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Title: Never-ending lesson
Date: May 5, 2025

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  Back with generation 4 of /My Little Pony/'s TV series,
people often complained about how Fluttershy, one of the
main characters, seemed to constantly have to relearn the
same lessons over and over again. They said it wasn't all
that realistic, and that she should remember this or that
with how often she went through something. Well, let me
extend a personal /fuck you/ to everyone who said that,
because it's quite realistic, and some of us /do/ still go
through the pain of learning the same thing over and over
again, myself included.

  I tried switching to Linux again, knowing how much the
whole update problem has kinda traumatized me in the past.
My anxiety went out of control and I ended up with blood
pressure of 130-over-90, which much like the rent is just
too damn high[0]. I should have known going in that it
would happen, but I tend to crumple too easily when so many
people in my circles become forceful about things involving
politics and the like. And using a MacBook has me as a bit
of a potential target, even though I buy used machines and
use old software and OSes in ways that don't support their
creators anymore.

  That said, it did have one good thing come from having to
relearn this lesson again: it helped remind me of the many
reasons I want to stick with older software and tech for my
daily life.

* I find older OSes and software more trustworthy, even the
  proprietary stuff.
* I don't have to worry about updates ruining my day with
  a dead machine.
* I don't have online-first features shoved into every part
  of the software and OS. Yes, this includes Linux and its
  package management obsession.
* I'm not at tempted to be online all the time when my web
  browser isn't supported by so much of the web, meaning I
  don't risk getting stressed out over stupid drama if I
  don't expose myself to it.
* **I actually get more work done when I'm not being pulled
  by distractions from the OS and web!**

  I keep my phone in a mostly Do-Not-Disturb state, and I
don't get tons of notifications from Discord or email. I
don't use social media (I left over a year ago), I don't
use web apps, and I don't sync anything to "cloud" storage
that I don't own the hardware for.

  And yes, "You can use Linux like that!" Except that your
modern Linux kinda isn't built for installing software from
offline installers. I'd have to use a package manager with
my own local repo, or deal with using a more advanced
distro which I don't really want to deal with. Windows has
installers, MacOS has App bundles and PKG installers, both
of which I have archived on various types of media.

  Why is this important to me? Because I don't always have
access to a good internet connection, and I've had times
where trying to recover from problems on Linux resulted in
multiple days of downtime where I didn't have the software
I needed. Any time I've had Windows or MacOS issues, my
archives had all I needed to get things set up quickly and
easily. That's why I love proper installers.

  Linux is great for those who love it. I've found I've
lost my love for /modern/ Linux, though that doesn't mean
I dislike /all/ Linux. Old 2000s–2010s *nix Distros are in
my interests, and I do have a VMs of Ubuntu 10.04 and
OpenSTEP 4, as well as an A/UX emulator.

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[0]: I feel old for referencing that meme...