Every time I see this story I laugh. Thanks for posting it.

party of “law” and “order”

Party of “their law” and “their order”

The Sith have been dead for a thousand years!

True, although I should have specified that I was talking about the computer generated models.

Same. I heard MS was checking out the possibility of adding advertising in the file explorer. I don’t know the veracity of the reports or where I saw them, but it spooked me enough that I knew I needed to get started familiarizing myself with something else before I had no options.

I’ll never go back. Ever.

I loved Windows 7. It hurts a little every time I come across someone still running it as a daily driver and I recoil in horror as I recommend basically anything else

Awesome informative reply. I’ve long wondered about how some creators get the same “face” in some insta accounts.

Jesus Christ. I’ve never been so thankful for being a Linux noob in my life. That sounds awful.

Heads up, the bootloader cannot be unlocked if you buy a pixel through Verizon. You have to buy it straight from Google if you want to install anything custom.

Source: I have a pixel 6 pro from Verizon that I got originally thinking to try out grapheneOS.

Same. I think my neighbors would shit a brick if they ever found out that there are more guns in my house than people, that I’m a veteran, and that I vote Democrat.

I 100% would rather have shit break sometimes than find windows settings that are buried several layers deep in the UI simply because Microsoft wants me to use my computer in a certain way

They did that in South Dakota when they voted to legalize recreational Marijuana. The governor used a single-subject technicality and anti-mariuana geriatric judges agreed. Then two years and millions of dollars in smear campaigns later they had a rematch that soundly defeated recreational use when it was voted on again.

By tearing their opponents down, they are comparatively better off with no actual gain

But are you sure you don’t want to make Edge your default browser??

Mint is an awesome option too. For me it came down to the UI as the primary decision factor. I prefer MacOS aesthetics to Windows.

There are a host of other issues I have with how Microsoft (and Apple!!) do things, and really, the GUI is the least of those problems. But it is also the most obvious problem because I’m looking at it all day at work.

In that case, Pop!_OS might be a good option to try. It’s built on Ubuntu and doesn’t have snapd garbage on it. I’ve been using it as a daily driver for 2 years now and I’ve had zero problems.

It just blows my mind that mainstream Republicans would rather work with extremists than normal Americans.

It sounds like you’re more familiar with Linux than the average person, so I’ll forgo advising Ubuntu or Mint. I personally prefer Pop!_OS, but that’s also because I was a MacOS user for a while and like the feel of that.

I am also more comfy on distros that use the apt package manager, but learning a new one is pretty minor.

As you said you like Win7, which feels fairly straight forward, there are a couple that strike me as something you might like. They are less flashy, lower on resource requirements, and generally stay out of the way.

1. Xubuntu - it’s based off Ubuntu, and is downstream from Debian, so there is quite a bit of support in forums that is applicable. It’s pretty lightweight, and gets the job done. Everything generally seems to “just work”. The bad: resizing windows with the mouse cursor is sensitive and difficult.

2. MX Linux, or a distro with a KDE environment (there are several (Ubuntu, neon, or pop_OS(?)). KDE feels a lot like “windows”, but also incorporates some sensible enhancements. The enhancements aren’t flashy (not like Mint)… they just make sense and feel right. The Bad: you need to go into settings and change single-clicking a file/program from opening the item to selecting it. One thing to note is that MXLinux does add a few things to the right click contextual menu, which might also drive you nuts–it does me. MX is good, but didn’t feel right for me. The other KDE options don’t do this IIRC.

3. EndeavorOS - A pretty lightweight option that also feels very traditional with few frills like Win7. I don’t have as much experience with this distro as I would like. It uses Pakman and AUR, which I am least familiar with, and is also a rolling distro from what I understand, which might eliminate this option if you’re looking for stability. Although, I’ve read many comments from people who have had zero issues for years with it. But, there are things you have to be proactive about like snapshotting before updating that can make it a hassle.

Distrowatch.com is a great tool to check the pros and cons out if you haven’t seen it already.

EDIT: I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, but you can also simply install KDE on Debian as well. This might be a really good option since you’re already familiar with it.

Any idea what distro you’re leaning toward?

I would never ever recommend not updating windows, but if it is maybe just a dedicated gaming OS and you don’t use it for internet browsing or anything else, you might be able to get away with it.