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I feel a surge of rage every time I have to touch Windows Update.

I feel that. I also like XFCE. I chose between that and KDE on a proverbial coinflip.

I semi-agree. I did that, switching to Inkscape, Firefox, and LibreOffice in the weeks before I realized I should just make the switch. What actually helped me get the experience though was running various distros in VirtualBox, which I’d done in various forms since 2017 or so starting with Ubuntu 16.04, then going through each subsequent version up to 20.04, trying (and ultimately using as a main VM) Debian Buster, Bullseye and Bookworm (Testing at the time). In the final few weeks of daily-driving Windows, I did some VM distrohopping with Arch and NixOS before ultimately choosing Debian Bookworm Testing for my first bare metal install on my main device (it was originally intended as a test to see how I would do things if I did transition to Linux before it just turned into my main distro. On an unrelated note, I had installed Debian on an old Fujitsu Lifebook before then.). That Testing install has survived to the present day and is currently on Trixie.

It could have changed, but last I checked, I think AMD cards actually tend cheaper or about the same as Nvidia for the same specs. I’m not a cultish defender of AMD, though, as ROCm support sucks honestly (biased though because I’m bitter about Polaris being dropped so quick).

Your Thinkpad problem sounds more like some sort of power profile problem rather than an AMD GPU issue, though it could just be with Vega. I have an AMD Cezzanne Thinkpad E16 with an AMD iGPU that works very nicely, probably one of the best-working Linux devices I’ve ever owned.

AMD unless you’re actually running AI/ML applications that need a GPU. AMD is easier than NVidia on Linux in every way except for ML and video encoding (although I’m on a Polaris card that lost ROCm support [which I’m bitter about] and I think AMD cards have added a few video codecs since). In GPU compute, Nvidia holds a near-dictatorship, one which I don’t necessarily want to engage in. I haven’t ever used an Intel card, but I’ve heard it seems okay. Annecdotally, graphics support is usable but still improving for gaming. Although its AI ecosystem is immature, I think Intel provides special Tensorflow/Torch modules or something, so with a bit of hacking (but likely less than AMD) you might be able to finagle some stuff into running. Where I’ve heard these shine, though, is in video encoding/decoding. I’ve heard of people buying even the cheapest card and having a blast in FFMPEG.

Truth be told, I don’t mess with ML a lot, but Google Colab provides free GPU-accelerated Linux instances with Nvidia cards, so you could probably just go AMD or Intel and get best usability while just doing AI in Colab.

Debian backports security updates to most software, including popular server software. Stable also always uses an LTS kernel, which stays supported upstream. So long as you’re using latest Debian Stable (Bookworm as of this writing), run apt update often (in fact, ‘’’unattended-upgrades’’’ is probably not the worst idea in this case) and do common sense security practices like a firewall and (brain is not working), you should be good.

In brief, it’s totally fine to use Debian and in fact one of the best options in my opinion.

Maybe Nicole Janeway will let Tuvix live…

Honestly, just strike out Mac. I one time opened the Windows Command Prompt in front of someone and they were like “DOS?” 😂

For the GPU passthrough, I reused what I did for Windows 10. After that, I think you have to add a few QEMU flags in the Virt Manager XML (have to find them), but after that, you just download an OpenCore ISO from https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore and it pretty much just works (except for audio, which is something I’m working ob. I got a Pulse server running on MacOS once and forwarded it to my Linux sound server over the virtual network, but I haven’t been able to replicate that.) Every few months, they’ll update it with the latest OpenCore.

For some reason, my brain forgot that Domino’s is a multinational chain. 🤦‍♂️ Still, I would say for POS systems Linux is better because the developer can have much more control than a Windows machine. Still, I see Costco using some POS machines that run Windows 10.

On another note, from what I’ve tried of Fedora, I liked what I saw. I mostly use Debian for several reasons: my first exposure to Linux was Ubuntu VMs and Raspberry Pis, Debian (as Ubuntu’s upstream) follows conventions I’m accustomed to (mostly apt, but also just how Debian groups packages in general), and has great community support (though its wiki kind of sucks, so I often check Arch wiki). I use Trixie (Testing) on my desktop to get newer software, but on my laptop, I run stable and just use Flatpak for anything that has seen significant updates since Bookworm came out.

Whoops. I just infodumped. TLDR The long, analytic version of what you just said.

The blurb: I think there are several factors to Lower Deck’s efficacy as a Star Trek comedy series.

For one, I think the classic Trek formula in many ways lends itself to a comedy. For one, I think comedy was always an intentional part of classic Trek writing balanced with other elements, whether it be Bones making a quip at the end of a TOS episode, Data manifesting his mannerisms, or Tom calling Tuvok a real freakasaurus. In addition, there was often the unintentional humor in Star Trek or the camp (granted I am a younger viewer), whether it be the ironically funny punk depiction in Star Trek IV, Troi uncomfortably harnessed in a dark, surreal environment with mediocre effects, or chuckling at what DS9’s 2024 gets horrifically and laughably wrong. Lower Decks utilizes the classic Trek formula by amplifying the intentional comedic writing while strategically replacing the unintentional humor with well-placed satire.

I also think that Lower Decks expresses a love of Trek that other Trek shows (though I have enjoyed them somewhat) seem to lack despite (or maybe because) its comedic focus, both through satire and fidelity. Rather than trying to make Star Trek darker and edgier for the sake of 21st century, Lower Decks does a great job of reviving the 24th century, whether it be the aesthetic faithfulness of the LCARS panels compared to other recent Treks, the new-yet-familiar 24th century ships that feel like the old kit-bashes in spirit, or wacky holodeck sports. In addition, although there is some of the humor typical to adult animation that I don’t necessarily enjoy, namely innuendo, a lot of the humor is well done, whether it be references that are niche for even the most savvy Star Trek fan, satires that simultaneously are funny while re-exploring previous Star Trek concepts and characters, or honestly comedy that even stands on its own without becoming so surreal the episode is some futile incoherent mess.

I also feel that what Lower Decks does great at that many other comedy shows and just shows in general fail to do, and that’s not letting its primary genre interfere with storytelling. Lower Decks is fundamentally a comedy show, but like a true Star Trek, most episodes have a moral (MAYBE NOT Rise of Vindicta, but I’ll give that a pass). The Cerritos is an explorer, but whereas the Enterprise may have explored grand political themes, the Cerritos uses its crew to light-heartedly (or sometimes, heavily) voyage through career ambition, the mother-daughter relationship, death, personal growth, collaboration, and much more in a unique, yet fundamentally Star Trek fashion, letting the moral guide the comedy without letting it get sappy. I’d in fact go as far to say that Lower Decks does character development better than the majority of Star Trek series (which often struggle with a character focus), probably only rivaled by DS9.

Overall, I think (and hope) any future Star Trek series regardless of genre would do well to follow Lower Deck’s example in building itself around what makes Star Trek Star Trek.

P.S I’m a bit biased because I’m starting to think Bradward Boimler is my spirit animal. To find that out, you first have to think you want to be another Star Trek character (a Data, a Kira, a Bones, etc.) and then slowly realize that you’re just trying to be that character (kind of like imposter syndrome except hopefully you come to an epiphany that you need to try and be your own person).

At first, I was trying to think of some alternate explanation like they’d just bothered to install Unity on a newer version (which I instantly had to self-reject that notion as bonkers). My guess is that that’s the version the stack was developed for and initially rolled out at guinea pig restaurants before a wider introduction (I don’t know when these were introduced, as I rarely do Dominoes.).

Not really much of a problem with it, as if it’s 16.04, it’s still getting extended updates to 2028 and will probably have a paid extra two years offered that Dominoes is willing to pay. If it’s 14.04, then it’s already on paid extended support until 2024.

Not that I’d touch straight Ubuntu with a 39 and a half-foot pole anytime soon, though some derivatives manage to make good out of it, the best being in my opinion PopOS.