Reading on my e-reader (e-ink) or print books. Short periods - eg waiting for a kid to do something - are good for poetry. Meditating. Listening to music. Listening to podcasts. Sometimes I’ve taken out some paper and doodled while listening to something - which is really gratifying (even though I’m no Picasso). I also cook, which is wonderful. Or I go for a long walk. I’m also actively trying to fill my time with offline human engagement - volunteering twice a week and participating in a men’s group (a safe space for men to share their experiences).

I agree. It’s not constructive to call non-techies “dumb.” Nor is it helpful to demand they”just” spend 30 min searching for solutions online. If you love tech, this is worthwhile - if you’re, say, a rights activist you’d rather spend that time reading an important report or meeting with people to advance your work; if you’re a retiree with limited means, then it might be overwhelming to “just go online”; and if you’re a musician working on an album, why should you need to spend time on tech when you could be spending that time mixing? I see examples of Linux becoming pretty user friendly compared to days of yore (eg Mint, Ubuntu), but has that improvement somehow compromised the techie side of Linux?

I don’t see them as mutually exclusive - can’t Linux be user friendly for the non-techie while also offering a techie lots of flexibility and command-line joy? 🤷‍♂️

Have fun - and invite your friends and relatives and colleagues 😎

Agree - love Mullvad!

An interesting McKinsey article on cost of AI. Basically it’s hard to predict, but the numbers here are staggering. And then there’s the “hidden cost” of environmental impact. All these data centers etc will add to CO2 emissions, which may worsen climate change and result in more climate disasters (drought, flooding, etc) that carry huge costs. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-cost-of-compute-a-7-trillion-dollar-race-to-scale-data-centers

You’re right - he likes to be provocative and makes some big generalizations. Not sure about the costs of AI…would need more info on that but he seems to suggest it’s an exception to the general rule in computing.

I like the prices! And europaweit lieferung - that works for me. :)

That was my first thought - but maybe this does a better job? Plus it can apparently be used for any device, so it might prolong the life of, say, noise-canceling headphones, book lights, and portable speakers.

That’s super helpful - I didn’t realize how big a difference there is between models. Thanks for clarifying. And yeah, by now I get the sense that LinuxPusher.dk is not for me. :)

Thanks for the link - and good tip about the timing!

Thanks! :)

Thanks - I’ll check it out!

Well, I don’t want to have a bad time, that’s for sure…thanks for the warning. I’ll be cautious about Lenovo.

Interesting - and yet I read about many folks installing Linux on thinkpads, and those laptops even being recommended for Linux. Is it just cause so many have worked on making Lenovo be able to handle Linux?

Aspire 15

Looks nice - and nice price too!

Libreboot looks very, very interesting - thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the tip - I’ll check out the AMD Acer laptops. You thinking of Nitros, in particular?

Looks like a nice selection. A sensible approach, and one I may end up taking: getting a Windows laptop for good value and then installing Linux myself.

Good points all round, thanks - and I did think the Linux installation cost seemed high. I might be willing to pay a premium for good support. I’ve heard good things about System76’s customer service (but they’re US-based). Installing a distro on an old laptop doesn’t scare me - I’ve done it before. It’s more the hardware/driver issues that might arise. And then I’d love to discover an “out of the box” solution that I could recommend to my friends and family, who have little appetite for tech tinkering. Maybe that’s where Tuxedo comes into the picture…