Why? I use openSUSE Tumbleweed for gaming and it's been rock solid. Seriously, I've never really had any issues. It has its quirks, but they are easily "fixed" by adding Packman and the Nvidia repos... and running an update.
I've tried Ubuntu multiple times and it was always a shitshow disaster. Mint was OK-ish, but had Ubuntu-related silliness.
I've been working full time in software dev and hardware dev since the mid-1990s. Through that whole time I've worked almost exclusively on (in the early days) Sun workstations, AS/400, and HPUX machines. This eventually transitioned to Linux and macOS (once it became Unix based). Over the past 7-8 years, every company I've worked for (primarily in backend software and "big data") has actually heavily restricted Windows within the company. Most have required high level approval to have a Windows machine... you had to have a damn good business reason to run Windows as your primary OS.
Windows is definitely the leader in generic desktop work, but... there are pockets out there of Linux/macOS-only. And... given the strong shift to browser based everything... Windows has lost its shininess for all but the most specific applications - eg graphics editing in industry standard tooling like Photoshop.
Thankfully the school my kids go to doesn't really give a crap what you run at home on on their laptops they used for school work as long as the kids are able to to their assignments. Almost 100% of what they do is browser based interfaces anyway, so it doesn't matter what the underlying OS is. I've made a point of teaching my kids Linux, macOS, and Windows. They've both asked to run Linux on their personal PCs... it was, and remains their choice.
If you take a typical 4L jug of milk and lay it on its side in your refrigerator without first making sure the lid is tight (right from the grocery store), it can and will slowly leak. I see this all the time. We buy a new 4L jug before the opened one is empty (kids go through a lot) and there's no room in the fridge to stand it upright.. The place we can fit an upright 4L jug is already occupied by the opened 4L jug, the applejuice box, etc.
So... it's not normal procedure to buy the new jug and just before we lay it on its side on the fridge shelf we check the lid is tight.... and no leaks.. forget and there's a small puddle in an hour or so.
The pressure on rentals has potential to become MUCH worse too if the interest rates start pushing people out of their current owned homes.
I'm a home owner. I am looking at a mortgage renewal in about 18 months. At the current interest rates I'm facing a painful mortgage payment hike. Can I manage it without extending my amortization period? Yes... painful, but yes. I can absorb the increase because I intentionally bought in a (at the time) marginally lower COL area at less than 50% of what I qualified for. Most people I know who bought around the same time went right to the max and they are screwed at renewal if rates don't drop by a substantial amount. In some cases they will be forced into extending their mortgages well beyond 30 years or forced to sell... if they sell, they have to live somewhere... they will transition to renting...
I can really relate to this. I lived outside of Canada for 25 years. I recently-ish moved back to Canada and am totally blown away by things here. Life isn't always amazing in any place you pick on the planet, but god damn, Canadians need to stop contemplating their collective belly button lint and focus on some of the massive issues that need attention.
I've been using Nvidia with Linux for a VERY long time. Currently I have computers running:
GT1030 - two older PC
GTX2060 Ti
GTX 3050 Ti - laptop
They are all working fine with openSUSE Tumbleweed. I install openSUSE, add the Nvidia community repo (a couple of clicks), run updates once, and reboot. Everything just works after that. I can count maybe 3 times in the past 6 years that there was any issue at all.
Now Ubuntu and derivative... I've had a LOT of issues and weirdness... drivers failing, doing weird things etc.
Yeah I can see that being useful. We are planning to sell the house in about 18-24 months (assuming things don't totally collapse) and will have to start clearing out the cruft at some point. Things not good enough for a Craigslist sale, but still has life left if someone is creative.
I haven't heard of this... took a look. There are two (Facebook) groups in the city I live in. I'd have to get a Facebook account to join. Hmmmm... will think about it. I've been avoiding Facebook since I disconnected from it a few years back.
Those used clothes are often more expensive than new.
My wife and I try to shop for clothes for our kids at places like Once Upon a Child. We find George (Walmart) brand clothing there with prices higher than buying new at the local Walmart. There's not a lot of incentive to recycle clothing when it's priced like that.
Value Village is picked clean... There are some "vintage" clothing stores nearby as well... they are shockingly expensive.
It's really difficult to try and recycle clothing and buy or source used clothing When it is priced at the same as or higher then brand new.
Son-of-a-bitch. I just searched with Google... and almost ALL my old comments are back. The user attribution is [deleted], but almost all the content of 13 or 14 years of comments has been restored. In a few cases, a top-level comment has not been restored, but everywhere in sub-comment conversations, I see my old content... content I know I explicitly deleted.
So, even though I explicitly deleted my contributions, they ignored and restored it. What an asshole move by the Reddit admins. And of course, now that my account has been deleted there's no way to follow up and re-remove all my contributions.
I wonder. Considering that the vast majority of my comments on Reddit were done while I lived in Europe if I can use GPRD and insist they remove it all.
I feel this so much. I own a property. I rented it out. I ran into that exact same lineup of expenses vs income you note here and... I ended up taking my house OFF the rental market. It's just not worth it.
I keep getting into these discussions with people who yell “It’s immoral to buy a house and rent it out. Landlords must provide housing for renters at a loss so I can have cheap housing” and then... "It's an investment and you as the owner must fund my low cost housing because you might earn equity in the property when you sell it in the future."
That's a MASSIVE stretch for a typical family of 4 on your average income scenario, Once you factor in all the utils, maintenance... the $400 to $500/month property taxes, a $650/month car payment (an average family has a car payment)... and the incredibly high cost of food... they will be well over stretched at a 50%.
I did not know that. I was a kid in the 1970s/80s when the change came to the part of Canada I grew up in... and I remember it as a "too many trees chopped down" thing. Did some digging and... damn...
I'm old enough to remember that grocery store only had paper bags, and replaced them with plastic bags because we were using too much paper and it was killing all the trees.
I struggle with the same question. I'm trying to educate myself about the options... and it's damn difficult. Every option is a poor choice for different reasons. One party has a core platform that is completely out of touch with the public, the next relies on fingerpointing and provides zero solutions, and the third just parrots what people are thinking on many issues but does nothing more than grandstanding.
Sigh.
With the way things are, we end up voting for a party we dislike so that the party we feel is destructive to Canada doesn't win the election.... and then we end up dissatisfied with the results. It's pretty broken.
Watch your grocery shopping... it's incredibly frustrating and depressing. Everyday things like... say a flat of chicken breast from Save-On. Not so long ago that flat of meat was about $7-$8 for 1kg. Now you get 650g for $14. Every item you buy has dramatically reduced in size/weight and doubled in price.
Why? I use openSUSE Tumbleweed for gaming and it's been rock solid. Seriously, I've never really had any issues. It has its quirks, but they are easily "fixed" by adding Packman and the Nvidia repos... and running an update.
I've tried Ubuntu multiple times and it was always a shitshow disaster. Mint was OK-ish, but had Ubuntu-related silliness.