear that we’re to understand a flexible scale armor covering the whole of the upper body, which this clearly isn’t.

What on earth is this armor made out of? The queen’s armor looks like it might be bronze, albeit less well polished than I’d expect for royalty, but everyone else’s scale armor is made of this dull off-white material that looks like plastic or pressed foam, presumably because it is plastic or pressed foam. Surely this stuff should be made of iron?

I understand very well what liberalism and socialism are, thanks. Where we disagree is the definition of the “left” versus the “right”. Even in Europe, the old socialist left is becoming a thing of a bygone age, so of course the Overton window shifts to reflect the current political landscape.

Hang on, so you’re telling me you guys lump social liberals in with classical liberals and neoliberals? That’s definitely not common, but then I suppose if you’re a communist then it kinda makes sense.

Also, while I wouldn’t call Sanders a socialist either, he is not a centrist by any standard measure. I presume you don’t consider anyone a leftist if they don’t advocate for collective ownership and a centrally planned economy?

ML people often tend not to apply ‘liberal’ correctly either, so it goes both ways.

If you ask in earnest, you’ll get good responses. A good number of people ask questions not to learn a different point of view, but to reinforce their own existing biases, which naturally becomes exhausting.

That is understandable, however I was more talking about good-faith attempts to express views that are contrary to ML orthodoxy being dogpiled, removed, and banned. I have personal direct experience with this, as do many others who have attempted to engage in political discussions in ML communities. Perhaps users of the ML persuasion are used to being attacked and this why contrarian views are so heavily moderated on ML instances, but quite often this defensive response only leads to alienating other leftists who could be sympathetic to your point of view.

Also, I already understand quite well the differences between classical, social, and neo-liberalism, and how the term is used in the US; I have a degree in political science. My point was that users on ML instances weaponize the term in the same way that other users utilize the term “tankie” in order to dismiss people who disagree with them, ad hominem.

Oh, I agree - calling people Tankies/Liberals/Dronies, especially ad hominem, is reductive and generally unhelpful.

Not so. There are many progressives who stand with Marxists on issues like social justice, LGBTQ issues, and Palestine but who do not feel welcome on instances like Hexbear because they also criticize the CCP.

now it just means, “any leftist I don’t like”.

With respect, there’s a bit more to it than that.

The way political discussions are often policed on ML instances (This one, Lemmygrad, and Hexbear) is not conducive to helping new people see your point of view. If a, let’s say, social democrat says something critical of the CCP and then is immediately censured or banned, they are going to be left with a very negative impression that feeds into the stereotypes that already exist about these instances.

Creating a useful enemy promotes group bonding, unity, a sense of strengthened identity, and self worth.

Aren’t people on ML instances also doing the exact same thing when they shout down and decry the wretched “liberals” (which seems to refer to anyone left-of-centre who doesn’t support communist party rule)? Whether it’s “tankie” or “liberal”, it only further entrenches the us vs them mindset.

It’s a shame that leftist infighting exists to such a degree when we often share about 95% of the same views, compared to the general public.

OnlyOffice is the main alternative to Libre these days.

I personally prefer it because offers better compatibility with the Microsoft 365 documents I need for work.

I haven’t had much luck installing via wine or bottles at all. Hasn’t ever worked properly for me. I’m not bothered enough to install the Snap either, lol.

I have a Windows VM that I run it in instead, please deadbeef is good enough for my Linux system.

Tell me about it.

I also use deadbeef because of the plug-in support, although I haven’t experienced much lag myself.

The media library management definitely doesn’t come anywhere close to FB2K, though, sadly.

Yep. A couple of years ago they released the 2.0 version, which supports 64-bit architecture and allows for dark mode support as well.

Foobar2000.

By far the best, most customizable local music player app ever. Plus it’s open source.

No worries.

Nice work.

I’d suggest adding

Material Files (File Manager) looks more stock android than Amaze and even includes an FTP server function.

Kvaesisto (Launcher) is a non-traditional launcher but it’s easily the most polished FOSS android launcher IMO, and is still actively being maintained.

Noice (Uncategorized?) is a very good calming background noise app that allows you to create custom combinations of sounds.

Also, I spotted one small typo - Public Transport is an uncountable noun, so shouldn’t have an ‘s’ on the end.

Ah, ok.

As far as DE-hopping, it does come with some problems. At the very least, you will have a ton of different apps installed, as each DE will want its own file manager, terminal, etc. At worst, you will get conflicts and it can end up a right mess.

I would personally keep a separate virtual machine or Ventoy USB separate from your main machine, as it will give you the freedom to mess around with different desktops to your heart’s content. If that isn’t an option for whatever reason, then at the very least make sure you create a separate user account for each separate WM/DE you install so that shit doesn’t break.

Go for it. Switching to Linux has never been easier than it is today. I still keep a Windows virtual machine for when I need to use specific Windows applications, but aside from that I have been running Linux on my work and gaming machines for two years now with zero issues.

I’m surprised to hear you had problems with Proton - in my experience it has been seamless, although there are still some titles that don’t work so well with it. I don’t play any games that require anti-cheat, though, so there is that.

It’s never easy to say which distro is best, because every user and every machine is different. I personally recommend Nobara instead of Fedora, as a lot of the post-install tweaking is already done for you and it should even install the latest Nvidia drivers for you as well.