I’m not sure I consider myself a “veteran” since I still used Windows most of the time back then, but I used it in the late 90s. This is all anecdotal from my perspective, but the late 90s Linux experience was pretty rough on the desktop side, especially installing it. I actually rarely saw Debian in use, it was usually Red Hat for the sane people or Slackware for the lunatics. There were a few notable Linux game ports, but generally speaking, gaming wasn’t something most people did or even expected to do in Linux. I think I had a small handful games that weren’t terminal roguelikes: Doom, Quake, Tux Racer, and Alpha Centauri ( this one might have been early 2000s, hard to recall ). I can’t say I personally saw anyone openly using it at the university level in almost any form when I attended, I saw a lot of Unix though. Everyone I knew that was using Linux was younger and did have a slightly hobbyist leaning, with the more serious people usually using OpenBSD or FreeBSD.

It’s too early to call me out like this man, I’m not caffeinated.

Malls were dying in the US well before Amazon and online shopping itself was meaningful. Big box stores did a number on them. Best Buy and Circuit City had nearly the same selection of music that mall music stores did for much lower prices. Stores like Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million eviscerated the smaller more expensive mall book stores. Walmart, Target, and the like hit everything else.

Once that decline happened, I noticed that many malls started going after the kids that just hung around malls and weren’t in constant spend mode. Teens were treated like pests that were not wanted. Guess who got the message and didn’t come back a few years later when they had jobs and money?

Malls in the 80s and early 90s were pretty awesome, but malls told us to fuck off so we did. They can rot.

Sadly agree, I’ve been looking for a proper successor with no luck.

I am far from unbiased as I just switched back to my pixel 4a from my new Sony Xperia. I think the Pixel 4a is a flat out GREAT phone, full stop. It is perfectly sized IMO, has been very reliable, good battery life (though at this point I should look into replacing the battery), and it has a headphone jack. That being said, picking it as a new phone now essentially means going with a custom rom and hoping it stays supported. That’s fine and all, but it’s not something most people want. Just to be clear, the xperia isn’t a bad option per se, I only switched back because the phone came carrier locked when it was supposed to be unlocked and the carrier it was locked to was uncooperative so I refunded it.

It is exactly that. Some people really like them, others do not (me included). You usually need to go a little out of your way to get a font that supports ligatures for your editor.

I know a guy that did exactly this. I am living vicariously through him.

Most of the programmers I know (including myself) use Linux or BSD, but that all depends on who you associate with. A lot of companies are purely Windows shops and others just throw their programmers mac books and call it a day. At my last company I was only briefly allowed to use Linux until they decided it was no good as I couldn’t use whatever resource intensive corporate garbage security software of the year they bought.

Mostly same here, but (I have an SSD with W10 on it. I haven’t booted into my Windows drive since 2023. I only had a a few games installed on that drive, but it was also useful for the rare instance that I needed to some some propriety configuration utility.

I am the opposite. When I was younger, I have significantly more free time and certainly better reflexes.eye-hand coordination. I doubt I could come close to beating any of the more challenging NES games that I did when I was a kid (not that Mario Sunshine was in that era).

Your experience mirrored mine, except that I also played the original. The game had some good ideas and mechanics, but it was frustrating and one of the few Super Mario games that I didn’t even want to finish.

Why do you say these things to hurt us?

I mean why not both since you’re clearly so ancient (like me :( ).

It worked as of six months ago, but it is possible that was patched in this recent “fix”.

The W11 installer sadly doesn’t allow that anymore with the current versions. If you have that older installer, keep it safely archived.

Agreed

They both mean “of”, typically it would be spelled more like “land o’ lakes”, but they removed the apostrophe probably for marketing reasons. As for the other questions, butter comes in both salted and unsalted, but salted is more commonly bought. Likely because it tastes better on toasted bread/bagels/etc. You’d get unsalted for baking and recipes so you can properly measure the salt. The pack comes with four sticks, not one huge block (though that is rarely available). The sticks are four ounces each, so 1/4 of a pound. Its makes a lot more sense in Freedom Units rather than sane metric units. The sticks have measurement lines on the paper wrapper so you can just cut off a needed amount.

For more butter facts… well actually no don’t refer others to me hah

Fuck, I really hate to agree with Elon on anything, but that is a ridiculous argument. LeCun must also really believe that trees only fall in the woods when someone is around to see it happen.

My experience was similar, but I gave up after my first RMA because I saw everyone else going through the same thing. The N7 started as such a delight and ended up as one of worst product experiences.

Generally either “Land O Lakes” or “Land uh Lakes”