I like bright rooms so I tend to like light mode. I never use my computer without turning on the room lights.

Yeah, same here. I run MX Linux as my main OS and Windows 11 in a QEMU/KVM based VM. Works really well. I also do GPU passthrough so I can play my Steam/GOG games in the VM.

Switched to Linux about a month after Windows 8.0 came out. Here's my list which is pretty much what I ran under Windows: Libre Office Thunderbird Vivaldi Firefox jEdit g++ I do run a Windows VM for games that don't yet work under Linux, Affinity Photo (I just hate Gimp) and TurboTax. I'm retired so all the work related stuff I use to have is gone!

I tried Windows 8.0 when it came out and within a month had Linux on my main machine. Unfortunately, I still run a Windows VM for the games that won't work under Linux, Affinity Photo (just hate Gimp!) and TurboTax. I've had way fewer issues with Linux than I've had with Windows 10 and 11.

I guess it comes down to what kind of computer work you do. I was a firmware engineer for my whole career and hardly ever used VS. I've actually never used C#.

I switched my main machine to Linux a few months after the Windows 8.0 release. I do keep a Windows VM for games (that don't work under Linux), Affinity Photo and TurboTax. I'd love to be able to get rid of my Windows VM.

Gack, I can't even imagine considering using Python for embedded work. About the only interpreter-ish language I'd consider for embedded work is Forth. I'd worked a bit with the guys from Forth Inc. years ago and they seemed to do a lot of embedded stuff with their version of Forth. The majority of my embedded career was C/C++. Pretty much every processor I worked with had a C/C++ compiler available.

They have to provide a wide range of topics since they have no clue to what kind of programming you're going to end up doing. I started college as a math major but ended up switching to electrical engineering my junior year. My first job out of college got me into embedded programming (1978, assembly language days). I still did some hardware engineering so math was needed for things like circuit analysis but on the computer side I didn't really need high level math. In the second half of my career I was learning/developing DSP algorithms and math was fairly important there. I really enjoyed DSP programming.

I never thought about being promoted, I stayed a firmware engineer my whole career (just love the low level stuff). If you gave me cool projects to work on I was happy.

Ha, same here with the wifey. She'll have a problem with something on her computer and when I come down and try it it works just fine. She swears she'd did exactly the same thing I did (yeah right!).

I've got a Brother color laser and it really does a nice job. Just don't believe it when it says a cartridge is getting low. You can find out how to reset the cartridge counter and continue printing for a large number of prints.

You should have search a bit on the web. I had the same problem but found a program called VueScan that had a driver for my newly unsupported scanner. It's got drivers for hundreds of scanners. It worked great for my scanner until the motor crapped out a couple years later. Another advantage of VueScan is that they also have a Linux version.

You beat me to it!

Exactly what I did a few months after Windows 8.0 was introduced. Linux for all my general computing needs and a Windows VM for games that won't work under Linux and the occasional photo editing session (I really dislike Gimp!!).

I'm tired of hearing about it on all the tech sites I visit. Since I retired a few years ago I haven't come across a need to even try any of the AIs.

Yep, that can be a problem too. Wasn't really a problem when I went with ARM7TDMI, there were a ton of manufactures at the time. All the TI DSPs we used were obviously single sourced and the age of the product line could cause a problem. We had a contact at one of the distributors that seemed to have good info on how popular the TI DSPs were. We'd always try to get a processor that was going to have a long life (just an educated guess).

You can't keep up!! I did embedded for my whole career and when I had input on the processor selection, I always opted for the older chips that would meet the requirements. This always gave me lots of options in regards to sample code and third party libraries (infrequently needed). I'd would read about the newer chips but rarely used them until they were a year or two old. In regards to ARM, I only did 1 ARM project (mostly did TI DSPs) and I ended up using an ARM7TDMI. There were many more powerful options available but why use a more expensive processor when a cheaper well known processor would handle the job. Turned out I was easily able to run the processor at half speed and still get the job done.

I have a good one if your running your VM under Linux. I run MX Linux as my main OS and have a Win 11 VM (with GPU passthrough) to play games that won't work under Linux, TurboTax and Affinity Photo. All the rest of my computing is done in Linux. I went the KVM/QEMU libvirt route since it's supposedly the quickest VM (don't know if that's really true) and it allows GPU passthrough with the appropriate motherboards. I've been using it for over a year now with no real issues. It's probably more complex to setup but it seems to work just fine.

Had a similar problem when we switched from DSL internet to Cable internet. I just setup my phone as a hot spot to get emails and such early in the day and let the wifey watch her TV shows (YoutubeTV) in the evening. It was only a few days so our data plan was able to handle it. I had more than enough games to play that don't require an internet connection.

Yep. I've been using ExplorerPatcher for quite a while now and have had no problems with it. Since I started using wide screen monitors I've always moved my taskbar to the left side of the screen. I want to keep as much vertical space as possible. I also like using the Quick Launch tool bar.