u/Thandavarayan

Good day

Am a user of the snapshot tool in MX to create custom ISOs, reprovision old laptops using them and distribute them among poor communities, or for field use by wildlife researchers and such

I aim to create as simplified a user experience as possible, including installation, since most of the users are not going to be too tech savvy

Is there any way I can completely get rid of SysVinit and have only SystemD as the default option during install? One less way for the end user to get confused, and it leaves then with the option of using Snaps in the future, if they wish

Will any parts of the system break in the absence of SysVinit? Particularly the MX Tools? The Snapshot app is an essential feature for my end users too, to help with mass deployment

Bonus question - How does one go about getting the Snapshot tool working in AlmaLinux and Void Linux please? These are options I would like to try for distributing to others too

Thanks in advance

Good day

Was curious to know if there are any practical operational differences between the various infantry regiments we have in the Army in the modern day

The three Scouts regiments have a somewhat different specialisation. Mountain warfare and reconnaissance, so I'm leaving them out of the picture

How about the rest though? Are there any differences in their training regimen, operational doctrine, team and force structure, command hierarchies, TTPs (tactics, techniques, procedures)

How about the Light Infantry regiments (Maratha, JAK, Sikh)? Is that just a historical name? Or are they actually equipped for better mobility and rapid striking power compared to the others?

Sure there will be cultural and ceremonial differences between the regiments, since they recruit different ethnic groups. They will also have their own diets, uniforms, ceremonies,marches, religious customs etc

But how about the actual operational abilities? Do they all have to strictly follow a document from Mhow/ARTRAC? Or are they allowed leeway to operate in their own style?

For sure, there will be some slight differences in capability depending on where the regiment is based. Madras and Garhwal will be a bit more proficient at operating in mountain forest. Allahabad based units will be a bit better at fighting in hot plains summers etc

Was wondering about the rest of it, how they are utilised and structured

Thanks in advance

Good day

Was curious about how exactly the Pioneer Corps of the army functions, and if someone could shed light please

Info on it online is scarce, and they all say the same thing about its role - logistics and supply, construction work, stretcher bearing, handling of military prisoners, clearing and laying minefields

AFAIK, the specialist corps of the army handle all these roles, even in the frontlines. Service Corps, Engineers, Sappers, Medical, Military Police etc

What exactly do the Pioneers do differently from these bodies? The job description sounds the same

Am guessing it is one of two things

1. They are an all rounder force that does a multitude of simpler, less specialised jobs, and is extremely mobile. Something like a utility player in cricket or football. Think Robin Singh

2. They are labour contractors, providing muscle power to the specialist corps when and where the need arises. They work under the operational command of those corps. This enables the main corps to be leaner, without permanent manpower bloat to handle times of surge in workload

Am I correct in these assessments please?

Thanks in advance

Good day. Was curious to know how many countries have attack helicopters operating under control of their air forces please. And what the operational benefits of such a setup are

In India, there is a seemingly bizarre setup where both the army and the air force operate Apache, Mi-35 and LCH Prachand attack helicopters

There is some history of a turf war between the branches in the Kargil conflict of 1999. The army wanted air force choppers to conduct some attacks in extremely high mountainous terrain, which the air force refused to do, citing operational impossibility

IMHO the army should have been allowed to try and fail on their own terms, instead of having their hands tied by relying on another force. This has led to the Indian army operating their own parallel chopper force

Are there any other countries where this strange setup exists? As far as I know, attack choppers provide absolutely no standalone effects like strategic strikes, airspace domination and power projection. They exist merely to support and work with ground forces like tanks and infantry

Is there any operational advantage at all by having an air force operate them?

Thanks in advance

It is a common theme in Indian and other military circles for artillery to be called the king of the battlefield. And for infantry to be called the queen. You can see this even in the new video by Col Kaushal Kashyap and Lt Col Kaushalendra Singh about the infantry museum in Mhow

Where does this stereotype come from? AFAIK, you can do nothing without boots on the ground. You can have the greatest tanks, howitzers, jets, special forces, and submarines in the world. But none of them will be able to take control of territory (which is the function of conventional war) without infantry

In fact, i would go so far as to say infantry plus logistics (service corps, ordnance) are the core of any armed forces. Everything else is only a multiplier or enabler. Even something as critical as engineers, signals and what not

In that sense i agree with some of the previous army chiefs when they say the air force plays a support role during a conventional conflict. It still boggles my mind as to why the air force operates attack helicopters. Those things operate strictly in support of ground forces, unlike fighter jets. They really ought to be under army operational control

Thoughts on this philosophy?

Good day

I'm looking for a fast efficient photo culling/sorting tool for Linux

Photo Mechanic has been my preferred tool on Windows all these years. It is blistering fast at going through large numbers of Raw photos

A particular feature it has that I need is the ability to zoom into an image, pan to a detail section to check sharpness. And then flip between a series of images for comparison while still zoomed in on the same part

Every Linux app I've tried either resets the zoom when going to the next image, or centers the zoom instead of staying locked onto the chosen part of the image. It is really slow to have to keep clicking and panning each image

I've tried DigiKam, XnView MP, GwenView so far. They are all too slow

Could you please suggest Linux alts that can do the job as rapidly as Mechanic?

Thanks in advance

Good day

Am looking to study some movies where the director has successfully made the location or setting a crucial part of the story

Not pretty landscapes or romantic Kashmir stuff, but there the liberation is actually a character

Some i know of

Kaun - a claustrophobic and excellent thriller with Urmila and Manoj Bajpayee set in just one house

Guna - the caves where the couple take refuge plays a key part

Two movies with Fahadh Fasil set in just one house. He's a serial killer in one, and a trapped landslide victim in another

Yaadein (the Sunil Dutt one) - Just one character the entire movie. A man all alone in his house, thinking the worst thoughts

Any others you can recommend please? Thanks in advance

As a long time fan of quality horror movies, I've always felt that they are the highest test of a director's mettle and ability

I'm not talking about lazy and shitty jump scare and gore movies. Genuine Hollywood classics like Halloween, The Thing, Jaws and Black Christmas had hardly any gore or jump scares. They relied on the full toolkit of the director's skills to be successful. Unsettling slow burn thrill, little gore, great use of BGM to elevate the tension, fantastic camerawork, tactful pauses and use of silence, use of minor characters and side actors

As someone who has become immensely frustrated with the decline of Mani Ratnam as a director, I've always maintained he should try the horror genre to re-invigorate himself. And to just have some fun in the process

The same applies to other top directors who have burnt out and become stale as well

For some reason, top directors have shied away from horror in India. There's some stigma against it. Which is weird,.because we are a very superstitious country and have a great tradition of supernatural folklore

Thoughts on this? I would have loved to see a Satyajit Ray or Anurag Kashyap horror. The only people who have attempted it are Ram Gopal Varma, and briefly, Bharathi Raja

Good day

Was just curious about career progression paths and options for serving officers in the forces

As we know, the pyramid of promotion opportunities for officers gets narrower and narrower past the rank of say Major or Lt Col. Not everyone is going to become a Colonel. Not every Colonel is going to become a Brigadier and so on

Motivated officers who don't get a promotion take retirement and pursue their opportunities in the private sector

But what happens to those who don't retire? Do they get the option to stay in current grade permanently and indefinitely until mandatory retirement at 60? Or do the forces terminate their services at some point and bid them goodbye?

In the US and other countries, they have an "Up or Out" system whereby if you don't get promoted for a while, the army can send you away. This is done to maintain the age profile of the forces, and to prevent 60yo colonels from filling up all the posts and preventing young and worthy officers from advancing

Do we follow the same system here?

Thanks in advance

Good day. Am only asking this out of curiosity, as my medical knowledge is quite limited. So is my knowledge of military medical nuances

Why do so many militaries have a dedicated Dental Corps or Command, when a general Medical Corps already exists?

Am asking this from the Indian context, where the Dental and Medical Corps are independent bodies. The US also has a separate Dental Command which is subordinate to the Medical Command

I'm sure they have very good technical or administrative reasons for doing so, was just curious what those reasons are

They are headed by high ranking general officers, with a plethora of staff and senior officers. Would there not be a lot of duplication of staff between the two bodies? Heavy overheads. A Lt General is the dental head in India, for example

I realise dentistry and the rest of medicine are very distinct fields. They even have a different college degree system. However private hospitals seem to do just fine having both fields under one common administration. Is there anything peculiar to military needs that necessitate the formation of a separate body for dentistry?

Thanks in advance

Good day

Am only asking this out of curiosity. Am quite clueless about the field of medicine, or the nuances of it in military needs.

Why does the Army have a dedicated Dental Corps when a separate Medical Corps already exists?

I'm sure they have very good administrative or technical reasons, just wanted to know what those are.

In hospitals, generally the dentistry department comes under the admin purview of the general hospital administration. Is there anything specific to military dental needs, that there needs to be a separate dental wing with all the duplication of management staff that the Medical Corps already has?

Thanks in advance