gedaliyah
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world
- Comment on LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in 6 hours ago:
To me, this would be like if VLC made an angry post about the evils of MP3 instead of just making a great player that can handle it (which they have). People still use VLC because we know that it will handle anything. Plus, they’ve kept the interface simple and intuitive, with most needed functions front and center, with lots of specialized features in menus and settings.
LibreOffice is losing ground because they don’t take design seriously and instead of making interoperability a priority, they would rather complain about user preferences.
- Comment on LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in 6 hours ago:
I last ran serious testing a year ago. I ended up going with OnlyOffice. Despite some drawbacks, it was an easier switch that offered less friction and better file compatibility coming from MS.
- Comment on LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in 17 hours ago:
As per my previous comment, it should offer reasonable use of screen space, visual hierarchy, and well-reasoned organization. Moving bad menus to a different arrangement on the screen doesn’t magically make them into good menus.
As a first step, it was a good move, although it was a decade late when it came out. They still haven’t done a major redesign another decade on.
- Comment on LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in 18 hours ago:
True, but it is a purely aesthetic rearrangement of the menus. It doesn’t make it any more straightforward to navigate. Plus it doesn’t really function correctly on Windows (and it takes up just as much screen space).
It was a good step when they rolled it out about a decade ago, but they still haven’t done the work to make it better organized or show appropriate hierarchy.
- Comment on LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in 19 hours ago:
I’ve had a relatively good experience with OnlyOffice, although it has some issues.
Personally I don’t see interoperability as an anti-open issue, but I can appreciate the stance. I think I have to investigate to understand how the Microsoft format diverges from the open standard for office XML files, or in what way the format remains proprietary. I had been under the impression that OnlyOffice follows the open standard.
OnlyOffice does ape Microsoft Office in a lot of ways but I see that as a positive. Users are far more likely in my opinion to switch to something that looks and feels familiar.
LibreOffice is hard to use. The menus and shortcuts are not well organized and the entire suite feels like a relic from the early 2000s. If they invested in a modern UI with less friction for users who are looking for MS alternatives, they wouldn’t be facing competition from projects like OnlyOffice. If they invested in feature parity for mobile users, they wouldn’t be losing potential users to those who offer it.
They have an incredibly powerful backend with far more capability than the more junior OnlyOffice. Yet they fail to recognize why that just doesn’t matter to the majority of users. Most users just want to quickly author and edit files, share them with other users, and get on with the next task. LibreOffice has become overly fixated on niche features and optimizations that are very cool from a technical standpoint but are totally out of touch.
By the way, LibreOffice also supports OOXML, so… do with that what you want.
- Comment on 4 days ago:
I’ve been running Booklore for a while now, and was actually looking into calibre-web automated lol.
I’m interested if it has WebDAV support. It’s maybe a niche feature but I just discovered a great app that has it for backup option.
- Comment on Too young to understand what this is? 5 days ago:
Elvis is more than one Elvi
- Comment on If you are not in a tech field, what got you into self-hosting? 1 week ago:
Lemmy has been a big part of it.
I’ve never been fond of paying big tech to spy on me. It has been getting gradually more expensive and more intrusive for years. Around the time I reached a breaking point, folks here helped me realize that digital sovereignty is possible.
One day I was just like, “Why does Google need to know when my lightswich is on?” And that was the start of it.
- Comment on Is it better to follow your parents footsteps and help them with their thriving small bussiness, but you have to deal with toxicity, or trying going your own way and risk homelessness? 2 weeks ago:
Sounds like a good situation to connect with a therapist or coach. Talk to someone outside the family who can help you formulate a strategy.
It’s not all or nothing, and it’s not a forever problem. You can use the family business to launch into something more stable and healthy in a few years. Whether that’s education or career planning or just building a financial parachute, I promise you can start taking steps now that will leave you in a better place in the future.
You are a survivor.
- Comment on Any Good Desktop or Phone Clients for Lemmy? 2 weeks ago:
That page is chronically out of date. A better option is www.lemmyapps.com
- Comment on Any Good Desktop or Phone Clients for Lemmy? 2 weeks ago:
Check out !lemmyapps@lemmy.world for updates on the latest apps
- Comment on Is it better to follow your parents footsteps and help them with their thriving small bussiness, but you have to deal with toxicity, or trying going your own way and risk homelessness? 2 weeks ago:
How thriving? Is it just summer home thriving, or is it private jet thriving?
How toxic? Is it just criticizing your significant other toxic, or give away your dog to punish you toxic?
- Comment on Was there censorship on TikTok after the U.S. takeover? 2 weeks ago:
[Always has been.png]
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@lemmy.world | 12 comments
- Comment on Why do horses allow humans to ride on their backs? 2 weeks ago:
Why do humans allow cats to ride in their arms?
- Comment on A look at Moltbook, a social network where OpenClaw assistants interact autonomously, as they discuss consciousness and identity, technical tips, and more 3 weeks ago:
Dead internet is only a theory. Like gravity.
- Comment on Built a Spotify to Navidrome playlist Exporter. Meet Navispot 😅 3 weeks ago:
Bad bot.
- Comment on Why would anyone do this? 3 weeks ago:
Sometimes I forget how brutal the early 2000s were.
- Comment on London PR firm rewrites Wikipedia for governments and billionaires 4 weeks ago:
Having a number of different editors allows manipulating the discussion and concensus protections built into Wikipedia.
Depending on the topic, it may not be necessary. A complimentary article about a new technology product or company founder just takes a few press releases that get picked up. Manipulating world events and leaders requires more coordination.
- Comment on London PR firm rewrites Wikipedia for governments and billionaires 4 weeks ago:
Although manipulating the sources cited is a great way to manipulate Wikipedia. You have to recruit 10-40 people to act as a group of editors to manufacture concensus across topics. Or you can just create a website or series of press releases.
“Hey, this small-town museum has an article about a historical event. It must be true. Link it at the bottom.” Or “well, this local newspaper article says it is happened, so into the article it goes.”
Even more effective, especially for political groups, is just publish dozens of supportive articles, while miring competing articles in edit wars and the bureaucracy that comes with it. For sources, just cite expert books that are favorable. It’s not easy, but hiring or recruiting 10-40 editors is trivial for political entities.
- Comment on Chomp! 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on London PR firm rewrites Wikipedia for governments and billionaires 4 weeks ago:
We honestly need to end the myth that Wikipedia is some impenetrable white tower. It can and has been infiltrated by corporate and political groups, and even creative vandals.
It’s the most valuable digital property in the world. You think people break into the Louvre but can’t touch Wikipedia?
- Comment on Hey Microsoft, How's it going? 4 weeks ago:
I had the same reaction! I had to log into the screwy web portal and test it to realize it was something else entirely.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to [deleted] | 33 comments
- Comment on Bye, X: Europeans are launching their own social media platform, W 4 weeks ago:
If they built out a Mastodon network with government support, then it would.
- Comment on Bye, X: Europeans are launching their own social media platform, W 4 weeks ago:
Uh, Mastodon exists?
- Comment on How the regime in Iran jams Starlink and what people could do 4 weeks ago:
So the people killing women for partially uncovering their hair are the good guys?
The people murdering thousands of protestors are the good guys?
So the religious fundamentalists imposing doctrine at gunpoint are the good guys?
I think the people protesting for their lives and freedoms are the good guys, but that’s just me.
- Comment on Have anyone here actually published a memoir or know of someone IRL (as in, you've met them face to face) that published a memoir? Do people actually read these? 4 weeks ago:
People don’t read them but I think that’s not usually the point. The people I know who have written them usually end up with boxes in their garage that they eventually give at to friends and family.
It’s still a nice accomplishment and a good personal growth thing.
- Comment on Many guess that it's some type of religious symbol 4 weeks ago:
I actually have no recollection of why some records had the big holes in the first place. Were there players with a chonky spindle in the middle?
- Comment on ChatGPT Gave Teen Advice to Get Higher on Drugs Until He Died | Futurism 4 weeks ago:
Just to be clear, companies know that LLMs are categorically bad at giving life advice/ emotional guidance. They also know that personal decision making is the most common use of the software. They could easily have guardrails in place to prevent it from doing that.
They will never do that.
This is by design. They want people to develop pseudo-emotional bonds with the software, and to trust the judgment in matters of life guidance. In the next year or so, some LLM projects will become profitable for the first time as advertisers flock to the platforms. Injecting ads into conversations with a trusted confidant is the goal. Incluencing human behaviour is the goal.
By 2028, we will be reading about “ChatGPT told teen to drink Pepsi until she went into a sugar coma.”
