I feel you on that. Even not being on xyz social trend of the day you still get exposed to the mentality of it by the people that are. To some extent that’s fine, but it can get old really quickly.

I don’t want to doom scroll all day and night. I don’t want to socialize on media and follow people or have followers. Random people are not my entertainment. I don’t need my phone in my hand 24/7.

My take is that I will live my life by my culture. If people see me be me and follow my example, great. If people think I’m a weirdo, oh well I’ll just go do my own thing.

I just responded to another comment about this. I agree that keeping the money we pay to the federal government can be redistributed, but I’m not confident the government has the proper structure to do so.

Basically, they mismanage what they do today, so why should I conclude they can handle additional responsibilities tomorrow? More money doesn’t fix existing problems. Fix the problems first, get your existing budget in line, address the current responsibilities adequately, and that’s evidence you’ll do a good job with more.

That’s a fair point. The FEMA funding can be redirected. However my “characterization” is based on the tone of actual responses so that doesn’t make it inaccurate. But I’ll go with that wording because I think its a good description as well.

My point is, the California budget is in shambles constantly. This fact is emphasized by negatives in the state as well. I do not believe that the state government can adequately create a functioning independent government, even if they get to keep their federal payments. More money doesn’t fix inherent problems. They haven’t proven that they can’t manage what they are doing today, let alone give them more responsibility.

I think its not a very mature outlook to discuss independence when you don’t have your crap together.

You seem to believe that the CA government has good management over everything. I’m OK with that but I disagree. And I think that’s the root of the separation in our thinking and interpretation of things.

I actually think it would be a good serious consideration of breaking from the union, but I’m not sold on it. And I don’t think the state is ready to have that discussion.

I was referring to the 2020 fires. And It was both. I say “crying” because literally one week the vocal statement was “we don’t need the federal government” and the next week it was “you need to give us federal aid now”.

Yes, that is what FEMA is for, and California should (and did) get it. But the F is FEMA is Federal. You can’t have it both ways.

Again, I’m not for or against the concept. I’m just saying its very clear California is not able to separate.

The last time this was seriously touted weather hit a few weeks later and the state cried for federal help. Whether its a good idea or a bad idea isn’t the point. The point is the state can’t support itself so independence will fail regardless.

Companies that want control over their videos. I.e. not to have ads play, not to have their videos followed by suggested content that sends viewers to competitors, nor have that alternate content show when the UI is paused or interacted with. It also allows updating of videos (whereas YouTube makes you upload a new video and you loose all links or view stats/momentum from the switch)

It basically works offline.

You need a canva account associated with it, and there is a periodic online check in if I recall correctly. But it’s not an online always scenario in the slightest.

Though I have never used their AI tools/features at all, which might require online because it uses their servers (just speculation)

You can also try Caffeine which will prevent sleep and the monitors from turning off. It would be a dumb solution but could be a good temporary work around / troubleshooting tool.

Gotcha. That’s a fair point. I kind of jumped to the end because the typical response is to “just use libre office” and OP is clearly a power spreadsheet person where that’s not gong to work.

That’s my point. There are lots of spreadsheet options, but if they don’t meet all the needs then they really aren’t alternatives. Maybe it’s semantics, but I find that definition to not be misleading and keep expectations in line.

There is no Excel alternative. It sucks, bit its the reality. I run a VM specifically for a couple windows apps and 90% of that is excel.

I use version 2019 and manipulated the installer to only install excel and none of the other office suite apps.

You can also do the same in a docker container instead of VM (winboat) if that’s more your jam.

If you want more info on any of that I’d be glad to give you more details.

Yo dawg, I heard you like language in your language.

It’s my opinion that most people think of all the technology as it were 15 years ago. Apple was innovative, Google wasn’t evil, Windows worked well, and Linux was not as accessible as it is today.

I had two bouts with Linux in the distant past, and neither time did I think Linux was anything worth pursuing. Not that it was bad, I just didn’t see a benefit over the alternatives. In fact the alternatives had all the benefits in my mind.

When I switched a year ago, I was blown away how far it had come as far as being accessible. Now I can’t imagine using Windows as my primary OS ever again.

The other major advantage is your ISP can’t build a profile on you. Considering they know who you are and where you live, that’s a pretty important air gap to me.

Windows troubleshooting is always SFC and DISM as the new “have you tries turning it off and on again” default first recommended step lol.

Like others said, bazzite and pop os, though I’ve never used either. I use mint and never had a problem.

Though it should be pointed out that some MP games that use a kernel level anti cheat can’t be played (battlefield 6 for instance).

But I also wanted to mention, you can run Linux from a USB flash drive. So of you want to try out one of them without actually installing it, you easily can. If you don’t like it you don’t install. If you do, then you go for the full install. Easy non committal trial so to speak.

Yeah, I always bring this up because it’s what I dealt with. Mind you, it was amplified because I set up a media server right away and got seriously confused.

What? Permissions don’t get inherited? OK fine, so how do you set permissions? This site says 755 and this site says drwxr-xr-x. Can’t I just get a straight answer?

It’s a fundamental functioning difference between the OS’s that not a lot of people talk about when talking about switching.

Even my Windows machine that is set up with an admin/user structure (as God intended) doesn’t give me any fuss with file access.

I find that one of the biggest differences is the file ownership/group design, and the non admin user. Sure, it might not come up in a straightforward manner, but it will.

Why do I need to put in a password all the time? How come I can’t just move this file to another drive?

This might be too “advanced” for what you’re looking for, but I think even basic usage comes across this.

I switched to Linux about a year ago. I was a windows power user and now I’m a Linux noob, but couldn’t be happier.

I hate to say it, but there’s still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can’t get away from.

For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won’t or can’t make the switch, which I’m respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.

People won’t care until they have a reason to care. I’ll still be around when they do.

Oh, good to know. I had no idea this was a thing.