What can I say that you don’t already? Announced like two years prior, this October 20th Microsoft will stop giving security updates to windows 10.

It doesn’t affect me of course, but for people who still have to use windows, it’s a low blow. Sure in GNU/Linux there are long term support versions too, and they usually last around five years each. But I think here’s the difference.

While in GNU/Linux you know that that version will be put out of commission (as in security updates) in around five years, and if you dislike what the developers are doing or just dislike the distribution in general, you can just install a different one without any trouble. Meanwhile you don’t know anything with Windows, Microsoft stated many years ago that w10 would be the last windows… It’s been like five years since w11 launched? I only know that windows 10 was released in 2014 (god I’m rotten).

Windows 11’s poor performance, bloating, programs forced upon the user such as copilot or recall and SSD breaking capabilities doesn’t help for it’s reputation either. Then what should you do?

Answering that question… Do whatever, I’m just rambling about windows being awful in my Linux Mint machine. It’s your life after all :V

But for real tho. Lately, windows has been getting worse and worse. Outside of forcing programs no one asked (or at least that most of people dislike) and making it impossible to uninstall, they even display ads on a OS you had to pay for, usually windows is included in the computer’s price when you buy it.

I’m not saying to use only free software just because. I’d advise you to go little by little. IE: If you have enough space in your hard drive (let’s say you have 300GB used in a 1TB SSD), you could make some space from the windows partition to install a distro like Mint or PopOS and dualboot. Basically choosing when to use Linux or Windows when you turn your PC on.

Another suggestion is to try FLOSS alternatives over big tech ones. Instead of Photoshop to draw, use Krita; to edit images, use GIMP (yes, UI is obtuse, but there are mods like photogimp to make it look like Photoshop’s UI along with it’s shortcuts); instead of Chrome, use Brave or Firefox (tho I’d recommend something like WaterFox or LibreWolf); Instead of MS Office, use LibreOffice; and a loooooong etc. All of these alternatives can be used in windows, are free of charge and more importantly, are free software.

Go step by step. Don’t try running before you can even walk. Like everything, you may take some time to adapt since they are different programs and operative system if you decide to switch to GNU/Linux. IE, try switching your browser first, then other FLOSS programs and then you make the switch to a distro. Or ignore this and just do the switch to whatever distro you feel is more user friendly.

In my case, I started with Lubuntu when my friend/mentor helped me installing it in my HP laptop at the time to dual boot with windows 10. I don’t remember exactly when I made the switch, but I think it was short after bitlocker in windows activated for no reason (basically no one can access to your data without your password, problem was that I didn’t set up nor knew about it’s existence) and deactivated by itself. After like two years I think, I liked the Cinnamon desktop environment more than LXQT and was kinda tired of Canonical, corporation behind Ubuntu, forcing snaps. So I switched to Linux Mint.

In my opinion, this is FLOSS greatest strength, if you don’t like the software or what the developers are doing, you can easily get out and use something else. I know I’m oversimplifying this, but this is just me rambling about this topic. If you want to suggest me a topic to write about like a tutorial on how to dual boot (tho there are thousands of guides online) you can write me an email to Contact@juangames.com(preferred) or a DM through Mastodon or Bluesky.

And that’s mostly it, outside of the recent news of windows 11 not allowing creating local accounts during installations anymore (which isn’t surprising anymore), I don’t really have anything else to say. Other than thank you for reading.

Hey there, it's been a dog's age since my last post :V

I'm writting this because of a bad experience I recently had with a 2nd hand book store, where I felt extorted into paying with my debit card instead of actual cash.

I apologise in advance if you feel that this post is mainly me ranting about this, but I really wanted to share this story.

It all started a few days ago when I went to a second hand store. I wanted to buy a book for my mom as a gift and I had no clue on what to give to her, so I wanted to pick one of the "surprise" books, which is basically, you pay 5 bucks and you get a random book. It's gambling on books, I know, but that's the fun part.

In any case, I took the surprise book and a book for me that looked interesting, this one had a 2€ label at the front, so I picked it up. But when I went to pay, the lady in charged told me that if I wanted to pay in cash, I'd have to buy a 10€ pass to get 3 books but I could pay anything I wanted with card. I initially refused to do so and asked:

— Why the price tag then?

— Oh, that's just the price it had when it was bought at the time.

I asked for the reason behind this, and she excused herself saying that it's been like that for years (there was a sign telling this), and she couldn't do anything. One problem It wasn't the first time I've been there, and the woman that attended me before told me fixed prices. So on top of it all, she straight up lied to me, and this was a recent change.

I ended up giving in, paying seven bucks in total (5€ for the surprise one and 2€ for my book because it seemed like a fair price for me) and leaving the place.
I'm not going back ever again

The biggest problem I have with this, is the obligation to pay with card. While it's more common for people to pay with credit card as time passes, at the point where now workers think by default that you're going to pay with the card rather than with cash, I find unfair to force you to pay with card instead of cash and, atleast here in spain, refusing to accept physical cash is illegal.

I've already said I'm no lawyer, and maybe this mode of operations is to avoid said law in a legal loophole. But to my eyes, it's clearly an anti-consumer practice.

Another grudge I have against this practice, is privacy concerns. Paying with the card means you will be identified no matter what. I'm starting to sound like a schizo but it is what it is. Unlike other people, I don't really mind paying with my card from time to time. But that does not mean it's an excuse to remove my freedom of choosing the payment method.

Of course, that doesn't mean I would try to pay in bitcoin or US dollars($) on a ramen shop in japan just because "freedom", that'd be stupid to say the least. The actual problem is removing the freedom to use physical cash of the country's currency and forcing you to pay in a different method. That's unfair, specially considering that by law you can't do that here in spain.

In conclusion. You, as the consumer, are able to choose the method you want to pay with, either cash or with the card (or other method if the stablishment accepts it), but you shouldn't be forced or extorted in any way to do so.