We have been communicating on the lack of funds in the Foundation for a while now, the latest being here. And whilst we’ve been working hard to gather new members and are happy to see the number of logos increasing (thank you all for seeing the need for Matrix to stay independent and safe, and the value in supporting it!), none of the big players in the ecosystem have actually committed to one of the higher membership tiers, so we need to find other ways towards sustainability.

Introducing premium accounts to fund the matrix.org homeserver

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

^{Amandine Le Pape (matrix.org)}

Who are the mascots of PC gaming?

I recently read a thread elsewhere that says one big reason for Nintendo's enduring popularity is their use of mascots: Mario, Link, Kirby, and Samus. But I have to say, PC gaming has its own mascots too. And if you grew up on PC gaming, you know exactly who I’m talking about. To me, these are the most obvious PC gaming mascots:

Sir Graham

Sierra’s signature character. He’s the protagonist of King's Quest, the game that pretty much "made" PC gaming. If you’ve ever typed "look at tree" only to die instantly, you know this guy.

Guybrush Threepwood

For a good long time, the Monkey Island series was the jewel of PC adventure games, and Guybrush was the poster child. For an entire generation of smart-alecks, Guybrush was what made pointing and clicking actually cool.

Commander Keen

PC’s answer to Mario, but with a football helmet and a pogo stick. If you played Keen, you knew that saving the galaxy could happen in between spelling homework and dinner. The alien menace never stood a chance.

Duke Nukem

Duke started out as just another run-and-gun guy, but Duke Nukem 3-D turned him into a legend. Those one-liners were the soundtrack of every ‘90s gaming session. If your parents ever walked in at the wrong time, you know exactly which line I mean.

B.J. Blazkowicz

Possibly the oldest mascot here, since Wolfenstein dates back to 1981. But it was Wolfenstein 3-D where B.J. got a face and a vendetta. He’s been fighting Nazis since before most of us knew what a floppy disk was.

Jill of the Jungle

Jill is the game that put Epic on the map. She was Epic’s answer to Commander Keen, and while the graphics weren’t exactly cutting edge, the level design made up for it. Plus, Jill could turn into a bird. That never gets old.

Doomguy

Probably the most recognizable of the bunch. When people think of PC gaming, Doomguy’s battered face at the bottom of the screen is what flashes in their mind. Doom is forever, and so is the guy with the shotgun.

Gordon Freeman

For a whole generation, Half-Life is PC gaming. Gordon Freeman in that orange hazard suit, holding his crowbar, is basically the Valve logo in human form. He never says a word and still manages to be iconic.

Vault Boy

You don’t actually play as Vault Boy, but he’s everywhere in Fallout. His little thumbs-up and cheesy grin follow you from the vault to the wasteland. With the TV series, he’s basically mainstream now. No mascot is more cheerful about the end of the world.

Kerrigan

The Zerg Queen of Blades herself. If you’re into Starcraft—and millions are—Kerrigan is the face you remember. Blizzard made her the ultimate badass, and she wears it well.

Geralt of Rivia

Geralt first found fame on PC. The original Witcher didn’t even get a console port, so for a while Geralt was our little secret. Now he’s everywhere, but if you played those early games, he still feels like a PC icon.

Chell

Portal’s silent protagonist. You only ever see her in reflections or through portals, but somehow she sticks in your memory anyway. If there’s ever a Hall of Fame for "quietly iconic," Chell gets a spot.

Faith Connors

Maybe not as famous as some others here, but Faith deserves her place. Mirror’s Edge is the best first-person parkour you’ll ever play, and Faith’s red glove and city-leaping acrobatics are instantly memorable.

Madeline

Celeste is one of the greatest indie platformers ever made, and Madeline is what makes it work. She’s determined, stubborn, and endlessly relatable. I’ve never wanted to climb a mountain so much in my life.

Goose

The newest mascot, but maybe the most beloved. Untitled Goose Game turned one honking bird into the hero none of us expected but all of us needed. An awkward bird never looked so adorable.

So there you have it: the PC gaming mascot hall of fame. They may not have a theme park, but let’s be honest, nobody’s ever wanted to watch Mario lock eyes with Doomguy at the breakfast table. The world just isn’t ready for that much star power in one room.

https://apnews.com/article/egypt-libya-gaza-activists-march-stopped-rafah-f4b4c4775efb0c5afba1ef4acc5b5f98

I'm going to run this as a poll by creating some responses you can upvote. If you wouldn't mind upvoting a an existing comment so we get get a really nice count. See the comments I'm Leaving to get an idea of how the poll works. Try to follow my comment structure, but add your own options if you really feel I'm missing something.

I really hope this works how I'm envisioning. I really want to get an idea of operating system and platform preference skew for Lemmy.

How to vote:

1. Upvote the operating system you use
2. Upvote how your download the app of choice

If you use a browser

1. Find the "Browser" comment and upvote
2. Upvote the browser you use

If you use multiple, feel free to upvote multiple

For anything that isn't a vote, please search for the "bump comment" and reply to that. I know this isn't exactly open ended, but I really wanted to pose this question to a community that didn't skew towards a specific topic. I hope that's ok with this community and the mods. I would love to discuss the results of this poll at some point. My goal is to collect those results in a way that informs that discussion so we're not all guessing how people use Lemmy.

Edit: because there is a troll downvoting comments randomly, you should look at just the upvotes, not the score, to get the correct poll results.

A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.

xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows - DeSmog

A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to an environmental watchdog group.

^{Nick Cunningham (DeSmog)}

Google says a new AI tool on its search engine will rejuvenate the internet. Others predict an apocalypse for websites. One thing is clear: the current chapter of online history is careening towards its end. Welcome to the "machine web".

The web is built on a simple bargain – websites let search engines like Google slurp up their content, free of charge, and Google Search sends people to websites in exchange, where they buy things and look at adverts. That's how most sites make money.

An estimated 68% of internet activity starts on search engines and about 90% of searches happen on Google. If the internet is a garden, Google is the Sun that lets the flowers grow.

This arrangement held strong for decades, but a seemingly minor change has some convinced that the system is crumbling. You'll soon see a new AI tool on Google Search. You may find it very useful. But if critics' predictions come true, it will also have seismic consequences for the internet. They paint a picture where quality information could grow scarcer online and large numbers of people might lose their jobs. Optimists say instead this could improve the web's business model and expand opportunities to find great content. But, for better or worse, your digital experiences may never be the same again.

On 20 May 2025, Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai walked on stage at the company's annual developer conference. It's been a year since the launch of AI Overviews, the AI-generated responses you've probably seen at the top of Google Search results. Now, Pichai said, Google is going further. "For those who want an end-to-end AI Search experience, we are introducing an all-new AI Mode," he said. "It's a total reimagining of Search."

You might be sceptical after years of AI hype, but this, for once, is the real deal.

Is Google about to destroy the web?

Google says adding more AI to its search engine will rejuvenate the internet. Others predict an apocalypse for websites. One thing is clear: this era of online history is closing.

^{Thomas Germain (BBC)}

Why software do you use in your day-to-day computing which might not be well-known?

For me, there are ~~two~~ three things for personal information management:

• for shopping receipts, notes and such, I write them down using vim on a small Gemini PDA with a keyboard. I transfer them via scp to a Raspberry Pi home server on from there to my main PC. Because it runs on SailFish OS, it also runs calendar (via CalDav) and mail nicely - and without any FAANG server.
• for things like manuals and stuff that is needed every few months ("what was just the number of our gas meter?" "what is the process to clean the dishwasher?") , I have a Gollum Wikirunning on Laptop and home server. This is a very simple web wiki which supports several markup languages (like Markdown, MediaWiki, reStructuredText, and Creole), and stores them via git. For me, it is perfect to organize personal information around the home.
• for work, I use Zim wiki. It is very nice for collecting and organizing snippets of information.
• oh, and I love Inkscape(a powerful vector drawing program), Xournal (a program you can write with a tablet on and annotate PDFs), and Shotwell (a simple photo manager). The great thing about Shotwell is that it supports nicely to filter your photos by quality - and doing that persistently makes you a better photographer.

GTK-based desktop wiki software written in Python

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}