Seems like the best solution for my needs. Thank you!

Backups are definitely a task I have been sleeping on. I will set that up.

Universities all have programs that let you rent out computers.

Thank you! I have been looking at Fedora Silverblue and ran it for a couple weeks. My only issue is that sometimes I need programs that only got .deb files, and they are meant to run on Ubuntu not debian.

I have found happiness on Pop!_OS.

Hah. What the hell would upscaling a sedan even get me. My car car play CDs!!

… I think I am good.

I feel you misread. I mean what I spelled, county, the collection of cities that define the specific region I live in.

My library card gives me access to many libraries in that county, which yes, has works from people across the globe.

I know. It is not great. I ended up using FFMPEG to upscale to 4k using lanzcos filter.

Not the crispest, but vastly more watchable.

I will try AI upscaling when I can.

I have been rekindling my patronage to my county’s libraries and archive.org.

Sure, these are DVDs, but they can be upscaled and are easily backed up.

I buy a crap load of books like I have a spending problem, but I get them used from bookstores and thriftstores. Libraries will always have something I can’t find, with the added glory of browsing serendipity.

Sure, I like to pirate, but there is more treasure at your ports than you think.

I am finally getting around to doing this! I will admit, I had Windows on all of my machines… I first rehabilitated my laptop, and I finally brought back my main desktop from hell.

Running the script. Let’s see what my computer becomes!

Everything you typed out was a painful rediscovery on my part. I basically had to ignore my principles at every moment, but using Windows eventually became too gross, I had to get out.

For the money I spent experimenting with proprietary software, I could have donated to projects making the alternatives.

This is not a lesson I will need to learn again.

Rent-seeking. That is a term I finally see defined.

I do not mind buying software, it is continuously paying for it that feels wrong.

I had the same feeling too, like I had to strip off all my clothes just to enter a the party.

I will not be doing that again.

Oh I know! I cliced the wrong congiguration setting. It was a trifle to get all the files back, but it took some time it make me realize I do not want program that would even do that.

I just wanted to see if I was missing something, but the programs I trialing are either way too expensive or do not do anything better than what is available to linux.

Studio One looks amazing! I am super interested in spatial audio.

I have so much to learn.

Nice!! Linux has so many options for DAWs I never realized.

Nice. My laptop is a 2014 MacBook Air, so running GIMP turns all the silicon into starch. Glad there is a web alternative!

Okay, I will drop the hundred for a Bitwig license because I know it is worth it.

This is what I needed! I have gone through every distro, including my favorite MX Linux, but settled on Linux Mint because it works better than everything else.

Nah, for all the pain, I still rather be on linux.