my nickname in college was Floppy Surprise

Why do you use the distro you use?

I’ve used many distros over the years (and test spin up many in virtuals to see what they are like) but keep coming back to Debian. I also like vanilla ice cream.

The US govt has done worse (cf. Phil Zimmerman)

/me in Jr High had Nibbles Away ][ and a hole puncher…

I loved my Palm devices.

IIRC (it’s been a while) I played with a Sinclair being demo’ed at Kmart. Truly hated the keyboard. I wanted the TI 99/4a but it was ~$400. A few months later the 99/4a price crashed to $99 and the parents bought me one. Wrote my first BASIC programs on it, saved to cassette tape.

About 10 years ago I found the 99/4A in storage. The KB was also terrible compared to any keyboard these days, but still better than the Sinclair to my young fingers. Def not knocking the Sinclair, talking about personal preference.

90% of the time I use web interfaces, but I often have spotty connectivity while boondocking. So I need a client that can get/send gmail POP3 in narrow windows of connectivity.

I started with thunderbird but something (can’t remember what) wasn’t working well. Ended up with Evolution. It also syncs well to google calendar and google tasks.

What do you guys use for Windows to Linux remote access?

Putty

I want to see desktop

Some kind of VNC setup

I generally only reboot for stuff like kernel updates.

Saw the .de domain and my first thought was this was about using a potato ricer to make spätzle. I may not be normal.

What tips/ideas do you have for getting better at navigating the terminal, and getting a better understanding of how the os works

Running an OS as a virtual is liberating. Dive in, make mistakes, fix them (or not and have to reinstall or redo from the last save). No real consequences for exploring.

distrohoped

This should be a word. It would mean “trying yet another flavor because it might be The One”

My father switched to linux (Mint, I think) in his 70s. I was in another state so he did it solo. He had a few questions but otherwise it was smooth sailing.

Traditionally I’ve been running lighter desktops like opebox, xfce, or lmde. Last couple of years I’ve been using MATE with good results.

In my country that would cost me 20 dollars

The first RAM I bought (SIPP for a 386-16 IIRC) was $50/MB. Jay-sus.

nowadays Mint is Ubuntu with sane default settings that will run out of the box

There’s also an official version of Mint based on Debian (LMDE)

What’s on your “Everyday Carry” USB stick?

• scans of my DL and other licenses
• scan of my DD214
• system rescue ISO
• a TEMP dir with random things I need in the short term
• portable apps versions of putty, WinSCP, etc.

Do normal people who don’t do this stuff for a living use Linux now, outside handheld gaming devices?

I run into folks using linux fairly often in tech hobbies. Ham operators, DIY solar folk, people dorking around with a RasPi, etc. And some Normals who want a lighter experience than Win.

Last dedicated windows box I ran at home was Windows NT 4, IIRC. Last time I had to use it at work was Win7 (?) before I retired. I do have a Win7 virtual somewhere around here I spin up every couple years to run something obscure I can’t get to run in WINE.

Was it mainly a hobbyist thing at the time

Yes, I’d say so. Lots of tech geeks were playing with it but no Normals. Getting audio running was not always pleasant…

When I was in the army the S1 desk jockeys were using dedicated word processors with 8" floppies. Get off my lawn! :-)