Gambling is a scam, but I wouldn't trust my government to ban it. The way governments see these things, they may as well as ban Fallout: New Vegas for having gambling-related minigames. Or chance-based videogames. Good luck reasoning with your government on how these things are different. You'll be hit back with countless arguments on how you are wrong.

Also, when gambling is legal, it's taxed and regulated. When it's illegal, it still happens but now the government has to spend money to stop it. Lose-lose situation.

My country reduced European VAT tax on coffee and nearly every coffee shop kept the prices at the same level. The government raised them back again later. I'd say this is not starbucks-specific, reducing VAT to lower the prices just doesn't work.

There are certain Linux distributions that come with all basics pre-installed and are designed to be convenient. All ubuntu derivatives, Mint, Pop_OS, Zorin etc. I know it because I use one and it's just as convenient as Windows.

You can be sure these distributions will cause you no trouble because they are made by companies that put them in their computers or design them to be on pre-builts and therefore cannot be allowed to be difficult to use. For example, System76 developed Pop_OS to be used in their PCs. SteamOS is developed by Valve for the handheld console. These aren't indie projects some hobbyists made.

For your programs, we now have flatpaks/snaps that make a program work even if it's not developed specifically for your distribution. Valve developed Proton for its console, and it "translates" almost all games to Linux, including some games with anti-cheat. I have a library of 500+ games and they are all compatible. You can install any program with a click of a button, it's just as easy as running an .exe file.

I've read before that the US couldn't realistically defend the Baltics from a ground invasion due to distance. It could only re-capture it afterwards. Your best bet is a strong Europe (Germany, Poland) that can actually provide assistance if Russia decides to invade the Baltics.

Yes, the world without the US would create a massive power gap and instantly cause multiple wars everywhere. Also I don't know of a country who has the geographical characteristics and the will to pick up US naval protection. The US is kind of unique in that aspect. China doesn't want to do it, and their geography limits them to a degree. I'm worried about the Pakistan-India-Chinese feuds as these countries kind of hate each other and have nuclear weapons.

With that being said, it's very unlikely that the country will explode due to its debt issues. It will definitely hurt the average person's well being with higher interest rates and inflation, though.

It's just a meme

Monopoly means it's the only seller in the market. This isn't true for PC gaming. You have GoG, Epic, Itch.io, Battle.net, Origin, Uplay, Rockstar smaller websites that host different kinds of games. Steam is the biggest player on PCright now, but there's nothing about Steam that prevents any other type of competitor from getting into the market and possibly de-throning it.

It depends on the medium, but for TV shows and movies, the market is a mess. It's all streaming services, you have to pay multiple vendors to have access to everything etc. I've low key stopped watching movies because the whole thing is an expensive mess. It's no wonder people prefer piracy.

I wonder how difficult it would be for a vendor to be like Steam. Buy a movie once, add it to the library, watch it whenever. Afaik Youtube does that but I haven't tried it yet and I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I have Linux on my personal computer and Windows on my work laptop. Best of both worlds. Linux is currently a very nice 0 stress experience for gaming/casual stuff. With Proton, gaming on Linux is nearly as viable as on Windows.

And the EA game pass, so you can pay to own nothing.

These companies want to own all the hardware so you are forced to rent a computer. To buy a PC that does nothing by itself and requires some remote hardware to function. Amazon is already preparing a "game streaming" service, for example.

ok but what is social media? It's basically a catch-all term for any website. Governments currently have their sights on the big websites like facebook and instagram, with the goal of annulling freedom of speech as anything you say will be tied to your ID. They target these websites because they are popular enough. If people move to other forms of communications, you can be sure the government will also label them as social media.

Once the law is in place, what stops them from manufacturing consent to present other websites as unhealthy hazards and force them to have mandatory ID as well?

Every website is fair game. Only websites that can escape this that I can think of are the self-hosted ones because they are decentralized and maybe small forums that don't attract any attention.

Switched to Kubuntu about a week ago. 0 friction. The OS supports all the stuff I used to do on Win11. The KDE Plasma environment is eye candy. For me, it's prettier and nicer to use than Windows. Only thing I had to configure was enabling Flatpak, but this is a personal preference.