I feel like it’s not “my computer,” it feels like the most “Big Brother” operating system ever; it always feels like “something” is watching me or lurking in the background reporting back to some giant Microsoft data center on what I’m doing, what my files are, etc. It’s just this really creepy feeling. I feel “gross” when I use it.

You know what feels great? Not having that feeling. Not having the whispering chorus of surveillance like a fat fucking argus of paranoia weighing on your psyche while you attempt to use YOUR computer. Quite frankly how dare they fucking do that to you. MS wastes your time and agitates your conscience. Nowadays you really don't need to know much about many Linux Distros before you use them, and the best way to know a bit more is to simply try.

I’m not techy enough and worried I’ll fail at switching over.

Considering how much technical workaround you have to do just to make 11 bearable, I strongly doubt this statement. Think of it in small steps: Download the version of WhateverOS you want (Mint is great). Put it on a USB. Try out the virtual Desktop without installing anything. See if you like it. Maybe a day later back up your files. I mean everyone should do that every now and again regardless of what OS you use, right?

Then try the Virtual Desktop again. Click the button that says install and just run through the process without intending to complete it. You can always back out. Have a look at how it partitions your drive. Consider how much space you might be willing to give it. You might not need much! Are you aware that you can read and access all your files on the Windows NTFS partition from your Linux partition? For myself way back when, this was a light bulb moment. Note some things you might wish to check out online, what certain terms and acronyms mean. When that is done run the installer again. Why not. Just for fun.

Anyone else seen John Carpenter's BodyBags where a serial killer possessed Mark Hamill rapes 1960's supermodel Twiggy and you totally see his butt and taint (and hers) for an uncomfortably long time?

Pasolini's Salo/120 Days of Sodom - Nobody ever regrets watching it.

Bad Boy Bubby - One of many grim Aussie films of that era. A classic.

The Warzone - Tim Roth's directorial feature. Incestuous rape introducing Colin Farrell in his feature debut.

Drowning By Numbers/ A Zed and Two Noughts - Peter Greenaway shoots his films like renaissance paintings. Do you like lots and lots of snails on naked bodies? No? Tough. The Michael Nyman scores are terrific though.

You can pretty much take your pic with any of Lars Von Triers films. Breaking the Waves, Antichrist, Dogville etc.

Festen - which is Danish but NOT a Lars Von Trier film is probably the best Dogme 95 films of all. Including that fucking MAGAT Harmony Korine. Don't know if this is that haunting but a good film anyway.

Come and See - Yes yes come and see! and in the vein of horrible WW2 films...

Salon Kitty - Tinto Brass before he went full porno.

Baise Moi - FUCK ME! No really that's what its called.

Christiane F : Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - Not a documentary but based on fact.

Reckon that should be enough. Happy viewing! LOL.

I haven't heard about the poster in Poltergeist, thanks. There is a real life chill about those three films that I almost find them hard to watch. From the actual skeletons in the pool to the deaths of several of the cast members. Also the late, great Julian Beck dying of stomach cancer while playing the evil Reverend haunted me for years. Brrr.

Poltergeist II - At one point in the film Craig Nelson (aka the Dad) asks Will Sampson's Medicine Man character if he's escaped from a mental asylum. The way it's played make it obviously a funny little nod to Sampson playing Chief Bromden in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Christopher Lloyd's character is looking for Roger after smashing up the Trolley Depot bar and one of the drunks tells him "Yea I seen a rabbit. He's right here. say Hello Harvey." At which point if you've seen the 1950's Jimmy Stewart comedy 'Harvey', about a man whose best friend is an invisible rabbit, feel free to bore anyone else who might be in earshot by explaining the joke.

Thank youI haven't come across that podcast before. I will definitely check that out. It is a wonderfully silly film.

Any film where people ride around on rollerskates in a post-apocalyptic society.

I'm especially partial to SolarBabies (1986), but I'll also accept 'Roller Blade' and 'Prayer of the Rollerboys', where young Patricia Arquette and downsloping Corey Haim don the skates. Rollerball from 1974 is the Citizen Kane of this genre. The 2002 remake with LL Cool J is its red headed step-child.

Left screen is me bullying an AI in a themed terminal. Just for fun. Virtual midi keyboard (glad you asked) is yoshimi, which assigns the keys automatically to your keyboard. I was actually playing along to some music [playing in cmus] using a 25 key midi sampler. The virtual keyboard shows me which key is being pressed [a blue dot appears on the relevant key]
https://yoshimi.github.io/docs/user-guide/starting/starting.html You know what, install yoshimi and use it. It's great fun.

Yes and no. Use case is the great definer here. This machine has been, and still is, many things; NAS, router, media server, server server, karaoke machine. Hell I even fell for that Chia Coin bingo card bullshit for about a month years back, and pressed it into service to 'farm' that with a big old ugly Noctua cooler sticking out of the open case.
Actually that's a good example bc doing that shit fried the RAM and if I had been using a laptop with so-dimm and soldered it would have likely grilled the whole board.
At the moment it's set up on a work bench desk in a corner of the drawing room where everyone in the household can finger fuck the screens if they wish and I don't have to worry about it . When kids ask if they can play games on it they either get gzdoom or mame or sent away disappointed.
Also it is silent. I love silent computers.

I know plenty of people who don’t even use their laptop much because they’re doing everything on their phones or game consoles.

Thank you but no.

Well, I do have other computers that are much better suited for it. One of them even has its own room, laid out specifically for that purpose ;). But that's a different post for a different sub, maybe.

Thank you. I like CRT (even if it has its quirks) but always struggled to find a use for it. Then I realised its great with an older monitor and a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks LLM. It's like arguing with the bomb from the film Darkstar.

Since no one had actually answered you: In roughly 30 minutes increments.

Do you wear a watch? I find it helps massively. Make a point of looking at it. I don't know what your work situation is, or living situation, but if you feel the wire trip, time it. Go and take a thirty minute break elsewhere. Toilet, conference room, cupboard, who cares just as long as you can be by yourself, and not be bothered. Write a journal, note why you got pissed off. Simmering anger can sabotage easily because it is basically you against you. Like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. It can also be addictive. Note that too.

Thirty minutes I guarantee it the anger will have gone.
Plan your day so when you deal with them, you get it out of the way nice and early. You don' t need them dropping a load of shit in your lap at 4pm on a friday. Know when to be gone, if you know what I mean.