OP, as someone who has a very similarly specced laptop:

Install Linux Mint, do a one click install of the Nvidia driver with the mint GUI driver installer, and then open the application that’s stuttering from your start menu by right clicking on it, and select ‘run with discrete GPU’, which will force it to use your Nvidia card.

Mint has access to newer nvidia drivers than mint, and Cinnamon let’s you open programs with exclusively the Nvidia GPU instead of integrated graphics from the start menu.

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I have a funny story about a Sony Mavica.

My family bought one when it was becoming obsolete on deep discount, I forget from where. We used the crap outta that thing, and when we became internet savvy, used it as a way to upload pictures to the computer for eBay listings. Eventually, around 2006 or so, we replaced it with a digital camera that used an SD card, and in its little protective case the mavica went, to rest.

2 decades later, I rediscovered it while cleaning out old boxes, found that it still worked perfectly (thanks to using standard AA’s), and decided to sell it on eBay.

It sits up there for a while at $20, until one day I get a message about it, asking if the screen was okay or sum such. I tell them it is and shortly after, they buy it.

Out of mild curiosity, I click on the buyer’s profile, and see that he sells stuff as well, and it’s a very old account, about as old as mine. The pictures for the items he currently had for sale are pretty grainy, and I thought… Surely not…

I download a picture of one of his items, and sure enough; it’s the same resolution as the mavica takes, 640 by something.

That crazy bastard had been steadily using his Sony Mavica floppy disk camera for over 20 years for his little eBay business.

I suspected that his camera must’ve finally given up the ghost, and he spotted my prime example and bought it so he could continue his well worn routine.

He left me positive feedback for the Mavica, and I suppose he’s still using it to this day, keeping that old equipment alive and useful.

As a fan of the brave little toaster, it nearly brings a tear to the eye… I just really hope he switched to rechargeable batteries at some point, the little floppy drive on it chewed through AA’s quicker than a terrier on a kilo of cocaine.

Both are excellent :)

Laws obv vary by country, but in the US, a corporation is legally required to recognize and bargain with a union if over 30% of their employees choose to unionize.

At least here we have Fediseer to vet instances, and the ability to vet each sign-ups.

I think eventually when we’re more targeted, we’ll have to circle the wagons so to speak, and only limit communications to more carefully moderated instances that root out the bots.

Solid post from Drew, agree with everything there.

He mentions doing your best to join in your local communities with like minded folk. Here’s a good guide on how and where those folk might be to join up with.

And if you follow his advice to unionize, I highly recommend the IWW. They’ll help you form a grassroots union that’s directly controlled by you and your coworkers. And they’ll help you no matter what kind of job you have! Beefing it up is one of the best things we can do to resist.

Do not follow this advice OP. Never install the drivers manually from Nvidia unless you’re an expert and have a very specific reason to go this route.

With Mint, just use the driver manager app and you’ll be good.

They are not. You have to install the proprietary driver from the GUI driver installer app with 2 clicks.

I’ll grant you that language is potentially a dogwhistle, but on their blog, they post about Earth day and Sustainability, which is currently vilified by MAGA.

If I had to guess, their marketing team is trying to play both sides.

Without more clear evidence of their politics, I’ll probably continue to recommend them if they get people to stick with saving water, as ultimately that’s the opposite of what Trump’s policies are trying to do.

As someone who dislikes traditional low flow heads that tend to icepick you with little streams, I highly recommend high sierra showerheads. I don’t know how they pull it off, but it absolutely blasts you with water while still being low flow. Like I prefer it to any other shower head I’ve tried, low flow or not.

They make one with an adjustable valve that let’s you dial in the perfect amount of flow too.

GIMP with the PhotoGIMP overhaul and Resynthasizer plugin (content aware fill) is pretty darn solid. Not perfect, but a massive upgrade from stock gimp.

Just want to chime in that a Krita developer has been working on a complete text tool overhaul from the ground up for the past 5 years or so, and it is just about ready to be pushed into the beta versions, so that pain point should be resolved soon, thankfully.

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Obligatory Documentary of that event, including interview with LiMux sysadmin that exposes the back alley deals with Microsoft in Germany.

??? Snap support is completely removed in mint by default.

The biggest advantage of private email is that it stops the email provider itself from data mining some of your most sensitive info, as Gmail and other free emails most certainly do. Basically it’s protection from surveillance capitalism, but you rightfully can’t consider it a secure way to send messages or info to other, non-encrypted users.

Posteo is only 12€ a year, so a bit cheaper. Doesn’t support custom domains though.

LibreOffice is very good, and generally its Microsoft Office compatibility is decent. If you ever find it’s causing problems, OnlyOffice is known to have better compatibility overall.

You can also try either of them on your Windows PC to see how she likes them, since they are available on all platforms.