back
user profile
lproven
8,777karma·4,928submissions·December 30, 2013
about
Tall dark black-clad atheist skeptic biker SF fan; writes, mainly about computers, for a living.
# Work
Currently the FOSS & cloud correspondent for the Register.
https://www.theregister.com/Author/Liam-Proven
Work email: lproven+hn@sitpub.com
# Personal
Comments here (or anywhere else, unless otherwise stated) are personal opinion and not on behalf of any employer.
Based in Douglas, Isle of Man.
Quick info:
https://about.me/liamproven/
Personal blog:
http://lproven.dreamwidth.org/profile
Tech blog:
http://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/profile/
Socials:
https://social.vivaldi.net/@lproven
https://bsky.app/profile/lproven.bsky.social
https://x.com/lproven
https://meet.hn/city/im-Douglas
recent activity (4,928 total)
comment
My articles are published by an outlet which puts them in front of the eyes of millions. I get so many internet randos telling me I am wrong every day that if I even attempted to track them all I…
comment
Question. You may be too young, but did you ever try BeOS?
comment
I am not a gamer and never really was, but a default config of Win95 made a lot of RAM available for DOS apps, as I recall. (And I was a serious expert in this area, 30-35 years ago.) I used to do ver…
comment
It didn't make it to release, and I believe MS switched internal development more or less as soon as it had an alternative. I do not recall reading any specific detailed look into why, so you may…
comment
Fair enough. I tried it, twice. 2024... https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/23/cachyos_arch_linux/ 2025... https://www.theregister.com/2025/08…
comment
Interesting. I almost never use Windows, and I don't want things like WSL or Docker anyway. I mainly keep it around for things like upgrading firmware, occasionally flashing new ROMs onto phones,…
comment
Good point, at least for certain values of "good".
comment
Which is why Windows NT was multiplatform in 1993. Developed on Intel i860, then MIPS, and only then on x86, alongside Alpha.
comment
> the sane defaults of Gnome. I have to admit that when I read this, my eyebrows went up so far that my hat moved.
comment
Sounds good. Is there a precompiled version anywhere? I do not have a Rust development system installed anywhere.
comment
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47231992
comment
Sounds like hard work. Didn't 11111-1111111 work?
comment
> kind of just throws away the things you would pick windows for in the first place I'd be interested to see a legacy-free Windows, stripped out like LTSC, with no 32-bit binary support. Espec…
comment
> Every version since has been a regression. So very true. I set up a machine with Windows 2003 Server Datacentre Edition last year. That's the version of the XP codebase that has PAE support …
comment
> Nadella has been the best thing to happen to MS since Gates. Wow. My impression, as an MS watcher since 1988, is the exact reverse: that he is guiding the death-spiral.
comment
> He was running Dr -dos Yep, that made it a bit easier. Still around, you know! It's the kernel of SvarDOS. http://svardos.org/ …
comment
> I preferred hand-optimizing. Same here. But then, it was my job, it wasn't for gaming or anything. I don't play games much and I had an Acorn Archimedes at home. I could usually get 620…
comment
This was news to me, too. But I rarely use Windows. I used to like it but for me XP was so ugly and bloated I switched to Linux and OS X full-time. I've never looked back. I just play occasionall…
comment
Thanks for sharing my article, @rbanffy. To me this certainly looks like TDF opening hostilities against Collabora... while TDF feels that the local-first desktop Collabora Office was Collabora'…
comment
> Maybe because I'm using it on a 'gaming-distro' Bazzite or something? So, no Snapper. So, no background OS component writing to the root volume. So, you are not affected by the pro…
comment
OK. In context -- discussing an article talking specifically about AMD 386 chips -- that was not at all clear. I was at a talk celebrating NetBSD's 30th anniversary. I wrote about it: https:…
comment
> Yawn. You again. Yep, me again. You know that line from the James Bond books? “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” I saw Btrfs die so many times, I know what…
comment
The Linux kernel dropped 386 support fourteen years ago. https://www.theregister.com/2012/12/12/linux_no_longer_runs_... …
comment
> Don't get me wrong zfs is great - but it doesn't come with magical transactions. I never said it did! But if you have a snapshotting FS underneath, transactional software maintenance be…
comment
> In particular, the remote composability and local deployment is extremely useful for "cattle" edge system deployment. A legitimate point, but I feel that there must be better, cleaner, …
comment
I am not here to tell you what to like or not, but doing my English Literature 'O' and 'A' levels were among my favourite parts of all my schooling, and even the books and plays an…
comment
Aha! Gotcha. I feel like such a smeghead now...
comment
> bootc and OSTree are both very neat May I rephrase that? bootc and OStree are both Cthulhoid nightmare horrors that only exist because of corporate politics, but the leading edge...
comment
It is very odd to me to watch OStree-based distros starting to take off and win recruits. The only reason Red Hat needed to invent this very complex mechanism was because RH does not officially have a…
comment
I covered this on the Reg: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/debian_14_will_drop_g... There's an active fork of Gtk2 used in Ardour. There's also an acti…