I can’t think of a single “feature” that Windows 11 brings that couldn’t easily be backported. I remember when 10 was new, there were actually major changes to the way certain things worked for the better and those were at least there to balance out any negatives.

With 11, all they did was add a fresh can of paint and bombard a series of garbage AI updates. AI features literally written by AI. I don’t know anyone who has a mentioned a single nice-to-have that wasn’t already in 10.

Didn’t work for me. I don’t have any pictures of mountains, though.

It’s been a long while since I used it and at one point I did figure out how to browse it, but I remember documentation pointing out that it’s meant to be left alone and do all your file management through NextCloud itself.

Sometimes I needed to do big file operations or drop in a chunk of data straight from the server, but it wouldn’t ingest those files unless I did a sync or upload them using the client.

Maybe things have changed, but last I used it, it was 14 services that were all sort of good when I needed the service to do one thing really well.

I constantly would get files stuck in the database that I couldn’t delete. All of the forum posts would talk about going into the database to fix it, but the whole point of NextCloud for me was to completely avoid database management.

I’ve fallen back to using DUFS or copyparty for most things since I really just needed my file store to be browsable via web in some cases.

I probably would still be using NextCloud if they didn’t obfuscate the file system.

You should dress up KDE to look like Windows 11 just to prove a point.

I find a big part of trying to be the friend that transitions others to Linux is taking on the role of mentor. It’s something a lot of wish we could just hand to someone and dust off our hands, but that ultimately leads to experiences like yours.

For a better chance of success, especially on first install, be on the line with them as they go through the steps, or in person is better yet.

Answer all the questions you can and help them install all their usual stuff. Most people don’t want to have to go through this change, so making it fun and social goes a long way.

The very rough idea is this:

I have a server with multiple services and only one open port (not counting the SSL port) on my router.

Traffic comes into that one port straight to my server. That server has a reverse proxy installed with a directory of subdomains and associated ports.

It internally routes traffic coming in on my open port to the internal services on the server without having to expose them directly to the internet.

The big advantage is that because it all goes through my reverse proxy, I can add SSL certs to just that and now all of my subdomain services get the benefits of the SSL cert on the host.

I’m sure there are other uses for reverse proxies, but this is how they work in my setup.

You made pretty much every point exactly how I was going to make it.

I will mention that even as a pretty experienced sysadmin, learning Docker, reverse proxies, and relevant config files took ages because there are treated as assumed knowledge.

Every YouTube video on Docker is 30 minutes shorter than they should be, and terminology for reverse proxies is really confusing if you’re not already familiar.

It’s great to say you shouldn’t use these if you’re not familiar, but these are also probably the most poorly taught subjects in computing right now from my experience.

I have a file server for copy 1, an external drive with incremental backups for copy 2, and copy 3 is a physically unplugged copy in a firesafe lockbox that I update manually. I don’t use any cloud providers to back up anything.

wanted to stay away from thermal paper on health grounds.

What grounds? First I’ve heard of this.

That is exactly what I use mine for and it does it pretty much silently.

I agree with everything here, but this was at one point the case with pancake gaming. I’m not saying that we deserve it, but it’s always been the tradeoff with Linux. I’ve never gotten a Linux system running with the expectation that it will work 100%. I admittedly essentially dropped my use of VR when I switched, but it comes down to a cost benefit analysis.

I just made the choice that an OS that wasn’t fully functional was better than an OS that didn’t respect me as a user. I’d much rather things not work in good faith than to have a working product progressively made worse for financial gain.

I’ve have amazing luck with both Beelink and Minisforum computers. They’re relatively cheap and excellent quality.

I personally use the Beelink ME Mini and it’s been able to handle just fine about any server tasks I need it to, not to mention the wildly expandable storage.

I know the Index is obviously compatible as well as the Pico 4. I know there’s not a ton of options, but you can definitely still do it on Linux.

Consequences? For Amazon?

lol… lmao even

Haven’t had to do a full OS upgrade yet, but standard packages can be updated and installed right in the web UI as well.

Very happy with OMV. It’s not crazy customizable, so if you have something specialized, you might run into quirks trying to stick to the Web UI, but it’s just Debian under the hood, so it’s pretty manageable. 4x1TB drives RAID 5 for media/critical data, OS drive, and a Service data drive (databases, etc). Then an external 4TB for the incremental and another external 4TB for the disconnected backup.

After many failures, I eventually landed on OMV + Docker. It has a plugin that puts the Docker management into a web UI and for the few simple services I need, it’s very straightforward to maintain. I don’t cloud host because I want complete control of my data and I keep an automatic incremental backup alongside a physically disconnected one that I manually update.

I personally use Blender to sketch things out. It has the Grease Pencil for 2d work and it has pretty decent systems for measuring. There’s even an add-on called MeasureIt, which allows you to add notations to dimensions.

Simpler, you can just disconnect your phone from WiFi and test there. If you really need your laptop to test, use tethering.