I’ve never had those problems. I’m especially surprised by the boot script issue. Mint and Ubuntu are the main “beginners” distros. You’d probably be fine if you went with mint again. Pop_os is supposed to be good. I use EndeavourOS with kde plasma desktop and it’s fantastic. But you have to run the update script weekly to be safe.

Oh look at Mister-or-Missus Fancy Bagel Pants up here flaunting their bagel 🥯 wealth, oh and look it was fresh they just “got” it this morning so it was still soft and delicious

What flavor bagel?

Did you graduate high school or university/college?

I know you’re not looking for advice or anything, but I do think you should find something to dedicate yourself to. It could be a marketable skill or just learning to build something. Lifting and writing code is a great way to spend a day. Or maybe gardening or woodworking, electronics, rock climbing, I don’t know lol. Something to nerd-out about, not just something to pass the time. Your system wants you to pursue something more seriously.

a few minutes

do you have any hobbies? get any exercise?

EndeavourOS is really good. Arch-based but easy to maintain. You’ll never have to do a major release upgrade. The only issue is to keep it updated, make sure to do little updates weekly. They have a great community and it’s a wonderful OS.

the meta key

Reading. Writing. Coding. Studying. Exercise.

Is the HDD removable? I’ve swapped hard drives between thinkpads before and linux didn’t seem to care that it’s suddenly on a different machine. So maybe you can install something on the HDD on a different machine (that has a usb) and then swap the HDD back into the Surface. Maybe there will still be things to smooth out later, but it’s something to try.

It’s all grotesque mimicry. I haven’t seen any ai-generated erotic content. I’m afraid to ask where that keeps showing up for you. But I see ai content everywhere else, and the word “slop” is perfect.

Sometimes I use my X380 yoga as a tablet. It’s an actual mini laptop (13" screen) but it will turn sideways as a tablet, it’s touch-screen, and it has a pen built into the side. You can fold the keyboard around (thus the “yoga” element), which disables the keyboard and makes it an actual tablet. Really great. 10/10

There are newer yoga models but I can’t vouch for them because I only have this one.

Homesteading, or just growing your own food, is a great idea.

However, if you simply buy fresh meat and produce then you’ll have an amazing diet.

I tried to visit but their security certificate is expired. Are they still a legit site?

Do you think the fediverse has a civility problem?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: social media (and humans) have a civility problem. And I wonder how much of it is astroturfed. When Trump was first running for the 2016 election, social media was flooded with racism. You disagreed with one twitter egg, and five more were like “debate me bro” and they had all these stats about race-science, and rhetoric to misconstrue the nature of equality and the value of liberalism. I don’t think it was grassroots. I think it was Steve Bannon’s troll army or some other coordinated institution. Here on Lemmy I keep seeing violent leftist rhetoric, and I also wonder if it’s feds, or reddit’s goons undermining the competition. They’ll post “murder all pigs” or “shoot fascists” and get like a thousand upvotes, and their arguments are belligerent and idiotic, and they pile on you for disagreeing. Feels coordinated. Feels like 2016 honestly.

is there anything we can do about it?

Downvote, report, block. Don’t engage (trying to remember that myself). But I bet they’re still driving people away.

In relation to “comeuppance,” that stuff is not entirely relevant. Frightened goons and croneys/lackeys still show “respect” (and probably feel it as they understand it). They’ll also act out the hostile wishes of the cruel bastard they follow. Comeuppance doesn’t follow my wishes through them. If I want a good life, I can’t get hung up on whether they get what they “deserve.” I’m focused on my own things.

And yeah, I’ve had one of those guys literally yelling at me that “the only respect is fear!” I disagree, but his friends obey him and I’m a loner. There will be no “comeuppance.” That’s resentfully imagining revenge into the universe. That’s how you become warped and hostile. I have things to do. I’m not interested in “comeuppance.”

Actions have consequences, but if you’re a cruel bastard the consequences might be that people give you more respect than you “deserve,” and if you’re smart about it then you can manipulate and torture people your whole life. I’ve seen the “worst” people, totally abusive and dishonest, commanding the most respect. They have no conscience and they spit on people who don’t “fall in line.” I just avoid them.

Stupidity and bad luck bring about “comeuppance.” There’s no such thing as “deserve,” at least not objectively, not to the universe.

I need more than to just keep working the problem. I’m middle aged and living with family again, I’ve always been poor even though I excel at all my jobs and I have a degree. And there’s no such thing as a “conclusion,” except death, so what I’m working at is stable ongoing engagement in an arena where I can maintain that engagement. Still trying to think what that can look like. Thanks for the encouragement.

The power-hungry ones that start campaigns of social warfare, yes. But they’re also very socially powerful and are able to dictate social outcomes and perceptions. Often they’re jealous that people like me, or that I’m performing very well at a job, and they see my social ineptness as an opportunity and a fun way to publicly demonstrate their superiority in some other arena. To them socializing is warfare. And it’s not enough to just call them assholes, because I’ve lost many friends, and it has severely limited my job prospects. I need a response that benefits me more. But I also can’t just keep throwing myself into that thresher. I’m still trying to think of the right approach. Because I’m ambitious and intelligent enough to want more than unemployment and isolation.

Sure. There are layers to it. If I socially interact for a few hours then I’ll become exhausted, probably cranky. A psychiatrist said I have ADHD, and the sensory input of multiple persons being around is too much. Social environments tend to be overwhelming. A psychologist said I have avoidant personality disorder, but I’m not sure I agree since my problem isn’t based on fear, the fear is downstream to basic social inabilities. But the fear does cause its own problems.

I also have a social phobia. I don’t think it’s genetic, since I didn’t have it as a kid. But my teenage years (11-18) were severely isolated, and full of humiliation and severe loneliness. I just never recovered from that. I spent my 20s trying to learn, forcing myself into all these social environments, but it was mostly just a torturous cycle of collapse.

I over-rely on my sense of humor, and this often causes problems. Most of the time it works really well (people like to laugh, and they appreciate a good joke), so I can make a very good first impression. But when it comes to “actual” social interaction, I simply have no idea what to say, like ever. I can negotiate well on other people’s behalf, and I’m good at explaining things, but in open-ended social situations I tend to be weirdly quiet or else I say horribly wrong things without realizing it. I’ve experienced multiple instances of people doing prolonged campaigns of social warfare against me because I accidentally insulted them, and they recognize my vulnerabilities. I’m terrible at reading non-verbal communication (this isn’t just a product of social anxiety or phobia… my brain just doesn’t pick up on these things, doesn’t know what to do with them). So basically I’m not a social creature. Some people actually have thought that I was mentally handicapped (or experiencing cognitive decline, or that I’m “on drugs”) because I just don’t respond like an intelligent person. But then I’ll go to “therapy” (what a disgusting joke) and they’ll see how well I can explain myself, and they’ll declare me to be fine. Clearly no problems with “communication” (but socializing isn’t just explaining things to a person).

I could go on and on, but that paints a picture.

I’m wired wrong for most social interactions. It’s a serious problem, and my attempts to overcome it generally make it much worse. But “accepting myself” means accepting unemployment, and then how can I pay rent? (Currently unemployed and living with family).

However, I don’t think people’s social behavior is all BS. I try not to be resentful. I know there’s lots of BS, but I also know that’s what becomes most obvious to me, so it’s partly a matter of perception.

If you just get LLMs to write your code then you can write your code zero times