Yes, it’s the first of the month, which is the most heavy of all days for the the giveaways. They sometimes come out on other days, but only a few.

They recently announced that this would be necessary. They also said that this would mostly be during peak times, so the moment the Amazon prime codes are released for example. Assuming this is correct, the workaround would be to just wait a day, or 2, or 5.

As far as analogies go, is pretty far off. It doesn’t hold even for basic behaviors of the two cases, let alone complex ones. A better analogy would be that you buy a (small) car that always happens to come with an included, free trailer for more cargo capacity. You can of course take it off and have a small car. And it’s also as magic trailer that doesn’t take up any space at all when not in use, but can also not be sold.

I’m actually not a fan, an am also using it somewhat reluctantly personally, though self hosted. I’ve had my issues with it, but an still using it because it solves some issues that are much harder to solve without it. I’m not using the contacts/calendar functionality.

But your original statement was that you couldn’t understand who would need calendar and contacts (in their file sharing app). There’s enough I object to in this statement that I wrote my comment. First of, in this context, specifically in their article/blog/whatever, it’s about nextcloud as a whole, not the fact that it can do file sharing. That’s what it evolved from, but not all it is any more, more better or worse. Secondly, it’s about an advertised alternative to O365, which includes the very common and almost universal requirement for teams (be it a company, family, …) to have events (=calendar) like schedule meetings with people (=contacts). Even if you work with just like 5 people you are probably gonna need that. There you probably want to share files, but probably more so it’s about the office functionality and collaborative, simultaneous editing of files. Obviously replacing Word, PowerPoint, Excel. And yes, Outlook (calendar,& contacts, also email).

This isn’t meant for individuals who need a few GB to store some files. It’s for teams of some description that need office like, cloud based tools.

Windows software is always the same (immutable distro or not), as it is run with “wine”. To run Windows programs they are installed in what’s called a prefix, which is basically just a folder containing stuff related to Windows. Things like “program files” and all the other folder structures a Windows program would expect, and will then appear as a drive letter. The prefix is generated inside your home folder (typically) anyway, which is always writable, and one can house multiple windows programs (or just the one if that needs special settings).

Immutability matters more for the actual Linux system and how you install Linux native software. Normally, you install software using a package manager (pacman on Arch, apt for Debian, …), and each package knows what else is needed to run it, and that gets installed as well. Many programs needing the same library means that library will be installed once. For an immutable distro this is basically fixed, and programs get run using “flatpacks” (there are similar solutions with other names, same idea). These are similar to packages from a package manager, but instead everything needed to run a program it’s always contained. That means they are bigger, but this will run on any distro, as it doesn’t have to tell the package manager what else to install. There are other technical details, like flatpacks are somewhat isolated, but nothing critical.

I would suggest finding a YouTube video or article to go into more detail if this matters to you, or if you just want to know more about the differences and reasons for using each of them.

Basic idea: immutable distro has stable base, updates are rarer, but system harder to modify. Regular distro is easier to tinker with, and a rolling release means frequent updates (doesn’t mean you need to install them frequently, btw), but occasionally things do break and might even require a manual fix.

Edit: somehow I forgot to answer your actual direct question. Generally anything from Adobe is a real pain to get to work. It can be done, but from what I heard it’s rather involved (I never have, don’t use Adobe). If you absolutely need that software and alternatives (paid it not) are just not an option, check first what is involved. There’s might even be a specific distro recommended to make it easier, or some distro might have better guides or more up to date ones.

Your analogy doesn’t make any sense, so I assume you really don’t know. So let me explain:

If you buy a 4wd, it’s always a 4wd, usually that means s relatively large vehicle. You might be able to turn it to 2wd, but it doesn’t make the car smaller. If you just needed a tiny car in all (or most cases), you can’t push a button to make it smaller. You always drive around the extra equipment to possibly make it 4wd.

Nextcloud is plugin based. Assuming this isn’t locked away on an instance like this, you can literally push a button and make that whole functionality go away everywhere. You can fully remove that ‘clutter’, if that’s of no use to you. They are offering it always, as it adds no additional effort on the hosters side: they don’t need to add gear boxes or whatever to make it have calendar & contacts. If you don’t want/need it, turn it off and it’s gone.

For some reason CachyOS hasn’t been mentioned. Like others said basically any distro can do what you’re describing, and this one is also one of those “with gaming in mind” distros. Didn’t mean you can’t do anything else on them, but anything making should “just work”. They also have a dedicated image/installer for “handheld” PCs like the steam deck that come preconfigured for that interface combination (but don’t use this special image on a normal PC/desktop).

Like SteamOS, it’s based on Arch, but unlike SteamOS or Bazzite it isn’t immutable. That’s a matter of preference. Being a rolling release means frequent and direct updates of new releases of any kind (kernel, software, everything, …). KDE is the default install option, like on the steam deck, but of course basically all other options are also available is you want (additionally or instead of kde).

Who ever wanted a file sync platform that also does calendaring and contacts?

Most O365 & exchange users? If you just want file sync, this isn’t for you. If you want a collaborative (online) office suite that can also sync files, it is. It’s meant to be able to replace the whole O365 stack, which includes Outlook.

You can also just not use that part, or any part you don’t need. This is basic NC functionality that has been there for a very long time, so why shouldn’t it be part of the package?

This is like the 3rd or 4th time this (mis)information is posted, and has to be corrected in comments. There’s a very large discrepancy between “all of Denmark” and “this one tiny ministry in Denmark”. Journalism really has just become “how to out-clickbait others, no matter if objectively false”.

So basically this: https://youtu.be/ycMgIToLav8

Note: I didn’t watch it, but it popped up in my feed recently, and was easy enough to find again.

Not in my experience. I typically don’t buy AAA titles, but more smaller or indie games. If they got performance issues at launch, and there are no crashes or they were fixed, performance is the next issue getting tackled.

Also these days there’s really no excuse for buying and keeping games that aren’t playable for you. There’s zero reason to pre-order anyway, so just watch reviews when they release. Or test the game yourself and just refund in the refund window if it doesn’t run properly. Check back after a few months (or years, depending on patience and/or size of backlog).

… and Amazon games. People who have or had prime accounts often have large amounts of free games on there from claiming them in the past (often via twitch).

Yes it’s very good they now changed this, because if you manually select a proton version you also override the default. Steam actually knows which proton to use for almost every game if the global setting is just on.

Doing the calculation isn’t hard. It’s harder to know how much energy (be it electricity, gas, or whatever) you actually use. It also varies wildly with meals, as some need multiple stove tops (is that the right term?), possibly for varying lengths of time and/or the oven.

Please note that you can not really deduce the energy consumption from a power rating, as those usually are max values and not what it’ll actually need.

I have good enough energy monitoring that I can measure the usage (sort of), and having rather high electricity cost at around 0.40 €/kWh I do pay some attention to it. Running the oven for like an hour will be roughly 1€. Boiling water for pasta or something is probably more like 20 ct (includes cooking the pasta). Just using a lid actually helps a lot here if you make use of a lower power setting after reaching a boil and putting in the pasta.

It’s gonna have to be a very elaborate meal to break 3€. So while it does matter and add up, compared to buying fully prepared food from a restaurant, it isn’t that dramatic even with very high energy prices like these.

Cooking appliances use a lot of power, but they don’t run for whole days at a time, so the energy used also isn’t that dramatic. There’s a relatively recent video by technology connections that goes into detail, and might be of interest (link).

Here that doesn’t change or help in any way. You’re the one on the contract for the Internet access, so you’re responsible. That’s it.

You can operate as an ISP, but the requirements and responsibilities that go with that make this a non-starter. From my (limited) understanding, it includes that if you can’t provide the identity of someone who is being sued (including piracy, but also any other law breaking), you’re responsible.

Just as s comment for someone else reading this: if this actually has a chance to protect you is highly dependant on your local laws. Even then, at least from my understanding, any lawsuit has to progress relatively far (involving lawyers to a significant degree) for this to become potentially relevant.

That also means you can’t downvote just wrong information anymore. Look at YouTube, which disabled down votes and nothing got better. And their votes weren’t even public.

I think that’s a terrible idea.

Considering this at least seems more like an internal hand over than a buy out, you’re probably fine.

They took very large sums of money from venture capital firms. As in many millions. Those now require constant and perpetual number-go-up. This won’t stop getting worse, let alone get better. There are other services. If you’re a creator, use them.

WotC did some shady shit before, too. Certainly right improve since the acquisition though.

If you’re reading this and think “that’s me”, you might wanna look up DSPD and/or Non24 (N24). That might also be you then.