Yeah, that’s on me. I didn’t read the sidebar and assumed a community named similarly to “askreddit” would require posts to have questions

I’ve been eyeing Graphene for a while now but I’m not really a tech person. I fumbled my way through installing and doing basic tweaks on Linux Mint but I don’t know the first thing about coding or programming. Is that kind of knowledge a must for this OS or is it more dummy friendly? And what’s a good cheap phone to grab to start messing with it and getting familiar, do you have any recommendations on that front?

I’m not really a tech guy at all and I let these nerds talk me into trying Linux Mint, I haven’t bothered with Windows 10 for several months now. There was some frustrating troubleshooting at first but once the settings are tweaked how you like them, the updates don’t negate your tweaks like with Microsoft. I’m sure there’s a lot of functionality I’m not maximizing but I don’t feel the need to. I got my productivity stuff figured out, my game stuff figured out, the last thing I really need to get sorted is why my printer is being such a wiener but I use it so sparingly that there’s not much motivation to mess with that. I did dual boot for a while so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmingly stupid when it came to Linux, so I was able to familiarize myself with the new setup at my pace and that helped quite a bit I think. No harm in going that route, then you can see what happens with Warzone before fully taking the plunge

• I would add keeping a jug of sand or cat litter along with a couple 12"+ 2x4s in the vehicle to help with getting some traction if you or someone else ends up stuck.
• i dunno about EVs but if you’ve got an ICE vehicle give it a minute or two of just idling and warming up before going anywhere
• When I start driving on snow I tap the brakes a couple times if nobody’s around just to get a feel for how good my traction is. Am I sliding a little bit? A lot? Not at all? That helps set the tone for what to expect on the roads.
• Don’t accelerate through turns if you’ve already got momentum, and if the weather’s REALLY suspect I prefer to coast on overpasses as well since those ice over first.
• Respect the possibility of black ice. If you live in a mountainous area then assume anywhere in the shade is black ice
• If the house is on a crawlspace make sure any ductwork and copper piping are properly Insulated, keep the crawlspace vents closed during the cold months.
• Use ice melt sparingly if you have to use it at all (sand is preferable) because it’s caustic to concrete.
• if you’re somewhere that gets an absolutely stupid amount of snow, follow your neighbors’ lead if you see them shoveling snow off their roofs. I saw a lot of roof collapses in a luxury mountain town where rich people’s second (third? Fourth? Ninth?) homes were left vacant during a pretty nasty snowstorm

JustWatch has some choices, I’d be partial to Pluto unless you wanna rent/buy it

My dad’s the same way, he hasn’t pleaded with me about my vote but that may only be because I don’t talk to him.
Have you seen “The Brainwashing of My Dad”? I think that’s what it’s called, a friend recommended it to me and I need to make some time for it, sounds like it covers the impact of garbage like fox news on old men

I grew up in the eastern half as well and they’ve talked about that merger for decades, seems it’s little more than another talking point to keep people angry and give them another thing to be complain about regarding all those godless communist child-eating liberal coasties

Turns out I can unmute my phone when I realize it’s a person I want to talk to. It’s just crazy how tech has improved over the years

I answer unknown calls and then immediately mute my mic. Most of the time it’s a bot that might call back once more, occasionally it’s somebody that gets an explanation of why i just made things weird. been doung that for years and now I only get spam calls maybe once or twice a month tops, if even that much

I always left mine in neutral but when I’d take it to a shop they’d leave it in gear and I’d lurch forward like an amateur when I left. I’m not convinced there’s a difference between the two but I’m no mechanic

I installed Mint this past spring and fiddled around with it briefly every once in a while but I’m not a tech guy so there was a little bit of a learning curve on stuff like getting a second monitor to work, stuff like that. I’m sure you’ve already found out that there’s TONS of documentation and forums for questions, it’s just a matter of feeling kinda dumb for a little while as you troubleshoot. I switched over to Mint full time a few months ago and haven’t looked back. I’ve still got Win10 on an extra hard drive just in case but I think more and more of reclaiming that space for Steam now, I don’t miss Windows at all

This is something the wife and I have looked at doing for our next house but is clover less resilient to dogs than grass? We were figuring on natural stuff for the front yard but keeping grass in the majority of the backyard because of our pets

I went from AoE1 to OG AoM years and years ago and didn’t think there was a huge jump in feel or quality, but I’m just a filthy casual that plays these on toddler difficulty because I want to relax when I’m gaming. If you’re on my level then you really can’t go wrong, it’s a fun game that can be played in a very simple manner if that’s how you wanna go about it.

I upgraded mine but haven’t talked to the wife about including her yet because the family plan is for up to 6 so it’d be cheaper to just buy two individual subscriptions, she doesn’t really care enough to justify that much extra cost. Hopefully Proton adds another plan or two for groups!

You aren’t the only one feeling that way, just put yourself in a position to meet others. Start going to meetups of things that interest you, or, at the very least, engage with others on things that interest them and you’ll usually find common ground eventually. It can feel difficult and awkward, but everybody struggles with that when they first start to put themselves out there. Just persevere, you’ll find people.

Same. If it were just up to the wife and I we would’ve simply gone to the courthouse and signed some stuff but we decided on a ceremony because it was “important to our families” and did things more traditionally than if it were only the two of us. We would’ve had a lot more fun with the whole thing if we could have just realized that the day was for us and about us and should’ve been done our way.

It’s both fun and frustrating learning how to operate it.

This should be emblazoned somewhere in the initial Linux setup. I’m not in tech by trade, just a hobbyist nerd, and playing with Linux is like if a soulslike game were an OS. I had a terrible time figuring out how to get both monitors to work but eventually did and that felt like a huge win when it finally happened. Had an equally bad time trying to figure out how to install some game software but finally got that sorted and it felt like another big victory. But I still dual boot for now because some days I’m just not ready for the heartburn of dealing with my own ignorance in Linux

Steam’s been fantastic! Problem for me is that some of the battle.net games aren’t on there. If there’s a way to download those somewhere and run them through Steam that’d be incredible. I didn’t even think to consider searching around for that possibility. I’ve seen people run Diablo 4 on their Decks so it’s clearly possible, I’m just still learning how to troubleshoot Linux and I’m trying to be extra careful since their OS doesn’t have much in the way of guardrails to prevent dummies from nuking themselves

This has been exactly my stance as well apart from ever having used Win11. Never did and never plan to, downloaded Mint a few months ago to start getting familiar with it. Turns out I’m not real great at technical stuff but I’m getting there. Dual monitors was kind of a booger and now I’m trying to figure out how to install some games since Bottles is being a real wiener about Battle.Net. I’m glad there’s so many resources and forums out there but I still hope some version of Linux gets dumbed down a little more before Win10 sunsets to make the transition easier for us blue collar folk

It’s amazing how dumb this entire situation is. To my knowledge she hasn’t even publicly endorsed a candidate or political party, right? Just suggested her fans register to vote?