Thanks for the suggestions! Some have been already on my reading list, because they went into that direction and others I’ve added. I’m not sure, if my wording was understood 100% and if these books are what I’m looking for, but I guess the acknowledgement of the recursion would be a surprise element anyway. Thanks again!

I use mainly fish and occasionally nushell.

I didn’t get far learning any language using free online resources (technically English, but that was/is rather a passive learning experience).

I mostly used Duolingo to take the first steps and to challenge my interest for the language. At a certain point I prefer language-specific services, e.g. for Esperanto there is lernu (I stopped that, because I hated a few concepts of the language).

I learn Japanese on and off. I’m currently at my third or fourth attempt I believe xD I tried a lot from (again) Duolingo, JapanesePod101 to Memrise. On the long-term I prefer to use online resources secondary, e.g. existing Anki vocabulary decks to guide my textbook. And for a language like Japanese I like to use different kinds of dictionaries, articles and historical context, because sometimes there simply isn’t a definite answer T_T

Infinite wishes

Oof, I wish I didn’t read that.

If the workflow at a workplace requires a consistent experience across all PCs…why doesn’t that workplace enforce that consistency?

I understand your frustrations, but corporate or organizational needs should not technically limit the personal needs of using a personal computer.

(And when people, used to a strict environment, are overwhelmed by the amount of freedom in their new environment, I think it’s better to guide them through the options instead of just taking away everyone’s freedom)

I much prefer short unskippable ads over conditionally skippable ads without a length max.

When my mom used her laptop, she was using arch btw! It was only for browsing though. Firefox was auto launched and she didn’t have to learn anything. It obviously wouldn’t have been a good choice, if I wasn’t able to do the updates.

Very happy with my Arch setup since 3-4 years I believe. But my laptop that I use and update too irregularly to justify having Arch on it, probably needs an alternative :D

There are cases where this applies, when a significant issue is censored across all media and you can only reach the rest of the people with greater power to resist the oppressors.

In most cases, it doesn’t. We have somehow normalized the assumption that people will listen more to protests. But do you really? Don’t reduce it to issues you already pay attention to. Think from the perspective of the uninformed target people. Think of political ideas you don’t tolerate. Will you listen more to them, if they block your way, ruin your day and may even harm your life instead of having a conversation with you?

If it’s your first distro, then it might be an overkill.

I’d first start out with a readymade distro, because maybe it already fits your needs and wants. If you get to a point where you spend a lot of time on rebuilding your setup or distro-hopping, then Arch can be considered.

(Not because you are lazy. I’m lazy, too, but maintenance isn’t much work, unless you’re running updates too infrequently. You should check the news before updating. Many users don’t and even then when you “break” something, it’s not too difficult to identity the problem and fix it with the great help of ArchWiki, the community and chroot.)

I know people mean it well and I respect that. But it’s a little indirect insult, when their first reaction is to assume that you feel bad about it and to patronize you.

Of course there are people with that mindset among short dating men who often aggressively blame women’s standards. So I try to be not too upset about it.

#1 finds ways to not give you a solution despite having one. #2 finds ways to give you a solution despite not having any.

Roadwarden

Yes, that is “fucked” up. The same way it is fucked up that not all VHS you once bought and own have been preserved without loss and none of them will forever. The same way it is fucked up that a software product you once bought and own won’t be updated to be usable with your requirements forever.

The mortality of a product does suck, but a) this isn’t exclusive to the greed of subscription services and b) you don’t need to use a product til the end of time to make it worth it. E.g. I don’t use Netflix anymore, but everything I was able to consume during my subscription was ridiculously worth it to me.

Why do I need to own them?

The comments here, including mine, most likely won’t help you to find a solution for that boredom. ‘Bored’ is a vague term. There can be endless ways why and especially how drastic somebody is always bored. Whether that somebody is you, somebody who asked you for help or somebody who you think needs help, you know them better than anyone here.

Dodgeland

I don’t know the current state of Debian installation. But not too long ago, installing Arch Linux felt much easier lmao

What disrupted the fun for me:

• the rules for articles before languages, countries and their people
• everything sounds the same / easy to be misunderstood
• not nearly as internationally approachable as it could be, though obviously that’s almost impossible