Navigate to where water stands still
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spatch calls this photograph "How dare you, selfie mode, we was lookin at geese." I call it "SLOWLY HE TURNED." We spent our afternoon around Broad Canal.
State of the Bertie Owen: Not Good, But Not Dead. I write this post from one of his browsers and not the emergency Linux machine. The USB keyboard courtesy of
selkie helps a lot. Thank you to everyone who responded to the previous post with sympathy or suggestions. It is clear that I am going to have to make some kind of change in my personal computing life, but also that the last thing I want to spend money on right now is one of the current generation of MacBooks. I have typed three keyboards to death on Bertie Owen in eleven years. (The fourth was a casualty of a mug of hot water and I still feel stupid about it.) I said at one point in the last two days that he's really just a word processor with hi-fi. I am extremely glad his hard drive is intact.
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May Bertie be sustained!!
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It should have gone out years ago!
May Bertie be sustained!!
You are one of the sustainers! Thank you.
*hugs*
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I understand he's not immortal because even stars aren't, but I am going to be grateful for his ridiculous fragile resilience for as long as it lasts.
Thank you.
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all hail bertie
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all hail bertie
We should all be so indestructible.
(Really, we should. I worry.)
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P.
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Thank you. He is remarkably persistent and I appreciate it.
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He's a good computer!
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I would like him to be a good omen.
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I don't understand his continued longevity, but I appreciate it so, so much.
(Your icon is also perfect.)
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Very glad that Bertie Owen's demise is not total and is perhaps reversible!
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It was dangerous to venture down by the canal.
Very glad that Bertie Owen's demise is not total and is perhaps reversible!
I don't yet know about reversible, but not total is such an improvement on the previous state.
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Since you're expecting to have to make a future change in your personal computing life, I do have a suggestion for you now, before that happens:
Take some screenshots of Bertie Owen in action, both of the desktop and doing everyday tasks. Also take notes to go with the screenshots. Particularly (but not only) the things that were difficult or annoying or painful on the Linux machine you tried, and the things you love about how Bertie Owen works.
Document a baseline for what is necessary or desirable for a comfortable computing environment for you. Even tiny little things.
When eventually you need a new machine, it still won't be Bertie Owen, but it may be that there there are options to make it feel much more like home than the defaults, whether it's Mac or Windows or Linux, that you won't know about unless you ask. Including things you might never think could be altered.
(A screenshot of somebody's Linux desktop, making extensive use of theming to change the look and feel.)
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Thank you.
Particularly (but not only) the things that were difficult or annoying or painful on the Linux machine you tried, and the things you love about how Bertie Owen works.
I appreciate this advice. The comfortable working baseline is something I have thought about, but it had not occurred to me to keep a list of DNWs.