When I oopsie in server-side software, I roll it back, hopefully users never see it. When you oopsie client-side software it’s far more likely that users see it and resolution takes order days, not order minutes.

As I am a coward, I only work server-side 🙃

Once I got the hang of connecting Distrobox containers to VS Code, I was really very pleased by the whole setup.

I also thought it pretty incredible that running “ujust update” actually went into my Debian container for Haskell development and it ran “apt update” for me. I couldn’t believe it the first time.

This is probably going to get downvoted into oblivion but: try writing some Haskell for a while. Learn You A Haskell is a good place to do it, just bail out when you get to monads.

When I was taught programming at university, we did one assignment in Java, then the next one was the exact same assignment but in Haskell. The idea was not to bias us towards imperative vs functional programming. I don’t think it worked – I would guess almost everyone preferred Java – but over my career I’ve learned how much Haskell has offered me for writing imperative code for my day job. I think you will get what you are looking for by trying some Haskell for a while.

I guess one would have to define “nice”, usually it’s power:price:weight pick 2. I am assuming that weight is important, otherwise it’s just a portable desktop.

Exactly. What’s the point? Steam Deck exists and is a more reasonable option for gaming than laptops. Get a Chromebook or MacBook Air and a Deck and save yourself a bunch of cash.

Would love to know how you’re dealing with Gnome and HiDPI. I found it really wacky, massive title bars and such. Went to KDE Plasma 6 and it all looks right, but agree it seems a little wonky sometimes. I’m hoping the bugs get ironed out.

You sound like the target audience for Bluefin. I’m running it and it’s excellent.

Yes, I turned off network access and it works identically. This is a good path. Lawn chair was ok.