Open source benefits big tech too. Eg see all the huge corpos who donate to the Linux Foundation, because Linux is necessary to their work. Google gets good PR from summer of code, and students will be recommending summer of code to each other. It gives Google a good amount of cultural capital among engineers. It’s not like Google has no cash to spare for a couple projects to make them look good and secure their role as one of the most dominant tech companies across the field.

Yes it is.

Linux distribution doesn’t have a huge bearing on UI, except that most distros come with a particular DE (desktop environment) pre-installed. However, you can install any DE of your choice after installing the OS, and switch between DEs at ease without reinstalling the OS.

GNOME’s defaults are quite visually similar to macOS in terms of layout. I’m sure KDE Plasma (the other big Linux DE) can be modded to look like macOS too, but by default it more resembles the Windows desktop. I’d say go for Linux Mint and then install GNOME (look up stuff like “linux mint how to install gnome”). Both Linux Mint and GNOME are widely used and “beginner-friendly”, so if you run into any problems, it shouldn’t be hard to find answers either by searching things up or posting on forums if you can’t find any solutions already online.

It’s not that they “can’t count to the teens”. The wording used in the OP was that they keep “losing track”. That’s very different and could suggest some kind of visual processing or attention issue rather than not understanding basic numeracy. Those kinds of issues are common intellectual disabilities that people can still succeed with if they find the right mechanisms to allow them to do the same tasks as other people.

I find that alcohol makes me feel sleepy/drowsy, but actually keeps me awake. I just lie in bed for hours feeling sleepy but not asleep. Good that it works for you though (/maybe find a way to fall asleep that’s better for you lol)

Pretty sure it’s satire especially with the hashtags.

Matrix works well for me.

It’s not out yet, but I’d keep an eye on Flatline. It’s by the people who make Molly (Signal client fork—it’s pretty good, been using it for years). Flatline is a Molly-compatible server implementation, i.e. so that you can host your own Signal server. Because generally if someone asked for a “reliable messenger for family use” I’d recommend Signal as a polished and reliable option, though not self-hostable unfortunately.

Idiot on a team of intelligent people. I get pissed off at people being stupid. My team might get pissed off at me but that’s their problem. And generally I like being around people smarter than me because I learn a lot from them.

I prefer the new design personally. Might be imagining things, but I feel like it’s been less buggy/felt easier to use too.

They have a near on monopoly, and even if end consumers start switching to Linux, businesses are going to be much harder to sway. They simply don’t need to care about software quality when they have massive guaranteed business customers.

Initially used by Black USAmericans to mean “aware of the racist reality we live in”. Then racists started mocking Black people for saying it and using it as a slur against social movements. Now people mostly treat it as a meme word meaning vaguely left-wing, but in a funny way.

it’s always available

Until the AI companies run out of money.

A lot of legal protections for workers aren’t enforced, or are difficult to enforce due to standards of evidence and other factors. A union is a worker-controlled means of enforcement. Instead of appealing to power from above, workers can exert their own collective power from below. In other words, it’s better than having rights on paper, because the government can’t just sign a piece of paper to take them away from you or decide not to enforce the rights.

Lack of distraction, easier on the eyes, larger screen, much easier to read if it’s sunny out.

I like to use it as an extra screen for when I’m taking notes on a pdf/ebook on my laptop, so I don’t need to dedicate half my laptop screen to the book. And like I said, it’s a bigger screen than my smartphone.

As the other commenter said, only Teflon permanently loses its non-stickiness. After seasoning your cast iron or carbon steel pan (carbon steel addresses your wife’s problem of heaviness, and it’s basically the same substance as cast iron), make sure the pan is hot before adding your food. I’ve cooked eggs, fish, veg, all sorts of commonly sticky foods in well seasoned hot cast iron and not had problems. I only get sticking problems when the pan is not hot enough. For seasoning, I wash, dry by heating on the stove, add a little bit of oil, spread it thinly with a paper towel, put it upside down in the oven with a tray beneath to catch any drippings, and let my oven run on max temperature for about an hour. I’ve only had to do that I think twice over the several years I’ve had my cast iron pan though; the seasoning should maintain and heal itself just by cooking with it. The same applies to carbon steel if that’s what you get, btw.

My only exception is tofu, which I have literally never managed to fry without sticking except on Teflon. I think it’s because of the moisture of tofu. I don’t press my tofu tbf, out of laziness, but perhaps I’ll have to once my Teflon pan gives out.

Like all of this ranges from unenforceable to spuriously enforceable (eg for rule 1, you can guess whether something has AI vibes—with vibe code it might be easier if the AI has just hallucinated a function or something). Seems more for the purpose of making a point than anything, or perhaps relying on others respecting your policy, but other projects with much more lenient no-AI policies still have people flagrantly breaking them.

I think no win no fee is commonplace in the EU.

I think if you’re at the point of poweruser where you’re deciding an init system, you probably should just try them out in VMs. It doesn’t have to take loads of time. Install an OS, try writing some basic services, try doing some basic config for your use-case.

For the vast majority of users, they’ll never have this problem, because they’ll just use whatever init system comes with their OS. I know some distros give init freedom, but most are locked in to one or another init. The fact that you have this problem suggests that either you’re using the wrong distro and should switch to one that chooses for you (or just pick based on one-line descriptions), or it’d be worth your time to spend a day or two poking around with the init systems under consideration in VMs.

Normally no because music distracts me, but sometimes I want to feel a bit more chilled out so I put my entire music library on shuffle and just skip songs I don’t want to listen to. So ends up with all sorts of genres.

You can just try them out in a VM if you’re interested. Systemd can become quite a deep rabbit hole, but most of the others are quite simple and best learnt by doing.