She went to the HD remaster salon to make more foot money.

Sure, Mr. Penguin, come right in. Can I offer you a… fish?

Sounds like a storage medium issue. Bit rot.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Linux since the late 90s. It took me not having to use any non-Linux software or hardware on the computer in question. Currently I have two laptops running Linux, one has Windows in case I need it (which so far has turned out to be never), and I have a workstation that has Linux as a secondary OS but I’m always in Windows on that one because of software and hardware.

When I studied at the uni 5 years ago we only collaborated over Google Docs. I’d strongly recommend online collaboration over sending files back and forth. For most things I ran Linux, and booted into Windows when there was a particular need for it, which wasn’t often. But it all depends on what software you’re expected to run during your studies. If you have room on your drive maybe having a minimal Windows install along side Linux could be a good thing?

Also, I’d recommend a distro that comes out of the box with working BTRFS snapshots. The last thing you want is have the machine you rely on for school shit the bed due to a bad update or something you do, and you have to learn how to repair Linux in the middle of an assignment that’s due tomorrow. With snapshots you can just roll back to before it shat the bed.

Sure, and while I think that’s a good idea, it’s not really the same thing. Even though a rich person is more likely to drive a more expensive vehicle, you can have wealthy people driving sensible cars (especially the really wealthy) and lower income idiots, I mean people, having saved up and taken out ridiculous loans to get their expensive dream car that they can’t afford. Confiscating those two vehicles would be the complete opposite of equality in terms of financial pain.

AFAIK, of the Scandinavian countries it’s only Finland that has that system.

I notice immediately when I sit on mine. And everyone else in the room notices too due to the sound I make.

This is not 'Nam, there are rules.

Yup. And not just fines imo. For instance, a cop who rapes or blatantly assaults someone, especially on duty, should have their sentence at least doubled due to the power dynamics.

Metric system, right-hand traffic, ISO 8601, high taxes on the rich, someone’s power being used as a multiplier in punishment.

It’s huge. I’ve been using ~10 distros sporadically over the past 25 years, and I never ever felt like I could depend on my systems running Linux. Because one simple mistake by either me or an update could render the computer unusable because I didn’t (and still don’t) know how to fix it. And that was always something that finally happened that made me revert to Windows full time. Tumbleweed is the first distro ever where I feel like I’m standing on solid ground instead of on a house of cards that I can’t put back together, because of the snapshots. It gives me confidence and I feel like I finally can use Linux while slowly learning it at my own pace. Absolutely love it.

Also, I see that I have a typo to fix in my previous comment lol.

Totally agree with that. I’m just wondering how many people read things like welcome screens etc where such info usually is presented.

They should have all necessary software installed and configured for people to easily get to things like those you mentioned. And have a clear help section in the OS, preferably with sections for different large topics and what not, that links to forum sections or similar. Steer them right before they even hit the web sort of.

I was just about to reference the waving of a sandal from Life of Brian lol. These people in the picture are a few gourds short.

I think immutable distros could be great for newbies, but I’m just thinking they’re still so new that if you go online to look for Linux advice or help, most things you’ll find are very much not for immutables and I doubt a true newbie understands what’s what.

That’s also a reason I’d recommend something like Debian (although I’ve actually never even used it myself) because there’s so much compatible info out there. I would recommend OpenSUSE, even Tumbleweed, but there’s just not as much help or there to find as there is for Debian. But even with that said, OpenSUSEs snapshots and the way they’re configured out of the box is an absolute godsend and game changer for newcomers.

Because it is either an AI image or it has been processed to look like one.

First of all, LED is not the same as OLED. The O stands for organic. They are more sensitive to stuff and break down over time sort of (maybe a really crappy explanation, someone with more knowledge please help), especially the blue color.

Those things are absolutely contributing factors. But don’t be so dismissive of the allure of video games. I grew up in paradise compared to what you describe, and we did play outside pretty much all the time. Then the NES came out. Our parents had to pry our asses from the TVs and throw us outside after that and threaten us with punishment if we didn’t go outside to play. All we ever wanted to do was play Nintendo from there on out. Then some friends got computers… Yeah not much time was spent outside in paradise after that. And these days many games are designed to be addictive, to make you spend more time in them. We didn’t have that and we were still hooked.

I’m not saying that to bash games or anything, I still love games and have been a computer nerd since back then, I’m just saying.

Of course, I do things because they’re fun to do. But those things don’t require any effort. When people talk about motivating yourself it’s usually about using the motivation as a tool to do things that take a lot of effort.

Someone not too long ago asked me how I motivate myself, and I was quite puzzled by the question, like “what do you mean motivate myself? That’s not how motivation works?”, because to me motivation has always come from external sources, like people, situations, experiences etc. But no, apparently some (many? most?) people can somehow motivate themselves. I’d like to have that power please.