Will I be the next to be banned from this forum?

Originally Posted by hazel That's a brilliant summary. Even I could understand it and I know next to nothing about processors.

Well, I don't think that it's correct as stated. (Could be a language thing as well.)

Which programs benefits from this records packing? Any programs which does not intend to manipulate this data, just to load it and read it. For example, to compute a logarithmic sum of those integers. OR to load in memory tons of images, like Firefox do for its web-pages. OR even the compositing game done by a window manager, which is all about pixmaps put all the times back and forth.

Unless that pixmap just happens to use the same compressed format, you'll still have to manipulate the data. Ditto with the logarithmic sum; you'll still have to do a bitmask and perhaps shift.

The only scenarios where I could see a win are those where you are able to fit the working set of data of whatever you are doing into the CPU cache and thus never have to access main memory more than once during processing. (Well, you can scale that to some degree; if I can reduce main memory access frequency in half, that should be noticeable.)

Originally Posted by ZhaoLin1457 Excuse me, but I only compare the time used to maintain a certain living standard. I do not know the life issues of Darth Vader or alienBOB. I also do not know how much they earns or their living standards. But I understand that Darth Vader needs to dedicate 16 hours a day to earn money, which definitely limits the time he can dedicate to, let's say "hobbies" that do not bring a certain income. TBH, I worked 6 months with two full jobs and I know it's a really unhealthy rhythm. You only have 8 hours to shop, to eat, to sleep, to have some social or family life. I gave up after 6 months. I have all the respect for those who can keep this pace one way or the other. I could not.

What I'm saying is if the average wage is 300EUR/month, and he is working double that, it should put him into a significantly higher wage bracket than the average Romanian.

But we don't know why he is working 16 hours a day (if he actually is... I don't think I've ever seen him post that). Is it because he can't afford living or he wants to live better than many there?

But as Richard Cranium ChuangTzu said, he still had plenty of time to spend on this forum, which would theoretically provide him enough time to maintain a few SlackBuilds on SBo. We already know he spent some time with ktown and with testing various Xorg and GPU drivers, so there is enough free time for him to still play around on computers, which should give him enough time to contribute more.

Originally Posted by Alien Bob I guess people in this thread still can not make the distinction between contributing to Slackware and participating on this forum.

Nice rant Eric. Participating in this forum is contributing to Slackware. I learned things from both a4z and Darth Vader. My mixed feelings mean nothing. The facts are clear, the were both disruptive to the forum, thus there are banned. Not my say, that's the owner of this forum's say. I respect that. I do somewhat miss their postings, at the same time relieved they are no more.

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Originally Posted by Alien Bob Should I feel sorry for him now?

Why would you do this? At least you could understand that your circumstances are not the same as those of others.

Originally Posted by Alien Bob I believe that story if I hear it from the guy himself.

You have known each other for at least ten years, which is why I think you know how to contact him, right? Ask him yourself.

Originally Posted by Alien Bob I work more than 16 hours per day, and more than 7 of those are spent on Slackware. The Slackware hours do not pay. I do this as a give-back to what Slackware means to me personally.

Everyone is grateful for the efforts you make, including me.

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg You have known each other for at least ten years, which is why I think you know how to contact him, right? Ask him yourself.

I do not know the guy. I read his online communications here and (in the past) on my blog. He erased his old darkstarlinux websites pretty thoroughly, so there is no way except this LQ forum to speak with him.
And why would I ? I do not feel the desire to talk about his private life. That's private for a reason. If he does not talk about it, then that's that.

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal What I'm saying is if the average wage is 300EUR/month, and he is working double that, it should put him into a significantly higher wage bracket than the average Romanian. But we don't know why he is working 16 hours a day (if he actually is... I don't think I've ever seen him post that). Is it because he can't afford living or he wants to live better than many there?

For an East-European 300 EUR / month are as little as for an Italian or French.

In a way, because the prices are a bit lower, but do not imagine that in Romania you buy 10 kg of bananas with one dollar.

With these money you live in poverty, and it is one of the reasons why 6 million Romanians work today in Italy, Spain or Germany. That means half of the active population as the workforce.

It is the same with Bulgaria or other East European countries.

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal But as Richard Cranium said, he still had plenty of time to spend on this forum, which would theoretically provide him enough time to maintain a few SlackBuilds on SBo. We already know he spent some time with ktown and with testing various Xorg and GPU drivers, so there is enough free time for him to still play around on computers, which should give him enough time to contribute more.

It seems that we agree that Darth Vader contributed more or less to the community.

But, I have seen obsessively repeated "he has to contribute more". Why should he contribute more?

I read somewhere in this forum as he used Slackware some time ago in a handful of home computers, nothing more. Moreover, he says he has installed Slackware to some friends.

The second question is if the community really needs a more active Darth Vader.

Darth Vader is a first league developer who in the past has been able to make his own distribution.

Let's imagine that sometime in the future, Darth Vader can dedicate 8 hours a day to Slackware, just like Eric Hameleers. And like him, DV can support very complex projects, even a full distribution.

So, which major slot is free for Darth Vader? Under no circumstances Plasma.

I see a single project for his caliber: GNOME3. But GNOME3 depends on systemd and PAM. No way to be accepted on Slackware.

What I mean is that I think Darth Vader will never be a major contributor to Slackware.

If he's going to do something major open-source in the future, it's gonna be his own distribution with GNOME3 and a lot of things not liked in this community.

I apologize, but this is my humble opinion.

Originally Posted by Alien Bob And why would I ? I do not feel the desire to talk about his private life. That's private for a reason. If he does not talk about it, then that's that.

I agree 101%

Originally Posted by ZhaoLin1457 However, LuckyCyborg on August 8 2018 needed help for running Slackware with /usr put in a read-only squashfs. https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...fs-4175635655/ I think the skills of the two individuals differs considerably.

Of course, there is a great difference between my skills and Darth Vader. I am a "small fry" too.

Do you like to know how the story ended with that problem? Darth Vader taught me a method similar to what he used in the past.

For more than ten years, the kernel and MDADM has a feature that allows you to associate a read-only device with another device or file for copy-on-write, to get a writable composite device. Brilliant simple.

The only condition is that the read-only device must contains a filesystem with RW capabilities. For example a file containing an ext2fs, enclosed in a squashfs for compression.

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg For an East-European 300 EUR / month are as little as for an Italian or French. In a way, because the prices are a bit lower, but do not imagine that in Romania you buy 10 kg of bananas with one dollar. With these money you live in poverty, and it is one of the reasons why 6 million Romanians work today in Italy, Spain or Germany. That means half of the active population as the workforce. It is the same with Bulgaria or other East European countries. It seems that we agree that Darth Vader contributed more or less to the community. But, I have seen obsessively repeated "he has to contribute more". Why should he contribute more? I read somewhere in this forum as he used Slackware some time ago in a handful of home computers, nothing more. Moreover, he says he has installed Slackware to some friends. The second question is if the community really needs a more active Darth Vader. Darth Vader is a first league developer who in the past has been able to make his own distribution. Let's imagine that sometime in the future, Darth Vader can dedicate 8 hours a day to Slackware, just like Eric Hameleers. And like him, DV can support very complex projects, even a full distribution. So, which major slot is free for Darth Vader? Under no circumstances Plasma. I see a single project for his caliber: GNOME3. But GNOME3 depends on systemd and PAM. No way to be accepted on Slackware. What I mean is that I think Darth Vader will never be a major contributor to Slackware. If he's going to do something major open-source in the future, it's gonna be his own distribution with GNOME3 and a lot of things not liked in this community. I apologize, but this is my humble opinion.

Are you speaking on his behalf? If not, it seems a bit odd, and if you are then say so.

BTW, he was asked to contribute more; because many of his posts were rants, complaints and demands being made to the dev's. In other words, put up or shut up, help out or pipe down. Questions, concerns are one thing, but demands are unnecessary unless you are the project lead or one of the dev's etc...

Originally Posted by ChuangTzu Are you speaking on his behalf? If not, it seems a bit odd, and if you are then say so.

No, I do not speak on his behalf and I'm not entitled to do that. It's just my opinions.

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg For an East-European 300 EUR / month are as little as for an Italian or French. In a way, because the prices are a bit lower, but do not imagine that in Romania you buy 10 kg of bananas with one dollar. With these money you live in poverty, and it is one of the reasons why 6 million Romanians work today in Italy, Spain or Germany. That means half of the active population as the workforce.

I decided to do some looking, and it seems that the average wage in Romania is actually around 2360 RON/month (510 EUR or 630 US). This article also links to another article that discusses the costs of living in Romania. Like rent is 170 EUR for a studio apartment. That means it is around the recommended 25-30% of total income.

But they also mention that the average wage for IT is around 1200 EUR a month (take home pay), so if Darth is working an IT gig, he's already likely making more than double the average wage and that studio apartment would only be 15% of his pay.

But, in reality, there's no point in speculating how much Darth is making and what the costs of living are there. You can speculate that he's working two jobs (we still don't have proof he actually is), but as has been pointed out, he's still spending a lot of time with Slackware.

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg But, I have seen obsessively repeated "he has to contribute more". Why should he contribute more?

You're misunderstanding what people are asking... people would rather see him contribute than complain. All he seems to do is complain that Slackware is not fitting his needs, yet he almost never seems to do anything about it. From my time in the workforce, I've always heard you shouldn't go to the boss with a complaint unless you have a solution. Granted, you can't always have a solution, but when your constant complaints vastly overwhelm any solutions you might present, you get seen as a complainer.

Originally Posted by LuckyCyborg I read somewhere in this forum as he used Slackware some time ago in a handful of home computers, nothing more. Moreover, he says he has installed Slackware to some friends. The second question is if the community really needs a more active Darth Vader. Darth Vader is a first league developer who in the past has been able to make his own distribution. Let's imagine that sometime in the future, Darth Vader can dedicate 8 hours a day to Slackware, just like Eric Hameleers. And like him, DV can support very complex projects, even a full distribution. So, which major slot is free for Darth Vader? Under no circumstances Plasma. I see a single project for his caliber: GNOME3. But GNOME3 depends on systemd and PAM. No way to be accepted on Slackware. What I mean is that I think Darth Vader will never be a major contributor to Slackware. If he's going to do something major open-source in the future, it's gonna be his own distribution with GNOME3 and a lot of things not liked in this community. I apologize, but this is my humble opinion.

He doesn't need to provide this massive project to Slackware. He could start with maintaining a few SlackBuilds on SBo. And "projects" don't have to be accepted into Slackware to be a benefit to Slackware. Look at SBo, msb, csb, dusk, slackonly, sbopkg, sbbdep, sbotools, slackrepo, slackmate, dlackware, and more. The last two (slackmate and dlackware) provide PAM, and dlackware provides systemd. They might be controversial with Slackware users, but some have still found it to be beneficial.

damn good reply @bassmadrigal

can we please stop dragging this dead body around now?

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal But as Richard Cranium said, he still had plenty of time to spend on this forum, which would theoretically provide him enough time to maintain a few SlackBuilds on SBo.

While that does look like something I'd write, it wasn't this time.

Originally Posted by Richard Cranium While that does look like something I'd write, it wasn't this time.

Oops... looking back it was ChuangTzu that said that. I've edited the original post. Thanks for the correction!