Hello welcome to the first BLOG thing that I'm putting together. I was around, at least a little bit, contemporarily with ye olde neocities but I don't distinctly remember any... bloggy type places. It feels weird to "blog" on a site like this, but maybe that's just some sort of market based mind control. YOU CANNOT BLOG UNLESS YOU ARE ON BLOGSPOT. OR LIVE JOURNAL. OR MEDIUM!!! SIGN UP FOR THE BLOG ACCOUNT TO WRITE BLOG STUFF. YOU NEED TO INSTALL GHOST AND A WHOLE DATABASE ON YOUR WEBSITE FOR IT TO BE A BLOG. IT NEEDS TO HAVE AN ADMIN PANEL.

... anyways...

That's not off topic for what I want to write about today.

Two weeks ago or so work forced us to upgrade to Windows 11. Huge bummer. Like, really huge. I know there are a lot of reasons to be upset, but the most apparent is the taskbar. At work, my taskbars are vertical. I have spent a significant amount of time in this configuration. I sit through the two hour upgrade of Windows 11 and spend time digging through the (horrible) settings app trying to find out what I can do to move the task bars around. I know that people have talked about the taskbar not being customizable. I don't believe it. Panic fills me as I toggle each option and see nothing I want to to happen, happen.

Time to search "windows 11 move task bars." I read a few results and see the classic help forum "PLEASE POST WINDOWS MINIDUMP FILE FOR US TO HELP YOU" style response. Absolute garbage. More searching takes me to Stardock. For a mere $8, I can pay to make windows function like it did one version ago. Incredible. I don't mind giving developers money for good software. I'm frustrated I MUST pay money to get my old workflow back. Stardock software published Galactic Civilizations 3 and 4. That's why it's familiar, huh.

Anyways - I've been investigating moving to Linux or some other kind of system for a long while now. At a glacial pace. At a pace where I'm sure we'd be on Windows 12 before I changed anything. I've always orbited linux - run msys2 or wsl or whatever cursed subsystem of linux on windows so I can have a terminal and use git. I bought a "Linux for Dummies" book when I was 14 and read the first foreward paragraph more times than I want to admit.

I want something different, and for the longest time I've convinced myself that I'm not capable of running my own system. What if I install something wrong? What if it's not 'the right' package, editor, window compositor, system clock??? WHAT IF?? It's my damn system. Nobody is going to see it. If they do, they'll be in arms distance. That will greatly filter the kind of conversations that will be had.

I installed Linux Mint on a spare PC a few months ago to try some things out, and given my penchant for just accepting defaults (when I'm not already entrenched, this is an important note), it'll probably end up as my daily driver until something happens and I get angry again. And that's okay. Whenever I do any amount of research on what desktop environment or distro, my head spins. I've even had arguments about it. I have installed something and it works nominally enough for me to turn on my computer and play a few of the games I'm interested in, and then compile ESP32 code that makes a piezo scream. That's what I want.

My fantasy is much more. I want to build the airplane as I fly it on SerenityOS or Haiku or IronClad or DuskOS. I'm a long way from there, but I think I just need to jump in. I'm terrible at jumping in. I need to spend two hours standing with the water up to my thighs before I sit down into the pool and go AH! for a moment. Then it's not so bad. Maybe someday I'll learn.

Uhh, anyways, I guess the moral of this story is: fuck you windows 11 you fucking piece of shit unlock the damn task bars. Oh also, I don't know if it's windows's problem, or the Stardock toolbar dealy but when I click on an icon that has multiple windows, then click on a window, there's like a 20% chance it just flashes the window and doesn't focus. Oh also also if I click on an icon that has subwindows, and then DON'T click on the icon, the stack of windows never dismisses. Oh also also also, if I click on an icon that has multiple windows, sometimes it takes 5+ seconds to open the stack of windows.

Here is where I would put a blog post if I HAD one

Here is where I would put a blog post if I HAD one