Question: What is Linux misinformation?

2 years ago by Possibly linux to c/linux

It is against the rules but but what is it exactly?

lord_ryvan 95 points 2 years ago

Spreading Linux misinformation is saying things about Linux that aren't true.

Examples:

These can be jokes or trolling like “You can save space by removing the system's pre-installed French language pack by running sudo rm -fr /” (disclaimer don't do this!)

Or misconceptions, such as “You probably don't have a virus even if you suspect it, due to Linux's nature viruses aren't possible” (you absolutely can)

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possiblylinux127 17 points 2 years ago

"Arch is stable"

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Eiri 16 points 2 years ago

That's genius. Absolutely evil, but genius.

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superkret 8 points 2 years ago

All it's been doing for at least the past 15 years is throw an error message. Because there really isn't any reason you'd want to do that on purpose.

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Eiri 4 points 2 years ago

To the disappointment of evil prankers everywhere. Reminds me of "format c:"

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princessnorah 11 points 2 years ago

I have seen that code block so many times, but never with the options switch around so it stands for french 😂 Thankfully in most cases these days you need to add --no-preserve-root for this command to run.

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darklamer 6 points 2 years ago

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everett 2 points 2 years ago

I don't think these things are universal across software, but you can often put -f on its own, separate from other flags, or get in the habit of using the long --force flag.

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lord_ryvan 6 points 2 years ago

As far as I've seen, single letter flags like -f can always be used by themselves, like -f -r

It's actually not universal that they can be put together like -fr

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darklamer 4 points 2 years ago

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JackbyDev 2 points 2 years ago

In scripts or documents I try to use the long form of commands.

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reallyzen 43 points 2 years ago

That you can "do everything that windows does". You can't. You can do similar things, you can do different things, you can do basic things, yes, but Linux can't do everything that windows does.

disclaimer: on linux since 2006

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BananaTrifleViolin 28 points 2 years ago

Could you give an example of something linux can't do?

Or are you alluding to windows software not running on linux even with wine etc?

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reallyzen 23 points 2 years ago

I built an entire theatre using Linux. Architect was on autocad, that was alright, but engineering was on vectorworks & there I had to ask for .dxf exports.

Qlab (macos) is 100% a no-go, I actually own a macbook just for this piece of software.

Isadora runs on wine, but video play is problematic. Isadora is a video mapper/VJ/mixing software.

Of the big three of lighting console software, only Chamsys' MagicQ runs on Linux. Infuriating when you know Grand MA consoles are linux-based. ETC? Don't ask.

It's niche (how about Enttec or DMXKing interfaces configurator?) but it's my niche. I survive doing things differently, and, yes, owning a dual-boot AsahiLinux/MacOS device.

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ganymede 4 points 2 years ago

Not sure if when people say you can “do everything that windows does”, they should be interpreted to mean "every single piece of software/drivers ever written for windows was also written for linux".

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superkret 10 points 2 years ago

When you work in an industry where the entire collaborative workflow of everyone is based on software that doesn't run on Linux, then not running that software is equal to not being able to work in that industry.

Yes, you can mix music on Linux PC's. No, you can't run a concert venue on Linux PC's.
Believe me, my team and I have tried. And we yell "fuck this proprietary shit" on a regular basis. But we're still forced to use it.

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Kiloee 3 points 2 years ago

Currently there are three things that stop me from going Linux and two of those are purely software related (the third is that I don’t want to hate my work software anymore than I currently do). Is it vital software in the sense of it allowing me to work or bring me income? No. Is it something I wish to just use without fiddling after every update because I use them for fun? Absolutely yes.

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JackbyDev 1 point 2 years ago

This reminds me of that author who said Python 3 is not turing complete. People were taking the quote out of context but the post was still ridiculous so I don't blame them for not cutting them slack.

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atzanteol 3 points 2 years ago

Using this definition then Windows can't do everything Linux does either, and MaOS can't do everything Windows and Linux can do.

I don't think people use that phrase to mean "all Windows software is compatible with Linux".

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bastion 5 points 2 years ago

Interesting point, but when people want to switch, and they hear Linux can do everything that windows can, they will think that everything they can do on windows can be done on Linux. To make everyone happy, Linux must be a superset. That's a tough ask.

Another thing Linux can't do: Run all hardware on many new computers.

Not that much of a problem, just buy different hardware or wait - they'll address the works. But if someone just bought fancy new hardware, and wants to put Linux on it, there is a decent chance of running into sore spots, or of Linux not booting at all.

That said, it would be pretty clear to say "Linux can't do everything windows can, and windows can't do everything Linux can. But for most cases, there's enough overlap that you'll be happy on Linux."

Edit: wording, additional stuff

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Deckweiss 8 points 2 years ago

Digitally sign a PDF with a couple of clicks.

So far, I have spent about 6 hours (sporadically over the past 3 years) trying to set up a way to do this, yet ultimately it didn't ever work at all. And every time I end up using some online third party service just to get it over with.

I did it on Windows once and the setup was a simple 5 step wizard. After which digitally signing a document just works with a couple of clicks.

Bonus round:

on Linux there is only one PDF viewer that implements tripple click for selecting a whole line AND can invert the colors of the document (which helps some partially blind users). That viewer is Atril and it has no way of even attempting to digitally sign a PDF. As soon as you want to do the signing, you lose those one of the two features and people with impairments can't do their work properly.
the screen readers have voices from the 90s and setting up anything modern with them is above my skill grade - as again, I fucked with it for days and didn't manage to get a natural sounding voice to work. On Windows it is way simpler, including working well for mixed language documents - for example German text with technical terms in english or latin.

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technocrit 10 points 2 years ago

TBH the problem is the PDF format. It was created as proprietary trash. It's just more adobe software so ofc it doesn't support linux.

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thegreenguy 5 points 2 years ago

Yes, but still, it' something that may be commonly required, and Linux can't do it >!(according to the comment above, I never tried to do it so can't comment on how hard or easy it is)!<

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Deckweiss 5 points 2 years ago

PDF was a proprietary format controlled by Adobe until it was released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008, at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts.

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boredsquirrel 6 points 2 years ago

Okular can digitally sign, invert colors (poorly hidden away so you need to customize the toolbar, but it has multiple ways, which is kinda cool).

TTS yes, but there seems to be progress. There is speech-dispatcher which could be used with piperTTS

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Deckweiss 3 points 2 years ago

Okular has no tripple click for whole line selection.

Other than that, setting up digitally signing with Okular never worked for me. Do you have a guide that worked for you?

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netvor 3 points 2 years ago

Then again, it's not about Linux, it's just about your-favorite-few-click-program not being available for Linux.

There's nothing technically preventing Adobe from making Reader & Acrobat for Linux (they actually used to, around 2007 I even worked in a L10N company and we tested it.) It's just a business decision.

Once you start asking questions of why eg. Photoshop is not on Linux while eg. Firefox, VLC or GIMP are on all platforms, you will learn stuff about the world, which has little to do with Linux per se.

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Deckweiss 7 points 2 years ago

Technically you are absolutely correct.

Practically, people need to get work done. And if they can't do it on Linux, they will use another OS. No matter whose fault it actually is.

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Loulou 5 points 2 years ago

Run 3dsmax.

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davidgro 5 points 2 years ago

Software and hardware support definitely counts.

I would also guess that probably a lot of Microsoft enterprise stuff like active directory group policies likely aren't supported well, but I don't have enough knowledge to back that up.

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possiblylinux127 12 points 2 years ago

For instance, Linux hasn't started putting ads+AI in everything. It is 2024 people get with the program!

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tuhriel 2 points 2 years ago

For me, it's hardware support, i.e my laptops fingerprint sensor just isn't supported, for the speakers to work I had to find a script that remapped the speakers, multiple desktops (especially with different resolutions) are a pain.

But the killer at the moment is a good solution to manage and post process my raw photos. Went from Lightroom to On1 Photo RAW...unfortunately DarkTable is still not there yet. Also still missing the affinity suite on Linux :-(

Also, sadly these tools also don't run well in a VM

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jlsalvador 42 points 2 years ago

For example, when someone ask for a command to list files, and another one reply with a command that removes everything.

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30p87 17 points 2 years ago

Or

curl -O https://software.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/Win11_23H2_English_x64v2.iso?t=20e395a3-e609-4696-99fe-f6edcc14f54a&P1=1723809112&P2=601&P3=2&P4=YoihsrepRARlh%2faBo1mABEe7A0aL0yWPYOcR3dNAmlaFPDavFokSpv0oFQybmpuDhG%2f677UBlN%2fRIxY9B3EFVC5TFca%2bXI%2bA%2bQAxqraW1SGCgmpteLlZYntp2E21cpv4RIJ8aifL9z0ecBwNtgwBAY526haPg2RgKhb225RwnAER0EDGWMrDLookFFCm8th8akKETDwKQYQnVKZ%2bJUCTvlt06D42oCJ10fXcVv2D6du6Kuudtc8NgV3DSXPuB4ADK1l951o37bvijDkqAKn70aHyidA5HgdpO5O8K3PPvsre%2bNSVWLbgh7UkEeU1BNMO0INPFiGVqEIaeGorhYxS0w%3d%3d

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9point6 24 points 2 years ago

Why stop there

curl $windows_iso_url | sudo dd of=/dev/sda bs=4M && sudo sync; sudo reboot

(Do not run this)

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boredsquirrel 3 points 2 years ago

What does sync do?

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9point6 12 points 2 years ago

Makes sure all writes are flushed to disk

On reflection probably not needed as I think reboot does that too

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CrabAndBroom 31 points 2 years ago

One example I encountered was with someone I know who mentioned Linux, and I said I use it and he suddenly got fascinated and started asking me how I get anything done when all I have is just a command prompt and how does that work. Somewhere along the way he'd gotten the idea that Linux has no GUI at all and you just do everything in the terminal. Not sure where that idea came from but I was like no dude, it works pretty much like any other OS, it has Firefox and Chrome and stuff. I think he was a bit disappointed lol.

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TheCynicalSaint 18 points 2 years ago

A friend of mine believes similar except it's that everything in Linux doesn't actually work and you have to fix it constantly. It's rather frustrating to deal with.

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cerement 10 points 2 years ago

doesn’t help when you have “Arch BTW” types that like the mystique that myth gives them

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embed_me 1 point 2 years ago

I spent the better part of my day debugging an python library no IDE issue no flathub issue causing certain shell commands to not run in the IDE's integrated terminal and confusing the living heck out of me. And I use Arch BTW so don't you go around spreading linux misinformation

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CapillaryUpgrade 1 point 2 years ago

TBH i used to alt-tab away from what ever non-work-related thing i was doing, to a terminal emulator when ever my boss walked in.

It was usually showing my latest package upgrade.

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Reddfugee42 4 points 2 years ago

I mean, there are many of us who live on the CLI and scripting world. Ask him what he wants to do and explain that for anything he wants to do, you can write a script and from that point forward you can do it by typing a word and pressing enter and sitting back and watching the computer do all the work

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spittingimage 23 points 2 years ago

Remember when Bill Gates said that open source software was fascist?

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possiblylinux127 -14 points 2 years ago

*communist

But honesty they are the same in many respects

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technocrit 18 points 2 years ago

How are communism and fascism the same? What definitions are you using?

AFAIK communism advocates for a stateless, classless, moneyless society, while fascism advocates for imperial nationalism and the violent class hierarchies of capitalism, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, etc.

They seem much more like opposites under the standard definitions. I don't understand doublespeak.

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mkuznetsoff 7 points 2 years ago

as a Russian who has studied the history of the USSR, i can say that Stalin's regime might seem like a kind of fascism now, but by no means am I saying that Stalin's communism was anything like Marx's or Lenin's.

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thegreenguy 0 points 2 years ago

How communism was implemented historically is similar to fascism

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possiblylinux127 -6 points 2 years ago

When things get extreme they get similar. (Strong authoritarian government)

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comfy 5 points 2 years ago

When things get extreme they get similar.

'Extreme' is a vague word, but when you're talking about communism and fascism (or more generally 'far-left' and 'far-right' ideology), that's a false generalization known as 'horseshoe theory'.

There are many clear counter-examples when talking about communism, like the entire school of anacho-communist ideologies and the existing societies stemming from them (including the Zapatista territory in Mexico with a population of around 360,000, or the FEJUVE federation in Bolivia, or the many anarchist communes around the world).

As for the more authoritarian versions (Stalinist, Maoist and related ideologies), despite their strong one-party systems, they are still extremely different to fascist ideologies in their goals and how they use their strong state to achieve them. To say 'they are the same in many respects' would apply just as equally to liberal capitalist states like the USA and allies, with their infamously militarized police, constant wars and imperial militarism, strong cult of nationalism (for the US, it's centered on the Founding Fathers), mass imprisonment and state interference in bodily autonomy.

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PseudoSpock 22 points 2 years ago

That Wayland works for everybody.

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thegreenguy 33 points 2 years ago

Yes, but "Wayland is trash and will never be better than X" is also misinformation.

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theshatterstone54 9 points 2 years ago

Agreed. Both are true.

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maniii 0 points 2 years ago

For some of us, X11/Xorg is better , way way better than using Wayland.

Linux means we should have a choice without sacrificing our freedom. So if I want to use X11/Xorg or Wayland, I SHOULD MAKE THAT DECISION.

Looking at the garbage trash fire that is systemd.

Only way I can get SysVInit back is if I use Slackware, Devuan , so a complete switch of distro and tools. No choice no freedom.

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dubyakay 1 point 2 years ago

Dilettante here. How hard or easy is it to switch back and forth between X11 and Wayland?

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bruhduh 6 points 2 years ago

Agree with you homie, even more so, some people deadass saying that arch is stable and good for windows refugees

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olafurp 0 points 2 years ago

It's not the yet but it's getting pretty close these days

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vrighter -7 points 2 years ago

I usually just ask them to back that assertion up by running "pacman -Rcs xwayland" (or their package manager's equivalent).

None have taken me up on my request, and they immediately switch to blaming the apps for it, even though some literally cannot be ported.

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ExtremeDullard 17 points 2 years ago

Linux killed my dog.

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embed_me 7 points 2 years ago

Linus bit my penguin

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QuazarOmega 2 points 2 years ago

Origin story of the manguin

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JackbyDev 1 point 2 years ago

Better to die in freedom!

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mrvictory1 9 points 2 years ago

Outdated launch parameters and environment variables uploaded to ProtonDB

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technocrit 4 points 2 years ago

This comment really hit me where it hurts.

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olafurp 6 points 2 years ago

That Linux is a single OS where OS means a distro. They end up thinking that there are 3 systems in the world, Windows, Mac and Linux.

They're pretty close, there are three types of kernels used my majority of modern computers but they since they aren't really into different OS software they equate it with "there only 3 types of OS GUIs".

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Linus_Torvalds 2 points 2 years ago

But Linux consists of more than 1 GUI?

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olafurp 2 points 2 years ago

Desktop environment to be specific.

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SpaceTurtle224 5 points 2 years ago

That arch is the best system. Everyone has their different use cases.

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embed_me 1 point 2 years ago

Yes I agree and arch can handle all of those use cases in the best way possible (jest)

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GolfNovemberUniform 4 points 2 years ago

You don't know what misinformation is? Basically it's all kinds of lies, intentional or not.

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whenyellowstonehasitsday 9 points 2 years ago

is a lie a lie if it's unintentional?

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GolfNovemberUniform 11 points 2 years ago

Not really but it's still misinformation.

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Ooops 8 points 2 years ago

misinformation != desinformation

Both exist plenty...

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Random123 5 points 2 years ago

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jbloggs777 1 point 2 years ago

Someone who lies is a liar. I lie unintentionally all too often, despite my best efforts not to (aside from some leg pulling.) Some people can't seem to help lying, and some others do it quite intentionally. We humans aren't very reliable or trustworthy, but we muddle on anyway, and we're not that bad, mostly.

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JackbyDev 1 point 2 years ago

Depends on context. All lies are misinformation. I wouldn't describe unintentional lies as lying though.

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Andromxda 1 point 2 years ago

Misinformation is the stuff you spread in c/privacy about GrapheneOS and Android in general

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linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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linux

@lemmy.ml

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

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