My only comment is I was surprised my work - which uses Windows and has closed source software exclusively - has VLC installed on all workstations and even as the default media player as well. It’s a testament to how ubiquitous and approachable VLC is to be included in such a fashion over just Windows Media Player or some other form.

I heard about this new company called Linux

I thought it was funny at least, so you gave me a good laugh.

I’d say Linux Mint or Ubuntu (you’re familiar with this one) would be good “Out of the Box” options. They run an environment known as “Debian” so they’re super similar and are pretty similar to what Windows offers in all honesty. You just burn them to a USB, run them from your desired computer’s BIOS, and the rest is through a GUI interface you can follow along with. I have no experience with a touchscreen as I’m running Linux Mint XFCE (lightest weight version) on a laptop from the early 2010’s with an Intel N2820 in it, but I’m assuming some workaround can exist to implement that. You also seem somewhat familiar with the alternative programs for different purposes, but rest assured both Ubuntu and Mint come with file explorers (Mint XFCE uses one called Thunar which is pretty effective) and you can easily swap out/install a different file manager to get jobs done as needed.

Plus - any programs you used with Windows which may not have Linux alternatives or versions - can be run through Wine. I’ve encountered a few hiccups when doing this (like a program I needed for school which was unable to pass the initial installation and actually run the program).

I’ve run Linux Mint XFCE as my daily driver for work and school tasks on my laptop for about 2-3 years at this point and it’s been pretty great. Full disclosure: I still run Windows 11 on my main PC at home and have Windows 10 on a HTPC/Server with docker on it (though I’ve been debating switching to Ubuntu for this as well) so I still know there are benefits to a Windows system (while working to remove any and all advertising and AI garbage) but if I were to recommend someone a distro it would be as I’ve said above.

Good luck! Hope you find one that works for you!

I’m all in if something like Peertube gets adopted more fully, but given the sheer amount of space YouTube takes up it seems unlikely to be at the stage it is currently with a provider like Google.

For my own usage: I could substitute background noise with music (either through another provider like Spotify or locally hosting the music and streaming it with Jellyfin), and then more long form content could be done with other providers (Netflix, Disney+, or renting from Google lol) or again using DVD’s or locally hosted videos, but it would certainly be a challenge and I’d miss a lot of the content.

Hashtags are such a great option for following. I’ve found a lot of neat and interesting accounts relevant to my interests that way, alongside just the occasional great photo via following hashtags of my location as well.

The Reddit fiasco.

What made me stay was the concept of federation, and how similar to Reddit Lemmy actually is. I do find that my “home” feed gets stale compared to the refreshing of content Reddit would always have every time I checked, but I find there’s a different style of discussion on Lemmy compared to Reddit, allowing for a more broad perspective than what one platform can provide to me.

As that sentence implies, I still use Reddit, but I divide my time now between there and here, with more niche communities being found on Reddit, focusing on FOSS and technology via Lemmy, and larger events (politics, world news, etc) being spread between both.

I think the strength of a community shouldn’t primarily be built upon content another separate community or platform produces.

Now there are givens, like major news and art which “transcends” a singular platform. But repeatedly just lifting content from somewhere else (aside from if you are the creator yourself obviously and wanting to share to different platforms) and shipping it over here isn’t a good look when Lemmy wishes to be a separate aggregator from Reddit.

5 TB in total. Let’s break it down.

• 500 MB NVME drive (boot)
• 1 TB SSD (Games)
• 1 TB Work Hard Drive
• 2 TB Supplementary Hard Drive
• 500 MB NAS via adjacent HTPC (I use it for music, photos, videos, and ROMS for emulators)

The only one I’m getting close to filling it the 1 TB SSD, but I’m always happy to look into upgrading.

Yes, sporadically but usually once I year I give them a donation.

Wikipedia is an insanely valuable resource we as a society just take for granted, especially those that grew up with it. Instant access to nearly infinite information is an absurd luxury we have, and it’s a resource I want to see continue without being tied to corporate interests or abusive government regulation.

It’s never much mind you, but I try to contribute a little around Christmas time if I can.

I have no way of helping, but this is a great idea. Art by nature supports collaboration, and so having an instance wherein users can be local to other mediums or discussions on the same instance as a whole is a wonderful idea!

A man’s quest to murder their father turns the whole world upside down.

lemmy.ca because it’s Canadian.

It’s also a smaller instance, and I wanted to avoid joining a monolithic instance like world or beehaw, in favour of a smaller community I can feel a part of.

… But primarily because it’s Canadian honestly.

Linux and Windows.

Windows for “just works” functionality and software compatibility

Linux for light weight, customization, and overall support on hardware (ie there is some distro that will run on just about any set of hardware)

Isn’t mastodon the federated microblogging replacement? Lemmy & kbin are the forum/news aggregator replacement instead, correct?

Stud Finder.

Knocking can get it done, but the surety of knowing is a nice to have for sure.

Short hair black cats are my personal favourite. I grew up with a black cat so I have a particular fondness for them. Little things like the way they rust in sunlight, blend into black/darker colours (which apparently is a reason people don’t adopt them as much as they don’t photograph well??), and the lightness/sleekness of their coat make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I see them.

My wife wanted an orange cat while I wanted a black one. We both got what we wanted with a black tortie with orange fur speckles. Having a preference isn’t bad and honestly someone will have a preference for every type of cat. For example: I’m not big on hairless cats (lots of upkeep I’ve heard) but I know multiple people who go out of their way to adopt only the hairless babies. Just because it’s not your preference doesn’t mean they won’t find a loving home elsewhere!

As much as Reddit has done wrong (hence me being here as a part of the migration) one thing I always liked was the mention of “remember the human”. This isn’t a network of bots, but actual individual people interacting and - in the case of this article - creating the things you are utilizing. Jerboa has a weird issue where if I hit “back” on what I think should be a sub screen to “home” as the main page of the app, I instead leave the app entirely. Does this mean I am warranted to passive aggressively - or even with well intentions - tag the developer on mastodon to request a fix? No. That’s what support requests are for.

I think people with the advent of the internet and the ease of communication over text have forgotten empathy with those alongside them on the internet. We need to refocus the way we communicate on these platforms - federated or not - to respect the opinions and thoughts of those around us. (Not necessarily agree, but respect.) I also like the proposed idea of the support line for developers of federated tech and sites, as it may provide alleviation for the stress sudden large influxes of users can cause on often one person teams acting as Atlas and holding these instances and servers up for their userbase.

TL;DR: Everybody Love Everybody.

Massive one. People automatically assume those who have defined areas that others are not allowed to access (ie personal/physical contact, topics of communication, literal areas they restrict in their home, etc) are prudish and being willfully obstinate for unfounded reasons, without considering why these boundaries are set in the first place.

The second you inconvenience someone, they assume you’re the problem.

I had the same thought process seeing the software repository on Linux Mint for the first time. It really is set up like a MacOS or general Appstore interface.

Happy for your brother getting comfortable with Linux so quickly! Way to go!

A lot of people have already talked about the onboarding/installation experience, so I’ll just chime in and say a lot of new users are unfamiliar with using a terminal for commands and instead favour a GUI experience solely for their tasks. Most modern and commercially appealing distros are moving in this direction (ie applications running the same terminal commands in the background with an easy to understand UI at the front) but I’d still say the community’s insistence on terminal over all other forms of executing a command may be a turn off for the layman trying it for the first time after Windows and MacOS.

Almost makes me think it would be more ideal to reduce the stigma associated with executing commands in the terminal and find some way to get people more comfortable with using it, both via Linux and also CMD for Windows as well.

I’ve always been partial to “irrelevant to the discussion”.

For example: if a post is detailing increased temperatures compared to a previous year: ✅ Comment saying “This is most likely an effect of global warming” ✅ Comment saying “This paper is potentially biased as the paper/publication is sponsored” ✅ Replies to these comments discussing the legitimacy of their claims (for or against them) ⛔ Comment which is promoting their own content (even if related) with no discussion of the linked post ⛔ Intentionally incendiary comments. “Liberals will say it’s climate change I bet.” ⛔ Completely off topic. “Ok but guys let’s talk about SCARING THE HOES for a second here. Straight flames.”

Too many people use a downvote as “I disagree” when a comment may actually provide a different viewpoint and - as long as it’s respectful and open to counterpoints itself - can be a nice addition to the discussion.