They’ve been called out. Boyhowdy have they been called out. You can’t mention “Framework” on Mastodon without someone chiming in to tell you about all this and try and shame you into not considering a Framework machine. I think they have been sufficiently called out.

Oh man. I began using Linux a little over a year ago by installing Ubuntu (then switching to Mint) on old Macs–a 2011 iMac and a 2015 MacBook Pro. The MacBook had a logic board failure and I decided to grab a super cheap Lenovo IdeaPad from Costco a few months back. Getting a bootable USB for the first Mac was really the only challenge I ever had, otherwise the installs were extremely straightforward (especially when I went to Mint). But for the IdeaPad (which has a CoPilot key on the keyboard and was “optimized for Windows 11”), while there weren’t any real gymnastics involved, the process of removing Windows 11 took substantially longer than MacOS and I got the feeling that it was all the “AI” nonsense trying to avoid being deleted. It was clear that this laptop did NOT want something other than Windows on it.

Of course I was successful. And I managed to remap that Copilot key to bring up the Linux Mint menu when I hit it, as an extra layer of dominance.

You’re not fooling anyone, y’know

When I was nearing the end of grad school, they asked us to submit any degrees we’d earned to be listed next to our names in the graduation ceremony program. I “left high school early” so I have a GED (and am proud of it). So I listed my degrees as GED, BA.

A few days later the person putting together the programs finds me in the refectory, pulls me aside and quietly asks me “um, GED? Is… is that high school?”

“Sort of,” I reply.

“Uh, yeah… we don’t usually put those in there…”

Still have a GED sharing wall space with my Master’s either way. Win.

I started out with Ubuntu a little over a year ago. Then came an update that removed the ability to change the brightness of my desktop’s monitor. Felt like an Apple move, so I gave Mint another go. Have really enjoyed it (though I’m starting to eye CachyOS since Mint has seemingly decided to comply in advance with the CA age-verification law–haven’t added anything yet, but say they will)

Back when it was referred to as “Japanimation.” I used to watch the Saturday morning anime. I caught Green Legend Ran on there and remember really liking it. I need to revisit that one at some point.