pengo

"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, unless I can get Anthony Trollope's "Barsetshire Chronicles" accepted as a single book.

My company hasn't used anything but Open/Libre Office since its inception. No problems.

The only slightly related issue has been the one client who continues to send email attachments from Outlook as winmail.dat.

I did use Amazon a couple of times when it first arrived, but wasn't comfortable with its overreach in every area of operation, and have avoided it since. There are more equitable alternatives

The clipboard data format for copying and pasting is determined by whoever wrote the software. Some software allows for format conversion of copied data at the point of pasting; again, that's a decision made by the software provider.

I've just sold my newest laptop as part of the sale of my business, which leaves me only:

- Dell XPS13 (16GB i7 but six years old) running Linux

- OneMix Yoga (7" micro laptop) running Linux

- Apple Mini (64GB i7) for music production

- Sony XA2+ phone running SailfishOS

- Blackberry Z30 phone as a backup

I will need to replace the Dell in the next year or so, and am considering both an M1 Macbook Pro and a Framework unless someone comes up with an open source ARM laptop running Linux.

(Edited for layout)

We adopted SQLite for a commercial Windows application suite. the architecture allowed users to export, backup and share databases (useful in the context). I've also used it for a large number of developer desktop utility apps. I'd consider it for web apps which have limited data throughput; I'm not convinced it's a good candidate for high data volumes (but open to changing my mind).

Dozens, at least. Everything from: NAS apps that download television Electronic Programme Guides and automatically schedule recordings; to personal radio stations that integrate text-to-speech, calendar entries, local news headlines and the family Slack channel with the music on my home server. Utilities for managing the books I read and videos I watch, utilities to randomly insert quotes in my email signatures. And that's before we look at any of the work-related software.

Mostly these are written in Object Pascal via Lazarus and compiled natively for the target platforms, or they're web apps written in javascript and/or PHP. Many use SQLite for data storage; some just use an .ini file if the data is simple and not too volatile; a few are written against a MySQL back end.

I'm a Firefox user. When I see a cookie popup I immediately CTRL+R to switch to Reader view. It usually works; I still get to read the page, but without the popup or any advertising.

If you have the right hardware, most Linux distros "just work" out of the box. I've deliberately bought Dell XPS machines for work because of this.

But I've also been helping older neighbours and friends gain or maintain connectivity by installing Linux for them on other hardware, and my experience has been that the "just works" label applies in most cases.

Worst case there will be a single module that requires an additional hardware-specific package, most commonly the wireless card. The problem many moves to Linux encounter is that the device being migrating is the only device on hand apart from a phone, so when the newly migrated machine won't connect to the internet there's no way of easily identifying and downloading the driver or extension needed.

I have migrated laptops which have multiple pain points, and it can be problematic. But, so far, I've not encountered a device where Linux won't "just work" once these initial pain points have been mitigated with the appropriate driver or package.

[EDIT] ... the battery life has never bettered three hours.

I bought a OneNote four years ago (8GB RAM, 128GB MicroSD, 1.6GHz proc, 7" screen, tooled aluminium case). There's a lot to like about the form factor and I found the keyboard and screen adequate, running Debian and Mint successfully.

However, it's let down by two things; [a] the combination of processor speed and SD read/write times makes it slow for many things, and [b] the battery life has bettered three hours.

The most unfortunate thing is that after three years the battery started to bloat as it reached the end of its life, and I've found no way to get a replacement battery from China to my home in New Zealand. Local distributors don't stock them, shipping services won't transport them. I bought one and got it to a trans-shipping centre in the UK, but the NZ company responsible for the final leg of its journey declined to carry it. Currently the OneNote is out of commission.

But I remain very interested in devices with these form factors. I've owned two 11" Sony Vaio laptops which were remarkable machines in their day. I plan to purchase a PinePhone Pro with its keyboard case accessory, and I do think a clamshell (or detachable) with one the latest eInk displays (colour, variable refresh rate) would be a fantastic tool.

We use Object Pascal (via Lazarus) and compile the code for each target platform. The apps concerned are (only?) dev utilities, but they're fast and have a small footprint.

I got into programming in 1990 as a business manager with a need that could realistically only be met with a software solution, and no budget. I thought "how hard can this be?", took a laptop home and taught myself BASIC.

Even though I moved full-time into development in 1996, writing code has always been about meeting a business need. I've never been particularly enamoured of the process or the tools, and put more initial effort into architecture in an effort to do less programming.

For me, SSDs pushed me over the line. I've been running Linux on Dell's highest spec XPS13 for five years and recently updated to the latest model. The only thing either the new or previous laptop labours at is video transcoding, but even that takes a fraction of what it took previously. I'm happy.

I had a bad dose of the 'flu in 2005. I could keep hydrated, but not tolerate much else. By day three I had the headache from hell, and eventually figured out it was caffeine withdrawal. I decided I didn't want to be functionally dependent on daily doses of caffeine and gave coffee and black tea away completely (I've never been one for caffeinated soft drinks).

Since then I drink green, white and herbal teas, and an occasional decaf because I do love the flavour and aroma. For me there's been no downside to stopping caffeine.

Very cool site!

I subscribe to one UK magazine, mailed monthly to NZ. That's my only subscription. I buy music from Bandcamp, HDTracks and occasionally CD. I buy boxed set DVDs. I run my own media server.

My dev business does have three subscriptions: PHPStorm, Browserstack and an online accounting package. All three will be cancelled when I exit the business.

Tweetdeck's filters have given me manageable Twitter feeds (I have multiple accounts for different purposes), but I see "The New Tweetdeck" removes these. When that's out of beta I guess I'll need to find a third party app. When I have to log into Twitter itself I'm appalled; I couldn't contemplate using it.

Trello. It used to be my preferred project tracker, but the introduction of workspaces and their recent insistence on obfuscating posted URLs has broken our workflow and made me keen to move.

I do a crossword (from the same site) over breakfast. Some days it's easy from the start, and I know I'm already firing on all cylinders. Other days it's a slow start, but by the end I've mentally limbered up.

I think Sudoku, Wordle, most mental puzzles, have a similar value.

> How do you deal with Microsoft's crap on a daily basis?

I don't. I moved fulltime to Linux rather than try to mitigate Windows 10's predations. I wouldn't go back.

Any longform content I write at telegra.ph gets the URL stripped from my tweet, while the same content at graph.com (an alias) doesn't. So, yes, I think Twitter does censor Telegram links.

Linux: only once, when there was no upgrade path to the newer distro version.

MacOS: never.

Windows: at least a dozen times (and I haven't used Windows for five years).

[1] Top quality laptops (high spec XPS13s running Linux) rather than cheap ones. [2] A good (non-electric) bike in my small flat town. [3] SailfishOS rather than a surveillance or walled garden phone. [4] Intel Synology NAS with maxxed out RAM and storage. [5] Brix laptop bag. [6] Standing desk and wobble board.

I have two Dell XPS13s, one five years old, one new. Both took to Linux (Mint, in my case) like ducks to water. They dual boot from rEFInd, but I seldom use Windows (I have just one heritage Win application to support, and that's been stable for five years). However, while these are light, compact and highly specced, they're not user upgradeable and their fans get noisy under load.

If I were buying a laptop for Linux only, I'd be considering the Framework (https://frame.work/) or System 76 (https://system76.com/laptops/).

I'm now into my third year with Sailfish as my daily driver (Sony Xperia XA2 Plus) and can confirm it's first rate. And if you need an app that doesn't have a native Sailfish version, it'll almost certainly run the Android equivalent.

A quote that's stuck with me for decades: "The purpose of life is to give life purpose." It may sound trite, but I've found it to be true. I've lived a life of serialised purpose, increasingly more altruistic than commercial as I've got older.

We have a high-end NAS and all devices (laptops, desktops, tablets and phones) back up to that. That NAS then backs up to the cloud overnight, every night. We're also getting a second NAS which will do an offsite mirror of the first in a remote location.

Setting this up is simple: the NAS manufacturer has an app for every OS. Install it on each device and follow the instructions. It's similarly simple to set up the cloud backup; just open the app on the NAS and enter the cloud storage credentials (it works with almost every provider).

Once this is set up there's no effort required.

I work from home and I've had a standing desk for twelve years now. I also start each day with a fifteen minute routine of static exercises: situps, pushups, squats, chinups. Both the standing desk and the morning exercises are now so embedded I'd feel a loss if either disappeared.

My around-town travel preference is a bicycle, and my schedule gives me brief windows to make a quick dash to the shops when I want something. I treat these outings, usually one or two a day, as if they were a time trial. Additionally, if I'm thinking through a design issue I go for a walk around the block (or half a dozen blocks if it's particularly gnarly). My partner and I go for longer walks on the weekends.

I'm a female in my mid-sixties, I've been coding for 30 years, and this combination works well for me.

I'll take a contrarian approach and say that, as a Class A asshole, you can get a job almost anywhere. Every team I've been part of as a dev or team leader has had at least one. I've been in hiring cycles where management has overruled interviewer consensus to hire the one person we agreed we wouldn't want to work with. So don't discount your odds on landing a job.