Can’t comment on the work / tools part, but while not perfect, gaming on Linux is excellent now. The only Windows system on my network is my wife’s work computer and that’s been the case for years.

Works well for cans, though, in my experience.

For a while I had a fiber SFP that was amazing at opening cans, too.

I used to have a Linux laptop at work. I was even allowed to install my chosen distro. Then the IT department said “we don’t really know Puppet or how to manage Linux, but we know JAMF, so you’re all getting Macs now.”

My job satisfaction has gone down since then. However, in more positive news, they did end up giving away the old Linux laptops to the employees when they moved office.

“Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.”

(Even then I’m not so sure)

Originally they started the title with … Sigh … A hashtag. In markdown, starting a line with this makes it a header, which generally increases the size of the text. Probably your client tried to respect this, though I think it’s unusual for a client to do that for a post title.

I have heard, but never in any way verified, that there was code that tried to identify whether you were running 95 or 98 by looking for a version starting with 9. If true, it would mean some code might treat Windows 9 as 95/98.

That could be, but the bowl is communal between our four animals. I wish she wouldn’t.

That does sound very annoying! The first time I noticed my cat doing this, her food and litter box were in the basement, which was stone and dirt in that house. (We put them down there because it was the only place in that house where we could practically prevent the dog from getting to them.) Nowadays the cat stuff is in, essentially, a much cleaner sun porch; as a result, we still have to clean her bowl more frequently than seems reasonable, but it lasts a lot longer than it used to.

For some reason one of my cats only drinks water that she scoops up with her foot.

It means we have to clean her bowl way more often than should be necessary because the debris her feet collect gets deposited in the water bowl.

It’s worth noting that much of that time was during a lockdown and subsequent years involved working from home. Also in the intervening time I bought my wife an EV, which provides most of my transportation.

The gas vehicle is used about once a week to pick up heavy or large things or to take large boxes to the recycling area; plus there are occasions where my wife is out in her EV and I have to go somewhere. During these occasions I am grateful to have my own transportation.

It’s true that I don’t get much use out of the car, but I live in a fairly rural area. The closest non residential building that I know of is 2-3 miles away and I have limited mobility due to an injury. There’s no presence whatsoever of any Uber type services; I don’t even know of a taxi industry, though there likely is one. If I didn’t have reliable transportation I would be pretty screwed. Even during the week or two between when my Flex broke down and I replaced it, I had to cancel two doctor appointments and miss other things I wanted to do.

I probably would survive if all we had was my wife’s car, but I would lose to a lot of convenience and my schedule would definitely get more complicated.

Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science infotainment development?

This is useful information and the depth of your knowledge is impressive. Not that I expect operating system expertise from a car salesperson who has no reason to have any, but my salesperson told me it was still Microsoft. Thank you.

Suddenly I miss the Flex just a tiny, tiny bit less.

Honestly, it was a car, a thing; I can’t claim legitimate pain. It makes me a little sad on occasion, but overall in my life it won’t matter. My mom, who loved aphorisms, would have said “by the time you’ve been married twice, you’ll forget all about it.” I plan to maintain my first and current marriage, but the sentiment fits.

I am very sorry for the loss of your Element! I was only in one once, but I loved the way the dials worked. Perhaps this humorous lyric from the song “Swagless” by Spose might provide some comfort:

I could sign and drive a boxy Honda SUV and not be in my element

219,000 is pretty solid for any car. I think I bought my Flex at 83,000 miles and sold it at under 100,000. Maybe the starting mileage was 73,000, but somewhere in that vicinity. That included using it as my primary transport vehicle when moving across several hundred miles (which, TBH, is probably what killed it - but I appreciated that I was able to use it and its vast cargo capacity.)

With reference to the toast at the end of the comment, I’ve always loved boxy vehicles. As a kid, my favorite vehicle was my dad’s 1984 Toyota Celica (though his was maroon, unlike the picture). It’s also the car in which I learned to drive a manual.

They don’t make many boxy cars anymore. The first time I saw a Flex was on the highway and I said to my passengers “what was that?! I want one” then several years later I had referenced it so much my wife said to me some form of “FINE, shut up about it and go buy one.” Several hours later I drove home my favorite vehicle so far.

Thanks for the response!

Sure, and for the eight years I owned it before it broke down beyond being worth repairing, I had no problem with those. The infotainment system did kinda suck, but it was a 2014 so I think it would get some leeway for that even if it weren’t Microsoft powered.

The emblem just offended my sensibilities. I never pulled it off, though, because the friends who rode with me all knew how passionately I feel about Linux (they mostly also work with it - I try not to proselytize to the disinterested) and found it funny.

According to KBB, the car was worth $8k when it broke down. I put almost double that into repairing the same part of the engine at three different mechanics before giving up. Sadly, for some silly reason, Ford no longer makes the Flex. I think the Explorer is pretty close, but I couldn’t find one close enough to test drive. I would have loved to convert my car to an EV, but I wouldn’t trust my own work on that front and didn’t want to pay as much as would cost to have a professional do it.

Every time I get into my new vehicle - a 2024 Ford Edge - I think to myself how much I miss the Flex. That said, I did get a great deal on the Edge.

Until recently, I had a Ford Flex.

The only thing I didn’t like about it was the proud “powered by Microsoft” emblem (and its implications).

Fair enough, I can respect that.

Nowadays most Linux users seem to use ssh user@host. When I was getting started, that didn’t exist (or at least I was unaware of it) so I still frequently use the -l flag instead.

Nothing wrong with it, just that at least I mostly encounter its use by experienced users.

You, like me, must be old.

I also frequently pass -l to the ssh command.

https://youtu.be/Fow7iUaKrq4

My culinary knowledge is not sufficient to usefully comment on this.