My ask here is for System76 to use a popular and shared tool by many Linux distributions to do firmware updates (fwupd) instead of rolling their own solution only installed by default on PopOS.

I’m not sure if a Dell still offers Linux support out of the box, but you can still easily install firmware updates on multiple Linux distributions using fwupd.

I’m going to piggyback off your comment to take a moment to complain about System76 computers, which I own and enjoy. That being said I wanted to run Fedora instead of PopOS.

It’s super frustrating to me that many of my old computers could automatically do firmware updates using fwupd, but to update System76 laptops I have to install from a copr repo their system firmware update service.

The funny thing is they do appear to support fwupd, I assume they just aren’t maintaining it.

A Linux laptop for Linux people, but they’ve managed to set it up where you don’t get the best experience unless you’re running PopOS. It’s little frustrations like this that make me want to go back to a Del laptop for my next computer.

This feels a lot like the common “millennials can’t do X anymore” that we used to see all the time.

I switched careers recently from software engineering to teaching. Young people are fine.

Some things have changed. Those with no previous experience need a little help understanding file systems and moving files around, something they didn’t really have to do on iPads and Chromebooks.

Besides that students pick things up quickly. Find it as interesting and exciting as we did and often impress me by using more advanced features than we discuss in class.

Yes, they try to use AI. I usually explain to them that AI can likely do all their assignments in our classes not because AI is a good programmer but because these are introductory classes where the assignments are simple.

So far AI still can’t produce a perfect assignment for the students. And an easy way to tell they’re using AI is to see if their code is formatted too well. Most beginners will screw up indention somewhere in their programs. So what do I do if they use AI and then ask me for help (because AI didn’t do exactly what they wanted)? I tell them to let AI fix it. They end up having to rewrite so much before I help them that asking AI isn’t worth it to begin with.

Anyway, to summarize kids are still learning to code, still improving, and there’s going to be a lot of talented junior engineers graduating.

Yeah! I’ve been doing the same. I actually find myself thinking “I haven’t participated in a conversation in over a week. I better find something to comment on.”