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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)
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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&#x…
5mo ago·view thread
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Question. You may be too young, but did you ever try BeOS?
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread
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Fair enough. I tried it, twice. 2024... https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/23/cachyos_arch_linux/ 2025... https://www.theregister.com/2025/08…
5mo ago·view thread
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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,…
5mo ago·view thread
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Good point, at least for certain values of "good".
5mo ago·view thread
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Which is why Windows NT was multiplatform in 1993. Developed on Intel i860, then MIPS, and only then on x86, alongside Alpha.
5mo ago·view thread
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> the sane defaults of Gnome. I have to admit that when I read this, my eyebrows went up so far that my hat moved.
5mo ago·view thread
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Sounds good. Is there a precompiled version anywhere? I do not have a Rust development system installed anywhere.
5mo ago·view thread
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Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47231992
5mo ago·view thread
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Sounds like hard work. Didn't 11111-1111111 work?
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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…
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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 …
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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.
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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/ …
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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…
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread
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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'…
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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…
5mo ago·view thread
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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:…
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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…
5mo ago·view thread
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The Linux kernel dropped 386 support fourteen years ago. https://www.theregister.com/2012/12/12/linux_no_longer_runs_... …
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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…
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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, …
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread
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Aha! Gotcha. I feel like such a smeghead now...
5mo ago·view thread
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> 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...
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread
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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…
5mo ago·view thread