Successes and triumphs

[Mæstro]

We often gather here to lament the general state of IT and how the powers that be consistently degrade it to depths thought impossible. All this can paint a pretty dismal picture. Instead, I would like to talk here about our victories. What has been going right for you lately? These can be victories in the world of IT, or more generally in your life if you are comfortable sharing.

To lead with my own, I finally achieved my goal of seven years to which I have often been hinting. On 8 Ⅲ 26, after a week’s delay to attend to moving house and travelling, I closed at last my Discord account, which will be automatically deleted after a fortnight has passed. My friend who resisted migrating the most has joined me on Jabber, adapted himself to the rough bits round the edges and we have been able, as much as his own personal life has permitted him, to converse and play as normal. Even some friends who I thought would never migrate took the plunge after I really left. Without the need to run Waterfox in the background at all times, my computer has been running about 38° on average while it is –1° outside. Even with thirty-two tabs open, under half my store is in use. Any personal affairs in my life which require settling now are minor compared to those I faced just three weeks ago. I went through the bottleneck; now I am free. At last, I am in the place where I can devote my efforts instead to beginning to develop my personal website, which will mean learning HTML 4·01 and working on creative writing which I have wanted to do for years. My old pains are gone, replaced by new possibilities. No longer can grandfathered services bind me. Jerusalem at last!

[mr tribute]

I have been using Linux for a long time. The success I want to refer to isn't my own. It's the fact that I think anyone can download a copy of Linux Mint 22.3 or LMDE 7 and it should just work.
I'm talking about the main Cinnamon edition (LMDE 7 is only available with the Cinnamon desktop).

You still have to install it yourself and depending on hardware, there is no guarantee that all hardware will work out of the box, but it is quite likely.
It would be preferable if Linux came as a pre-installed OEM option for the masses, but then you have only a few OEMs to choose from.

Why am I writing this? Because from now on (in the next 5 years) things will get harder again. We have a new (still optional) Wayland display stack that makes things harder.
We have age legislation that will make things harder.

This is my subjective opinion, but you won't get a Linux distro (now or in the future) that is more capable AND ready for the masses than the above mentioned Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.3 and LMDE 7. The latter is the Debian based edition, which I prefer.

Are they perfect? No, but for "normies" the best you can get.

For people that want to dual-boot with Windows; a second SSD with dedicated EFI partition is the easiest option (Windows won't touch that).

The easy way to avoid Windows for those with money to spare is a Mac, but then telemetry is included.

[Mæstro]

My artist friend who is bound to Windows by the drawing software he uses in his profession reported to me just yesterday that Linux support for his vital software has improved enough that he is migrating to Mint on Monday, after making personal backups this weekend. I have been encouraging him to choose the Debian edition; it has been a superb introduction to Linux for me, where everything has truly just worked for me. I did not name this in my original post, chiefly to avoid counting chickens before they hatch, but this is something he has wanted to do for a long time. The world is in progress.