This translates to, "My product is the best thing ever, so I highly suggest you use it!" said every snake oil salesman ever.

I had my entire family on Kubuntu, and it worked fine for them for years. My wife and I told our sons stories on a regular basis about how bad Windows is, so they were happy with Kubuntu. In those stories, I always included how all software is written for Windows (including a history lesson about how Microsoft got away with illegal monopoly maintenance), but there is usually a Linux workaround for the average use-case. Most of the games he plays come from Steam, so he was covered.

One of his favorite games has a Windows-only mod system, so he converted over to Windows just to play that game with his mods. He told us over and over again how much he hates using Windows, but he was stuck with it because of the mod system for that one game. He tried to install it on Kubuntu via Wine, but it didn't work. So he accepted his fate.

UNTIL

He was watching videos for Linux Mint on YouTube, and thought it looked foin! He had me dual-boot Windows/Mint on his computer, and he managed to get Wine installed and working with this game's mod system. He howled in excitement for his success, and told us he no longer has any reason to use Windows. He absolutely loves Mint, and I have also been very impressed. I plan to leave Kubuntu, and transition all of our Linux desktops to it.

Epilogue: this is all on his newly built computer. He wanted an nvidia 5070; but not only are they outrageously expensive, I told him I prefer to not burn down the house with nvidia's substandard junk video cards. So he bought an AMD 7700xt instead (which was within his saved allowance budget), and this card screams on Linux. AMD has really upped their game with this card, and he is thrilled with it. It replaced his GTX 3060, which frequently stalled under the games he plays.

My future video card purchases will be AMD, as nvidia no longer makes competitive GPUs.

Even if you have a separate legal entity (which I do), it's still irrelevant if said company is run out of your home. Since Google doesn't allow P.O. boxes, your home address will be your mailing address.

Yes, that is the new policy. And it is absolutely not worth it.

Google wants your real address, which they put on your app's public page. It's incredibly dangerous and irresponsible.

I let my developer account get deleted rather than put my family at risk of doxxing, Swatting, and other threats from deranged people. My family is worth more than any amount of money I could possibly make from Google.

Google wanted to get rid of small developers, so mission accomplished.

I tried DDG off and on for a few years as I was trying to ween myself off of Google, but found it to be next to useless. It would return useful results about 30% of the time.

I tried Brave as well, and got similar results until recently. It has gotten to the point where its AI answers almost always hit the mark for my tech-related questions, and has become my default engine. I fallback to Google on the rare occasions I need a second opinion.

Google still has useful results somewhere on the first few pages, but I habitually skip the first half of the first page since it tends to be full of useless ads. Google has become the thing that it was created to replace.

Lack of interruption, stress free commute, not being absent while my kids grow up, having my wife cater my lunch, getting energized listening to my kids play, being able to schedule life more effectively, etc. The list goes on and on. These are all things that help me get my work done. Even the time I spend on Slashdot doesn't adversely impact my productivity since I get SO MUCH MORE done at home than I ever do at the office.

Being on-site is a death sentence, while working from home encourages physical and mental health.

That sounds a lot like lottery survivor bias. "If I can win the lottery, you can too!" There are very few paths through college that lead to jobs that are worth the student loan debt. The college graduates that get those jobs are not far removed from lottery winners.

Hard work and success are only loosely related. There are tons of people who work their asses off, yet still make at or around minimum wage. With the cost of college competing with the cost of a mortgage, it makes sense for a lot of people to skip it entirely.

My degree in the late 1990s cost me $18K, and I thought that was excessive. Accounting for inflation, that comes out to a mere $35K. $100K for a degree is criminal, and I would not have even considered it unless someone else was paying for it

Is that a 32-bit market, or a 64-bit one? That will determine the growth potential.

I scored 32, which is a significant score. It makes sense, given how much I've always hated socialization.

What people want is software, and they don't care how it's written. A new platform (any new platform) will not have the software that is on Android, and so will not appeal to users accustomed to being able to get everything on Android. People don't run operating systems. They run programs.

It's why Linux has such a hard time again Windows. People don't run Windows because they think it's some wonderful operating system. They run Windows because that is where all the software is.

The next improvement I would suggest is to get rid of snaps. In my opinion, it has become a failed experiment that needs to be abandoned.

Thank you for demonstrating my thesis.

Read my last posting. The public school system taught me nothing of value.