A recent Windows update borked my new MS Surface Pro Snapdragon X Elite. I hadn’t created a New Machine restore point, so suffered along for awhile. But two days ago, I discovered a little link buried in the Windows Update section that offered a 25H2 reset if an update borks your machine, that left all of my files and settings intact. I ran that and, voila!, borkiness gone. It was that easy (to do, not to find). 
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I can relate. When I invest myself in something, I will get it done however long it takes, or I’ll find out exactly why it doesn’t work.
I don’t consider it a waste of time. Even when something doesn’t work and it feels frustrating, I enjoy the process.
I was thinking of maybe bying an used laptop, something cheap and most importantly lightweight, to use only when I need to go somewhere and take notes etc. Last year I had to carry back and forth a small but too good laptop, that weighed more than the ideal. So I was now looking at used computers that leasing companies resell for cheaper prices. And so far, it seems most of them come with Linux Mint. Probably because it is free. It seems to be so common, and the computer models are so varied, some are old and bad, but they still were able to install Linux mint in them. So there must be a way to do a successful installation.
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If it’s already installed, I see no issue.
Still, I would go for Windows if I where you, except when you’re one of those whiny Europeans like me 
A Windows license can be had for under 50€…
This is really a “moral highground” project or something for nerds.
Also, you live in Finland … maybe get a Russian OS, just to be prepared for a possible future? The Russians invented Tetris and hacked some elections, so they must have good IT people
this sounds like a bulletproof plan
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I mean, maybe if she didn’t have an ASUS ZenBook Flip 13 UX36
The product I manage at work is a Linux-based virtualization/orchestration platform. We end up installing Ubuntu a lot , and validate it on a wide variety of server models from several vendors. It “just works” from my perspective, and we haven’t run into any of these sorts of issues.
I assume that the servers are certified? B2B is different from B2C…
Got Ubuntu running now, but it does not feel like victory … I am trying to install Fender Studio One Pro now, and it’s dependency hell!!!
Does the free Fender Studio app install OK? That might be a good solution for a portable. You can then directly upload Studio sessions to Studio Pro on your main machine.
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I’m too tired to test that now.
LINUX s#cks!
The rest of the day I will work with Windows and cherish every moment
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Thank you for recognizing it. Now, both you and my Mom think I’m special.
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Don’t be so coy. A lot of people on here think you’re special.
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Depending on which android phones you have, there are some de-Googled android alternate OSs:
and
are the ones I have an eye on. /e also has some pre-loaded phone options for those in Europe, such as yourself.
Unfortunately, I currently have a US Samsung Galaxy S23 that’s too strongly locked to install alternate OSs on, so I’m waiting for it to die.
I’ve also been working through this list as much as possible:
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I have a Samsung A55 as main Phone and as S20 as backup. The S20 runs Lineageos, and that’s quite good.
Smartphones have a low priority for me, as nothing really depends on them … in the end they are only phones with all kinds of nonsense. Ok, and it’s my “walkman” too, that’s VERY important!
The list is really great, thank you! Very helpful…
Of course, it’s not about getting rid of US services per sé. It’s only getting rid of big tech and digital services that are required by non-EU unfriendly states to do whatever the f#ck they want, breaking our laws and f#cking our privacy.
That could be Tonga, Maldives or even Palua
With my current, very unpleasant LINUX experience I will rethink my approach. It’s a great indicator for the sate of things.
I’ll slow down even more, setup “shadow machines” and test, test, test.
All the open source stuff might be technically (more or less) great, but in terms of UI/UX, setup and operations it has a long way to go to become prime time.
Open Source stuff is too techie driven, and it shows!
This has direct effects on whatever is happening here in Europe. All those planned & ongoing migration projects I heard about will be hard, very hard.
Europe should not invest in AI but in usability of everyday software / devices for the people as well as administrative entities. It will cost less and have more actual benefit (at least for our citizens, not for CEOs)
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First of, I thought I should say: “hey guys!” Haven’t posted anything in almost a year, life got in the way of bass playing….In a good way though! Slowly getting back into playing, might also become a bit more active in the forums again, we’ll see. In a way, it is perhaps fitting that my first post back would be in a “techie” discussion though lol.
A bunch of pretty good recommendations in this thread, just wanted to echo @devilcrayon and say that a Google Pixel + GrapheneOS is great. I have been running that for 3 years now (on my Pixel 6a) and I don’t think I could ever go back to Google’s OS. The catch is you’d need to get a Pixel though….
Regarding Linux: tough subject. I have been daily driving Linux for almost three years now, for both work and personal. I’m an organic chemist, ChemDoodle runs fine and so does LibreOffice. Then again, my company switched to OneDrive a couple years ago, so now I’m just doing stuff on sharepoint on the browser….No issues though using darktable to edit my photos and Ardour to record my pitiful bass playing. I don’t run any plugins though, so your mileage may vary. I’m also running EndeavourOS though and not Ubuntu or any of it’s relatives. Having said that, my coworker’s home desktop running Win10 recently died and got fully revived when I put Linux Mint in it, first go too. I don’t want to drag on the discussion about Linux pros and cons. If you have a computer (like my Lenovo laptop) that overall plays well with Linux, installing and running and using it daily is extremely easy. If you have one like your ASUS notebook that doesn’t play well, then, yeah….Not much to say there.
Mac did get mentioned a couple times. Honestly, if my workplace decided they’d gift me a new laptop, I’d ask for a Mac, leave it at work and convert my Lenovo to fully personal. It’s not a question about whether Windows actively breaks anything anymore, but in a way, it’s about efficiency. My laptop (back when it was on Win11) just running Teams was revving like crazy and consuming 8GB of RAM. Currently have a whole bunch of stuff open in Linux, <3GB. Can only ever hear the fans go when I’ve edited a photo to oblivion in darktable and then asking it to export at max quality.
Take a look also at Asahi Linux: Fedora Asahi Remix - Asahi Linux Frankly, a used M1 or M2 (with or without Asahi Linux) might be one of the best computers money can buy right now.
Unless you’re playing games that is…Even then, it only matters what types of games. If you’re not playing games that use kernel anti-cheat, you’re most likely fine in Linux. I can play my entire library with no tinkering needed, but I realize it’s not the same for everyone.
One last note about phones: since you’re in Europe and want to actively support European stuff as much as possible, take a look at the Mudita Kompakt: Mudita Store | Mudita Kompakt - a minimalist phone with E Ink® screen. I have been thinking of getting a dumbphone for a long time, tried for a bit, got quite frustrated. Then I saw that and it ticks a whole bunch more boxes than some generic fake Nokia from AliExpress. Currently on sale until the 15th (should probably also mention I’m not affiliated with them lol)
Anyways, glad to talk to everyone again guys, kinda missed the forum vibes!
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Wow! That was quite an entry - thanks so much! Welcome back & please stay
Maybe I sell my little ASUS and get a Mx MacBook to run LINUX on it? Hmmmmm
Please do! I need as much info as possible - especially if you don’t agree! I like a dialectic approach…
I will test that as soon as I get Fender Studio Pro running … stay tuned!
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Hey thanks for the welcome back!
Re:Linux pros and cons, I guess you can already kind of sum it up based on this thread: my experience has been smooth sailing, your experience has been 13 unsuccessful installation attempts and frustration. This is kinda like how it goes in Linux fora all the time:
Person A: “hey, thing X doesn’t work on my computer”
Person B: “you’re clearly wrong, cause it works fine on MY computer”
I think it was @faydout who summed it up best when I was talking about Linux with him a year or so ago: you can’t easily tell people to put Linux on their machines, if you also don’t want to spend some effort being their IT support. My friend who actually works in IT put Linux Mint on his grandma’s computer and she couldn’t even tell the difference. But all she ever does is open the browser and go on YouTube. What you’re planning to do here is much more involved than that haha. Feel free to send me a personal message if you’d like, although I’m honestly not a Linux wizard.
Oh and about the first bit:
Welcome back & please stay
Just from an almost philosophic point of view, engaging in fora like B2B sounds increasingly like a way to “move away” from Big Tech. At least in the sense that by spending time here, you’re at least not actively using some sort of mainstream app that’s spying on you. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, even if you do use something like Proton or Tuta or whatever, part of your internet presence WILL go through Google and so on. Full privacy/anonymity comes with compromises in user experience that most of us would not be comfortable with, after all.
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Yeah, this is the thing. All the free office apps are fine on their own - the problem is when you need to interoperate with others. Which for business apps it turns out is very often. That’s where Linux becomes impractical for those things, and it is one area where it’s really tough to fix.
Yeah we have had… very different experiences
Even with Crossover (which I own a paid license for), which is what Valve derived Proton from.
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lmao exactly - Ask A Greybeard
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You might appreciate the Better Offline podcast…
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Interoperability is arguably THE single biggest thing. Goes hand in hand with the cost of switching: let’s say you’re a graphics designer and you want to switch to Linux/FOSS and use Graphite for instance. Good luck convincing every industry client who would be expecting Photoshop files from you…
Having said that, I feel like @Whying_Dutchman only needs to convince himself and his girlfriend for now lol
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