Mint.

General pickyness: Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. For example, Android and Mint are both operating systems that use Linux, but the way you interact with Android is dramatically different than the way you interact with Mint.

I think you meant “propagated”.

How do you monitor your email functionality? How long would it be before you noticed it was offline? What about paying for and configuring the new email server?

Sure it is, if you don’t understand economics, which few Merkins do. The evidence is right in front of us.

knowledge takes you past hand to mouth living on the edge and creates the opportunity for spare time with which to ask silly questions.

I would say you are lucky. I lived in my college town for 20years and it started out chock full of co-ops in the 80s and by the time I moved away they were all hardly recognizable or gone. Food co-ops, housing co-ops, internet co-ops… all mutated away from shared labor or were replaced by sole ownerships.

My wife works for an employee-owned engineering company, but they are anything but FOSS in their culture.

I hope these intermediate management structures that combine expertise and collective ownership grow more. But it still isn’t a slam-dunk that should be assumed to be the stupidly-obvious approach unless such organizations compete with the grifters… and then their success won’t be due to the fact that they are using FOSS but that they present a track record of success as an organization.

… and there are a gazillion examples where no community forms and the founder burns out. Cheers where it works, but some projects aren’t sexy enough to attract a self-sustaining community, and when you don’t preselect success stories but choose according to external needs that hit-and-miss experience starts to look less obvious and more like the thing only “smart” people can succeed at.

My objection is to the idea that FOSS is easy… it does require some smarts to succeed with.

Don’t get me wrong… I am all for FOSS and I avoid walled gardens, but people have a hard time remembering to take the trash out to the street on the right day. Spending time driving garbage trucks monthly in the local waste management Co-op is not going to fly well. That problem gets solved using money… homeowners are taxed and the local government either hires garbagepeoples directly, or more often they hire a company that takes care of the problem.

Upshot there is money rather than co-op ownership, and frequently for-profit contractors win the day over government ownership. Contractors supply GaaS, we just have to get the bin to the street. So the equivalency here is the need for the public institution known as city government to retain ownership of the waste management system. Not quite “the people”, since getting co-op volunteers is, well, erratic at best. And there are a ridiculous number of people out there who are vehemently against government management of actual organizations like this. I am for it, but over and over I see “privatization” win elections.

So I am not seeing how pitching this as “stupidly obvious” will win when “obvious” means hiring a contractor nearly every time.

I completely agree with this point. But using the conventions of “business hours” to drag people out of bed earlier allows them to get off work earlier and utilize the daylight they already have more fully. But it is without a doubt a psychological shell game.

After reading a couple of chapters online, I think I was lied to yet again by AI. Sorry for the wild goose chase.

Google Gemini sez:

The book you’re describing is most likely “The Shadows Between Us” by Tricia Levenseller.

Here’s why it matches your description:

Island Nation in the South: The story begins on the island of Iolara, a tropical island with a strict code of conduct called the “Way.” Discipline and Quest to the North: The protagonist, Alessandra, is being punished for practicing magic, which is forbidden. She joins a group on a quest to the tyrannical Empire of Aethel in the north. Crown Prince with Magic and Internal Struggle: One of the main characters, Kallias, is revealed to be the crown prince of Aethel. He possesses forbidden magic that manifests as dark veins and threatens to consume him if he uses it too much. Abandoned City, Temple, and Possession: The group ventures into the ruined city of Aethel’s former capital and break into a temple. There they encounter the Shadow Queen, an ancient deity who temporarily possesses one of the characters. Evil Palace and Power Struggle: The climax takes place in the Obsidian Palace, carved into a mountain, where Kallias faces betrayal and assassination attempts from his siblings vying for the throne. Although some minor details might not perfectly align with your exact memory, the core plot points you mentioned strongly suggest “The Shadows Between Us” is the book you’re looking for.

FWIW I avoid zombie books like the plague! :-)

You definitely missed the reference, or you would not have reacted this way. Read the RPG link.

Yup. Circle the wagons! If ya ain’t with us then you agin’ us! Don’t criticize me! And don’t tell me to think! If ya hit my knee, I gonna kick! Twitch

There are two wrong sides here… so it can be difficult to predict what anyone will lean further away from. Beware of assuming that means they are leaning toward the other side though.