Zompist Bboard Again

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 3:40 pm Spent my lunch hour marching with the graduate student workers' union at my university as they presented their petition for recognition to the provost. The university now has a couple working days to voluntarily certify the union, which has a supermajority of workers who have signed union cards. They won't, of course, but ultimately it won't matter since they have the votes to win an election.

As a bonus, you couldn't have asked for a lovelier day for a march across campus. A third of the way into November and it's 23°C outside!

Civil War Bugle wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:17 pmDo you know what union they will be a part of, or whether it would be a purely local union? I am always intrigued by the idea that all the grad student unions I hear about (at least in terms of knowing which larger organization they're in) are members of the United Auto Workers.

Civil War Bugle wrote:If I didn't know that most unions have merged with each other, I would naively assume that people would join whichever union had the most appropriate name for their line of work and that grad students would join, I don't know, the American Federation of Teachers or something like that. I say this as a former member the United Steelworkers for a long time although I did not work in the steel industry.

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 7:38 am I hear it's an underrated system.

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 5:55 am The other day I’ve finished what should with any luck be the last exam I ever have to do. After that, I have just one or two more classes left, and then I should be able to spend the whole of next year doing research! Meanwhile, my first research paper (with the same group) is inching closer to submission.

Also, a couple of weeks ago I installed Arch Linux on an old desktop machine formerly of my father’s. I’ve been using that to slowly switch over to Linux from Windows, and have just managed to get my Brassica SCA to build on it — two things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. I also have a new laptop on the way, to replace my ~7 year old one which is literally held together by tape; when it arrives I plan to install Debian on it, thus completing my transition to Linux and hopefully making my life considerably easier in the process. All in all, the year ahead is already looking exciting!

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:18 am (Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:18 am (Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 5:10 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:18 am (Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

There may be something in that… I’ve never really understood the opposition to systemd, and looking up Poettering his views seem to closely align with mine. I still see Linux and Windows as being pretty fundamentally different, though.