Cethin

Yeah, anything Adobe won’t work, but there are plenty of PDF viewers that do. Also, yes, Steam, VLC, and Firefox all work perfectly fine on Linux. You shouldn’t have any issues.

We can’t look at the past with the understanding we have now and think they knew this would happen though. They made it clear they expected an easy victory.

They told their soldiers about the easy victory.

Do you think they didn’t know about the Ukraine fortifications built since 2014? Have you seen their faces when they announced the ‘operation’? They had to take Grozny. Why should Kyiv fall in 3 days?

You don’t send your best troops into a position they can’t get out of if you don’t expect results. Sure, after the collapse of the government there’s still going to be some fighting, but they thought they could take out the government in one swift blow.

Have you looked at the book? This conflict is in the making for a long time. Putin tried to win over Germany with cheap gas to become part of the West and avoid the conflict but Merkel betrayed him and just took the gas without changing the original goals.

Yes, it’s been coming for a long time. Obviously. If it wasn’t Ukraine it’d be something else. Russia was always going to push something to the point where other nations wouldn’t let them anymore. It’s not like Ukraine is the first sovereign nation they’ve invaded. It also wouldn’t have been the last. Germany has not “taken” their gas though. They are still purchasing it, which is dumb because it increases they amount the need to spend in Ukraine, but it is what it is. If only they hadn’t shut down those nuclear reactors a few years ago…

I never said the US doesn’t benefit from the war, though they wouldn’t if Russia’s invasion went to plan. Russia thought they could walk in and take over. They clearly thought they could take it all and would gain a lot from owning it; a port in the black sea and the breadbasket of Europe.

Cui bono? That’s more complicated than just “who’s benefitting now.”

Also, again, Putin wanted to cement a legacy. He benefits most if they were successful.

However, now basically everyone except Russia gains from it. China, North Korea, and Iran get to have Russia owe them a lot (We’ll see how that debt is repaid, though I know there’s some particular land China at least wants, but also they love their soft power). Europe gets a significantly weaker Russia threatening them. The US gets to further extend its power. A whole lot of nations get to test weapons (and secretly gain experience) with a new type of warfare.

We can’t look at the past with the understanding we have now and think they knew this would happen though. They made it clear they expected an easy victory.

In that light, aren’t Nato’s actions forcing Russia’s hands?

Forcing? No. They’re choosing what they’re doing. There’s plenty of other options for them. In what way were they forced to invade Crimea, and then the rest of Ukraine?

If you’re going to make the “buffer zone” argument, see how that’s decreased since the invasion, not increased, so if that was the goal, is was incredibly stupid. Who would suspect invading a sovereign nation would make other nations less likely to join an alliance against you?

Probably the best option for Russia (not Putin though) would be closer economic ties to Europe. They are their largest trade partner after all. However, Putin wanted to leave a legacy of “restoring the former boarders of the USSR” so he’s destroying the nation he’s supposed to protect to have his legacy that he won’t get anyway.

That’s not even remotely close to what I said. Try again, and don’t straw man. I engaged with you, and you repeat easily disprovable nonsense straight from Russian media without any reason to believe it. No proof or logic for why it makes sense.

Very few programs require anything complicated to get them working. A lot of productivity programs don’t support Linux though, like anything from Adobe, but there are usually alternatives, and if not can often be run in a VM. This probably doesn’t matter for you though, since you don’t seem to be particularly technical (not an insult). You probably know what programs you need that may not work. If there’s nothing like that then you’ll be fine.

Well I’d say the distro is the model/manufacturer, Linux is the motor/engine/software, and the DE is the HUD/dashboard/wheel/pedels.

Alright, you’re just being a Russian mouthpiece.

Oh, Russia was promised NATO wouldn’t expand? Not so much.

The entire rest of your comment is similar Russian drivel. I’m not going to spend any more time with this because your opinion is not founded in logic. “You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.” You have a chip on your shoulder and it’s hindering your understanding.

As I think it was a professor of mine said, international politics is about power, not good. States are always doing things to make themselves more powerful. None of them are good. Some of them are just temporarily doing more evil to gain power than others. Once you look at the world with this point of view, it makes much more sense (though some leaders are just stupid, crazy, or self-obsessed).

First of all, the country currently forcing my country to cut expenditure in healthcare and to put it into military is the US, not Russia.

Wrong. There’s no requirement for spending as a part of NATO. There’s also no requirement for the US to do anything. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is almost certainly the reason your country, whichever it is, is increasing military spending.

Second of all, Russia doesn’t have geopolitical reasons, nor the military/economic strength, to invade EU countries.

They have reasons. Some EU nations are former Soviet states. Just the “restore the former borders of the Soviet union” reason is reason enough, ignoring the resources or anything else. Do they have the strength? Why is that included here. Does it matter? It doesn’t have to be smart to happen.

And even if it did, the EU has nukes so you don’t need further military expenditure as deterrent.

I don’t know what you people who keep bringing up nukes think they’re for. You can’t use them. Using them will only ensure you lose, because everyone turns against you. They are only useful to deter other nuclear strikes, and also to deter nations from creating a last stand situation where you have already lost so there’s nothing to lose in using nukes. You can’t win a war with nukes.

Third, even if you forget all I’ve said above, the EU can still have a military alliance without the US, and it would be a much better thing.

Forget or dispute? You’re implying your logic is faultless. Anyway, sure. They can. They don’t though. I advocate that they do. I’d love to see the EU with its own defensive force. I don’t want them to be reliant on the US, like they currently are. However, that necessarily requires most EU nations to increase their military spending, which you’re apparently against. You want magic, not reality. You want all the benefits of military power without any of the costs. Sorry. That can’t happen.

You’re confusing NATO with the UN.

The end of NATO doesn’t mean any of that. We have bases in non-NATO countries too, so obviously that isn’t because of NATO. It does mean Russia has almost free reign to invade more countries. If Russia can cause issues without being part of an alliance like NATO, why do you think the US can’t when it’s not part of NATO?

Were his parents not married? The statement above doesn’t say that, just that she had him prior to her current marriage. People can be married multiple times.

I think the Titanic could use a few more wealthy visitors.

It should be something easy to see. Part of the advantage of cutting off someone’s hand isn’t just the punishment, it’s a marker that a person is a thief that they can’t get rid of. Ideally it’d be something obvious and easy to see, that’s also uncommon enough naturally that you know what happened.

I have a personal conspiracy theory that part of the AI hype is pushed by dirty energy companies. Most American politicians say we can’t remove dirty energy plants until we have enough clean energy to replace them. AI (and some other technologies) increase energy demand in a way that counters any clean energy production being built, such that the dirty energy production will always be needed unless we’re willing to shut some things down.

Politicians say we can’t scale down production below demand, so dirty energy companies benefit most from inflating demand instead of shutting down and being replaced with clean alternatives.

Lol. You’re following me around now to insult me? And you called me a neckbeard…

Well, it used to be that they were too. Have you heard of all the cities in Europe that were effectively destroyed during WWII?

It comes and goes, usually whenever it’s useful. It sucks, but war is horrible. If civilians don’t want to be targets they should pressure their governments to not be in them. Yes, sometimes it’s worth fighting, but sometimes it isn’t.

Not really a lie, just needs to come with a history lesson. The America First Committee was a fascist political group. Once you know that then it makes a lot more sense.

The founding fathers have written at length on their reasoning for including the right to bear arms in the constitution. It is very clear that they believed in the people’s ability to resist and overthrow the government if needed.

They said that’s the reason for 2A? That’s news to me. Yes they said people should be able to resist and overthrow the government. They even thought we’d have to by now. I don’t think I’ve ever read that they said this is the reason for 2A though. Care to provide a reference?

I would agree the US wasn’t “defeated” in the normal sense. They were ungovernable. They wear down traditional forces over a long time, and you never give them a target they can easily track.