monovergent

Dual-booting, modding, or debloating Windows. And anything but the LTSC edition. It'll all fall apart within a year given the nature of Windows 10 updates. Projects like Ameliorated, while well-intentioned, are a security mess waiting to happen since you have to disable any and all updates.

So I bit the bullet on an extra laptop, exiled any Windows-specific projects, files, etc. to it and slapped on a copy of LTSC. I consider the machine compromised and only use it for what absolutely depends on Windows.

A few years ago, when I cared little about my privacy, I would fancy buying a new car. Thanks to privacy concerns, I became proud to have my old car, which also happens to be highly repairable.

Ideally:

• Well-organized set of frequently-used and recent files on my laptop
• Media and old documents on my NAS, synced to an external hard drive I can remove for travel
• Each device/non-backup drive/USB drive/SD card backed up to its own folder on a large external drive
• A duplicate of said drive from another manufacturer
• An archival copy of my documents and photos (encrypted on microSD ofc) that I carry with me
• Additional copy of the most important stuff on M-Discs

Reality:

• Controlled mess on my laptop
• Dumping ground of random YT videos and CD rips on my NAS
• A well-curated external drive prepared in my pandemic free time
• An external drive with somewhat periodic backups of my devices alongside every unsorted file. I worry that some file paths have grown too long
• Duplicate of the two above on one large external drive
• Another external drive with files and backups of dubious usefulness that I refuse to delete
• An outdated copy of my documents and photos on an everyday carry microSD
• A stack of unused M-Discs

“suicide linux”

Looked it up with quotes and the first update in the first search result:

Update 2011-12-26

Someone has turned Suicide Linux into a genuine Debian package. Good show!

:(

It's nice and easy on the eyes. I conjecture that glossy and matte (as seen here) styles of skeuomorphism gave way to more abstract design since:

• Skeuomorphism is hard to get just right without being excessive and tacky
• Saturated, simple blocks of color pop out more, particularly on the increasingly prevalent mobile UI
• And thus also have better shelf appeal

If it were up to me, the red line would be when buttons and interactive elements are indistinguishable from text. The stock Android settings is probably among the worst offenders in this regard.

What I really miss is light mode that isn't hated for blinding users and dark mode that doesn't plunge the user into the void. Those "toolbars" look lovely, perfect for any lighting condition or time of day. I've yet to understand why, at present, designers insist on pure white everywhere when it comes to light mode. Maybe everyone is using the night light filter so it doesn't matter? At least pure black dark mode makes sense for power efficiency on OLEDs.

• Debian stable (w/ XFCE). No-nonsense, excellent community support, well-documented, low-maintenance, and runs on anything so I can expect things to work the same way across all of my machines, old, new(ish), or virtual
• Just flexible enough that I can customize it to my taste but not so open-ended that I have to agonize over every last config
• It's been around for many years and will be around for many more
• I often entertain the idea of moving to Alpine or even BSD, but I can't resist the software selection available on Debian

Microsoft shouldn't revoke license keys unless it's a leaked VL key being spread around for piracy or the like. The semi-annual major updates seem to count as "versions" like Windows 11 22H2 (now end of service) vs Windows 11 24H2 (current). That said, it's a poorly worded error message and it doesn't help that Windows 11 will cry wolf at every opportunity.

Debian Stable. Predictable, low-maintenance, and well-supported. From time to time, I think about switching over to Alpine or even BSD, but the software selection and abundance of Q&A posts for Debian and its derivatives keeps me coming back. Having been a holdout on older Windows versions in the past, I'm quite used to waiting for new features and still amazed at how much easier life is with a proper package manager.

Graphing and familiar commands and syntax for those who grew up using TI calculators

Nothing worked for me until I designed my own planner. I like to take things one week at a time so every Friday afternoon, I print out enough sheets for the next week on semi-A4 paper, folded and stapled to a semi-A5 booklet.

One full page for each day with:

• Compact visual schedule of the day with a time grid (hours on the y-axis, 10s of minutes on the x-axis) and recurring events pre-printed
• "Today" box to write down reminders and tasks that don't go on a time grid
• Section to jot down miscellaneous thoughts and ideas
• Right half of the page entirely for a journal entry

Front cover has the weekly overview and back cover has upcoming and assorted tasks.

No monthly calendar, any entry that needs to persist for longer than a week or so goes in a separate hardcover A5 journal that is usually in my bag.

Mouse cord getting caught on things. Makes me want to yank it forcefully.

This stuff makes me grateful that my bank and your bank still maintain a fully-featured website. I would be quite upset if I were stuck with such an app and no website.