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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The term Display Manager is a vestige of the use of X11.

    X11 is a Server/Client protocol.

    When a user logs in to an XServer, they are given an Xsession. The user can use that Xsession to create one or more X11 Displays (they are just IDs). The X11 Display ID is passed to the X11 client application (that’s what the XDISPLAY environment variable is for). The client apps render their content to that Display ID. This whole thing allows for more than one user to be able to use a single operating system on a single XServer at the same time.

    All of that is pretty cumbersome for a user to do themselves in their terminal, that’s what Display Managers are for. They:

    • Start the XServer if it isn’t started yet
    • Provide a method (eg, login with username and password), to start a new XSession.
    • Use that XSession to create an empty X11 Display.
    • Look up which is your configured default DE or WM
    • Launch the DE or WM with the right parameters, passing it the new XSession and XDisplay

    If you’re using Wayland, then the architecture is very different. The Display Manager then simply operates as a login screen.







  • See, at my job it’s the other way around. I am responsible for:

    • Solution architecture
    • Cloud architecture development
    • Cloud infrastructure design and implementation
    • Data model specification
    • Database schema design
    • Database administration
    • Data cleaning and data review
    • ETL
    • Server administration
    • Web framework developer
    • Frontend developer
    • Backend API developer
    • Mobile app developer
    • Documentation author
    • Troubleshooting
    • Maintenance

    Also I have involvement in: Stakeholder engagement, user education and training, project management.

    I do the work equivalent of around 3 full-time engineers. So to keep it simple, we call my position just “senior software engineer”. I like your idea of disambiguation to better communicate exactly what you do, but I don’t know what you’d call me.







  • Jetbrains have gone the opposite direction unfortunately. The latest version of PyCharm came with the announcement that PyCharm Community is being discontinued. Instead, they will provide just one PyCharm (the closed source one) formerly PyCharm Professional, that can operated in a Basic (Free) mode, or a Pro (Licenced) mode. Also, some features that were free in Community edition will be moved to the Pro mode in the new PyCharm.

    It doesn’t affect me personally because my workplace pays for a pro subscription for me, but I used PyCharm Community for 4 years during uni and I’m sad it’s going.






  • These are some rules of mindset I’ve given to others in the past when trying linux-based operating systems.

    1. Don’t try to apply the same computing and productivity patterns you’ve learned from Windows. Don’t try to force Windows concepts onto Linux OS, you will confuse yourself and get frustrated.
    2. If something doesn’t work the way you expect it to, doesn’t mean it’s broken.
    3. Just because something doesn’t behave the same as in Windows, doesn’t mean it’s worse. It’s probably designed that way for a good reason.
    4. If your daily work routine or gaming life revolves around the use programs developed specifically for the Windows platform, you’re gonna need to invest time and effort to try to recreate that in Linux. It may not even be possible to fully replicate it. And that’s not the fault of Linux, it’s not designed to be a drop-in Windows replacement.
    5. Everyone has their own taste and preferences. Just like some people prefer driving a manual car and some prefer auto. If you try Linux and hate it, that’s okay, that doesn’t make you bad or wrong, but keep in mind that those who do prefer Linux are not weird or daft or wrong either.