I'm pulling up stakes in the Windows camp, dual-boot Linux as step #1

Yeah a detached HEAD really hurts!

I used to recover that way (re-clone), but that's what git reflog is for, it shows you every step you took, and every step git took for you (like a fast-forward) so you can revert to the exact point where you messed up. Add --date=iso (or whatever date format you prefer) and you can see when each step happened.

I guess those AI researchers were lisp programmers, gnu emacs was designed with lisp programming in mind. I stick with it for customization ability and certain things that other editors don't do as well (keyboard macros, multi pane editing including in the same file). I never went all-in on do everything with it though. For a while I was a keyboard partisan, but then I just got good with the trackball set to high speed.
 
In a related subject, yesterday I fired up an old win7 laptop, which downloaded and installed a MS security update in 2025!???

The biggest problem with Linux and new windose is that they do not support drivers for my old 35mm scanner and my old video capture devices, so I had to use an XP laptop to capture my daughters firewire DV tapes. Hauppauge does install on win10 but the line-in has some kind of buffering problem that makes the image keep glitching, so it's useless.
 
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It was, of course, Nvidia drivers!
Well, a real hint would have been if you had mentioned that you had an NVIDIA card, LOL.
And no, hinting that "Linus himself was upset" about that package was not really a hint. Linus is upset over a few things and then some. 😃
All desktop PCs that I use have an integrated Intel graphics card. I don't need anything more. Laptops is a different story, but gracefully during the last installs no NVIDIA problems. The chips are somewhat older, the laptops are from 2010, 2011 and 2016.
 
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Some people say JIF, because a “G” can sound like a J in English (or “American”). Those same people fail to realize that GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, so the answer is obvious. Those same people, when presented with this argument, refuse to acknowledge it, grin like a troll and say JIF JIF JIF!!!

This is one of my daughters, to this day.

Edit: Was posting before I saw jgf’s answer…
 
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In a related subject, yesterday I fired up an old win7 laptop, which downloaded and installed a MS security update in 2025!???

The biggest problem with Linux and new windose is that they do not support drivers for my old 35mm scanner and my old video capture devices, so I had to use an XP laptop to capture my daughters firewire DV tapes. Hauppauge does install on win10 but the line-in has some kind of buffering problem that makes the image keep glitching, so it's useless.

I thought about it... all the 8mm, Hi8 and DV tapes... have (had) most of the hardware and software to do the capture.

About 125 tapes or so..... I ended up paying a local guy near by 700 bucks to capture them all into DVDs.
 
I answered my question from a few days ago on how to select different window managers. First, to boot to text mode, in /etc/default/grub added "3" as a kernel parameter on the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. This is the runlevel passed to the kernel on boot. This is a debian install, runlevels may be distribution dependent. I was getting an IRQ related error, and googling told me I needed to add irqpoll to the kernel command line.

I also disabled the display manager (that's the graphical login manager), but I don't remember if that was necessary.

Finally each window manager I have installed (currently xfce4 and fluxbox) have their own start scripts. startxfce4 from a shell prompt to start xfce4, and for fluxbox, startfluxbox was added to .xsession, then I use startx. Initially I used .xinitrc, but programs would take many seconds to start from the graphical shell, and using .xsession was the suggested fix on the web.

There are display managers that allow selecting from a menu of login choices which would be a slick way of choosing the login, but I haven't gone there yet.
 
I'm going to say bye bye window and try Mint on it.
I'm finding the worst of it (Mint) is the #$%^ scrolling; has these apparent quantized "jumps" - like if I want to scroll a window down just a line or two, forget it. 4 lines down, 6 back, 4 down again, 4 back it just doesnt work the same. Fundamental to how I interact with the computer. Like going from a car whose clutch is silky smooth, to one that grabs to full engagement if you breathe on your left leg...
 
Most linux installs are pretty straightforward these days. The one hassle I'm having with my Lenovo IdeaPad 5 laptop is the screen brightness control. I think I have it sort of working with a workaround (dimming is done in the graphics driver rather than in hardware I think?) But supposedly some kernel versions can handle it correctly. Definitely try it, google for specific issues with your hardware.
 
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I'm finding the worst of it (Mint) is the #$%^ scrolling; has these apparent quantized "jumps"
Mouse scrollwheels have clicks every 15-20 degrees, and one click typically scrolls by 10% of the height of the screen. Each scroll click is about 6 lines.

Touchpads traditionally emulated mouse scrollwheel clicks. High-resolution ("smooth") scrolling was added not long ago. Application programs that use GTK need to set GDK_SMOOTH_SCROLL_MASK and handle the GDK_SCROLL_SMOOTH event. I added these to my programs 2-3 years ago.
Ed
 
I answered my question from a few days ago on how to select different window managers. First, to boot to text mode, in /etc/default/grub added "3" as a kernel parameter on the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. This is the runlevel passed to the kernel on boot. This is a debian install, runlevels may be distribution dependent. I was getting an IRQ related error, and googling told me I needed to add irqpoll to the kernel command line.

I also disabled the display manager (that's the graphical login manager), but I don't remember if that was necessary.

Finally each window manager I have installed (currently xfce4 and fluxbox) have their own start scripts. startxfce4 from a shell prompt to start xfce4, and for fluxbox, startfluxbox was added to .xsession, then I use startx. Initially I used .xinitrc, but programs would take many seconds to start from the graphical shell, and using .xsession was the suggested fix on the web.

There are display managers that allow selecting from a menu of login choices which would be a slick way of choosing the login, but I haven't gone there yet.
If you begin with one of the “fatter” DEs, the login screen has the menu with DE choices built in. For Gnome and MATE it has been that way for as long as I can remember. Probably true for KDE, Cinnamon? I can’t recall. The menus aren’t always in-your-face obvious. In fact, my gut tells me xfce’s login screen has that menu, but I can’t recall.

Just be aware of the potential for issues, as discussed earlier in the thread. If you are just playing around and want to try various DEs, create a different user for each one. If you think you’ll be wanting to use different DEs as the same user, long term, just accept that you might have some problems - ranging from minor quirks to show stoppers.
 
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contents from the undertaker.
Not that I dont believe in capitalism, just not the rampant version. Its so too bad, what is happening to windows, facebook, twitter, yt, as investor satiation becomes the corporations "porn addiction", where nothing else matters except the next page being better than the last.

People have some nice technical groups on fb for example and I could most easily locate and converse with old friends on fb. I'd rather go without and make do with something else, than get embroiled in any of that.

I blok on yt. Cant believe how long its successfully lasted and how the "normal" delivery is literally intolerable. I remember what cable TV was like a few years ago and they've certainly taken the cue from what folks will statistically put up with from that medium, in terms of frequency of disruption.

Just wait, as time goes on. You'll be pondering numbers on a spreadsheet, the OS will detect a brief activity lapse and the "you may skip ad in 5 secs" button will show up. I wouldnt put it past 'em, ultimately.
 
Yes, Youtub listens to everything you say, it detects your language and the comments are filtered accordingly.

Depending on your 'AI' profile your comments section is different, if you start to speak Japanese it will start unfiltered some comments in Japanese (install also the script). It listens to you 100% of time it is the Beast.

I believe what you said. Also youtub makes it on purpose that so much (c) content is available for free because of the adds they get royalties. Everyone wins, but you can't get the content free elsewhere or else it is illegal.

I leave youtub because of what you said and the loss of time.

I stopped watching TV during covid, and now that I have the cable and 150 TV channels I brought back the TV to best-by.

I am focusing on myself and my goals and what makes me happy, not some algorithm.

In Roman times they used to serve in banquets 50 years old bottles. The irony is tonight I opened a 7 years old St-Emilion which shocked my tastebuds so much we are unaccustomed to 'taste' to 'flavor' the flavor of life, the light of the Sun and the sound of the forests.