It’s the timeless debate between accessibility and exclusivity. Do you want more people in your community by compromising some values? Or would you rather be a hardliner but never reach those people?
Most of the time you have to pick somewhere on that spectrum. It’s a question of pragmatism and utilitarianism.
Does it do more good for lots of people to be slightly more privacy-aware, or is it better to have a very small portion of the population that are super privacy-aware?
You have to decide, and the debate rages on all the time.
The penguin’s name is “Tux” and he’s the official Linux mascot.
I think Linus Torvalds picked it a long time ago, he said he wanted something that was non-threatening, so hence the penguin lol.
The debate about Linux vs GNU/Linux imo, is one of the stupidest and pedantic debates I’ve ever heard. Maybe it mattered 30+ years ago when things were much less developed and only hardcore nerds and programmers used it, but now days it’s only important to grognards and neckbeards.
Hot take, but it’s like those pretentious music enthusiasts that will argue about what precise genre an artist fits into. “I would say they are post-progressive indie skitzo-pop. No way! They are clearly more neo-grunge sca-punk with post-rock elements” who cares?? Have your ultra-precise categories in your personal music collection all you want, but acting like it’s based on some hardcore objective truths of the universe is stupid.
Nobody is confused when I say I run Linux as my OS. Actually, people do get confused but it’s not because of GNU/Linux, it’s because they haven’t ever heard of Linux and thought that Windows and MacOS were the only 2 OSes for computers.
If somebody genuinely pulled an “um, actually” on me for saying Linux vs GNU/Linux, I would scream laugh loudly and then change the subject.
I’ve experienced this many times myself. Been vegetarian for almost 3 years now. Male co-workers make unsolicited comments towards it when they find out I’m vegetarian.
It’s happened probably a dozen times or more. I am probably one of the most casual and tolerant non-meat eaters you’ll meet. I’ll chat openly with you about hunting, guns, best ways to cook bacon, steaks, burgers, etc.
I never preach or shame people for eating meat. Still, when guys find out, it’s a lot of:
“You’re a vegetarian? Ha, your girlfriend doesn’t have to know, we’ll let you eat meat here.”
“No wonder you’re always snacking, you only eat rabbit food!”
“Yeah, my wife tried that crap with me once, didn’t work.”
I even had a co-worker get in my face because he, “thought I said something about eating meat being unhealthy.” I didn’t say anything of the sort, but it was ironic coming from a guy who was pushing 350lbs and pounded 3-5 Mountain Dews a day.
Assumptions that I was only doing it because a woman was forcing me, or that I was implicitly shaming them for eating meat, or that I wasn’t getting my nutrition, blah blah.
I can’t remember the exact name for the themes I used, but if your go into the Linux Mint theming section and search “Windows” you will get several results.
I don’t know if there is a Windows 7 theme specifically, you would have to look for that yourself. I also did little things like allign and resize their desktop icons the same way their Windows desktop looked. I changed the default folder colors to a tan-ish color to look similar to the Windows folder colors. My mom could tell it looked different, but it was close enough.
Making their app icons look the same and be in the same rough location as their Windows machine is probably the most important. My Mom loves the Spotify desktop app, so I made sure to install it from the software center and pin the icon into the taskbar right where she was used to seeing it.
Make sure their browser home page is set the same too, and any bookmarks they have.
Also, guide them through the new install. Have them click through all the typical tasks they do. I had my mom sit with me and showed her how Spotify opened up and looked exactly the same as it did on her Windows install. We played some music and I showed her how to adjust the little volume knob in the Mint toolbar. I had her print some documents, browse the web, look at pictures and videos she had saved on her drive, stuff like that.
That will make them feel much more comfortable with the change. There is a balance between trying to get everything to look identical, and helping your parents become comfortable with something new.
Also an option I am considering. I prefer something a little more professional if possible, but not a bad option if I can’t get something else to work.
Back end is open but wall-mounted. If there is a way to mount the case forward a few inches so it leaves a gap in the back, that would be fine with me.
I haven’t found any brackets that seem to do that though.
I love my Steam Deck. The fact that Valve made it so easy to upgrade, mod, repair, and running a full Linux distro so I can install anything on it is just awesome.
I’ve convinced 2 friends so far to buy one, so Valve is getting hella value from me on that front lol.
It’s so nice that it just works with any controllers, any hardware, can be fully customized internally and externally.
I use it to watch TV and movies, stream my Jellyfin music, couch co-op, play my emulated GBA games, play FOSS games like Battle for Wesnoth and Super Tux Kart, and of course a bunch of my Steam games.
I personally only use Linux now for all my computers. I follow a philosophy for any software solutiom I need that goes like this:
Use a FOSS solution or,
Use a proprietary solution that has a native Linux build/browser version or,
Use a cracked/pirated version in Wine/Windows VM.
Personally, I am absolutely committed to no more Windows for my personal computing, I have been for years. That means that if I cannot do one of those three options in that order, I don’t use that software/solution.
Unless you are doing a lot of specialized software work, those three options should have you covered. I’m curious what software you use that doesn’t work with any of those 3 categories.
Advanced CAD/CAM stuff there isn’t much in FOSS. Same with specialized Audio production work and advanced photo-manipulation. Specialized device support can be spotty too, but that varies wildly. Those are the only software categories off the top of my head that I know don’t really have good FOSS solutions.
If you’re interested in animated shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender’s uncle Iroh is a really solid depiction of healthy masculinity.
He’s kind and gentle, but has a tremendous amount of strength both emotionally and physically. He’s empathetic and loving, diplomatic and wise, but very humble and doesn’t take himself too seriously. He loves tea and flowers, and doesn’t get bothered or embarrassed when other male characters tease or mock him for his hobbies.