leadore

You wouldn’t expect to be able to run Windows software on a Mac, why expect to be able to run Windows software on Linux?

Having said that, it’s true that you actually can run some windows software through Wine but it’s a hack and it’s not going to work as well as it would on the OS it was designed for.

But there are also things like Java and Electron applications that run natively on linux and just as well as on windows.
As for Minecraft Java edition, I just downloaded the Minecraft launcher .deb from minecraft.net and installed it, and it runs perfectly. You can’t really complain that your pirated stuff isn’t work right, lol.

edit to add: An easier way for your friend to try out Linux would be to either run it on a virtual machine within Windows, or boot from a live USB (that’s slower though).

deleted by creator

No, those are not part of the definition of fascism.

Try this link and this one to start, if you want to educate yourself on the topic. Then if you still believe the Democratic Party fulfills the definition of fascist, come back and tell us which characteristics you think makes it so.

The only thing to be careful with about building a brand new computer is sometimes the linux kernel takes a little while to catch up and support the latest hardware for some things. So maybe if any components you’re planning to use are very new, look them up and see if they are supported yet.
As for a distro I always recommend Mint. Your plan to try out a bunch of them on a VM is a great idea.

I think the idea is that you won’t even leave the Google page at all, they want to keep you on their site and serve you their ads instead of sending you to someone else’s site and giving someone else that sweet sweet ad revenue.

Thank you for understanding the reality of the situation and voting accordingly.

I agree, Neo-liberal is a more accurate label for the democrats. Thanks for taking the time to educate about the difference between the parties. Unfortunately, unless these “democrats are fascists too” people learn to understand the differences and act accordingly [1], they’re going to learn the hard way what fascism really is, and we’ll all suffer for it. For a very long time.

[1] “accordingly” means, accept the reality that either the D party or the R party will be in power in less than a year, and vote for the lesser of two evils (the non-fascist, but yes neo-liberal, D party).

This is a divided country. Almost half the people this country are right wing, and they vote. They vote for who they want in the primary, then they vote for whoever the R is in the general–and it works. Their party has moved more and more to the right.

But too many progressives don’t follow through in the general if their preferred candidate loses the primary, considering the winning candidate not “good enough” to “deserve” their votes, so the D either loses or barely wins. D politicians have learned well that they can’t count on left wing voters, so to have a chance of winning they must move right to capture more center or conservative voters, and thus the D party as a whole has also moved right. If the D party instead learned that standing for progressive values would get them enough votes to win, that’s what they would do.

We started to see that in 2022. They had actually been afraid to stand up for abortion rights until they saw some election results showing they could win on it, now they’re loudly standing up for it. Show them they can win with a progressive stance on other issues as well, and things will start changing. Slowly at first, then quickly.

Fascist is a word with an actual meaning. I know it’s fun to call the democrats fascists, but that’s incorrect and ridiculous.

Now that you have Mint, next time you want to make a thumb drive for installing a distro all you have to do is plug in a thumb drive, right-click the .iso file, and select Make Bootable USB Stick. (or from the Menu choose Accessories ‣ USB Image Writer)

And here’s a nice intro to Mint for you. That site has lots of other helpful stuff too. Enjoy!

I prefer to watch videos via peertube, not youtube, whenever possible. She has a peertube channel so here is the same video there: https://tinkerbetter.tube/w/g8K2zBgwwwE1xukkT6EmSo

Mint has an auto-upgrade tool so you don’t have to reinstall each time. It used to be only for minor version upgrades but now you can auto-upgrade to a new major version as well. In any case there are plenty of great distros to choose from.

And yes! whatever distro (and other FLOSS software) you use, support them with a donation if you can! When you consider the value you are getting for free vs. what you’d be spending on proprietary software, it’s not so hard to do and feels good too.

It’s better to do it ASAP before they’re decreed abandoned. Dig thorough everything and also check your State’s Unclaimed Property dept (or the one for whatever state you were working in I suppose). And/or do some searching online to find out how to reclaim them.

Wow, you sound pretty nonchalant about losing $150K!

The law that changed full retirement age to 67 was passed in 1983 (during the Reagan era, no surprise there!) https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/full-retirement-age/ :

“In 1983, Congress increased the full retirement age (FRA) from 65 to 67, a change phased in over the course of 33 years. This phase-in just ended, with the FRA now static at age 67 for individuals reaching age 62 in 2022 or later.” (those born in 1960 or later).

What I always thought was unfair is that those who make the least amount of money get the least amount of Soc Sec, when they are the ones who need it the most. Those who make the most money get the max amount even though they need it the least. Seems backwards.

But I guess it’s at least better than how things were before Social Security when you either had to make enough money to save enough for retirement and/or get a pension from your employer, or else work until you died, not to mention no Soc Sec if you became disabled. It was originally designed as part of the New Deal to help widows and seniors (poverty rate for seniors was over 50%).

I gave up Ubuntu when they switched to the Unity desktop. ugh!

Ubuntu has long suffered from NIH syndrome, constantly inventing its own non-standard components (snaps, Unity, etc) and trying to make them “win” by forcing them on their own users. Reminds me of Microsoft with its non-standard Internet Explorer, its own non-standard version of Java and others.

The lesson is to use a Community distro, not a Corporate distro. When the distro’s goals align with its community’s, even a distro based on Ubuntu will usually be better than straight Ubuntu. For example Mint keeps the good things about Ubuntu (in Mint’s opinion of course), removes the bad things like Snaps, and adds other features that the community wants that Ubuntu won’t (like built-in Flatpak support among other things).

Just like Debian which it is based on, you can get AntiX in either 64 or 32 bit, whichever you need for your processor. It’s a very good lightweight distro. I’d recommend it, as well as Crunchbang++ for something like this. (edit to add that Crunchbang++ uses Openbox window manager, very lightweight but easy to use–something to consider for whichever distro you decide on).

I’ve always said (jokingly since I’m an atheist) that Christians got it mixed up and thought Satan was God, so they’ve really been worshiping Satan all this time. They don’t want to admit they’re wrong about him being good, so they make up all kinds of excuses for all the horrible things he does. That’s why they were totally conditioned and ready to do the same with trump.