Valid question. You can ask this about many things:

Would the Internet as we know it exist if Facebook, AOL, and Yahoo had united to create a walled garden?

Would Macbooks as we know them today exist without an open source ecosystem? Would the company Appke exist? Would there be an iPhone?

Would the web exist without Linux? Both developed at the same time, 1991 till now, and most stuff runs on Linux servers.

Would the people who build all the hardware and software even be interested in computers had they not played with (build) computers in the 90ies? What if we had given them an iPad aith CandyCrush that just works; and not BIOS codes, cables, extension cards and drivers?

Dell, the company known for their onsite sales.

Sure, if they had a website or something, they could work remotely, but someone needs to be present when customers flock in.

Every time, I’m ready to jump the Ubuntu ship and go back to Debian or Mint, they announce something interesting; something I’d at least want to try.

Yes. And depending on the the VM and the app, you can get a ‘seamless mode’ that looks like a native Linux app.

VMs work most of the time quite well if you have enough RAM. (The VM always works, some applications will detect unusual hardware and may complain, e.g. unsupported GPU. Any sane software should run, though (e.g. with gpu acceleration).)

I don’t get it

I wouldn’t even try with wine these days.

Why don’t you use the Win10 machine you have, the online version of Microsoft Office (web browser or app), a VM with Windows, or (if it works for your case) Google Docs or OnlyOffice.

I’m not worried about e-ink price tags. Aldi has them. I’m worry if it says, use your phone to find special offers only for you.

Not legal advice, just an idea.

Publish early and frequently (e.g. on github with a license statement) and encourage others to clone it. Now the code is out there. You can’t take it back. Even better if the funding agency explicitly approves this.

You can still dual-license, later, i.e. use a more permissive (or different) license if the agency or a research partner requires this. Just make sure the repo with your preferred licence stays available and uptodate.

The license is less important than you think. OSS projects live as long as there is at least one maintainer.

Not an expert, not an insider. Just commenting to inform about what i know.

When wayland was designed, security was a concern and it was handled differently than in X decades ago. That is good.

Under X any application can be a screenreader and see your data. This was okay when you trusted everything on your machine, but is a problem today.

Under wayland’s original design, no application could be a screenreader. That’s bad. It took way too long to agree on how to make exceptions to the rule, e.g. for screen readers, screen sharing in video calls, etc.

PhD in Quantum Optics

Still waiting for the day my education pays off.

Still means that

Yes, it’s called Linux. Just boot any live usb and you’ll see.

I get what you are asking: Why try hundred distros, just tell me the one that works, but I’m not aware of any such tool. If an open-source driver exists the kernel is really good at auto-detecting everything and make it work.

You can have inline images that are only shown as part of the rendered HTML. Don’t ask me how, but you’ll find some examples in your inbox.

Chinese technology

There are two screenshot and I can see them? No #AltText though.

Right on the money: See also the official mullvad docs: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls#linux

Or just git depending on the use case.

Nothing in live week ever be 100% guaranteed to work forever. You’ll be fine, mostly.

1. Yes, Live Linux system and regular install are practically identical. It’s the same software. Everything should work. There’s reason to assume Wifi will suddenly break. (Actually, Live systems differ a lot from a traditional install, but you can assume that what worked on the live system will work later. It is the same software after all. Same kernel including all drivers.)

2. Keep this USB you have just booted from. This is the tool to recover if things should go south.

3. You can keep Windows, usually, when installing Linux. The process requires “shrinking the Windows partition” and a boot loader that can handle both. Pretty standard; the installer should guide you.

4. You can totally use a phone to google how to fix your Linux.

Have fun with Linux Mint. It’s the Just works Linux.

Web apps

I’ve been macOS user for past decade.

I find macOS UI superior to both Gnome and KDE.

I’m not surprised.

Also, I’m not sure if Gnome tries to mimic OS X or Windows or KDE, for the sake of this argument. Gnome (classic) was invented to replace (original) KDE, which sort-of tried to replace Windows.

Stuff evolves. UIs oscillate between minimalism and overload.