Good.

My understanding is XFCE is lighter weight and simpler. Little to no animations, for example.

https://itsfoss.com/linux-mint-cinnamon-mate-xfce/

I am extremely basic and I’m using the XFCE that came with Linux mint. I don’t need anything fancy.

but I’m pretty convinced that Linux is not close to being ready for normies.

Yeah. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy (I do software development for work) and I had a really bad time installing mint on my desktop. I got it to work after a day but that was far more than a casually interested person would put up with.

Snake case, usually. Some perhaps unfounded fear that something will blow up on a dash in a file name kicking around. Or I’ll do a weird typo/premature enter and part of the file name will be treated like a -flag of some sort.

The rights everyone should have is irrelevant to the reality. You can’t steal a sandwich and be like “everyone should have the right to food!”. I mean you can, but you’ll still be punished.

Is this the hill for this kid to die on? Probably not. If they were trying to change the system for everyone to be more just, maybe.

You’re going to get in trouble and it’s not worth it.

Don’t do personal stuff on their network. What are you even trying to look at via the school network?

If you’re concerned about privacy while doing school stuff, use another device, or maybe a VM. Do they provide computers for students?

You might get off with a warning because you’re young (I assume you’re like 16), but bypassing network security stuff as an adult at work will often get you fired.

Tinfoil hat time! Also written thinking more about the US, where this sort of thing is also a growing topic.

Perhaps this government anti-porn law stuff is backed by people who actually want to dismantle government altogether. And not in a fun Communist way but in a privatize everything, corporate serfdom way.

By pushing for the government to do stupid and unpopular things, they can get people mad at the very concept of government. They can then use that to dismantle things like nationalized health care, fire departments, whatever.

Ok tinfoil hat time.

Perhaps this government anti-porn law stuff is backed by people who actually want to dismantle government altogether. And not in a fun Communist way but in a privatize everything, corporate serfdom way.

By pushing for the government to do stupid and unpopular things, they can get people mad at the very concept of government. They can then use that to dismantle things like nationalized health care, fire departments, whatever.

If its free, then you are the product

Right. I get that. But I’d like to just pay once. I don’t like subscriptions. But since file storage has ongoing costs, it seems unlikely anyone would offer a pay-once-and-we’ll-host-your-files.

I want to get off Google photos, but I also don’t want to pay a subscription. And I don’t really want to self host. A pay once service I’d accept, but I haven’t seen one with an extremely cursory search. I don’t need any fancy features. Just store the photos, let me see them online, and let me put them in albums.

What the practical purpose of this is and how or if it benefits anyone?

ape together strong

i.e. the “gay community”, the “trans community” but it is clear there’s no such thing,

hmmm i don’t think everyone would agree that’s a true statement.

How to start and/or join a community

Folks seem to like meetup, facebook, plura, eventbrite. One group of I know has an email list and website. You can often advertise in bars or smaller locations.

I don’t know a lot about organizing groups.

I know folks who do stuff for queer community. They organize picnics, happy hours, concerts, discussion groups, and more. So far as I know, they started with someone going “I wanna start this group here.” Advertise on meetup/facebook/whatever, and be ready for minimal turnout for a while. But over time you accumulate more people, and more options open up. With enough people you can accomplish more- lobbying, volunteering, making people feel less alone and terrible.

Google Voice is google’s free telephone service. I’m not 100% certain it exists in the UK, but a quick search makes it look like it does. It’s safer than putting your real phone number because it’s more transient. You could probably also use email, signal, discord, or whatever, but phone numbers are the most ubiquitous.

As to what to write, since you don’t know of anything happening, you might have to start the group. Is there something you want to volunteer to do? Litter cleanup, volunteering somewhere, helping people register to vote (ok that’s probably a dystopian task specific to the US), or whatever?

LinkedIn is very useful for job searching and networking. I don’t post on there, but it was key to getting several job offers.

I’m not aware of any other professional social networks.