Nephew told me via phone that even his attempts to install packages for a Wifi dongle on Linux Mint have worked. He has access to the internet now and seems pretty happy with the machine.
I forgot to tell the parallel story with my little niece who is now 5 years old and and very much into crafting and painting. When my nephew and I had finished setting up his new machine, the girl came to me to have her share of time with the uncle (how considerate she'd been to allow her brother to preoccupy their uncle for such a long time). She wanted to craft something and we went through the waste paper the family collects for recycling. We found a few boxes and cardboards and things pretty quickly turned into building and decorating a carton car. We took thin wooden skewers for wheel axles, cut carton for the four wheels, and decorated the carton box with coloured pieces of felt she found in the cupboard. She put a driver's cabin on top (for the queen and the king) and didn't forget to put a tiny doormat in front of it for all to wipe their shoes before they enter the cabin. Then we did a lot of colour decorations, direction indicators, headlights, and other elaborate structures we couldn't make real sense of. After that I pierced the carton box with the skewers for the two wheel axles and put a wheel on each side while not forgetting to fixate them with little pieces of felt left and right of them (so that they cannot fall off). My niece was very satisfied with the work and without much commentary she took the cardbox car in her hands and vanished from the room. I suspect she carried it into her children's room. I don't know if she already showed the car to mom and dad and her brother, she may or may not, depending on her mood. But at least she got something for herself β like her brother did. What a joy these kids are.
Machine is set up and working! Nephew cleaned the motherboard with isopropyl alcohol, put thermal paste onto the cpu... we built the machine from scratch, using only spare- or second hand parts. Now it would be the right time to install W10 and all the drivers, but the 11 years old declared he doesn't want a W10 but reinstall his Linux Mint on the new machine. It fits his coding purposes better, he declared (game engine programming).You should have seen his face when the machine booted the first time and we changed into BIOS (no OS installed yet), when he saw how all the fans are working spotless, showing CPU, graphic card, RAM etc. working well. And he needled me with questions I couldn't give a proper answer to (which I conceded, obviously), e.g., if it is reall ynecessary to flash the newest BIOS when the older one is still pretty recent... It was much fun working with him and realizing that I was more unhappy with not installing W10 than he was made me grin brightly: 11 years old, and already so far ahead into the future than I am. I'm glad and happy to have such a wonderful nephew. It was a couple of great days.
> users of nonfree software are victims of oppression
In view of those users frequently choosing to participate by choosing such software, they aren't "victims" per se. Also, the oppression is _potential_ until the developer implements anti-features which benefit themselves over the software's users.
I agree that once a developer is in that position, the temptation to implement such anti-features is almost impossible to resist, but it is very important that FOSS advocates do not overstate their case.
> in order to put an end to the oppression, we don't need wannabe-oppressors to stop trying to make victims, we need users to reject their offers and choose freedom instead, driving the market towards offerings that respect users choices, rather than towards [oppressive implementations]
If $BIG_SOFTWARE_COMPANY were to stop implementing oppressive anti-features in their software, I would consider that a (small and temporary) win, because it benefits the users of that software. It would still be necessary to seek to change the market (including via legislation and enforcement as well as persuading customers to avoid software with those anti-features) such that the temptation to reimplement those anti-features goes away.
Well, he's rather going to corrupt me, and we'll both enjoy it. Anyway, given his somewhat drop-out parents the situation reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the magazine "Omni" many decades ago: Two cavemen, apparently husband and wife, stand in front of their cave door, facing a little guy in suit, hat, briefcase, and spectacles. Says the caveman to the cavewoman: "He (the boy in front them) says he wants to go to the big city and start an alternative life style." Thus the corruption I may impart on him may in fact turn him into a system devotee. Yuck!
Going to visit my sister this weekend to build a PC from scratch with my 10 years old nephew, using only spare parts. Suitcase packed with all the stuff (mainboard, PSU, CPU, RAM, graphics card, termal paste, cables, screws etc. etc.) and I'm a bit anxious whether we succeed. Anyway, It'll be the first major nephew-uncle-project and I'm looking forward to the time with him.
He talked about the group that he hired on with, and how half of them left and are now trying to return because they had nothing to keep them active. But I have no illusions about enjoying sitting in a rocking chair or going fishing every day. I already know that even if my financial needs were taken care of, I would still need to be productive.
@simsa03 Wonderful news! I am glad that you and your nephew had such a great time ... and that you were able to leave him a reminder of your time together.
My grandson (2, but will be 3 soon) had a meltdown because "it can't be bedtime, it is still daylight". He's not wrong. Just a couple of nights ago, bedtime was after sunset.
I wish you as much corruption as possible to bequeath on them. I guess your erudition will do the trick, as nobody can beat you on that terrain.
Which reminds me of Gregory Bateson and his "Metalogs" in his "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" (1972), wherein he has conversations with his daughter. The main trait of these conversations is that he never directly answers a question his daughter puts at him but always replies in an evasive but at the same time determined fashion, "No, no, no that way...". Mary Catherine Bateson must have felt very confused and disappointed at times, and it's a form of cheap game he played. But refusing the fundamental paradigm that questions have answers may indeed be one of the best sabotages of literalism people may achieve. Which opens the eyes to the images and imaginary, and that's all your ballgame.
Kudos to KY3's weatherman, who gave #GS3 and #GS4 his full attention and talked with them like they mattered. I am new in the Springfield area, but it is really cool to see.
@clacke I never heard of such a thing until I worked for a government agency that sends people to remote offices for months at a time. And, yes, there is a very high rate of infidelity and lots of sexual harassment claims.
And lots and lots of required training meant to divert those who might be considering such behaviors.