Stable (Debian) means that when you get it working it is less likely to break when you update. A broken installation on a server is quite stressful. Downside for desktop/laptop is that it may not support the latest games and hardware.

Ubuntu is probably more stable than Mint, but less stable than Debian. Which you choose may be more personal preference than objective value.

Yes, but if you are happy with Ubuntu don’t worry about it.

• Open-source purity
• Stable
• Traditional
• Upstream sources for much of Ubuntu

Mint loaded Steam via the package manager and it worked out of the box for me. There have been some games I had to try different versions of Proton with, but I have never found that to be not true for some games.

Suggesting that her risk is going to drop by dropping soothing words for the lefty radicals falls to acknowledge the danger from righty radicals. Having the Cheeto pasting a target on her back means that such words will merely inflame the right even more.

Web search engine of your choice.

Keep in mind that every open source project scratches a different itch… they don’t exist because people wanted to collaborate for collaborations sake… they exist because someone (or some people) wanted a particular software capability. This means that many of them started because one person had that itch, but there are millions of itches so the projects that need your help very likely won’t fit into a convenient “top 100” list. Think about what you are interested in and search for open source software related to that topic.

No Kings is apolitical except for the idea that autocracy/royalty is un-American. As soon as you put it into a political box it will alienate a bunch of people.

Like when someone sends you a 500MB Excel file and M365 (32bit) on your 64bit work computer (where all your other apps are 64bit) won’t open it and IT doesn’t want to upgrade M365 because some add-ins they haven’t made a list of won’t work if they do?

Sometimes I just can’t excel…

I have no “proof of reality” to offer you (Plato had similar thoughts with his “shadows in a cave” analogy), but in all cases I have heard of pursuing these hypotheticals too far simply feeds neuroses rather than uncovering the Illuminati. The current US paroxysms of conservative conspiracy theories are IMO the product of failing to rein in such unproductive thought… do you really want to go down this road?

Your 26th century bit reminds me of the Continuum tv series. Entertaining story, but not likely to be worth building your reality on.

In my view, the choice is about whether you are better off with her or alone, including the financial implications of divorce.

While there may be “other fish in the sea”, that is a poor basis for deciding whether a marriage is worth saving, and it will likely bite you in the divorce if it comes up.

Keep in mind that you will have to reconstruct your relationships with your family and friends along the way… which will likely be easier if at first you don’t have a new partner.

Good luck!

Isn’t it “any algorithm that would impress Dilbert’s Boss”? In the vein of “I don’t have to be faster than the bear… I just have to be faster than you”… /s

IDK… that word checks out in this case.

Perhaps re-frame the question: is it expected that you should partake of marijuana on the first date?

Really, a date is about getting to know each other, and any assumptions about the suitability of these kinds of social lubricants may indicate a divergence or convergence of cultural norms.

In other words, arranging a to meet at a bar sends a signal well before the “date” actually begins about how you approach life… if such a proposal is accepted then the other party is at least open to you consuming.

There are quite likely a lot of people who will breeze right past this and proceed to get tipsy to provide a cover story for embarrassing mistakes… and every but of this is fodder for judging how well you will get along if there are further dates. Don’t get depressed if the other person decides against future dates… no matter your feelings if they don’t feel likewise then best to drop it early.

The important thing to do is communicate the kind of person you are… forgiving, uptight, loose, teetotaler… and learn what kind of person the other is… preferably without conflict, and with respect. If alcohol fits with your persona, don’t hide it.

if it is a magnum, shouldn’t it be bigger? /s

Just a note: Windows software for controlling hardware is highly likely to assume a)direct access to the hardware (sometimes mediated thorough ancient APIs and assuming the existence of defunct expansion slots) and b) assume meatspace time can be counted using OS timing ticks (which get stretched out as modern VMs timeshare with other processes underneath the virtulized hardware). It is awfully tough to replace them sometimes.

Stick with Windows. Microft will deliver paradigm shifts and you will have no say in the matter. They are already removing options for disabling Copilot, and for all the promised backward compatibility they are letting go of features that lots of old Windows software depended on, as they introduce features similar to ones in Linux. I cannot really fault them for all of these changes, but the difference is actually one of choice and privacy, and not really the one you seem to think it is.

TIL. tho maybe TMI.

Maybe if enough people file feedback on the name change they will reconsider. At least they will have a glut of feedback to deal with.

Cops without oversight end up veering off course. Things can get worse.

My WAG would be that they need more busywork for the prisoners.

Thanks for the helpful response. The BC looks like a potentially very useful anti-bugging tool.