4 ms·

> Also, I tend to stick with default configurations because it makes bug filing easier. I've learned to use default configurations pretty much everywhere. It's

> Also, I tend to stick with default configurations because it makes bug filing easier. I've learned to use default configurations pretty much everywhere. It's far too much of a hassle to maintain customizations, so it's easiest to just not care. The exception is my ~50 lines of VS Code settings I have sync'd in a mysterious file somewhere that I've never seen, presumably on github's servers, but not anywhere I can see?

lp0_on_fire 1y ago
Agreed. I had a professor once who would say “The defaults were put there by people who probably know more about the software than you”. As long as you understand what the defaults are doing sometimes it’s more hassle messing with every option under the sun.
- meroes 1y ago
  Same except my teacher’s version was “just hit next/yes” for every option when installing software, in an era before that’d get you Adobe Reader and McAfee malware.
- user3939382 1y ago
  It’s probably best decided as a function of frequency. For tools I’m using every day, I know every setting.
- userbinator 1y ago
  These days the defaults are almost certainly oriented towards controlling or extracting the most value from you, be it invasive spyware, constant intrusions, or sub-optimal UI.
- bandie91 1y ago
  those are the same people who let the user change those settings.
- hulitu 1y ago
  > Agreed. I had a professor once who would say “The defaults were put there by people who probably know more about the software than you”. He surely didn't use any Microsoft product. /s
squigz 1y ago
> It's far too much of a hassle to maintain customizations Is it? The vast majority of the time, I change settings/set things up the way I want, and then... leave them for literally years. Hell, I can directly restore a backup I have of Sublime Text from years ago and my customizations will work.
- optymizer 1y ago
  It is. I used to customize everything. On Windows 95/98/2000/XP - custom cursors, themes, icon packs, custom Windows loading screen, the works. When I used KDE (and Gnome for a while) and compiz came out, I enjoyed flaming windows. Same story - custom icon packs, make grub menu look nice, hell, custom kernels compiled for my CPU, etc. Somewhere along the way I lost interest in customizing the OS. These days I routinely switch between MacOS, Windows and various Linux flavors on lots of computers. The only thing I may customize is I write my .vimrc from memory. On my Android phones, I change the wallpaper and I disable animations. Otherwise, stock everything. Now that I think about it, it can't be the time saved, surely I waste more time on HN. It likely correlates more with using computers for work as opposed to for fun and learning. Even the learning I do these days is rather stressful - if I can steal an hour or two on the weekend, I feel lucky, so spending time to customize the environment seems like a waste. Maybe if life slows down, I'll find joy in customizing my OSes again.
  - Larrikin 1y ago
    Eh, I find a computer not customized to my work flow to be a waste of time. The amount of time I spend using someone else's computer is such a small amount of time.
  - 90s_dev 1y ago
    Yes, I have the same history customizing everything! From Windows 3.11 to XP to Linux, and then giving up because life gets busy. On the note of programming not being fun anymore, that's exactly why I'm making my secret project that I hope to release very very soon, maybe in a week or so. I want to make programming fun again, in a similar way that pico8 did, but x100.
skydhash 1y ago
I only depends on an handful of tools (emacs, vim, lf, mpv, fish, foot,…) so I took the time to configure them and then just store the config in a git repo I sync everywhere. For personal computers I use stow. For remote machines, I just copy-paste. The nice thing is that those tools are so stable I could move to Debian stable and be OK.
TheDong 1y ago
Reproducible self-contained configurations give most of the same benefit for bug filing. Just your regular reminder that nix is good actually. "I have a bug, you can get a full VM that reproduces it with 'nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake "github:user/repo#test-vm" && ./result/bin/run-*-vm'" And the code producing that VM isn't just a binary blob that's a security nightmare, it's plain nix expressions anyone can read (basically json with functions). And of course applying it to a new machine is a single command too.
- nothrabannosir 1y ago
  <3 (Would it be pedantic of me to say that I receive my fair share of bug reports on nix code I maintain, and when someone sends me their entire nixosConfig the very first thing I do is punt it back with a "can you please create a minimal reproducible configuration"? :D but your point stands. I think. I like to think.)
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
akst 1y ago
Even the best crafted systems, I think you'll also find there are just more synergies between different system features in the default configuration.
eviks 1y ago
Using bad defaults is also a hassle, and you do it way more often than maintaining customizations

lp0_on_fire 1y ago

Agreed. I had a professor once who would say “The defaults were put there by people who probably know more about the software than you”. As long as you understand what the defaults are doing sometimes it’s more hassle messing with every option under the sun.

meroes 1y ago
Same except my teacher’s version was “just hit next/yes” for every option when installing software, in an era before that’d get you Adobe Reader and McAfee malware.
user3939382 1y ago
It’s probably best decided as a function of frequency. For tools I’m using every day, I know every setting.
userbinator 1y ago
These days the defaults are almost certainly oriented towards controlling or extracting the most value from you, be it invasive spyware, constant intrusions, or sub-optimal UI.
bandie91 1y ago
those are the same people who let the user change those settings.
hulitu 1y ago
> Agreed. I had a professor once who would say “The defaults were put there by people who probably know more about the software than you”. He surely didn't use any Microsoft product. /s

squigz 1y ago

> It's far too much of a hassle to maintain customizations Is it? The vast majority of the time, I change settings/set things up the way I want, and then... leave them for literally years. Hell, I can directly restore a backup I have of Sublime Text from years ago and my customizations will work.

optymizer 1y ago
It is. I used to customize everything. On Windows 95/98/2000/XP - custom cursors, themes, icon packs, custom Windows loading screen, the works. When I used KDE (and Gnome for a while) and compiz came out, I enjoyed flaming windows. Same story - custom icon packs, make grub menu look nice, hell, custom kernels compiled for my CPU, etc. Somewhere along the way I lost interest in customizing the OS. These days I routinely switch between MacOS, Windows and various Linux flavors on lots of computers. The only thing I may customize is I write my .vimrc from memory. On my Android phones, I change the wallpaper and I disable animations. Otherwise, stock everything. Now that I think about it, it can't be the time saved, surely I waste more time on HN. It likely correlates more with using computers for work as opposed to for fun and learning. Even the learning I do these days is rather stressful - if I can steal an hour or two on the weekend, I feel lucky, so spending time to customize the environment seems like a waste. Maybe if life slows down, I'll find joy in customizing my OSes again.
- Larrikin 1y ago
  Eh, I find a computer not customized to my work flow to be a waste of time. The amount of time I spend using someone else's computer is such a small amount of time.
- 90s_dev 1y ago
  Yes, I have the same history customizing everything! From Windows 3.11 to XP to Linux, and then giving up because life gets busy. On the note of programming not being fun anymore, that's exactly why I'm making my secret project that I hope to release very very soon, maybe in a week or so. I want to make programming fun again, in a similar way that pico8 did, but x100.

skydhash 1y ago

I only depends on an handful of tools (emacs, vim, lf, mpv, fish, foot,…) so I took the time to configure them and then just store the config in a git repo I sync everywhere. For personal computers I use stow. For remote machines, I just copy-paste. The nice thing is that those tools are so stable I could move to Debian stable and be OK.

TheDong 1y ago

Reproducible self-contained configurations give most of the same benefit for bug filing. Just your regular reminder that nix is good actually. "I have a bug, you can get a full VM that reproduces it with 'nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake "github:user/repo#test-vm" && ./result/bin/run-*-vm'" And the code producing that VM isn't just a binary blob that's a security nightmare, it's plain nix expressions anyone can read (basically json with functions). And of course applying it to a new machine is a single command too.

nothrabannosir 1y ago
<3 (Would it be pedantic of me to say that I receive my fair share of bug reports on nix code I maintain, and when someone sends me their entire nixosConfig the very first thing I do is punt it back with a "can you please create a minimal reproducible configuration"? :D but your point stands. I think. I like to think.)
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

akst 1y ago

Even the best crafted systems, I think you'll also find there are just more synergies between different system features in the default configuration.

eviks 1y ago

Using bad defaults is also a hassle, and you do it way more often than maintaining customizations