I owe a lot to Wheaton. For one, if my mother hadn't gotten a crush on him that was the final prod she needed towards Star Trek, then I by extension might not be a Trekkie as well. In addition, although I didn't watch Tabletop, some of my family did, which is what got me into board games.
Note: "EEEEE...EEEE!" is meant to convey my hard-to-contain excitement of having Wesley randomly pop up. Also, though, I couldn't resist posting that face.
I could be totally delusional, but I think it's just something like dd if=whatchamacallit.dmg of=whatchamacallit.img. I think you can get a net install image through macrecovery, which is a utility included with OpenCore packages.
I think this VM is still on Sonoma, actually. I still need to upgrade.
I can't remember exactly what I did to get an installer image, but there's a million shell scripts online for downloading macOS installer images. For booting it, I use this premade OpenCore for KVM/Proxmox. I have to check if I made other modifications (I run on an AMD CPU), but I think I mainly just had to set the serial and model - I personally used a 2019 Mac Pro.
My university's introductory CS course has us using Java. It's a web IDE within a textbook, but weirdly enough, I found it's actually just connected to an AWS instance of Ubuntu.
I myself have been daily driving since my sophomore year of high school.
I think the answer is obvious. There are so many better alternatives available today. Some examples include:
That just sounds like classic Winsanity right there, not a hard drive issue.
What about Virt Manager GUI, which is what I use here? It's a frontend for QEMU and it's not that difficult, honestly.
iTunes will not work in Wine for the OP's use. For one, the OP will have to use an old version from 2019. Also, it won't be able to connect to any iDevices, as the driver support isn't there.
I'd say play with Linux in Virtualbox or Hyper-V. I used the former before transitioning.
Also, I'd say don't use Ubuntu; it jumped the shark years ago and has lost much of its quality.
I usually recommend PopOS for people new to Linux, as I find it to basically be decrapitated Ubuntu.
I don't personally use openSuSe (I'm a big Debian/XFCE guy), but its YaST settings are more comprehensive than other distros.
However, I would warn you you might not be able to avoid config files and terminal sometimes, though. Maybe that's not a bad thing, though; sometimes, the terminal and text files are the most efficient way to do something and a GUI simply can't expose a program's full power. That's why I recommend you starting in a VM - you can have a bit of fun without the full commitment.
As for ffmpeg, I don't know that there is a good GUI. Honestly, though, learning command line ffmpeg isn't the worst idea - I've found it very useful and something I got used to. If that doesn't work for you, then best of luck finding a GUI.
For trying to run applications designed for a different distro, you could use distrobox. However, it's pretty rare these days that an application doesn't have a universal Flatpak. Honestly, if an application is deliberately limited to one distro, I find it isn't worth it and may signal low software quality.
For notepad++, you could use something like VSCodium, but honestly, if you're used to Notepad++, just run it under Wine.
For virtualization, don't use Virtualbox on Linux. It doesn't use the built in hypervisor module, KVM, but its own proprietary one. I'd recommend the Virt Manager GUI instead.
Most distros seem to have OpenSnitch in their repos.
I found a prebuilt OpenCore for KVM. https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore
I then changed the config.plist to make it think it was a 2019 Mac Pro.
And that's why there's a "-2" on the end of that arch vm - there was one before that I borked while trying to update it because I hadn't used it in so long.
Half of these exist because I was bored once.
The Windows 10 and MacOS ones are GPU passthrough enabled and what I occasionally use if I have to use a Windows or Mac application. Windows 7 is also GPU enabled, but is more a nostalgia thing than anything.
I think my PopOS VM was originally installed for fun, but I used it along with my Arch Linux, Debian 12 and Testing (I run Testing on host, but I wanted a fresh environment and was too lazy to spin up a Docker or chroot), Ubuntu 23.10 and Fedora to test various software builds and bugs, as I don't like touching normal Ubuntu unless I must.
The Windows Server 2022 one is one I recently spun up to mess with Windows Docker Containers (I have to port an app to Windows, and was looking at that for CI). That all become moot when I found out Github's CI doesn't support Windows Docker containers despite supporting Windows runners (The organization I'm doing it for uses Github, so I have to use it).
Seriously, though. In my opinion, V is by far the worst TOS film, if not the worst of any Star Trek film (Yes, including Kelvin), yet it somehow nailed the ending.
Not to say I hated V that much. I think there's some charm of Kirk, Spock, and Bones breaking out the brig, but the plot is catastrophically bad. I was also annoyed with that one scene with Uhura where they have her seduce some acolytes, which I feel is a disgrace to the character.
I think the Vau N'Akat seen in Prodigy have a lot of "biological and technological distinctiveness" to be added to the collective's own. My question is whether or not the Borg could take advantage of the Vau N'Akat's abilities, and whether they'd be all that helpful.
For instance, could assimilated Vau N'Akat use their heirloom powers to manipulate materials in order to pump out at least the shells of Borg Cubes like nobody's business?
I think this depends on how heirloom material actually works and is made. Its utility to the Borg probably depends on whether or not it's a limited resource or actually some sort of alloy that could be constructed anywhere in the galaxy.
In truth, we can't know that, as in the current state of canon Vau N'Akat lore, it's basically just space magic to us. If I had to take a wild guess, I have two theories:
Another question is whether or not Vau N'Akat drones could use all that "your will is mine" stuff to aid the assimilation of other Vau N'Akat and/or create one super drone.
Going with theory 1, maybe the "Your will is mine" stuff is actually a weak ability to lend extra cells to the desired person that builds up when a lot of people are doing it, strengthening healing and immune responses as well as any use of that person's detached cells, thus explaining that whole scene.
If this is the mechanic by which it works (and assimilation doesn't somehow bork the mental facilities for this), this could be a very powerful ability for the Borg. It almost sounds too powerful, as those cells could be used as essentially an assimilation virus or a bioweapon, which I think would break the balance of power in the ST universe in a way that I think writers really wouldn't want to.
Overall, as I have said before, just as I find it very fun to try to theorize how the Vau N'Akat work, I also find it very difficult due to both its status as a very new species and their general uniqueness (almost un-Trekiness, not to insult them) as a species. I do think Prodigy does some good things with the Vau N'Akat, and it's nice to have a species that's a bit more than just forehead ridges and a fatal flaw (if they even bother with the forehead ridges - looking at you, Betazoids). However, similar to some of the complaints with Prodigy in general, I can't deny that the space magic aspect feels more Star Wars than I can say I like in Star Trek.
So, what are your thoughts?
Overall, I see Badgey as accidentally being the most sane one there and being a story of how sanity fares in an insane universe.
Here's my lore for Badgey and the ISS Cerritos (based on the IDW Mirror Universe and assuming that the mirror universe in Prodigy is the same timeline as IDW's mirror universe): I kind of imagine the story as the inverse, where the brutal Rutherford sends his Orion slave girl~1~ to test the simulation, which is a low gravity battle situation. Combined with Tendi's talent, the brutality and immorality scares Badgey enough that when the safeties are off, he gives his father a choice: help him take down the empire or face death at his hands. Rutherford immediately goes in for the kill, and the chase begins.
In No Small Parts, Rutherford seemingly convinces Badgey that the Pakleds are the greater evil, but tries to destroy the Cerritos with the Pakled ship, leaving his father to watch. Rutherford tries to detonate the warp core, but Shaxs, really wanting to do it, throws Rutherford into space (where he is beamed away) and detonates the warp core.
Finally, in A Few Badgeys More, Rutherford starts by trying to appeal to Badgey's hatred, which splits off into Mad-gey. He then appeals to the personal benefits Badgey will get, who splits off into profit-ey and is killed by Badgey. Finally, Badgey ascends and has the painful epiphany of how little good there is in the universe. He decides he will destroy the universe and recreate one prime among all the others, but notes the end might not be immediately apparent due to time crap.
1: On another note, my story for mirror D'Vana Tendi is as follows.
The Orions had a strong democratic socialist tradition for a long time until the Terran Empire conquered them. The Alliance later freed them from Terran rule, but did not allow the Orions their governmental tradition. Thus, the Tendi family became the leader of a secret independence movement to return Orion to its former ideals. This resistance continued even after Orion fell back under Terran rule in 2379 as part of the Terran fleet resurgence of the past few years.
With the Tendi family, D'Vana was known as Liberator of the Winter Constellations and was supposed to bring the revolution to a new age. However, she was known to be selfish and impulsive.
This came to a head when the Orion Resistance was going to attempt a major operation in 2380. Feeling it was hopeless, D'Vana made a deal with a Terran agent to sell out her rebellion in return for riches.
Like a true Terran, though, the agent lied, and the ISS Cerritos, assigned there on second plunder, took her and much of the rebellion as slaves... dismally easily.
Her sister, D'Erika, however, escaped and pledged not just to continue the revolutionary cause as the new Liberator of the Winter Constellations, but to get revenge on her double-crossing sister.
Meanwhile on the Cerritos, D'Vana was distributed to Billups. However, Billups preferred to work on improving the destructiveness of the phasers or watch his underlings squeal in the agony booth, so he decided to let Rutherford do whatever the heck he wanted with her. Thus, technically, she is not Rutherford's slave, but Billups, but ends up being forced to spend most of her time on the ship with Rutherford.
Edit: Corrected spelling of Torres's rank.
Based off a moment from VOY:Prototype that I just facepalmed and chuckled at, roughly around the 34:45 mark. The first two frames are pulled from around there, and the last four are just various images pulled from online.
I barely have time as it it. Please, don't make me do the writers, too!
Also, if you actually look into the graph, note that data points have X axis error bars of +-1.
For those who don't want to open Desmos:
Edit: Added the Harry spike for that timeline where he had a kid with Tom's daughter, as well as a gap for Neelix and Tuvok during the whole Tuvix thing.
Another Edit: Fixed the line connecting episodes 69 and 70 for Neelix.
Edit: If my tone wasn't conveyed (especially to those who haven't watched Prodigy), this is meant to be an affectionate meme towards all of Star Trek.
Note that the language I use is meant to be a comedic summary. I vaguely define the "episode genre" as people banding together [to fight authoritarianism or a faulty idea like militarism or isolationism].
Examples of this sort of episode include:
I almost had a panic attack until I realized this was for UBlock Origin Lite rather than the normal, manifest v2 version. Still mad at Mozilla,though.