I dunno where to begin. I’ve felt capped-out for the last several months. There are two draft posts I nearly published, but didn’t. I gotta finish those up! Ugh.
I suppose I can start by sharing that, after nearly ten years without, I once again own a laptop. The desire to get one increased more and more this year, mostly so I could be productive on the go. Due to various circumstances, my schedule is challenging and hard to know in advance.
With a laptop, I can compensate for this somewhat and make headway even when I’m not at my desk! So, I finally saved enough recent Ko-fi donations for a $200 Acer Aspire 3. It’s a low-end refurbished machine, but it’s plenty for my needs. It came with Windows 11, which was not acceptable, so I did some research and learned I can overwrite it with Win10 while keeping the activation license. Very cool, that’s set till late 2025.
However, that’s not the full plan. My goal is actually to put Linux on this laptop. I’ve intended to try it out for years, but I finally found the nerve after recent decisions made by Microsoft. I could install it now, but I want to save the Win10 license as a fallback; the storage drive’s 128GB is a bit too small for comfort anyway. I ordered a 512GB drive which arrives soon. In the meantime, I successfully put Linux on two other machines for practice: a scrap desktop rig I put together from miscellaneous old parts, and a very old laptop whose battery can’t charge. Working with legacy tech always feels good.
I guess today is the day I finally felt decompressed enough to write in my blog again. With any luck this will mark the end of my major droughts. There’s so much I want – need – to do, and this little laptop will help me tremendously.