It's Remarkable How Easy Linux Mint Is To Use, Compared To Linux's General Forbidding Reputation. It

It's remarkable how easy Linux Mint is to use, compared to Linux's general forbidding reputation. It was really easy to set up for me who has no coding knowledge. I had to fiddle with the boot order in my BIOS a bit but no biggie. Follow the installation guide on the website, and you will be fine. You can boot from an USB too, and test out the OS before installing it and wiping your drive. Transfer data to an external drive before you do.

And you probably won't have much trouble once it is installed either. The default settings are reasonable, and can be changed. It's a very easy to use OS. I have had no problems doing most of the ordinary things I use an OS for. My most used programs on Windows was already things like Firefox, VLC media player and Libreoffice on windows, and they function just as fine on Linux Mint (and are indeed installed by default).

Gaming has given me some trouble, but honestly Lutris has solved most of them. Granted I run mostly so old games on this laptop that Scummvm and dosbox is a solution for many of them. And installing 32 bit libraries has solved others (running the command in this link in the terminal solved so many issues alone). I play very old games, if you can't tell.

Sure, part of how Mint is so user-friendly is that it imitates Windows graphical user interface. But to be honest, it does mean users coming from Windows are already used to the interface. And Mint imitates only the parts of it that work, like the taskbar. And Microsoft has had a bad habit of making the gui look like a phone or a tablet for years now, so Mint does a Windows-like gui better than Windows at this point.

Mint is better than Windows in being a user-friendly operating system in general. Windows being spyware and full of bloatware is well-known and LInux gets away from that bullshit. And just how polite MInt is about updates is a massive improvement. No forced reboots here while an update takes ages to install.

Mint is a long-term support distro, which means it focuses on stability over the latest updates to packages and programs, introducing updates not when they are first released, but after a while when any bugs have been ironed out. And that improves the OS's stability a lot, which I value over getting bleeding edge updates. If you want updates as soon as they happen, and are willing to tinker a bit to fix things, there are other distros which use a rolling-release model.

It is less demanding on the hardware without compromising functionality. Like the majority of Linux distros takes up way less space on the drive and less memory compared to Windows, you can get more life out of an old computer this way.

There are so many older computers that still function fine hardware-wise, but since the specs on that hardware are too weak to switch to a newer more-resource hungry version of Windows, the machines are abandoned because the OS ends up unsupported and unsafe to use. Windows 10 support is going to end in 2025, it might be extended, but the end of w10 support is going to be a blood bath for this very reason. So many computers can't meet the specs for Windows 11 that the switch will be painful. And I would urge you if you are affected by this to upgrade to a LInux distro instead of getting a new computer just for windows 11.

If anyone's looking for really gentle or disability friendly exercise...

Doctor Jo on YouTube is a physical therapist who offers lots of therapeutic stretching and exercise videos for specific conditions and pain relief. [x]

Leap Services is a Canadian physical therapy group that has a YouTube playlist of gentle exercise routines. All of these exercises are done in a chair (except for one which is done on the floor) and are intentionally adaptable to different bodies and needs. [x]

Yoga with Zelinda on YouTube has yoga that's adapted to a large number of conditions, for instance, providing a playlist of routines that don't require kneeling and another of chair yoga. She also offers yoga for specific health challenges, like fibromyalgia and mobility issues. There's a playlist of yoga routines for people with bigger bodies as well. [x]

Santosha Spirit on YouTube has yoga routines for people with chronic fatigue, chronic pain, POTS, and EDS. [x]

Yoga with Shaunneka on YouTube has a playlist of slow seated yoga, including chair yoga, as well as a playlist of gentle yoga. [x]

Qinergy on YouTube has tai chi sets broken down into easy tutorials. There is a seated version of her shibashi set. [x]

Perth Tai Chi Academy on YouTube is similar to Qinergy. It provides a seated version of daoyin yangshen qigong. [x]

saving my favourite twitter thread here just in case

things i wish i had known when i escaped my family household and couldn't ask my parents for help

invest in a good mattress early on. there are many other ends you can save on - sleep is not one of them. this is key to how much energy you'll have throughout the day

you don't need a bedframe but you do need a slatted bed base (even if it's just pallets)

opening a bank account is easy

there's youtube tutorials for everything. how to install your washing machine, how to use tools, fixing stuff around the place. channels like dad, how do i? are a godsend

change energy provider as soon as your old deal runs out. you'll get better offers elsewhere and avoid price gouging

assemble a basic first aid kid at home: painkillers, probiotics, alcohol wipes, bandages, tweezers, antihistamine tablets - anything you might need in a pinch

and an emergency toolkit: flashlight, extra batteries, a utility knife, an adjustable wrench, multi-tool, duct tape

set your fridge to the lowest temperature it can go. the energy consumption is minimal in difference and it'll give you +4/7 days on most foods

off-brand products are almost always the same in quality and taste, if not better, for half the price

coupons will save you a lot of money in the long run

there's no reason to be shy around employees at the bank/laundromat/store; most people will be happy to help

vegetarian diets are generally cheap if you make food from scratch

breakfast is as important as they say

keep track of your budget in a notebook or excel file - e.g. rent, phone and internet bills, food, leisure so you'll have an overlook on your spending over the months

don't gamble

piracy is okay

stealing from big stores and chains is also ethically okay

keep medical bills and pharmacy receipts for tax returns

also, file your tax returns early

take up a hobby that isn't in front of a screen. pottery, music, going for a run every now and then, stuff that'll keep you busy and sane

and most importantly... you're allowed to get the stuff you want. treat yourself to the occasional mundane thing. a good scented candle. a bath bomb. that body lotion that makes you feel like royalty. the good coffee beans.

you're free and you deserve to be happy.

Are you constantly wanting to do A Thing but never know how to do The Thing?

Does figuring out where to start a task and knowing what steps need to be taken to complete the task stress you out?

Lemme introduce you to...

goblin.tools

For example, you want to clean your oven.

You simply go to the website and in the "Add new item" box, you type "clean the oven". You can then also use the lil chillies next to the plus to change the level of breaking-down you'd like. Next, hit the magic wand-looking button to break it down!

You can check off items as you go, and further break things down if desired!

It works on large tasks such as planning a cross-country trip, writing a book or going on vacation and smaller tasks such as cleaning an oven.

There's also tools for task time estimation, meal-prep that takes into account dietary constraints, equipment and such, and a braindump compiler.

It's available as an IOS/Android app for less than a dollar, or a free web app. I can't hype this up enough, the developers deserve so much love for this.

I had one of my comments removed from the r/pcmasterrace subreddit for breaking a rule that's not even listed on their ruleset and you have to go to an entirely separate website to view the full version (including the one I broke), so I'm going to post this shit here: NEVER FUCKING PAY FOR WINDOWS. EVER. Never buy it from Microsoft and never buy a cheap activation key from a shoddy website.

when you install windows, if the option shows up, select the 'pro' edition and skip entering the product key. once you're finished installing and booted into the system, open powershell and run:

irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iex

that command will download and run the microsoft activation scripts runner, which activates your Windows installation for free, without Microsoft ever knowing. they cannot revoke your self registered keys, and you get shit like group policy editor for free. you can also use it to freely activate Microsoft Office.

here's some other tools I use to make windows installations at least somewhat useable:

Chris Titus's WinUtil script: powershell script that can be run to quickly debloat, customize, and optimize a windows installation. disables useless bloat and lets you install a selection of useful software, as well as perform a number of optimizations to improve system responsiveness and privacy. free and open source.

WingetUI: a powerful UI package manager for installing packages via Winget, Chocolatey, Pip, NPM, and other sources. available via Winget (SomePythonThings.WingetUIStore) or WinUtil

WizTree: disk space analyzer to determine what's consuming the most space on your hard drive. displays the results in a list view as well as a visual block-based view. incredibly fast and easy to use. available via Winget (AntibodySoftware.WizTree) or WinUtil

SysInternals: a set of diagnostic tools and utilities that allow you to poke around at the components of the operating system, useful for all sorts of things. namely, process explorer allows you to figure out what's using a file or device. available via Winget (sysinternals) or WinUtil

7zip: file archive manager supporting almost all compression types. available via Winget (7zip.7zip) or WinUtil

WinSCP and PuTTY: SCP/SFTP and SSH/Telnet clients for Windows, with intuitive GUIs. available via Winget (WinSCP.WinSCP, PuTTY.PuTTY) or WinUtil

CPUID CPU-Z and TechPowerUp GPU-Z: hardware identification apps that allow you to view the stats and specs of your CPU, GPU, memory, and motherboard. available via Winget (CPUID.CPU-Z, TechPowerUp.GPU-Z) or WinUtil

CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo: hard disk drive / solid state drive benchmarking and health check software. available via Winget (CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark, CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskInfo)

VirtualBox: virtual machine software that's highly user friendly, makes it super easy to run old software or isolate a program from the host system. available via Winget (Oracle.VirtualBox)

VLC Media Player: media player supporting playback from files, from disk devices, and from network streams. supports all codecs and highly configurable. available via Winget (VideoLAN.VLC) or WinUtil. fully free and open source.

Windows Terminal: a tab-based terminal emulator for easier multitasking in the terminal. integration with Powershell, CMD, visual studio developer powershell, and windows subsystem for linux. available via Winget (Microsoft.WindowsTerminal) or WinUtil

this concludes my software recommendations. also when you install windows be sure to turn off the following services: BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), and DiagTrack (Connected User Experiences And Telemetry). also make sure you disable cortana.

FAQ: Q: Activating paid products for free? isn't that piracy? A: suck my fucking tits this concludes the FAQ. no further questions