@M-MTax wrote: @GlueFactoryBJJ wrote: Man, Linux, for all its faults and foibles, is looking better and better. At least with that, I'll get another 5-10 years out of my PC. Sigh! Linux ma...
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@M-MTax wrote: @GlueFactoryBJJ wrote: Man, Linux, for all its faults and foibles, is looking better and better. At least with that, I'll get another 5-10 years out of my PC. Sigh! Linux may be "looking better and better" for some purposes but you won't be preparing your income tax returns running that OS if that's all you've got; no consumer-level DIY software supports Linux. Zorin OS 18 on my new Dell 16 Plus laptop is working great for me. Best $899 I ever spent on hardware, and both the SSD and battery are user-replaceable. My previously upgraded Windows 11 virtual machine with TurboTax was easily migrated into VirtualBox on Linux. Of course TurboTax noticed the virtual hardware had changed and it prompted me to re-Activate (only once so far, fingers crossed...). VirtualBox defaults to creating a NAT network interface which effectively hides the VM from my PC and the rest of my home network (and vice versa). Windows 11 in the VM will have a pretty difficult time trying to profile my home network. Also I'm running IoT Enterprise LTSC edition in the VM, which doesn't include any of the Windows 11 AI features (and not even Microsoft Store, but you can add it if you want). Also no need to Activate Windows unless you really need to "Personalize" your spyware (though it's easy enough to do that as well, and I did). TurboTax seems to work and update fine in these conditions... Linux accommodations for Windows users have gotten so good that you can just use NTFS partitions as-is, including having .URL Internet Shortcuts open in your default browser, and now .LNK desktop shortcuts opening their original target folders and files(!) But I went ahead and moved all my data off my NTFS partitions and re-formatted them as Linux native ext4, as I have no intention of ever going back to Windows on bare metal... Zorin OS also includes a one-click install for Windows App support which installs Wine and Bottles with no fuss. I'm actually using that feature to run the Windows WinSCP.exe app, which I use to move configuration files to my home router (so far I haven't found a Linux native SCP client for this purpose). It's as simple as right-clicking the executable and selecting "Install Windows Application". Anyway I'm not trying to sell Linux to anyone but I strongly encourage every Windows user to give Zorin OS a try. You can do that in a VM running in VirtualBox on Windows. Just be aware that VirtualBox runs noticeably slower on Windows due to Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor getting in the way (this is not a problem with VirtualBox running on Linux).