I think there’s room for an exception here: operating systems or other software that handles a large number of files could bog down with use as the number and size of files grow with time.

The extremely short version is: I started playing with Raspberry Pis and learning a bit about Debian right about the time my old Win 7 laptop died, I got a new laptop with Win 8.1, which A) sucked and B) had major hardware problems for months, during which time I only had a couple Raspberry Pis to do my work on. So by the time I got a reliable Win 8.1 machine, it felt less familiar to me than Debian, so I switched, ended up running Linux Mint 17 on that machine.

Somehow, T9 worked better than basically anything we have now.

Fairphones run Android, don’t they?

Roku started off selling a series of little boxes with HDMI ports (or little sticks that plug into an HDMI port on a TV) to to make any HDMI monitor a “smart TV.” Hardware-wise it’s not dissimilar to a Raspberry Pi, it’s a little ARM chip made by Broadcom running Linux with a smart TV GUI running on it. Nowadays TV manufacturers build in a little ARM computer into the television itself and partner with Roku, or Google, or maybe one or two others, to do the UI and such.

My understanding of that story was Mint kind of did their own thing first, then Ubuntu (or Debian above them) also did it, and I didn’t know if Mint adopted the upstream thing or kept their version.

I would prefer to go in the opposite direction and have a completely open source phone rather than more closed down.

Does Mint still maintain their own apt command?

I did it once, intending to reinstall it. Basically everything broke including APT. sudo apt install python didn’t work. That was a reinstall.

To be fair, the machine they replaced my original Inspiron with (also a 7000 series from 2014) is still working after a bit of a post-warranty glow-up including replacing the battery, CPU fan and HDD with an SSD. It’s in “still works fine running Mint” territory. When it finally snaps I’m going Framework.

Back in the beforetimes I had a fairly long commute to work, I pretty much had to rely on what I could carry with me, so I had a rather significant EDC which included several tools, utilities, comforts, conveniences and PPE between my pants pockets and my laptop bag. Now I don’t even carry a Leatherman with me and when I do leave the house it’s just keys-wallet-phone.

I’ve seen Gnome spiffed up to a level of polish I’d expect from an Apple commercial. I hate using it, but some folks get it looking nice.

the fact the install media can’t provide a working desktop by itself is pathetic.

BeOS/Haiku?

“Do you like whiskey?”

“I don’t think so; the mocha lavender thai peanut aqua velva bourbon I tried wasn’t great.”

If it’s a brewpub or similar, I tend to go for darker beers. And since the “All Craft Beers Are IPAs Now Act Of 2018” was signed into law I have just stopped going to brewpubs entirely.

If you’re going to open a bottle or can for me it’s probably going to be cider, though I notice the ciders that bars tend to stock are trending in an acidic and heartburn inducing direction so I don’t walk in there as often anymore.

I’ll order a neat bourbon unless it’s hot/I’ve been working hard then I’ll order a whiskey and coke.

If you want to get into cocktails, I can think of a couple ways in.

1. White Russians. Pleasant sipping cocktail if a little heavy because of the cream.

2. Crown and coke. Crown Royal is technically a whiskey. Many of its fans don’t identify it as such, and neither do many whiskey fans. A shot of crown stirred into a glass of cola will present as a glass of cola with a little bit of an interesting flavor added. From there you can graduate to bourbon and coke, Jim Beam or Jack Daniels are common enough and pair well with cola. If you survive this long, maybe try this experiment: order a whiskey and cola, and then a rum and cola, find the differences in those flavors.

If you’re up to those shenanigans, maybe try going to a bar on a Tuesday afternoon when it’s a little slower, talk to the bartender tell them you’re wanting to explore cocktails and see if they’ll mix you smaller portions of a couple drinks like that, so you can test A and B. You would be amazed what that can do to open up your palette. If I handed you one glass of neat scotch, it might as well be a goblet of gasoline. If I hand you two glasses of different whiskies you’ll find some flavor in there.

Each time I tell this story, I try to make it shorter and more terse.

Circa 2012 or 2013 I bought a Raspberry Pi as part of my ham radio hobby. With that I learned a little bit of Python and Bash, learned to type sudo etc, and kinda liked what I saw. Meanwhile, my Win 7 laptop died right as I was going back to school, so I bought a new laptop. This new laptop had two problems: 1. it came with Windows 8.1 and 2. it was a lemon. For most of the first semester going back to school I had no reliable laptop. The only modern supported computer I had was that Raspberry Pi. And for most of a semester that’s what I did school assignments and email on until I finally bullied Dell into replacing that lemon Inspiron they sold me outright.

So by the time I got a reliable x86 laptop in hand, Linux felt more normal to me than Win 8.1 did. So I fully switched.

That was 10 years ago now, and for the last decade I’ve heard Windows users do nothing but piss and moan about the new holes Microsoft has found to fuck them in.

guillotines are renaissance era.

Amazon certainly helped.

The stagnation of several anchor stores like Sears also helped. Sears was in serious decline well before Amazon became a major player in the market.