Trying very hard not to come to the conclusion that if you waste 2000 bucks on a connected bed, you have only yourself to blame.

Seriously. Unlike dumb TVs, dumb beds are not going away. Buy one for 400 bucks and donate the remainder of your bed-buying fortune. Your body won’t notice and €1600 can do a lot of good.

Incorrect. A Nazi is a person who sincerely believes that there should be no individual freedom and that whole races should be exterminated. This, by contrast, was a standard-issue millennial ignoramus who said some silly things and then regretted it. There is a difference.

Great idea. Backed by some kind of Patreon for FOSS. Which might exist already, as I just learned here: Open Collective

A corporation will only pay users to watch ads if it is a way to get them to buy junk that they didn’t need or possibly even want. Otherwise the model breaks. Advertising is a scourge, to rely on it in any way does not feel “values-driven” to me.

PS: to be clear, maybe the ad model has merits on pragmatic grounds but, speaking personally, if I ever see an ad here, I am GONE and never coming back.

An almost exact question was asked here about 3 days ago, maybe begin there.

Almost any Windows machine with an Intel sticker on it will work so it really depends on your priorities:

• ethics - buy from a Linux specialist like Tuxedo to avoid paying Microsoft
• safety (no surprises) - buy whatever your big-box retailer is selling at your budget
• bang for buck - buy a Lenovo ThinkPad second-hand

Won’t happen but it’s a great idea. The environment loves recession. The only years in recent history when the climate indicators briefly stopped moving in the wrong direction were 2009 and 2020.

Fair enough

A VPS costs 5 bucks a month.

To me at least, this contribution makes you seem like an even worse asshole than them. Just some anecdotal feedback.

How about doing it after a certain period has elapsed? A week, or 30 days, say.

This would approximate the freemium model where early access is paid and archives are free.

It might make it easier to get creators on board.

This is a point I have repeatedly made. And been downvoted for, naturally.

This is hyperbole compounded by anecdote. The dysfunction in US politics mainly concerns Washington. The USA is a federal state and state-level politics is mostly unaffected. Security is everywhere guaranteed by police, not gangs. And the statistics that I cited remain.

Laptop yes. But no desktop environment, just a window manager, Sway.

Do you have data or is that supposed to win you the argument?

This feels a bit out of touch. Firstly, anywhere in the USA, even Mississippi, is richer than almost anywhere else in the world in dollar terms. That is always going to buy a certain level of function and safety compared to most countries in the world, which are, well, poor. Next, “the US” is continent-sized federation. Vermont, say, is clearly safer and more functional, by any measure, than all but handful of independent countries.

In terms of figures, the USA is currently #43 out of 105 in the Safety Perceptions Index. Admittedly not a great score (but I can’t help noticing that #1 is Uzbekistan, which is a literal police state). Even harder to measure “functional” but the US is at #20 out of 193 in the Human Development Index, which measures wealth, education and healthcare.

Whatever the current frame of mind of Americans, it’s important to remember that the USA remains a privileged place.

Guatemala is considered more functional and safe than the US these days? Seems a stretch. For what it’s worth I have spent time in both countries.

Desktop environment? What desktop environment?

Firstly, yes, what OP wants is absolutely feasible in principle. I’ve used fanless low-powered laptops as my only device for years now, for same use case as OP - terminal plus browser. First was an 11in Asus netbook, right now a Celeron-powered model with fully 8GB ram. Neither have been “slow” at all, in fact probably faster than some of the Windows machines I’ve used in the past for work. HD video runs flawlessly, which is as much as I’ll ever need. For both of them I paid as little as you’d expect - in the low hundreds, new. To be honest I often get the feeling many people are buying super overpowered laptops. If you’re on Linux and not gaming or doing CAD it’s a complete waste of money to spend 1000 bucks on a laptop. That’s my opinion, backed by very deep experience.

In response to the question, the problem is that the netbook niche is now occupied by Chromebooks. Which are a PITA to get working with Linux due to the bootloader lockdown - although OP seems to have the secret for making that easy. Otherwise you need to go up to around 350 bucks for the lowest-end Wintel devices which are not bulky with horrible fans, or else buy second-hand as others are recommending.

Yuck.

You’re walking down a busy street while texting. Oops! You stepped on a kitten! Is it animal abuse? Intention is (almost) everything because it suggests what you would do if you had the means to do so, or if you felt you could get away with it.