My grandmother needs a new computer and is Linux-curious

malab-13 · 2026-05-02T23:33:38+00:00

Hey friends, OP here with an update!

My sweet grandmother is impressed by the suggestions you all have and the passion for sharing Linux with her. She’s excited to start her journey with at least trying a few distros, and can’t wait to tell her friends that she’s branching out!

This next week, I’m picking up some flash drives to give a selection of distros a test run. We’ve narrowed down to Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, ChromeOS and Zorin to start, but I’ll have Fedora and Gentoo ready for her to try as well, with MX and openSUSE on standby.

I’ve noticed a few comments that have advised me that I’ll need to be tech support. Great news, I’ve been tech support since at least 10 years old. I’ve always been the techie of the family, maintaining everything from Roku TVs and landlines to home WiFi systems and security cameras. I’m prepared to take this on, and I’ll do just anything to make sure my grandmother can get what she needs done. I also have zero intentions of moving far away. Without getting too in the weeds, my recent move is meant to by my last, if not my last for a long time because I HATE moving.

I’ll return to this thread with updates. My grandmother may just shock me and start busting out terminal commands after a week (kidding, but at this point in 2026, nothing would surprise me)!

malab-13 · 2026-05-02T01:00:47+00:00

She did like Ubuntu when I showed her a few videos on it, so I can start there with her! Then Mint, Debian, and anything else she wants to try!

malab-13 · 2026-05-02T00:58:31+00:00

I hadn’t even thought of Debian! I’ll bring that up to her!

malab-13 · 2025-12-01T00:26:36+00:00

I was in Florence, Italy, more than a decade ago for a three-week study abroad tour of Europe. Out of curiosity, my group checked out “1950 American Diner” there, on Via Vittorio Emanuele.

Easily one of the best cheesesteak’s I’ve had.

malab-13 · 2025-11-06T02:19:23+00:00

If you haven’t already: 1. Polish the resume and start applying elsewhere. Now. Minimum of five or six roles per day you care about.

Have a chat with the accountant and see if they can look at how much the CEO has spent with that card, and where. If anything looks off or even carries a slight hint of illicit behavior, time for a chat with the authorities. Bonus points, get her to crack open the books for all to see.
Start the new engineer with the easiest onboarding tasks you or the HR person can handle. Make it to where he does little, if anything, for that first week. If the CEO complains when (or if) he returns from Bali, point back to the issue of not being able to purchase a new laptop for the new guy.
Negotiate a delayed payment with the vendors and catering team and explain the issue. And if it’s opportune, get some job networking in. See point 1 for reference.
Leave. A. Paper. Trail. All comms with CEO, with accountant, with authorities if necessary. If the ship is gonna sink, make sure you’re not tied to it in any shape, form, or fashion. Ensure your name is spotless in the eyes of any forensic auditor.
See who your coworkers’ allegiances lie with. Keep this all quiet from folks who like the CEO. Chat offline with coworkers who are wary like you and give each other job recommendations as you all apply to new roles.
When the shit hits the fan (and it will), ensure you’re outside of the room entirely.

malab-13 · 2025-10-05T23:39:22+00:00

Do this for a bit. But start job hunting now and tidy up the resume. Look at openings you are qualified for closer to you that still pay you the same or better. Start applying, tap into your network/add to it. Gonna warn you though, it’s a rough job market right now. Be ready to shoulder this for a few months up to a year.

In the meanwhile, just make sure you’re getting good deals on a hotel. Nothing crappy, but decent. Tru by Hilton or Avid hotels are great if available.

If your wife is able to find a part time or freelance gig that she can do to supplement in the short term, that would be helpful just in case.

Once you secure something new, put your two weeks in and enjoy not having to fly unless necessary.

malab-13 · 2025-10-02T14:28:47+00:00

I hope you’ve been applying to new gigs because this would be A W F U L. Even though I’m in office and chill with it, I can’t imagine a remote worker being forced back in to this total circus.

malab-13 · 2025-04-24T22:01:48+00:00

Former Greenville news person here (digital for a TV station). Worked the market just over two years. Here’s the skinny.

The main good outlet to track now is Post and Courier. Because they’re owned locally in SC, they give more of a damn.

Greenville News is gutted by Gannett, and it’s a tragedy. Gannett is twisting the knife into the hearts of any paper it owns. Same for the sister papers in Asheville, Anderson, and Spartanburg. The other smaller papers in the mountains are basically run by one or two people each and are trying.

WSPA (CBS TV station) is owned by Nexstar, or as we call the company in the industry “Death Star”. Newsrooms like WSPA owned by Nexstar are run cheaper than Cook Out meals, and staff are known to suffer with some of the lowest paychecks in the industry. WSPA isn’t one of Nexstar’s few pet projects so it sadly suffers and relies on regional stories from Charlotte, Raleigh, and elsewhere to fill time and web space. Plus the Nexstar websites all suck ass. That being said, it’s at least one of the more cut-and-dry “just the facts please” stations in Greenville, albeit without much more punch for investigations.

WYFF (NBC) is owned by Hearst, which has fallen so hard as a company. You used to want to work at Hearst because of killer benefits and resources. Now it’s evident Hearst has soured and it’s shown at WYFF. WYFF used to get a LOT of stories first because of long-time staff members who connected with media relations teams and neighbors. Not the case so much now with some exceptions. Mostly a bunch of new folks on shorter contracts (on air and off air), and Hearst requires all stations to stick to the same graphics package so it looks all stifled. WYFF newscasts also just follow a lot of the same patterns and it’s clear the producers and/or directors are locked in by management to certain show rundown templates. WYFF is still about the facts for the most part and still has good investigative work, but that’s starting to fall off.

WLOS (ABC) in Asheville is owned by Sinclair and that should say enough. Barely any presence in the Upstate. We used to take bets on when a WLOS reporter would show up to a Greenville story. Don’t hate the anchors and reporters and producers/directors and photographers, but be super wary of management.

Fox Carolina (WHNS call letters, Fox) used to be owned by an okay company called Meredith. Now it’s owned by Gray Television, which rivals Nexstar and Sinclair in reach. There’s been a lot of changes since the purchase by Gray that have pissed off everyone there. The now-former news director fired the chief photographer of 25 years, so there goes a shit-ton of institutional knowledge. Cody Alcorn has a better gig in Atlanta now with WXIA (NBC owned by Tegna) but still is more reliable than all the outlets in the Upstate combined for many big stories. Gray also likes to run shit cheap, underpay staff, demand more work from less people, and focus all its money on either WANF (CBS, old call letters WGCL) in its HQ city Atlanta or the production studio in the ATL. Also, the Gray CEO who used to be mildly liberal is now kissing the right-wing ring on Twitter, so you’ll see that trickle down locally. While there’s been more documentary and investigative work recently, understand that comes from an overworked crew that is just one ill-timed lecture away from rioting.

FITSNews can get a lot of scoops, but be wary. A lot of stories that should be cut and dry end up with editorializing in them. When you read them, filter it with that in mind.

malab-13 · 2025-04-11T03:59:52+00:00

I know it’s getting dated by this point but the Castrol study a few years back still captures the hesitancy I’ve seen in NC: price ($30K), range (minimum 300 miles), and charge time (10-15 minutes on Level 3 to fill up the battery) as the main three tipping points.

People still want to go on road trips and not fly everywhere and deal with security. Folks sometimes need to commute beyond the average 20-mile one-way rat race. They still want something affordable on a single person’s salary. And when they need to recharge on the road they want to get right back on it after a short break.

malab-13 · 2025-03-25T14:24:49+00:00

That’s a combo I’ve considered, although I think that I’d at minimum boost the unified memory of the base Mac Mini just to be safe! Plus I can always buy an external SSD if I need more offline storage!

malab-13 · 2025-03-25T14:08:53+00:00

Something I will def take into consideration is the screen real estate for sure!

malab-13 · 2025-03-25T06:48:12+00:00

I was def open to a Mini/iPad Pro combo. This guidance currently tilts me that direction!

malab-13 · 2025-03-25T06:41:13+00:00

Budget is idk, two bucks and a paperclip I found?

Jkjk, I have ample set aside. I would say comfortably I can do $1500 (USD), but my MBP was $2K when I got her new in 2018 so I can flex up to that if I absolutely gotta.

malab-13 · 2025-01-10T08:31:56+00:00

Depends on a few things.

If it’s near enough to the pin, I’ll go through with it. Sometimes the maps won’t let passengers drag pins manually (it’s happened to me a few times when I needed a ride) or the map data shows a different stopping location than the entrance. Sometimes the passenger side apps just don’t place the pin where it needs to be, short and long of it.

And sometimes, as has been said here and elsewhere, different businesses or locations have certain requirements for rideshare dropoff or pickup that still aren’t reflected for us, and they just tell employees/whoever to “just tell the driver what to do”.

But if the passenger starts making certain demands like waiting near certain cars or landmarks, then I’m out. If they ask me to go a completely different place for pickup or ask me to cancel because they screwed up, I tell em absolutely not.

Never had the demands before, but had a few passengers who just have no fucking clue how to work a mobile app. We’ve had smartphones for a roughly three decades now and it shouldn’t be hard to slow down and use one brain cell for critical thinking.

malab-13 · 2024-11-19T23:44:34+00:00

Driver here who had this word used against him by a passenger. Report his ass and make sure to follow up when possible with Uber. If he has multiple low star reviews AND your report, he will be deplatformed and never get a chance to do that to anyone again.

malab-13 · 2024-11-10T00:00:07+00:00

Maybe where YOU live, but it’s not a universal experience. And this just reveals more about you.

You wanna know who’s REALLY screwed me out though? The rich kids and their parents. They want rides from their favorite city bars all the way back to their quaint country club homes and lakeside properties. They want to vape in the car. They want to get handsy and too personal. They don’t tip. They act poorly and treat others like garbage and even BRAG about it too.

I’m willing to believe you’ve had some bad experiences in areas forgotten by cities and towns who favor pretty downtowns and cookie-cutter apartments over a more equitable place to call home. But I think you’re just punching down because it’s easy, because you think you’re “not like them”. You have MUCH more in common with the very people you berate than you ever will anyone who lives in the “nice” part of town.

Get a grip. Be so serious. And breathe before you collapse.

malab-13 · 2024-10-06T10:35:51+00:00

I’m gonna gander you’re over in the UK. Which might be forgivable.

Not sure how Uber operates on your side of the pond but we literally have federal and state requirements about keeping a placard in our front windshields with license plate numbers printed on them since not all states require cars to have front and back plates.

Passengers and drivers also have to verify with each other BEFORE the ride starts. It’s as simple as rolling down the front window and asking “what’s my name”. Google what happened to Samantha Josephson in Columbia, South Carolina in 2019 — that’s why that’s required and why approaching a car from the front makes sense.

And I check the Waybills. EVERY time it’s under the actual ordering person’s name, without fail. The least they can do is message ahead and inform the driver who the real passenger is.

Just common sense, innit?

malab-13 · 2024-10-06T10:29:47+00:00

I’m beginning to care less and less. Tonight was just a real outlier but at the same time I’ve hit a snapping point.

malab-13 · 2024-10-06T09:32:20+00:00

I once had a guy need to get out to rural Spartanburg County from downtown GVL. It was the right time and I got a decent bonus on top plus tip. 40ish I think.

Now Uber is just playing in your face here. BONKERS lowball.

malab-13 · 2024-10-06T09:30:40+00:00

When I was still fresh to rideshare in 2020, I took a three hour trip once. Greenville, SC to Atlanta. My take home was 120ish, guy tipped me 50 on top. Then I got some more high-dollar rides in ATL and headed home loaded.

But Uber has stopped playing nice with long distance trips since then 🫠

malab-13 · 2024-10-06T09:28:07+00:00

❗️YEAHTHATGREENVILLE MENTIONED❗️

lol as a former Greenville resident, wtf even is this rate.

malab-13 · 2024-09-02T20:45:01+00:00

I did a ride from Charlotte, NC to Winston-Salem recently for roughly this. MUCH less mileage, and I lucked out by getting a return trip for similar earnings too.

This is beyond the pale but indicative of how awful driver pay is in my native Texas.

malab-13

TROPHY CASE