Technology

I mean with every day passing there's less and less desktop users anyway. Most teenagers know significantly less about windows than you know about Linux. They're on iOS and android.

As an admin i see it as an opportunity to switch to Linux but the boomers are refusing to let go of microslop office so it's a bit of a fight still.

I've been recommending Endeavour because its "Arch with a nice installer" and it seems to go down well with modestly technical people.

Especially since they can then pick their DE.

Do more people use Mint than Ubuntu these days? I've been on Arch for a decade now so I don't know the popularity of distros as well as I used to.

And while at that, I recomend regular Mint (which is based on Ubuntu).

There is Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), but I have found it harder to use (while I can manage, I'm not that experienced with Linux to bother to troubleshoot and solve it [at least at the time], but I think it was dependency, incompatibility, or driver issues).

Plus, the main Mint version is still the Ubuntu based one, LMDE is kinda a side project and usually isn't as up-to-date, as far as I know.

Same boat here, minus the "still in tech" that I left over 10 yrs ago. Picked up my last pc end of last year and packed up my previous rig for future use. With the old tech around my apt: Laptops, old pc's, and raspberry pi's, I should be able to last til I die. I will never use cloud gaming, only use for that I see is linux users that want to play certain "competitive" games, next phone will most likely be dumb as well. I started my journey on a Commodore Vic 20, never thought this would manifest

You may be playing into their hands...

Your rig is how you communicate with the world - via unbreakable encryption if you choose to. It's your source of information from sources of your choice more than theirs. It's a route to be heard by your friends beyond your local neighborhood.

Yeah, big platform social media is a cess pit. Your rig is your portal to be a force against that tide. No, one pebble on the beach won't stop it, but a billion pebbles?

I still find joy in it. I work in tech support but I also am setting up my first homelab with ubiquiti gear and I'm having a lot of fun. Some parts are cobbled together from bits I can get free or cheap and those are the most fun. I don't have a lot of money and that keeps it interesting.

I will carry the torch and have enough fun for the lot of us. I hope you have just as much fun doing what you're doing.

After decades of digital life, I guess it's back to the real world. They aren't going to like what that shift of focus, time and energy results in.

yup.. once my current rigs fail, I'm not replacing them. I'm just abandoning it and they can do whatever.

I've checked out. I have zero subscriptions, own all my software, could afford to replace if I need to but... why... it's a literal cesspool of corporate trash and I want nothing to do with it.

same with the cellphone.. when it dies, I honestly don't think I care to even replace it. might get hosted VoIP somewhere and have a landline in the house.. beyond that, whatever .. not my issue and if places like the Bank etc try to force it well.. tough. I'll go into the branch like it's 1995 and update my paper passbook and withdraw cash for the week

Wanna be a goat farmer with me (https://www.goatops.com/) ? I've been in IT for 20 years or so and when I first saw that goat list maybe 10-15 years ago it gave me a chuckle, then over the years it made more sense and became a goal. Not necessarily goats, but something entirely separate from IT; for now I'm stuck trying to earn a bit of a retirement, but my eye is on the door.

There is still some good IT stuff to be done though. I have a homelab that I use to avoid Google where I can (degoog/nextcloud/immich/etc), and keep my data indoors as much as possible...

I have felt the same for awhile honestly sans the could reitre today. I may have been spoiled though because I used to workin a research lab and then corpo jobs were fine but man the meetings and sudden change in technology for no other reason than its the current fad. I think though its just hard to do something full time for decades and still find it fun at home. One of the things though is as an IT guy I stopped configuring my systems because it was kinda tiresome and so often I had to know how the default was because that is what I would have to help people with. So I limited it to things I just could not live without but did not get to minutia about it. Then I got sorta sick up spinning things up and started going with what was easiest. mac's when their warranty would just cover anything and then back to windows and even with linux I use easy to setup stuff. I just want it to work and not spend a whole lot on making it work anymore.

I don’t think the personal market will completely die out, but it will definitely shrink by a significant percentage over the next ten years or so.

We’ll see a considerable volume of gamers move to thin clients, ditto for businesses, casual use (email, browsing, consuming media etc.) will continue to switch to mobile devices.

PCs will still exist as a hobby for enthusiasts, but we’ve definitely seen peak-component sales.

One could argue that the personal computer has been dead since the introduction of the Intel Management Engine which is an internet-connected spy chip inside every computer with full access to all hardware that you cannot observe, modify, block, or disable.

Just get rid of as much American software as you can. The US is a mess and the cloud act will always be abused.

Edit: or open source software