I really like Flatpaks, even if I was highly skeptical at first. I haven’t had many issues, and I actually feel they have made installation and management easier. Yes, they take up more space, but that hasn’t inconvenienced me at all. It’s a really good system that solves some long running issues with Linux software distribution.

While I haven’t used it, I like GNU Guix a lot conceptually also.

Yeah, Canonical has been sketchy for a long time. And every now and then they make a move that just reminds me why I stay away from Ubuntu.

Yeah, that’s how I do it every morning.

Sometimes, when the ol’ 'puter is cranky, I have to press the reset button, which is really small, and it’s difficult to hit it with my toe (I have to do some tricky nail work, not for beginners), but I’ll be damned if I ever reach down and use my fingers.

Man I do miss foobar2000, it was a perfect all-in-one package that did things I need multiple Linux programs for. Great piece of software. However, in the spirit of this community, it’s not Open Source.

Out of all the music players I’ve tried on Linux, Clementine variants like Strawberry are the best ones for my needs. I’m not entirely sure of #2, but otherwise yeah, it does all that and more.

Audacious is also a decent low resource player.

I’m starting Winter’s Heart, the ninth book of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I’m actually looking forward to this, since I liked the previous book. It felt like things were finally happening and moving along, characters even got some character development! Let’s see if that keeps up.

Whoops, I made a typo. I’ll leave it in.

Is this a programming of physics joke?

This is pretty much my experience with King. I highly appreciate his ability to consistently create great story ideas, but his actual writing is just kind of bad. Since he has so many books, there might be some good ones in there, but from what I’ve read I’m not impressed. Not that he needs to impress me, he’s done fine for himself.

Snortin’ Whiskey, Drinkin’ Cocaine.

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It’s been really good so far!

I’ll throw my vote in with Fedora KDE Plasma. The fact you run it will absolutely help with any possible troubleshooting, and Plasma is IMO great for anyone coming from Windows. Fedora, from my experience, doesn’t throw many curve balls your way either.

Good luck with your friend’s transition!

GOG does have its issues and controversies, but it’s still the only online gaming store with conditions I find acceptable. If the game is not available DRM Free, I don’t need to play it.

I’m reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s a Russian book written in the early 1900s, and it tells the story of Satan visiting the Soviet Union. Naturally, it was originally released in a censored form. I don’t know, the book felt relevant somehow.

I’m still working through V. by Thomas Pynchon. I intend to finish it, even though I’m not enjoying it all that much. It reads like a weird overly verbose dream, and it’s intentionally opaque. At the same time, I recognize that a book like this is incredibly hard to write. I can see the spark of genius in Pynchon, I just don’t like his style. Oh well.

As I understand it: To avoid the shutdown, Republicans needed 60 votes. They have 53 senators. Only one Democrat voted with the Republicans. The Democrats had some healthcare related demands that weren’t met, so the shutdown went ahead.

I’m starting V. by Thomas Pynchon. I’m going in pretty much blind, don’t know the author or the book at all. I just saw his name in the news and realized I’d seen this book at the library, so here we are.

I also recently read Solaris by Stanisław Lem. I first read it in my early teens and I liked it then, but I feel these decades have allowed me to appreciate it more deeply. What a wonderful book! I love the idea that alien intelligence is truly alien - not just humans from another planet - to the point of making communication practically impossible. Any recommendations for books like Solaris and Roadside Picnic, which explore this theme, are welcome.

Yeah, I’ve seen the film and it is properly terrible.

By Le Fanu? I read a short story collection from him with Carmilla. It was really good. Le Fanu deserves more modern attention, I think.