Yeah. He killed their dog.

So KDE Plasma is just a graphical environment that you can use on any distro. It’s my preferred desktop environment, but Gnome and XFCE are famous ones, and lots of nerds/programmers love i3 (a tiling graphical environment which encourages you to use keyboard only).

So when choosing a distro, we’re looking at other qualities.

A Linux distro is basically a collection of tools that constitute your OS. The most notable difference between distros is package managrment – how do you install new packages?

This might sound weird but the reason is that open source software comes with tons of different options that can be toggled before compiling to binaries, and at the same time we need our ecosystem of software to play nice accross different packages. They often depend on each other! So that’s why different philosophies split the community into so many different distros.

When installing new software, you essentially run a specific command from the terminal. Your package manager (which is a core part of your distro) then downloads and installs all dependencies. There are graphical tools to help beginners with this, but in fairness I think you should be prepared to learn to use the command line to search for applications and install them. You won’t avoid the terminal as a Linux user.

A really common distro is Debian. It’s the basis for tons of other popular distros, including Ubuntu. My problem with Debian is that they are a bit conservative, which means that they’re often slow with rolling out updates for KDE.

Since I’m also a KDE Plasma person, I run Neon https://neon.kde.org/ which is based on Debian but focuses on rolling out stable updates for KDE packages.

I do not recommend starting with a hobbyist distro like Gentoo, Nix or even Arch if your focus is productivity or gaming. If you want to learn about computers, then those distros can be incredibly rewarding, but they are time-consuming. Go with something Debian-based, or alternatively OpenSUSE or Fedora.

Regarding your other questions, you likely do not need to swap out hardware. But some graphics cards have poor support for Linux, so research your model in advance. You can also try running a distro of your choice live from a USB stick (most distros support this). It’s slower than running from hard drive, but you can get a feeling for what works out of the box and what may need further configuration.

Many games will not work properly on Linux, at least not without extensive tinkering. If you’re serious about certain games, I’d say Windows is unavoidable. I detest dual-booting but if you only have one computer then it may be your only option. However games that work on Deck should work fine on any Linux machine.

Hope this helps.

Windows 8/10 introduced touch features that lots of people really wanted, so if you care about tablets at all I think that it’s reasonable to say that Microsoft Surface is probably the best tablet out there. I personally don’t give a shit about tablets so I’m not too happy.

Every other Windows version is basically a test to see what sticks. They usually have huge ideas that push the boundaries of the current technology, and implement it as a prototype to gather data.

Incorporation of web frameworks into Explorer and the desktop, shift to ntfs/64bit, use of gpu acceleration, touch-enabled desktop, now incorporation of AI features. Many of these features also forced hardware vendors to adapt for Microsoft’s vision. So as annoying as it is, it’s probably a good strategy for them. We just need to treat every other Windows as a beta (or preferably switch to Linux).

Things can be commercially viable apart from thd general consumer market though. Hospitals, banks, manufacturing plants, research institutions et.c. might put up money that no one else could for niche gear.

This is not true. I’ve helped lots of people install Linux on their old laptops, they used them until the hardware stopped working and I rarely if ever got any questions or requests for help.

Because it just worked.

The Sands of Time series and Beyond Good and Evil are incredible, and they’re on gog. I’m thinking of getting them, but I have no desire whatsoever for anything that Ubisoft, EA or Activision makes.

That’s not nearly enough skin for my enlightened tastes, I think we may need to ready the machetes.

It’s wild the things they accuse Russia of. My favorite is when everyone was convinced that Putin blew up Nord Stream 2, and now everyone thinks it was genius statecraft from Ukraine.

I have pretty strong judgements of lots of things that I think should be legal despite how I feel. I despise gambling, I hate cosmetic surgery, I’d never get a tattoo, I don’t even like perfume, glitter… you get the idea. I’m not saying that you’re a criminal for buying a lottery ticket, but I’m totally gonna judge you an immoral moron in my mind.

I can certainly understand the argument that prostitution should be legal in order to protect sex workers. I’m not sure if that’s the best policy, but I can see where it’s coming from.

I do not believe that sex workers are categorically bad people, neither do I believe that people who hire sex workers are beyond redemption. I still find it disgusting and I don’t think it should be normalized.

However, to clarify: in this case we’re talking about a powerful person seeking out a young girl to have sex with. He pays for sex. He does not in any way verify age. I think it’s safe to say that he doesn’t give a shit about the well-being of this person, and if it was legal to have sex with a younger girl he would have done that openly. No internal moral compass whatsoever, just the narcissistic playbook of how he’s perceived by others. His followers are only backtracking because he got caught.

He’s saying that cheaters who probably play on Windows, used hooks dedicated for Linux/Proton to bypass anti-cheat code.

I don’t think socialists like Joseph Stalin. I’m saying that it’s a really unhinged thing to say.

I’m not an American so I’m not following FOX or any other American media that closely. But yes, I do remember him on FOX, and that he used a lot of extremely aggressive faces and language when talking about the liberals. I’m not sure if he’s actually changed his tactics, he just shifted targets.

Doesn’t really matter, at least not morally and probably not legally.

If you pay for sex you’re a sleazeball. If you pay someone who says they just turned 18 you’re a moron. In addition to being a pedophile.

Please no I’m trying to live a normal, happy life.

I haven’t exactly followed him closely but I don’t think he’s mild at all. He has some really extreme views on citizenship, ethnicity, religion, abortion, gender and so on. He’s got a lot of weird clips talking about occultism and demons.

He does however talk a lot about regretting being a shill for the Iraq war back in the day, and that he doesn’t want to repeat that mistake with Venezuela and Iran. I think that carries a lot of weight for lots of people.

My point is not to try to whitewash Tucker Carlson, I’m just saying there’s a substantial difference between him and someone like Ben Shapiro.

As I mentioned, this dude said he admires Joseph Stalin. I don’t think it’s wise to to absorb or internalize what he says. But there’s a split in MAGA and I think it’s easy to see why Tucker’s faction is going to command the grassroots.

I was under the impression that the real costs are associated with training the models, in the belief that they’ll arrive at a self-improving AI that will explode in functionality and basically become the most valuable asset on the planet, especially for governments and armies. In the meantime, you offer services to users at a loss, in order to gather unique data that isn’t open to your competitors.

That’s what excuses this level of investment.

I’m not implying that he is. However I think he is genuine in his criticism of war, and by extension Israel. And I think that this point of view having a platform in the US right is going to have a profound impact on the MAGA movement.

This is pretty much always the case when you start a new job. It takes time adjusting to the environment, the people and everything else. It’s going to get better, it always does.

However, skipping proper food and exercise is counter-productive, so do make an effort to cover those needs.