I said $2,000+ to encompass even more expensive machines/setups.

I never said bodyweight or a kettlebell set could provide exercises for every possible movement or strength vector.

I said that the vast majority of people don’t need anything more than those to build a healthy level of fitness. And given that the average cost of a gym membership in the US is around $50 per month, after a few months, their used kettle bells or simple dumbell set has already paid for itself.

And weights last basically forever unless they are severely damaged, so zero maintenance cost.

Nothing wrong with going more hardcore if that’s your thing, but that’s not at all necessary to build a solid base of strength and general fitness.

Any “quick fix/all-in-one” fitness or nutrition solutions. While there are minute optimizations for elite athletes, 99.99% of the population can adhere to the general consensus of nutrition and health science.

1. Do something that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day. Speed walk, bike, row, shoot hoops, jump rope, doesn’t matter, just get your heart pumping hard for at least half an hour a day.
2. Roughly a third of your food should be fresh leafy greens & veggies. A third should be whole grains and unprocessed starches and sugars like sweet potato and fresh fruit. The final third should be a protein. Lean meat like fish or chicken, or if you’re veg/vegan, beans, tofu, seeds, peas, etc.
3. To build strength, general bodyweight exercises combined with stretching is fine for most people. If you wanna get really strong, get a few kettle bells or adjustable dumbells on the used market for $50-$100. You don’t need an expensive fitness club membership or one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.
4. Don’t drink often, don’t smoke, don’t pound stimulants like caffeine or nicotine.
5. Brush your teeth well.
6. Get 6-8 hours a night of good quality sleep.
7. Keep your brain engaged, read, play music, play games, learn a language, etc.

I’m speaking from experience, because I have fallen for stuff over the years that promised fast results and optimal methods with minimal effort. Fact is, unless you’re training for the Olympics or you have very specific heath conditions, those basic bullet points will cover the vast majority if general health and fitness.

Yeah, IT is in a similar boat. Not as bad, but still where I live, Linux environments are super rare. So if you are going into IT, you are going to be working in Windows environments, and most firms use software that isn’t compatible with Linux.

Stuff like their remote management software, or their inventory management software. Plus, unless you’re the guy in charge of the IT department, almost nobody wants or even knows how to administrate a Linux endpoint.

So they don’t want one of their sys admins to be running around on a Linux machine that they don’t have as much visibility on or understanding of how it works.

I’m lucky that the company I work for is small enough that I am the entire IT department, so I can use whatever OS I want. Debian 12 with Plasma, love it.

But out in the world, you’re going to find a bunch of situations like you are in, where so much of the defaults use Windows and proprietary garbage, you’re stuck running exactly what they are.

Long term, you could start trying to build your own indie studio that is FOSS-based. Maybe years down the line you can make it on your own. Do that full time and make supplemental income as an outside contractor or something. IDK, that also comes with its own set of issues. It’s a shitty tech corpo dystopia all around us.

Fair, yeah that is a solid solution.

Eh, depends I guess. Now days I would just use my Steam Deck and be happy with that.

But back when I went to college, high powered gaming handhelds weren’t a thing.

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

That’s why I said one of the exceptions was gaming notebooks, something like the smaller Razer Blade laptops.

Absolutely.

Fair point, Pixels aren’t flagship expensive, but they definitely aren’t cheap either.

For sure.

I thought the video was pretty reasonable. I wasn’t criticizing him with my hot take.

It will always be a balance of what you’re willing to do for what you believe in, vs pragmatism and comfort.

Some things are better sacrificed, because they aren’t actually very good to begin with. But other things are better adapted or emulated into a FOSS framework.

On a more personal note, I was prepared to give up far more than I actually needed to when switching to Linux 100%. Linux has gotten so good in most areas, it’s pretty incredible.

Some people will never be willing to move to Linux. Even if Linux was 98% compatible with their needs, they would stay on Windows for that remaining 2%.

There are folks who would let Windows punch them in the groin or slap them across the face once per month as long as they could play their favorite kernel-level anticheat esport trash.

There are a few people who make their living using evil software like the Adobe suite, and for them I truly feel sorry that they are trapped in the dystopian hell of modern proprietary software, but we do live in a society I guess.

The tough truth is, many people don’t really give a shit about privacy, consumer rights, software freedom, or transparency, even if they say they do. They will huff and puff about how terrible Windows has gotten. They will rant and rave about how ridiculous the ads are in their OS or how they think it’s wrong for their OS to spy and track their actions constantly.

But when the rubber meets the road and they can sacrifice a few things to gain their freedom, they won’t do it. I know, because I have multiple friends and family that have been acting like this for years.

Whenever I suggest Linux or FOSS alternatives to their proprietary apps, they initially are interested. But of course they will always find the one or two things they like to use/play/have that doesn’t work or is a pain on Linux, and they bail.

I had one friend who was saying they were “totally serious about switching to Linux soon.” But they bailed when they found out that Valorant doesn’t work on Linux. Do they play Valorant actively? No, they haven’t played it in years, but they, “wanted the possibility to play it just in case they decided to get back into it again.”

Personally, there isn’t a single game or piece of software I would ever give up Linux for. I just flat out refuse to use Windows or MacOS on any of my personal computers. It’s a pledge I made years ago and I will forever stick to it.

Hot take: If you claim to be against all the big tech abuses and value software and computing freedom, but a handful of PC games is enough to stop you from leaving an abusive proprietary OS, you weren’t very serious about it to begin with.

Not sure why GrapheneOS is getting down voted so much here, did I miss something recent that happened?

I’ve been using GrapheneOS on my Pixel 6a for around 2 years and really like it.

If I couldn’t use GOS though, I would probably go with DivestOS. I haven’t looked deep into other alternative Android ROMs.

No hate, but I’ve never understood gaming laptops. They are noisy, hot, almost always with severely nerfed performance compared to their equivalent non-mobile components.

They are heavy and bulky with poor battery life. They are often garish, which makes them less suitable for a professional environment if you’re in a workplace where that matters.

It just seems like the vast majority of gaming laptops give you the worst of all worlds. Worse performance than a desktop rig, and none of the good things about a laptop, like portability, long battery life, etc.

To me, there are a few exceptions though:

1. Gaming notebooks. You sacrifice a bunch of performance, but you at least gain back some of the benefits of a normal laptop like slimness, portability, battery life, etc. As long as you don’t play super hardcore games, the thermal issue isn’t a huge problem.
2. Your work has a ton of travel and you are allowed to do it on your personal laptop. You can work and game on the same device. If you are traveling like every month flying everywhere for work, that makes sense to have a single device to do it all on.

Again, no hate, just my $0.02

T480 is a great machine. You can find them on eBay for $200-$300 quite easily. They work great with Linux and are still old enough that they are decently repairable.

I’ve also heard that the older X1 carbons are really solid if you want something a little sleeker.

When writing on paper, I will sometimes think, “Ctrl + Z” to undo an errant pen stroke lol.

Yeah, at least with something like the fake moon landing conspiracy, there is a clear motive for it. Like the USA and USSR both had very strong propaganda machines and really strong incentives for hitting the next space race milestone.

The tech was barely advanced enough to perform the functions necessary to complete the mission, everything was pushed to its absolute limits to successfully perform.

But the flat earth thing has none of that. The tech necessary to demonstrate the curvature of the earth existed thousands of years ago and in fact was believed pretty widely by even ancient peoples.

There exists no motive, no incentives, and requires believing that basically all of known physics is completely wrong despite thousands of obvious counter-examples.

Just stupid.

Cinnamon has become my, “I just need to get work done” DE.

I’m fine messing around with Plasma for my personal machines, but for my work laptop, LMDE with Cinnamon. Super stable, simple, it just works.

I run LMDE 6 on my Thinkpad. Takes a bit of initial TLC to get tuned, but it’s rock stable.

Cinnamon is a really stable DE, I’ve had almost zero issues ever with it. It’s a little plain, but not ugly, and you can add themes if you really want to pretty it up.

God bless iFixit, and God damn Samsung.

This would be an even funnier comment if the subject wasn’t so horrifying.

Welcome to our cyberpunk dystopian future. It’s not the sexy, aesthetic, neon hacker-world version. It’s a dull, dreary, hyper-capitalist, hyper-consumerist, post truth, AI sludge hellscape.