Listener questions, Linux tangents and three-way banter.
User Error has Joe, Alan and Dan working through questions sent in under the 'ask error' hashtag, and the answers wander freely. One stretch weighs what makes a Linux desktop feel polished; the next lands on Pinterest, printers, or what it is like to hear someone else describe a dream.
PRESS PLAY
User Error is built around questions from its audience. Joe, Alan and Dan introduce themselves by name, then work through submissions tagged 'ask error' on Twitter, sent by email through error.show, or posted in a Jupiter Broadcasting Telegram group. Some questions are technical. Most are not, and the conversation gives both kinds the same loose attention. On Linux and open source, the talk can get properly considered. One stretch argues that a desktop feels polished when it is internally consistent, with every application behaving like the last, rather than when it looks expensive. Spartan or fancy matters less than whether it works. Another weighs whether open-sourcing an old Windows release would change anything, and lands on a practical objection: who would maintain the security updates for a code base that size? Talk of Ubuntu becomes a question about what success means for a Linux project, with the answer depending on who is doing the measuring. One episode also gives Dan room to plug a crowdfunder for an app center meant to bring indie open source apps to more Linux distributions. The wider tech talk leans on opinion. Twitter and Facebook are compared with little affection for either company. Pinterest sparks an argument capped by an exasperated 'I hate you, Dan.' Printers split opinion, one voice calling them a misery of drivers while another says they mostly just work now. A question about whether the web itself is becoming irrelevant shares space with a thought experiment about simulating the legal process through machine learning, down to fuzzing the laws for edge cases and a juror who missed their morning orange juice. Then there is everything else. The three trade answers on imposter syndrome, songs that make them cry, whether to take the blame in a family argument to keep the peace, and whether to ask before acting in a relationship, illustrated with a story about strict laundry rules. Working from home comes with its own mental overhead, offset in one case by constant access to a SodaStream. Cold opens toss out asides about mattresses with apps and favorite horn noises before the introductions. The register is loose, digressive and frequently profane, full of teasing and trailing admissions of 'I don't know'. It can still turn firm: one closing stretch calls fights over other people's software choices a waste of finite time and tells people to use and advocate for what they like without harassing anyone. What a listener gets is that mix, with considered takes on open source sitting right beside arguments about Pinterest.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes Linux and open source opinions mixed into unfiltered, off-topic conversation, and who is comfortable with frequent swearing.
What sets it apart: The agenda comes from listener questions rather than a fixed tech rundown, so a careful argument about desktop consistency or maintaining open-sourced code can sit right beside crying at songs and hearing about other people's dreams.
A show about life, Linux, the universe, and everything in between.
An unread bookshelf survives even the prospect of immortality; your Linux chat has escaped the settings menu.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A candid, easygoing move from imposter syndrome to the friction of inconsistent Linux desktops.
User Error 88 starts with imposter syndrome, treating it as a familiar pressure for capable people before turning toward what makes a desktop environment feel considered.
A dry, funny episode about songs, printers, tickets, and platforms turning ordinary tech unexpectedly personal.
User Error's Episode 87 treats everyday technology as a chain of small traps: a smart bed that may not cost much more, songs carrying old grief, ticket systems that still need paper, and printers tangled in old machines, drivers, PDFs, and Linux support.
A loose, warm technology conversation about Linux app funding, ethical compromises, and the mental overhead of working from home.
User Error folds Linux app funding, open source distribution, personal boundaries, and everyday ethics into a loose but engaging conversation.
A practical tech gripe drifts into open-source maintenance doubts and strange dream logic.
User Error's Episode 84 turns tech skepticism into a loose, funny pass through ideas that seem useful right up until someone asks what problem they actually solve.
Fast questions, sharper game tangents.
Tech talk with useful detours.
Few questions, long tangents, wherever the conversation goes
Tech skepticism with geek-household fingerprints.
Engineer brain, tech culture, no polish.
Tech culture through working humans.
User Error Episode 88, “Well, Actually,” features Joe, Alan, and Dan answering listener questions about imposter syndrome, sensory aversions, Linux polish, favorite photographs, and online correction.
User Error Episode 87, 'AksError,' opens with Joe, Alan, and Dan comparing songs that trigger tears, including Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath My Wings' and Mike and the Mechanics' 'The Living Years.' They then argue over how many channels one person can realistically follow, naming Twitter, Telegram, IRC, Slack, WhatsApp, and email as competing habits.
User Error 86 is a listener-question episode from Joe, Alan, and Dan that moves from social media to Linux and emoji habits.
User Error Episode 85 turns listener questions into debates about car names, open source software, shoes, languages, and remote work.
User Error 84, "Useless Dreams," opens with Joe rejecting wireless headphones and preferring a Bluetooth receiver that keeps wired headphones usable across older devices.
User Error episode 83 opens with the new '#errorask' prompt for the dumbest original app idea, with Joe pitching an offline-only chat app and another host a recipe app that just says 'read the directions on the box.' The hosts then answer listener questions on doppelgangers, with Alan citing Elvis comparisons and a mix-up at his daughter's school.
User Error Episode 82, “OK Then,” features Joe, Alan, and Dan answering questions about whether apps have made the web irrelevant, using Joe's 14-year-old niece's unfamiliarity with Safari as a starting point.
User Error Episode 81: Larry Two-tails covers YouTube’s vulnerability, open-source collaboration, personal skills, food preferences, and pets.
Joe, Alan, and Dan answer listener questions about homemade turkey dinners, bargain purchases, master-password sharing, imaginary friends, the gig economy, and warm or flat drinks.
User Error Episode 79 asks why better technology has not produced universally better art, comparing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with photography, clickbait, Avatar, Starry Night, and Baby Shark.
User Error Episode 78, “Ctrl V,” uses listener questions to debate copy-and-paste, personal fears, Linux product design, favorite colors, and supposedly original ideas.
User Error hosts Joe, Alan, and Dan answer listener questions about blinking during hammering, driving, exercise, and recording silence.
Joe, Alan, and Dan answer listener questions about first computers, ghosts, lab-grown meat, social-media blocking, and accepting money from controversial organizations.
Joe, Alan, and Dan answer listener questions about upstream obligations, drug legalization, paid podcasts, domain names, and memes.
User Error 74: Splitting Fun and Profit features Joe, Alan, and Dan answering questions about splitting restaurant bills, funding open-source projects, swearing around family, automated cars, coping with upset, exercise, and punctuality.
User Error 73 has Joe, Alan, and Dan answer #askerror questions about bunk beds, Ubuntu infrastructure, frugality, habits, and hypothetical crimes.
User Error: Episode 72, "Sliding Politics," features Joe, Alan, and Dan debating Twitter feeds, software change, relationships, smartphones, turning points, and political polarization.
User Error Episode 71, “Duvets Are Not Tech,” answers listener questions about sleep technology before comparing European duvets with American comforters.
User Error Episode 70, “Old and Insecure,” covers Linux desktop security, financial priorities, future online interaction, open-source contributions, and free time.
User Error Episode 69, “Partner Password Policy,” features Joe, Alan, and Dan discussing why Linux distro downloads cannot establish reliable user counts.
User Error Episode 68 features Joe, Alan, and Dan answering listener questions about Linux advice, Twitter, electric cars, community bans, printers, podcasts, and hoarding.
Joe, Alan, and Dan answer listener questions about smartphone app clutter, Linux packaging formats, cash, meditation, and correcting other people’s mistakes.
User Error: Episode 66: Cross Desktop features Joe, Alan, and Dan debating whether Linux desktop development needs more applications or renewed free desktop standards.
User Error Episode 65: Dungeons and Distros moves from email etiquette to Dungeons & Dragons and the definition of a proper Linux distribution.
User Error Episode 64, "Abandoned Support," examines why Linux hardware support remains uneven for NVIDIA and AMD graphics, fingerprint readers, exotic webcams, high-DPI displays, and convertible laptops.
User Error Episode 63, “Linux Without Borders,” examines why users create bitter rivalries around FOSS projects even though KDE, GNOME, and elementary contributors cooperate.
Joe, Alan, and Dan debate whether services such as Google Stadia, Netflix, Spotify, and the Wii Store are worth using when companies can discontinue access.
User Error 61, “Faith in Microsoft,” debates whether Microsoft’s GitHub ownership, Linux-centered Azure work, and open-source contributions justify setting aside its DR-DOS, Novell NetWare, and DOJ-era reputation.
User Error Episode 60 features Joe, Alan, and Dan discussing claims to fame, including Joe's charity-event jam with Brian May of Queen and Alan's voice appearing in cardboard-box voice assistants.
Joe, Alan, and Dan debate whether RISC-V can deliver an open hardware stack when practical desktop systems still depend on proprietary components.
User Error’s “Episode 58: Stranger Distro Danger” connects computer sustainability, Linux distribution choices, command-line aliases, and children’s independence.
User Error’s “Free To Succeed?” moves from disagreements about J.R.R.
User Error’s Episode 56, “A Good Walled Garden,” compares iOS, Android, Lineage OS, KaiOS, and feature phones through arguments about usability, privacy, and control.
User Error hosts Joe, Alan, and Dan debate whether parents should tell children that Santa Claus is real, with Joe comparing the tradition to coercion by governments and religions.
User Error Episode 54, “Backup to the Moon,” features Joe, Alan, and Dan answering questions about backups, passwords, Linux distributions, unwatched films, and personal pipe dreams.
User Error hosts Joe, Alan, and Dan debate whether social media preserves relationships or destroys face-to-face storytelling, using WhatsApp, Facebook, and Jono's cream egg story as examples.
User Error Episode 52: Little Packages of Joy examines Linux pronunciation, online platform moderation, and software packaging.
User Error's Episode 51, "Universal Basic Disruption," moves from DistroWatch rankings and Linux distribution switching to universal basic income and technology's effects on work and entertainment.
User Error Episode 50, “Understand The Hype,” brings Joe, Alan, and Dan together for discussions about books, technological surveillance, KDE Plasma, morning routines, and death.
User Error 49, “Not Dead Yet,” features Joe, Alan, Dan, and Chris discussing one-time movie watches before debating whether Linux on Windows, Ubuntu under Hyper-V, and WSL reduce the need for Linux desktops.
User Error Episode 48, “Living The Dream,” asks Joe, Alan, and Daniel what is best and worst about running open-source businesses and working in podcasting.