Causality issues aside, yes I would. Makes a big difference if I found out I had 40+ years left vs 5 years left.

Wouldn't have mattered either way then lol.

That's why I said one of the exceptions was gaming notebooks, something like the smaller Razer Blade laptops.

Not sure why GrapheneOS is getting down voted so much here, did I miss something recent that happened?

I've been using GrapheneOS on my Pixel 6a for around 2 years and really like it.

If I couldn't use GOS though, I would probably go with DivestOS. I haven't looked deep into other alternative Android ROMs.

Totally!

No hate, but I've never understood gaming laptops. They are noisy, hot, almost always with severely nerfed performance compared to their equivalent non-mobile components.

They are heavy and bulky with poor battery life. They are often garish, which makes them less suitable for a professional environment if you're in a workplace where that matters.

It just seems like the vast majority of gaming laptops give you the worst of all worlds. Worse performance than a desktop rig, and none of the good things about a laptop, like portability, long battery life, etc.

To me, there are a few exceptions though:

1. Gaming notebooks. You sacrifice a bunch of performance, but you at least gain back some of the benefits of a normal laptop like slimness, portability, battery life, etc. As long as you don't play super hardcore games, the thermal issue isn't a huge problem.
2. Your work has a ton of travel and you are allowed to do it on your personal laptop. You can work and game on the same device. If you are traveling like every month flying everywhere for work, that makes sense to have a single device to do it all on.

Again, no hate, just my $0.02

Eh, now days unless you're really beating them up, most HDDs will last at least 5-7 years.

You are right that people need to have multiple backups on different media, especially really important stuff.

Go to your favorite YT creator's channels and download important content! Educational content, lectures, nostalgic content. Anything and everything you have the storage for.

One day, it will be locked away behind paywalls, poisoned with ads, or just deleted entirely.

Part of preparing for war is stockpiling supplies. Buy bulk storage. An extra 2-4 TB hard drive can be bought for 100-200 dollars. It doesn't have to be fancy, get a friend or two to go in with you on it.

Download and save everything you value. Rip your physical media and save it, pirate the shows and movies you love. One day it will be locked away or stolen from you because the terms of service changed.

Please don't delay, I wish I had started years ago myself.

T480 is a great machine. You can find them on eBay for $200-$300 quite easily. They work great with Linux and are still old enough that they are decently repairable.

I've also heard that the older X1 carbons are really solid if you want something a little sleeker.

My ghost will haunt GoG's corporate offices until they relent and transfer my games to the person who's name I keep creepily spelling with frost on their mirrors & windows.

All the above. Full gaming desktop for editing video, 3D modeling, and hardcore gaming. Laptop for travel needs, home lab administration, and side business use. Steam deck for portable/casual gaming.

Tankies get spankies.

Totally agree.

If you're not super patient, I wouldn't personally. If you do end up going with Arch, the first thing you should do is install Timeshift!!!

You will save yourself sooooo much pain and frustration, especially with Arch. Installing a system/feature-breaking update becomes trivial to undo with Timeshift. I've borked my systems multiple times and with Timeshift it took less than 5 minutes to go from a trashed system back to my fully working setup.

Set it to take an automatic snapshot once a day. That way worse case scenario, your system gets reverted to the beginning of the day.

Arch is great if you're patient and willing to learn the right way to do things in Linux.

If you want a "just works" experience though, you should look elsewhere.

God bless iFixit, and God damn Samsung.

True, I guess it varies depending on where you live and the circumstances.

I'm in the US and we lived in a medium-sized city at the time, so a higher level of danger than in many other developed countries.

When my brother and I were pretty young, my dad once left us in the car to run in fast and grab something from a grocery store. (I know, bad, but this was several decades ago. It was more normal back then.)

While he was gone, an older man came up to our car and started aggressively trying to unlock the door.

My brother and I froze in fear and just watched as he kept trying to unlock the door. We had unbuckled ourselves to play while my dad was inside, so we were on the floor.

We both just shrunk down into the floor and hid silently, not knowing what to do.

After probably 30 seconds, he put his hands up over his eyes and looked in the car window, then made a frustrated sound and quickly left.

Once our dad came back a few minutes later, my brother and I told him what happened. We were pretty freaked out.

He said the man was probably just confused because he was elderly and thought it was his car. I think that makes sense, but as little kids alone, it was still really scary.

Almost certainly fake, but what a horrible thought.

I'll throw my hat in. I've moderated multiple Discord communities before and currently. I've also moderated forums back in the day.

I am passionate about FOSS and the community around it. I've been a Linux user for 4+ years now and work in IT, so I have a good handle on the current trends in tech.

Thanks for your consideration!

Right on!