Microsoft. I have used Linux for more than 25 years but also worked in a helpdesk. In some jobs I’ve been able to avoid their stuff completely but most of the time I’m stuck using Windows and worst of all, Teams.

Cars. I don’t drive and won’t drive. I hate cars and hate seeing them everywhere. I moved to a city where there’s bike paths and public transit and it’s great for me but the city is still choked with noisy polluting cars. And I still need one to go back in my little shitty town that had passenger trains for a century before being cut in the 90ies. The whole society is pushing and bullying people into getting cars. You’ll love your new car! You’re not a real adult until you have a car. Get a car!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof

English is not my native language. I’m glad I learned it, because I just have an interest in linguistics and it’s very close to my native language, but I can clearly see how “imperialistic” this is, how my parents and friends struggle with that language, and how there could be something much easier, that would allow them to experience cultural exchanges without having to learn the “dominant” language.

Mi lernis Esperanton pli ol 20 jaroj. Ĝin estus mirinda, sed malĝoja, mi malrememoras multa, kay uzas Anglo kaj Germano pli.

As a Canadian, I have never seen a bag of milk “sealed” with a rubber band. Plus, standard bags are way bigger than these. Those bags are not Canadian.

En tant que Canadien, je n’ai jamais vu de sacs de lait “scellés” avec des élastiques. De plus, les sacs réguliers sont beaucoup plus grand que ceux-ci. Ces sacs ne sont pas Canadiens.

I’m afraid I’ve been using Linux for so long that I’m not very knowledgeable about backup software for Windows. But I’ve been using Duplicati for a single Windows computer for years, and it’s apparently also running on Linux. I never tried on Linux though, so don’t take my words for cash.

There’s also Duplicity, but it’s command line and will probably require installing the Windows Subsystem for Linux. There’s also Bacula but it’s mostly for businesses. This Wikipedia page may know more than me.

On Linux, Deja Dup acts as a graphical interface for Duplicity, is easy, and is the default for GNOME and Cinnamon. Compatible with Duplicity but as mentioned, it’s complicated for Windows.

However I think those are “too complicated” (I prefer raw files instead of archives) and for Linux I’ve been using rsync with a job scheduler (cron) for years. It’s technically not a backup solution in itself but many backup software, like those mentioned, use rsync in some form anyway. Unfortunately it does not work on Windows. My strategy is to use rsync to copy my important files to an older HDD, then the very important files are also sent on an online drive.

The TLDR would be to give Duplicati a try if you really want a backup solution that is cross platform and graphical. Otherwise, there’s nothing more certain than making copies yourself.

I guess I don’t need to remind you to be careful. Take your time. Try restoring to be sure it works. Good luck!

I have created directories of my own in several odd locations which I cannot recall but they also contain some critical files.

O_o If those files are critical, they should be backed up in multiple locations. But if you cannot recall, are those files really critical? Regardless, one day a drive will fail and those files will be lost. Critical data should be backed up in multiple locations.

I only have a single NVMe SSD installed that is almost out of space so I cannot dualboot

How do you intend to switch to Linux without available disk space? It is possible to install and boot Linux from an external drive but performance will obviously suffer. But any way you get Linux running, if it’s on the same computer and if your Windows drives are not encrypted, you should have access to them from Linux. There is no need to copy them or move them if Linux is on another drive but on the same computer. Simply installing Linux will not risk the data, as long as you don’t format the wrong partition. You can leave it there and probably access it from Linux to do what you want with it.

I can make use of an external HDD during the transfer.

Why not backup the critical data on an external HDD?

Please don’t tell me I have to copy and paste all files by hand because given the criticality of the stored data I would rather stay in Windows than risking data loss.

Erm, how do you proceed when you change your computer with Windows? Do you use specialized software to “migrate” your data for you? And if you want an automatic way to do it, how would you ensure the automatic way did it correctly? If this is what stops you from migrating, maybe it’s preferable to keep things as they are for you?! Maybe try a live USB drive environment instead of installing?!

In any way, seeing your other replies, I can only strongly encourage you to make proper backups as this may one day save your critical data, and also facilitate any future PC or OS migration.

I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful or positive but if you made a mess and want to make sure you don’t lose anything, you may want to start by cleaning up, know what you have, where it is, and have it in multiple locations. Then you can start thinking about migrating without worrying about the data.

Genuine. I still wonder if I pronounced it correctly every time I use the word.

Imgur has been pretty shit at hosting images for other sites for about a decade because it’s trying very hard to keep people captive on its site. They added ways to prevent hotlinking and if I paste an imgur link in a chat, starting with i., supposedly a direct link to the image, the preview will not work and the page the link sends to will always open their whole site around that image. They really really want people to stay on there, and interact, or watch ads. AFAIK they have made that change about a decade ago as they wanted to monetize.

Any of the sixteen YouTube channel narrated by Simon Whistler.

It may not be intentional slop but it’s pretty much the definition of quantity over quality.

Except that person that uses thorns in their comments. Apparently, this is not acceptable to a lot of people and they automatically downtove them.

deleted by creator

I struggle to find anything. Maybe affordable housing, but that’s a thing of the past. It changed a lot in 20 years and everything that I may have been missing at some point is long gone.

The people there proud themselves in being a rural region with a small town surrounded by close villages, but everyone knows everyone and if you don’t fit socially with the others, mainly conservative, they will all bitch and talk about you in your back. Also, they take their cars to go literally anywhere. The next town is 7 km away, there’s a dedicated bike path, and they whine that “everything is so far away in the countryside that you absolutely need a car”. Yet, I moved in a metropolis where my work is 9 km away through dense urban landscape, and I can cycle there just fine.

I’m glad I left and I don’t really miss any of it. I don’t even like going back there. In fact, I prefer the services, and geographical features, of my new home.

I had those when I was a kid a few decades ago and they had the tip coloured in red. They were designed to look like fake cigarette, but in candy form, for kids. However because of anti tobacco movements, they renamed them to “candy sticks” and removed the red tip.

I think OP is trying to recreate the old ones.

EDIT:

In fact, the numbers are estimated to be around 2 billion animals a year globally.

Extrapolating globally based on total length of roads, roughly 5.5 million vertebrates are killed per day, or over 2 billion annually.

As for people

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic injuries caused an estimated 1.35 million deaths worldwide in 2016. That is, one person is killed every 26 seconds on average.

It can be expressed by a graffiti that I saw on the side of a bike path in Montreal, in French: “L’humanité ne court pas à sa perte, elle y va en voiture”. Or something like “Humanity is not running to ruins, it’s taking a car”.

As much as I want to blame giant corporations and capitalism for a lot of our societal problems, this sentence resumes so well how common people also enable all of this by refusing to change and just going with the easiest option. I know we won’t reach our climate change goals. I know because when I say I organized my life around the fact that I don’t need a car, everyone tells me that they couldn’t live without a car, that it’s very useful, and that I should get one. I’m not even a real adult as long as I don’t have a car. I’ll feel so much freedom when I’ll have a car. I should just get a car! Just get an electric one! Like, instead of encouraging people to live without a car, the vast vast majority of people will actually encourage others to get one.

So yeah, we’re not “running” to our loss. We’re wasting energy to move our fat asses in individual motorized multi ton metal cubes to go there faster. It’s so useful! So practical! So fast! There’s no time to waste. Like Marge Simpson once said: “Outta my way, Nature!”

It’s a giant metaphor for the rest of our society. Same with all the AI hype, food delivery apps, and over consumption in general. We’re digging our graves out of excessive “convenience”, and cars are one example of this.

Yes because I come from a rural region where most people can only speak French, and I’m the only one of my family that can speak multiple languages. Sometimes it feels like I know different worlds unbeknownst to them.

No because the languages that I know are not rare. There’s millions also speaking those languages so my perspective and experience is far from being unique.

And that’s how you learn that Lemmy is full people that can’t tolerate diversity. I can read that person’s comments just fine but apparently others downvote and whine.

And they don’t even need to learn another language, just a letter. But alas, I guess this is very hard to do.

No. Nothing matters. He said it himself.

I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?

Why are you trying to convince me that cars are awesome and for adults that needs to get stuff done?

You think I go shopping using a kayak? There are literally the biggest retail stores of my country a few street corners away from where I live. There is a grocery store on the other side of the street.

And you know, people without cars have nothing to do all day. They don’t work and don’t do anything important. Only people with cars are busy people getting stuff done. It’s impossible to get stuff done otherwise.

Not to mention that peole without cars will never feel like real adults.

I’m not an adult and I don’t get stuff done because I don’t have a car? I can’t go shopping? WTF?

Keep your “freedom”. I don’t want it. There’s already enough cars in the streets. You don’t want me driving. Stop trying to convince people that don’t want to drive. You have nothing to gain. Everyone already loves cars. I know that.

I’m glad that you love your car. You’re not the only one. Now can some people actually want to live without one or are you going to force yours into my living room to tell me how useful it is, and how it makes you feel mature and important?

And people actually use that as an insult. “You’re not an adult until you own a car”. Which is a sad way of seeing millions of people that have been living without a car for their whole life.

And the freedom feeling depends mostly if you live in a region that is offering you ways not to be car dependent. Where I live, we have a very decent network of bike paths in the city but also going into the countryside and traversing the province. I live on the island of an archipelago and can pull my inflatable kayak with my bike trailer, explore the islands around, access nature nearby. I can also go camping and hiking and into the wilderness 200 km away by using this cycling network. I often go visit my parents and family 140-170 km away by cycling there. I could have start to drive and bought a car 25 years ago but I moved somewhere I wouldn’t need one, and my bike represents freedom. I’m free from having to pay big oil to fill a tank to go anywhere. I’m free from monthly parking fees. I’m free from paying the plates and the insurance.

Over the years, what I learned about cars don’t make me see them as freedom. I see them as a way to keep people perpetually paying for gas, sending billions to big oil. I see them as an endless sea and stream of pollution. They pollute the air and the sound. They are bad for mental and physical health. They take an ungodly amount of space. They kill about a million people every year. On the planet, every 30 seconds someone is killed in a car related “accident”. Every year, two billion animals (yes, billions) are killed by cars.

Going to see my nephew for his birthday in the suburbs where my sister lives is comical. Twelve people invited to go park their cars around a house that only has space for the cars of the occupants. You have to find parking everywhere you go for this thing, then whine that there’s no parking anywhere. Going to a funereal is also depressing, but even more so because you can see the traffic and congestion created by someone that died.

Cars are a horrible for humanity. They’re like a drug that everyone tells you to try. You’ll see. They’re so useful. Of course you can’t go back.

Yeah. I moved into a city and region with enough transit for my needs but my family still lives in a place where there hasn’t been a coach or trains in 30 years. There were before but not anymore. And going to other regions or cities without a car is also becoming more and more difficult, if not impossible.

Unfortunately my province and country only care about cars. I really don’t want to drive but I fear that I won’t have any other choice at some point in the future because my other options are actively deteriorating.