What I’ll say is, I’ve got no comp sci degree, and when I started, I had no idea how the terminal worked. But… My mindset was the following:

1. I really don’t like windows, I’m not going back
2. I don’t like paying others to “do it for me”, I want to do it myself
3. I want the freedom to be able to change anything to make the machine fit me, even if that means I need to learn things along the way.

If you’re the type of person where this general philosophy, you’re going to crush it.

But if you’re more along the lines of “I just use this computer as a tool to do the things I want, I just need the computer out of the way, and working consistently so I can get on with my actual goals”, you probably will hate it. Becuase all your troubleshooting experiences will be “why doesn’t this thing just work, like it does on Windows?”

I can’t speak to it as a desktop environment, but as server, the default customizations around packages are just… Strange. I need to move to Debian at some point.

This is a huge victory, the big takeaway for me is that the person who smack talked the software was willing to get in the room with the designers and help them out. It’s easy to complain, it’s a lot more work to complain, run through user tests, file bug reports, etc. So bravo to that person, and hopefully we can see this sort of outcome on more software.

Does it even count as a mechanical keyboard if the actuation is from hall effect switches?

Traditional distros have decades of guides, forum posts, and StackExchange answers. Atomic systems? Not nearly as much. When something breaks at 2am, knowing there’s a million Google results for your error message is comforting.

This is my reason. I’ve been using Arch exclusively for a few years, but have used it on and off since 2008. I still don’t consider myself an expert by any means, and I frequently pull the docs and old forum threads to solve issues I run into.

Documentation is the most important deciding factor for me. I didn’t use more fully featured distributions, even if they were “easier” becuase if I can’t look up the answer, and I have to live with something because I don’t know what button to press… I mean you may as well just give me a windows box again.

I believe truly having no empathy would make it impossible to form anything other than surface level friendships.

The only precious resource I own is my time, and who I spend it with. The thing in life that makes the hard times seem not so bad, and the good times twice as good, is spending with people I care about, and people that I know care about me.

To be pathological about it… My asking questions about you IS a means to an end. It gives a few useful things:

• I learn about you
• I learn about your worldview, I learn what motivates you
• and I learn where you tend to sell yourself short so I know how to encourage you

Talking about yourself is “giving” when only you share vulnerability. 1 word answers is keeping your guard up. Asking about them is “giving” because you get opportunities to learn about/support/uplift them. People like getting questions. It can make them feel cared for.

And I’m not saying anything is wrong with you. Just sharing my perspective.

And I’m a guy, so I guess you’d really be puzzled if we met IRL!

I was just in a group setting where 3 people who all had a tendency for “same sex attraction” described themselves differently.

One individual strongly preferred the term queer.

The second identified as pan because they liked the flag more than the bi flag, but admitted that bi might be a better fit for them.

The third indentified as bi.

The discussion of accurate terminology could be helpful in some settings, but… In casual settings, or even when negotiating intimacy with other people, what YOU mean by the term means more than the term itself, and you are not out of place by feeling “generally fuzzy” on usage.

We’ve been called out, but deservedly so.

I second this. Fastmail has been a joy to use. Since the users are paying, the company has (less) incentives to enshittify. JMAP? Count me in!

This was such a helpful little example, thank you! Like a peek into another world.

Am I crazy? I’m seeing a github page with commits from 6 days ago. When you unmaintained what do you mean, like no new features?

With such sharp, acidic wit, you might say the prose is… Lemony.

“He was my fourth cousin, thrice removed. He just couldn’t stay away from the bottle and started many brawls at the reunions, baptisms, and funerals.”

This is a phenomenal resource! In all my years, I haven’t actually heard anyone say “once removed” in story telling. I would almost feel weird saying it, despite it being technically correct. It’s like saying “whom” out loud, you might be right, but people start mocking you.

Yes I need better coworkers, what are you gonna do…

The point you raise reminds me of when Signal dropped SMS support, after my efforts to convert all the non techie people in my life over to it. So sad when it happens…

If you don’t want to attempt cleaning it, you could just bury them outside?

Edit: Everyone didn’t like that.

Keep it on your shelf forever Wrap it in layers of newspaper and toss it out Just clean it. It’s glass. Use an ultrasonic

I have a guideline I like to follow when putting together my pizzas, I like something spicy, something savory, and something sweet

Spice: banana peppers, jalepenos, or yes, hot sauce if that’s what I’ve got

Savory: bacon,chicken, pulled pork, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms,

Sweet: onions, picked red onions, roasted corn, pineapple

You can blend stuff (put tandoori chicken on the pizza) for even more interesting combos!

I feel like one of each gives a great result.

I’ll be slightly contrarian to others and give a different perspective: you may find yourself hitting some roadblocks, I’ll try to explain.

I set up Linux Mint for my elderly parents. The key thing is, I set it up for them, functioning as the administrator for that machine, making sure they had a non admin account and configured their desktop to only show the shortcuts they cared about (firefox).

It worked fine, and I only got calls once every few months. They got scared if some popup occured, or if they accidentally saved something to their desktop that they wanted to get rid of. I don’t know if that really meets the definition of seamless, and I don’t know if you’d even consider those problems.

The other thing that can happen, is hardware interfaces. I know that you’ve listed out your use case. I’m just saying that if your birthday rolls around and someone buys you a 3d printer where you “just plug it in”, you’re going to be in for a long troubleshooting day, if it isn’t natively supported.

With Steam games, you can often get away with enabling proton, but… Small issues like being able to select multiple drive folders have sent me down long troubleshooting avenues as well. And when I use the word troubleshoot, I’m inevitably referring to the command line.

Lots of people are encouraging you to try, and you can make that decision. I just want to toss out that it might not be seamless. But I don’t think Windows is seamless either. It’s just what most people are used to.

I started talking to them about my problems and feelings. I don’t talk about my problems with them for the sake of trying to workshop a solution, but rather to share that I’m going through a difficult time. Socially, atleast where I come from, this isn’t something that men normally do.

Let me put it to you this way. You can have a long, entertaining conversation about video games for a few hours with your friends. But at the end of the day when you come home, do you know more about them? I’d argue that you learned more about their thoughts, but you didn’t learn much about their feelings.

I slowly became aware of this fact, after a long time in therapy. A friend would ask, “how do you feel about the election?” And I would respond, “I think politician A is going to win because…”

This is no different than the video game conversation. Imagine if instead I had said “I feel a sense of dread about the upcoming election. I am scared that politican A is going to pass legislation that makes my life more difficult”.

That’s such an awkward thing to say for me, because I’m so uncomfortable talking about how I feel. But the recognition that the wall exists is the first step, and the second is choosing to lead your life differently.

Some of my conversations are “meta” with these friends: “Well, that was an interesting side tangent about steam engines. But I’ve been trying to make sure I check in with my friends more often about how they’re feeling. How are you feeling today?”

And yeah, my friends can sometimes also respond with their thoughts. So I just gently tug it along by then mentioning how I find their answer relatable, because I often respond with feel questions by stating my thoughts, but I am really interested in how they feel.

My friends are quite receptive to this. I get the feeling it’s because all people are craving more authentic connections, but are struggling with saying the vulnerable thing, and not wanting to look weak/stupid. I get it, because I’m the same way, but I’m looking to change that. If you can show them that you won’t judge, possibilities start to open.

I just got out of a 10+ year relationship a couple months ago, rather suddenly and not of my own volition.

How weird, I’m going through the same exact thing as you. In my case I do have a circle of independent friends, but I’ve had trouble going from “friends” to “close friends”. Honestly what I discovered was, that was my own doing. It’s really easy to keep things on the surface with people, and not tell them what you are really struggling with.

Over the past few months I made a commitment to start being more open with my friends, and it’s really opened my eyes to 1) how wonderful they are as people, and 2) how much people are willing to open up to you once you show them that you’re willing to be a “trusted person”.

Anyway this isn’t what you asked, the way I met them was always through hobbies (music, martial arts), or friends of friends. I know you mentioned money is tight, so a hiking group or book club might be examples. You already know this, but IRL always beats online, atleast for me. Something about seeing other humans nourishes the soul in a way I can’t quite understand.