i pieced together a comparable 2tb on pcpartpicker, using the cheapest reputable choices and vendors. it was about $200-250 less for the pc (without an os) in a standard matx tower form factor.

an image viewer with the feature set and workflow of irfanview on windows.

‘hybrid sleep’ does write the hibernate file before going into ‘sleep mode’. if you have an older system or one that doesn’t use ‘modern standby’ and you have an ssd, you might want to double-check that setting in your power scheme advanced settings.

the culprit is actually probably “fast startup” which writes a hibernate file every shutdown. every “normal” ‘shutdown’… close programs, logoff, hibernate, power off. this feature is unnecessary on systems with ssd but it continues to be enabled by default. it was created in the days of old to make hdd systems appear to boot up faster by not actually starting up windows on every power on.

hibernate isn’t enabled by default.

the other writer of hibernate data, hybrid sleep, doesn’t even exist on a newer system that uses ‘modern standby’… but is enabled by default on desktops that do not.

you’re on the right track, i think, but not bazzite–that carries a lot of extra stuff that isn’t necessary here. just ordinary fedora silverblue. clean up the app grid or put dash-to-dock on it and put the few launchers they need down on that. gnome is actually a good desktop for basic users that just need to run one or a few applications. updates are somewhat frequent but should be almost entirely automatic.

i have a few users like your parents on endless os, which is similar to silverblue, just based on an in-house immutable debian instead of silverblue’s fedora base. i rarely ever hear from them, it ‘just works’. i also have it at home, it’s currently my only linux desktop there (i do most my ‘work’ at the office, home is just doom-scrolling and media for the most part these days). updates are less frequent but endless is switching to a gnome os base with the next major version. that will probably increase the frequency of updates a bit compared to their older debian base. that upgrade to v7 should be mostly invisible to the user, they’ve done a good job in the past with upgrades.

it was my mom who ‘taught’ me how to skip ads on tv. we had one of the earliest betamax when i was a kid, she recorded everything she watched and always fast-forwarded through the commercials. that first vcr had dials for channel changing and could only do one scheduled recording… but it was used a lot

… my blocking ads is a courtesy so you don’t waste your time, cpu cycles, and bandwidth on serving them to me.

many were there first, long before microsoft bought the site. but now? yea. why tf are people still using it.

life: “it looks like you have some free time, how about a few ‘unforeseen circumstances’ to liven things up a bit?”

debian stable misses a lot of the ‘fun’.

like we’re seeing with Android’s “Desktop mode”.

apple is already in on this game, as well.

every day i use windows less than the day before. i still ‘need’ it for some things, including work, but on a personal level it’s almost entirely linux lately… but it’s been a three decade journey.

microsoft ‘lost their way’ years ago in their relentless pursuit of profit.

“just watch my video to learn how to fix your problem of not being able to watch videos”

henry gray, the author of the iconic medical text.

albert grey, former governor general (ca). the grey cup (cfl championship game and trophy) takes its name from him.

for the color i use “a” always… but was taught either one was acceptable, unless it’s a name (proper noun).

double-down and do something even more stupid. it’s what they do.

good thing the planet spins around and goes around on its own, because they’d find a way to fuck that up, too.

Book directly with the hotel

my boss always does this now, she learned her lesson ‘the hard way’ about third-party sites years ago.

half of the other half didn’t “struggle” because they already gave up on trying to get health care in the first place.

do not get a vizio. that’s walmart trash now.