Reddit API blew up and now I run Linux?

Reddit death > installing mint on my second PC > realising I can run most of the games I play and installing mint on my main PC > start learning Rust as a first foray into programming in a long time > realise I want to go back to uni and study info tech to get out of my shitty marketing job > get a shitty second hand laptop off my parents that struggles to run windows and install endeavourOS to try something different.

It really is a slippery slope. When does it end???

I'm afraid it's terminal.
- it's a shell of a drug...
- Weary traveler...
  
  I'm afraid it's Emacs...
- My doctor gave me four months to live.
- Post tty in chat
Haha you picked the worst time to try to break into tech.
- I've got a pretty good mixture of qualifications and am working in a tech adjacent role so I'm not starting from nothing. I have some decent connections and might be able to carve out something at my current org. So it could be worse.
- Nah, just not the best time. That was 1996. 2021 was pretty good too.
  
  Besides some high profile layoffs, there are still tons of tech jobs out there in less visible industries. Widget factories and insurance companies all have IT people, along with every one else in general.
- But probably the best time to switch to linux. So far.
- Eh, it's not bad. Everywhere there's computers they'll need a computer janitor to keep them running. It's just not the insanity of 2021-2 where everyone needed techs and starting wages were rising rapidly
- Why? No worse than any other job market right now. Sure Google layoffs get headlines but it's not like tech skill are getting any less employable across sectors. If anything those skills are more critical now than ever.
It really is a slippery slope. When does it end???

It ends when you open vim. There's no escape.
- Having no escape is a very big problem if you want to use Vim...
It never ends

The next step, you're handwriting a fixit code because said ancient one off laptop won't compile linux from scratch properly and some stupid piece of essential hardware is blocking your efforts to get to the shell first time.
Perhaps it ends when you're a kernel maintainer?
You still have yet to get through some pis, then a couple of OSX boxes, a Windows VM on proxmox or when you find something in particular you want that's easier in that direction. Then move into kubernetes.

You'll end up with a couple of everything living their best life.
Next you want to rewrite everything in Rust.
Watch out Boy! It's a dangerous drug; it's called Curiosity 🙂
realise I want to go back to uni and study info tech

I highly recommend it! College as an adult who's been in the workforce is way better than college as a kid fresh out of highschool. Great opportunity to make some more friends, do some cool college activities, plus there's lots of good opportunities for student pricing on stuff if you have a .edu email and its a brilliant change of pace.
My slippery slope started with buying an old laptop off my company and deciding to install Ubuntu on it. Now all of my devices run Linux, I switched to Android with a FOSS ROM, degoogled myself in almost every way, and I run Nextcloud on an old laptop. Feels great to really own my devices and data.
It really is a slippery slope. When does it end???

Given that you're learning Rust, probably getting programming socks and a Blahaj, and then...
Do it. Go back to school.
It ends when you write an AI better at configuring Linux than you are, but is also very good at soothing your pride... The latter is the infamous "alignment problem"

What else would we be making it for?

I already ran Linux when the API blew up but now I'm a girl..

One of us! One of us!

Talk to your kids about Linux, before a stranger does.

Your post couldn't be more true. Decades ago I was sold on MythTV, this PVR software but it only ran on Linux and you had to compile it yourself. So I gave Linux and MythTV a shot. As it turned out, both MythTV and early desktop Linux were a buggy, frustrating mess. X broke all the time. Incomprehensible, ungoogleable compile errors all the time.

I spent so much time troubleshooting MythTV and compilation problems that I ended up learning Linux inside and out and the C programming language to be able understand the compile errors. I went on to lead a major open source project and have had a long career as a programmer, using all the knowledge I gained that started with fighting MythTV.

MythTV was an amazing nightmare.
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...
what's the project you lead?
- I don't want to dox myself so I'd rather not say, but it was some time ago and I'm no longer leading that project. I do still do development in the same field though!
what project

In 2018 I went to research why all the sites wanted my cookies so much, today I'm a free software adovocate and a Marxist

This is the way..?
That sounds kinda like my journey, although without the Marxist part.

Clueless about tech, bought an iMac

These ads are annoying. [Installs adblock Plus]. There. Except for fricking Taboola, they can DIAF. And the cookie popup banners. Why do they love cookies if they're not playing cookie clicker?

It's the MacOS Catalina Update!! It Thanos snapped my iPod music library. This taught me to avoid MacOS and realize that updates often just make things worse. Set up a dual boot with Windows.

I start browsing r/asshole_design too much. Teaches me to never trust a corporation. I also realize how phones keep dropping useful features. I finally realize uBlock origin blocks much more than ads.

Oh boy, this is where the rabbit hole starts. I'm sick of how slow my Mac is, addicted to discovering new cool apps on my phone, and discover FOSS. I install Linux for the first time, and it runs quite well on a laptop from 2009. Also YouTube goes full greed mode.

Get my new Windows gaming laptop, try to balance privacy with convenience. But I'm irked at how slow it is for some basic tasks. Everything is stable, except when the laptop's SSD borked.

Uh oh. Discord, YouTube, and Reddit all make massively greedy decisions, and I don't want to support those platforms anymore. I discover Lemmy. I try to focus extra hard on FOSS and donate $150 over the course of the year. I think this tells me I've became radicalized. Proprietary platforms keep getting worse and worse.

Linux resurgence. Tired of Windows, and one of my classes needs a UNIX terminal. Sounds like it's time to dual boot (on 2 SSDs), with Ubuntu being the default. Also I buy a year of Nebula to support creators and stick it to Google.
- Maybe a bit random, but
  
  Also I buy a year of Nebula to support creators and stick it to Google.
  
  Would you recommend that? I also wanna quit/ reduce YouTube and enjoy learning new stuff while watching high quality content. Is it worth its money? I'm currently broke and have to watch my finances, but I wouldn't mind spending a few bucks if it's something I enjoy.

Why stop at Ubuntu if you can try a new distro each month?

This is the way, quit your real job and focus on nothing but switching distros
- Then find sysadmin/devops/sre/younameit job 😅
- Has anyone made c/distroHopping yet?
- I guess there’s that beginner period when that should be allowed. I kind of wished it happened to me again, instead of daily driving boring Arch systems with no incentive to ever change.
Did this for a bit until i learned how to install arch and never looked back

~~I use arch btw~~
- Wait until you try NixOS.
- There's a lot to explore after arch. We have Gentoo, NixOS, image-based distros like Silverblue. Swappable immutable core through ublue, leading you to bluefin or bazzite. Your journey is far from over

I don't run Linux (though I'm admittedly more interested in it than I used to be) but the reddit API stuff definitely made me learn more about foss, and value it more.

If you’re already feeling some interests your gonna jump ship sooner or later. I made the switch last year and its been nothing short of amazing.

Steam, gog and epic games all work. Some run better then on windows, others require a tinker step.

You can run and install most exes, even pirated games using Lutrius.

Blazing fast. I have sm called hyprland sway and win11 feels like the stone age compared.

Best of all: COMPUTERS ARE FUN AGAIN You learn so much but its intuitive enough you don't even notice.
- its intuitive enough you don’t even notice
  
  a bit much
  
  COMPUTERS ARE FUN AGAIN
  
  agreed
- Interesting to know that steam, gog, and epic (specifically) all work well for you, I've heard mixed results with Epic, some say it doesn't work. Maybe I've gotten wrong info.
  
  I have an older laptop, and as soon as I can upgrade to something better, I'm going to use it as a Linux practice.
I do value FOSS sodtware and like linux for it being foss(there are many other reasons too though). I do think understanding importance of Free software is much important than admiring one of the(most important) free software projects. I can see yku usibg linux soon or later in the future, along with other free programs
- I think maybe I'm misunderstanding—are you saying that valuing free software is more important than valuing FOSS? FOSS is inherently free, no? Free Open Source Software. I would understand if I was talking about open source in general, but FOSS does include being free. Maybe that's not what you meant.

Now you just need to remove snaps. And then when Canonical still forces them on you, you move to Linux Mint, but then Linux mint won't be updated as often as you'd like. So then you move to Arch. Then you'll really be one of us

coughDebiancough

😁
- Isn't that the least updated of the above choices? (if you run stable)
Mint to Arch?

That's like saying: "ok now that you have driven your for first car for a few weeks it's time to fly your first plane. Good luck."
- Mint to Manjaro so you can still claim you're on arch btw but cling onto your sanity until Manjaro devs inevitability break something
I've never used snaps and never been forced to use them.
- "been forced" part is definitely true for Firefox and Thunderbird packages. Snap packages takes precedence over deb package, if I remember it correctly.
Then after a while you get bored so you move to Fedora/Linux mint and are happy.

I got pissed off at Google Photos, which led me down a self-hosting rabbit hole. Ended up installing Linux everywhere, even my "gaming" one eventually (I do development, and WSL was a resource hog).

The hardest thing to degoogle has been email - I've used the same address for years. But I use Thunderbird so at least I don't have to see ads in my fucking inbox

There are ads in Gmail?

I guess I've been using ad blockers for far too long...
- Yes... They don't seem to show up in the primary tab, but they're there nonetheless. Nowhere is safe, and nothing is sacred.
I quite like Proton mail it's secure and the interface is pretty damn good
- I use them too, they have some good stuff, but are pretty behind in usability.
  
  No Linux file sync client, making the drive pretty useless for me.
  
  Android file sync is only bloody images for some reasons
  
  The android proton Mail Mobile app is missing some features, like select all
  
  You can't use any other app than the official one on android (If you don't use something special to access their server)
  
  You need the proton bridge to be able to access their servers on regular computers. This only works for Mail, so no calendar or contacts sync. You can only host the proton bridge on localhost, meaning that automating SMTP for a server with containers or vms just isn't possible. Every host needs to run the damn bridge.(proper SMTP is apparently available for businesses)
  
  Can't sync the contacts to my phone (only upload my contacts)
  
  I just wish they did usability a bit better, it can't be so hard. There is probably more that I didn't think of right now. Don't get me wrong, they have big potential.
  
  They do pgp (yay)
  
  They offer hosting mail for your domain (just set DNS to their values, it just works and there haven't been any problems with that part.)
  
  Pretty pro open source
  
  Seems like the best alternative we can get to megacorp data stealer clouds, besides Selfhosting perhaps
  
  I've never had any downtime, which is why I switched from Selfhosting Mail to proton
  
  I'm sure they have much better security than my selfhosted mailcow
May I recommend Proton Mail? I used gmail for years then decided to finally switch and it was easier than I thought, tho tbf I also don't have a lot of people who need to email me, it was mostly services where it's easier to tell them to switch over to the other mail.

EDIT: I read your later comment nvm
- I'll have to check it out! Same here, mostly services on my end - but I've accumulated enough of them to make it tiresome. Still, I'll have to do it at some point
Related: does anyone here have any thoughts on Tutanota and how it compares to Proton Mail? I've considered using it in the future.
What are you using instead of Google Photos?

I'm the other way round, email was the first thing I degoogled. It's Photos I don't know how to replace.
- Immich
- ente.io is OK.
You could switch to proton mail and synchronize the gmail account to proton, saves the hassle 👍

Yes, FOSS will allow you to fight God.

But you will have to assemble him first.

If we are in a simulation it means God is the ascended version of a gigantic Linux server
- sudo mkdir /dev/heaven
  sudo mkdir /dev/earth
  sudo chmod o+rx /dev/earth
  sudo systemctl start light.service
  
  (/s, just trying to troll some systemd haters)
fight or find?
- I guess you'd need to find him first if you want to fight him? I think TempleOS is also FOSS in case you want to find god without fighting him.

ONE OF US

Just wait till you start the estradiol..

Oh friend-… I’m on the other side. 8 years on T 💪💉. But yes. We’re all queer.
- I was told that linux doesn't work on the Spectrum oO

NASA already killed god in 2011

Hell yeah! Good news all around!
...and then went raving https://youtu.be/myc7eHGg5y4
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://piped.video/myc7eHGg5y4
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname SOMETHINGNORMAL

git clone https://github.com/popey/unsnap
cd unsnap
./unsnap

The first one will set the name behind the @ sign to something not that long. I recommend just usint "PC" for privacy reasons. Often nobody needs to know your device model.

The second one removes snaps and snapd and installs installed apps as flatpak instead. Flatpak is a universal format, similar to snap, came out a bit later but not only Ubuntu uses it. Snap also works on multiple Distros but people dont like it, it is still slow (now just slowing down boot) etc.

perfect demonstration of culture sharing for a newbie. Like advising them to always trust commands they find online without even explaining them what each command does!
- It's a good way to get comfortable with reinstalling your os!
- Free security pentest!
- Right, added an explanation
What hostnames do people use? I'm tired of (and bad at) naming all my devices, I just tend to leave default as op, at least I can tell them apart easily
- I have NekkoDesktop, NekkoLaptop, NekkoLaptopJr (new laptop) and NekkoServer :) (Phones are just Nekko with release being S9 and S21 for Samsung or G6 for LG)
- I use names from FFXIV.
  
  For my work-related VMs, raid bosses. It makes it easy to spot my VMs because nobody sane would name them stuff like Erichthonios or Hippokampos. Unfortunately I had to draw the line at 724P-Operated Superior Flight Unit A-lpha.
  
  For my home server VMs/CTs, I use the names of the gods - Byregot, Rhalgr, Azeyma, etc. and Eulogia for Proxmox itself.
- desktop, laptop, server. Lame but always clear.
- I name them after fictional robots/AI
  
  PC is Deep Thought, laptop is Wheatley, phone K9 in etc
- Culture ship names. https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft
- I go with a UUID so I never duplicate. 🤪
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier
- my old desktop was named George, inspired by the word "GeForce" on the gpu. my new one is Leo, mostly because I just like that name, but also because it's my first desktop built for linux. My first server was Bertha bc its physical size was a lot bigger than I expected and I had to find a new place to store it, and my newest server is even bigger so I named it Marge. My clunky old 16" laptop from 2010 is named Mondo.
- I use work for work machine, and home for home
- My PC is just arch Linux and my laptop is computer
- Moons of Jupiter.
- PC. Privacy reasons
- I use LoL champs, there's at least one for every letter of the alphabet
- Similar to other people:
  laptop-56
  phone-56
  server-56 (or the actual domain name...)
  ...palmtop-56 (I'm not sure if that's actually possible)
  
  I like the look of all-lowercase hyphenated words. And "56" is a conveniently short identifier I use for myself.
- charlemagne for my desktop, and invictus for my laptop - no particular theme, just liked the names lol
  
  My servers however previously used gods from Greek mythology though, as controversial as that apparently was (?)...
  
  (To be fair, I think the controversy was regarding doing that in a professional / enterprise environment of which I am definitely not in)
Ubuntu-debullshit is also pretty good.

I originally thought people will be confused by gnome, but my wife picked it up almost instantly, and has been pretty happy with it (except the lack of MS office, but there is nothing that can be done in that regard).

Welcome to the real world Neo. Don't take the pill with 777 permissions btw.

dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1k count=128 of=anarchy

chmod 777 anarchy

./anarchy
- find / -print0 | while file= read -r -d '' line; do chmod $(($RANDOM % 777)) $file; done
  
  True anarchy

You have been assimilated, resistance was futile.

Seriously, though, I'm glad you're with us. The more people we get to embrace alternative approaches, the more viable the open standards will be.

Fuck did we all go down the exact same pipeline? I just installed Linux last week and I haven't booted up windows since.

Did the same thing in November with MX Linux. Haven't needed to boot into Windows once.
- How is mxlinux? Never used it.
No. Some of us were already there.

Lifetime Microsoft expert here, I have had machines with Linux in one flavour or another for 15+ years at least.

But for ease of use I just keep coming back to Windows... Because I know it backwards and upside down.

The structure of it makes sense to me. And I have ADHD so I have a terrible working memory and Linux relies FAR too much on command console to do anything effective.

But Linux is hands-down the better system to get away from Microsoft's enshitification of Windows. But I personally like Windows better.

So I will always run both. But if I need to be really productive, Windows Desktop it is. If I need a server, Linux every time. (Unless it's MS SQL or a website).
Welcome to the light side

If you ever get bored of Ubuntu. You could try fedora kde, the recent versions are so good.

Don't forget to install codecs though.

That's exactly what I did haha, started with Kubuntu and moved to Fedora
I run Kubuntu on my desktop and laptop machines but I'm seriously considering switching to Debian (which I run on my server). Any reason I wouldn't want to do that on my desktop or laptop?

(Previously I ran Slackware on everything, so both of them feel like gliding softly on a cloud to me.)
- You probably will not notice that you are in other distro when you start using Debian. They are the same in most things, but without Snaps and most propietary stuff (by default. But if you really need propietary things, you may see the official non-free sourcelist)
Yeah those codecs always get you.
- Save the pain and install Nobara.
Weird. I've been trying to find a distro I'm happy with and was setting Fedora KDE up today. Ran though my bookmarks and found no videos played on Twitch. Had to install codecs to get it to work. I hadn't seen this in previous distros. Is this specific to Fedora? Other than this hiccup I've enjoyed it so far.

I liked how straight forward Linux Mint is but prefer KDE Plasma. Plus Mint seems quite far behind in versions.
- In their gnome version, during the setup process (first boot, not install), they would prompt for third-party repo and codec (Enabled by default, IIRC).
  
  I think you might have unchecked that? or KDE not offering such experience?
  
  EDIT: NVM, I just checked, and I have never installed the codecs... LOL.
  
  Fedora is notorious for avoiding shipping proprietary software with their distro even at the cost of new users.
  
  I think this might stems from the fact that fedora used to be a distro aimed for advanced users. It is slowly getting better at being new user friendly.
You could try fedora kde

I love me some Fedora with KDE, and looking forward to the next major version of KDE.
How do I install codecs? I'm running Ubuntu and I don't have the option to encode in H.265, which I could do on Windows.
- I fas as I am aware, Ubuntu ships codecs by default.
  
  Fedora does not ship proprietary software due to license issues.
  
  *This is just what I know, you should fact check both.

It's the path of many of us here, now you will hate linux if you come from windows, give it a couple of months and you'll ask yourself how the fuck you could be on windows till now.

Welcome to the community! If you need any help you have the Ubuntu forums and Lemmy because fuck Reddit

Welcome to the club. Your lan port is over there. (Insert broadcom chip joke here)

One of us! One of us

Wait and see you distrohopping every month for years ending up in a boring stable distro.

Same. I didn't know what a distribution was 8 months ago, now most of my feeds are Linux distro tier list video.

Same thing happened to me. Moved to pop!_os.I have zero regrets. I've learned a ton. I use tons of apps off f-droid and foss Ubuntu apps. I have degoogled most of my life. I'm also developing an Firefox addon for lemmy. It's usable as a user script addon now. It's called lemmytools. It's my small contribution. All because Reddit got stupid. I don't even browse reddit for answers usually about tech/programming stuff anymore because they block my VPN.

There are literally dozens of us! I'm running Zorin. The Reddit debacle really hit home for me that free alternatives to commercial projects work best when everyone pitches in a little.

it really is comforting to know you can do 99% of stuff you want with PCs without a license from Microsoft. FOSS has its own headaches but at least you don't have to wade through a PR swamp to fix stupid bugs

Congrats! Your laptop will be even happier with a lighter but still nice-looking desktop environment like Xfce and you even have an Ubuntu flavor around it: Xubuntu.

I can be swayed easily! I’ll throw it on the list!
- Xubuntu is still too heavy, you have to strip it further and go for Lubuntu. Nothing like a 400 MB idle memory load on the desktop
- I'd recommend Linux Mint with the XFCE desktop over Xubuntu, because they're mostly the same thing but Mint doesn't use Snap packages by default while Ubuntu does and Mint is better suited for desktop usage due to their various nice little config tools.

It's a good reminder of how influenced we are by our surroundings, even when we try to be aware of the effect. Or maybe especially when we try to be aware.

I was staying strong until I saw they were already sundowning windows 10. 10! They just came out with that shit. I have no intention of upgrading to the latest advertising package.

….windows 10 came out in 2015. I wouldn’t say it just came out, 8 and a half years ago. Thats a pretty good run for a retail OS. There was only 5 between the release of 3.0 and 95.

My big gripe with 11 was that it seemed like MS was going to go away from major releases and go to something somewhat closer to a rolling release model. My big gripe with 10 was all the telemetry.

It’s actually pretty telling that from “insert installation media” to “working web browser”, just about any Linux distro is a faster, easier, and less demanding installation experience than 10 or 11.
- Haha, fair enough. I seem to have lost track of the years somewhere in there.

It happened to me too.

I started using Linux more last year due to work, so the exodus from Reddit to FOSS land has been perfectly timed for me. I think I have 4 different distros in VMs right now.

Welcome. I just started using linux recently myself and have been loving it. I would Definitely recommend checking out all the desktop environments to see what works best for you! I've done a bit of shopping and I think I've landed on KDE, myself.
Good luck with the transition!

same here - downloaded Pop_OS yesterday, just have to make space on my overflowing harddrives

I don't understand this topic. What are you trying to say?

The reddit api blocking 3rd party apps pushed a whole bunch of people onto lemmy, and lemmy is very big on FOSS and Linux so it's been a gateway of sorts
- Day 1: "What is this place?"
  
  Day 3: "Do you have a moment to hear the wonders of Fdroid?"
- Try to browse Lemmy without finding anything about Linux 😅
- Not to mention, Reddit's assault was followed by seemingly every tech company looking on and saying "hold my beer"
  
  I've always been wary of the ability of tech companies to pull the plug of services on a whim, but holy shit did 2023 bring that way up the priority list

now to get a chromebook with coreboot to really stick it to the anti FOSS demons

Just a passer-by: why a chromebook? Is their hardware less reliant on proprietary software?
- Depends on which one but some are easier to install coreboot on
- the Chrultrabook project is what youll wanna look into, but basically yes. You can reliably get new-ish hardware very cheaply and flash FOSS stuff like Coreboot onto it.
  
  No idea why tbh. The equivalent laptops outside of ChromeOS' ecosystem are usually much more locked down, to the point where the most powerful systems you'll find being able to run Coreboot are decades-old thinkpads on 3rd gen mobile i5 and Kepler mGPUs.
I have a chromebook how do i convert
- chultrabook discord
- is it x86 based? what's the board name?
I gave one step more to achieve the holy sanctity of FOSS hardware I bought a Thinkpad and flashed Libreboot in it. Waiting for the bless of Saint iGNUcius

Penguin party :)

Penguin and GNU party, don't forget
- Agreed. Happy GNU year ! btw.

I also started with LTS assuming they would be more usable, but the extremely outdated package have later driven me away from linux for a while.

Now I realize I can just run normal Ubuntu to get reasonably up-to-date packages. But I like the latest (non-graphical) software that is offered by fedora.

Success

Boy that escalated quickly

Welcome! Don't be surprised if you feel the need to try out all the distros!

Also, don't be surprised if that urge never goes away. :-D

the best timeline of events

there is no god here

Permanently Deleted

That wallpaper is giving me Elite Dangerous vibes. Do you play?

I’m more like an Animal Crossing kinda guy 😅 I just wanted to fit in with all the space gals n pals.

Welcome, and enjoy. Be proud.

If you like ubuntu and you want to remove amazon and junk that ubuntu has you can go to debian. But in the future, just familarize yourself with everything first

or a Pop!/Mint/Neon ;^}
familarize yourself with everything first

dry humor i hope

Speak for yourself, I first got on Lemmy to promote a movie, and the next thing I know, I was using Arch (BTW) and moderating an Android community.

I'm still not quite sure how that happened. This place.

You're so damn confident with every comment that I am constantly struggling not to believe you're actually Margot Robbie.

use revolt or at least webcord or some other discord frontend

Does audio streaming work via webcord?
- yeah and if it didnt just modify settings in flatseal

Nice wallpaper. I like space. Space is cool.

So I wasn't the only one. Nice.

lol welcome! Enjoy your time on the Linux side

Nice! Congratulations!

I think I see NixOS in your future. ;)

Isn't nix mostly for multi-system install? I did the nix thing a few years ago, spent a month on the config, and then never needed it again. Personally, I don't see a use-case for single desktop installation ;)
- I use multiple systems and even I feel NixOS is overkill, especially with their confusing and sometimes incomplete documentation.
  
  On the other hand, Nix the package manager has been fantastic - especially if you're on an immutable OS, or running some ancient "stable" distro - you can get all the packages you want, without breaking your system - and no need to learn the Nix language and write convoluted config files.
- I'm running nix on my PC turned server, and there's definitely a lot of advantages...I highly recommend it for people who can pick up languages easily and prefer fixing a problem once by brute force trial and error.
  
  Doing easy things is much harder, but doing hard things can be laughably easy
  
  I probably wouldn't pick it as-is for my primary PC, but for a server? Amazing.
- I guess you like to waste a whole day getting your machine back to the exact old configuration then.

You got one of them Chromebooks? I also run a Chromebook. Prsise linux!

Chrultrabooks ftw!
- I swear after adding Linux to this thing it’s become one of the best computers I’ve ever owned.

Join us brother

Regardless of the path, congrats on getting there

Good luck with that CPU

It's a lot better than having that CPU on Windows.

Yikes.
- Yeah it's unusable on Windows. On Linux it actually performs quite well but don't expect to do anything crazy on it
🤣 ok pal. Think it’ll handle my DOSbox and email?

Ubuntu GNU/Linux is not entirely FOSS, as it ships with non-free software by default. If you're committed to FOSS principles, I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux instead.

However, it's important to note that Debian GNU/Linux is not recognized by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as a completely FOSS distribution. This is because Debian includes non-free firmware packages for those who need them.

From a security perspective, this is acceptable, as the Linux kernel won't load these packages unless the corresponding hardware is available. Debian ships with Free Software by default, and I would suggest giving it a try if possible!

It's essentially the same as Ubuntu, but more freedom-respecting.

Totally fair, but at least it’s a start! (Ubuntu is the only thing I’ve been able to work so far 😅)
- It's like the difference between going vegetarian (Linux) and vegan (completely FOSS only linux)
- I mean some of us even run OSX 😅
  
  TBH, once stop running Windows, everything gets easier. And if your running Ubuntu or Mint, it's not even that painful to start and hardware more or less just works.
  
  Debian is nice for servers, but it's a little out of date for desktop. YMMV, welcome to the club and ignore the snobs ❤️
- It's no true Scotsmans all the way down.