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Apropos...

If you're bad with computers, it doesn't mean you're just not good with tech. You're probably just stupid.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-a-lack-of-intelligence-not-training-may-be-why-people-struggle-with-computers/

I want you to know I take that personally and I am not amused

I wouldn't mind learning Linux, I'm just not motivated to do it.  There's no work benefit for me, and I've never come across something in personal use that made me wish I knew how to utilize the command line.  Maybe if I knew more about what's possible I'd be more interested.  I pretty much stay away from it unless I'm trying to fix some little issue and I've looked up how to do something. 

I have to use the command prompt in Windows sometimes for Python stuff, for work and when I was in school.  But I mostly don't use that either. 

For me it's mainly just that it's free, I know how to use it, and some of the "odd" use cases I have can be done easily. I keep one mini PC that is essentially my home "server". That was the thing I was complaining out a few weeks ago because the hardware had died and I needed to buy a new one, and ran into some weird technical issues trying to load Linux on it because of an old corrupted USB stick.

For example, I was playing around for a while with something called RaspberryPints. It was a Raspberry Pi based web server that would allow you to broadcast your beer tap list to a laptop, tablet, or phone. The Raspberry Pi was... Unstable. It would get corrupted from time to time, requiring a complete reinstall. But because I had a Linux server sitting there connected to my router, I was able to simply install the apache web server and the RaspberryPints web content onto it, and suddenly I had a much more stable web server for my tap list. 

Could I do that in Windows? Probably. But the sorts of projects that people create for this sort of thing are usually Linux geeks like me, so being native to Linux just makes life easier for me. 

When I gather the money, I want to build a new desktop with 4 hard drive spaces.  I don't like dual-boot, partitioned-drive setups because I've found it causes some glitches on the Windows side.  I'm gonna install Windows on one drive, Linux on another, and my files will be located on a third so I don't have to reload everything every few years when a Linux distro stops being supported and I have to install a new version.  I'll leave the 4th blank, but eventually I'd aim to make myself a Hackintosh.  For as much as I dislike Macs, it does have music software I like that is simply not available on any other platform.

This portion would be a good use for a NAS for backup, instead.

And now that I'm working through this miniPC build, I'm going through and finally cleaning up a bunch of disparate personal file sources (partly pictures, but other stuff too). I want to get it fully organized for backup purposes. 

That miniPC will have local storage, will have a USB HDD dock, and then I also have a NAS. With Linux, it's trivially easy to set up a cron job (regularly scheduled action) that will use a command line based rsync command that will make sure that all copies of these personal folders remained synchronized so as I add new files or pictures, I won't have to manually maintain both the local but also the backup copies. And then I'm looking at using cloud storage [final safety location for my personal files in case my house burns down lol], and many of the cloud backup storage providers have Linux clients for synchronizing with their service too. 

If your files are important, I'd rather they be stored both on your primary storage / desktop (one copy) and on external storage or NAS (second copy) and on an offsite location (third copy). It's the 3-2-1 rule for backup. 

This portion would be a good use for a NAS for backup, instead.

And now that I'm working through this miniPC build, I'm going through and finally cleaning up a bunch of disparate personal file sources (partly pictures, but other stuff too). I want to get it fully organized for backup purposes.

That miniPC will have local storage, will have a USB HDD dock, and then I also have a NAS. With Linux, it's trivially easy to set up a cron job (regularly scheduled action) that will use a command line based rsync command that will make sure that all copies of these personal folders remained synchronized so as I add new files or pictures, I won't have to manually maintain both the local but also the backup copies. And then I'm looking at using cloud storage [final safety location for my personal files in case my house burns down lol], and many of the cloud backup storage providers have Linux clients for synchronizing with their service too.

If your files are important, I'd rather they be stored both on your primary storage / desktop (one copy) and on external storage or NAS (second copy) and on an offsite location (third copy). It's the 3-2-1 rule for backup.

My plan would not entail the 3rd hard drive being a backup, it'd be the primary file storage....files to be accessed from either the Windows or Linux side, so I don't have one set of files in one environment and another set of files in the other environment, and so I don't have to duplicate all the files on both sides.  That way, I boot into whichever OS I want to use, but all my files are there for me.  Seems like I should be able to get away with smaller drives for the two I just want to put the OS on.....I don't plan on filling them up with files.  

A NAS would still seem to be a good backup.  I have a Synology NAS with two drives, but I'd need to replace them with something much bigger.  They're old drives we found in my wife's closet from who-knows how long ago, and they're only like 500 GB, I think.  They're set up in RAID 1, or whatever array type mirrors the drives in case of failure.  I only keep my music on them, because I don't think all our videos, photos, etc. would fit.  And the Synology software plays nice with the Plex app on the living room Firestick, so I can access my music collection in the living room through the nice studio speakers I have hooked up to the TV.  

I don't know about paying for off-site backup.  I see the wisdom in it, but it depends on how much it is, and also I don't trust other companies with my data.  Google, Facebook, and Microsoft already have more on me that I'm comfortable with.  I have an external backup drive that I update to every couple months, and it stays in a fireproof/waterproof safe.  I've not yet felt the urge to do off-site cloud storage.  

Have you ever messed with Wine in Linux?  I never have.  I used to hear it was glitchy, but I've also heard in the last few years its gotten better.  Depending on the capability and reliability there, maybe I wouldn't even need a Windows drive.

Also, maybe we should section off these posts to a new tech-nerd thread.  I feel like I'm derailing the history thread pretty severely at this point.  

The NAS is pretty new.  Just the drives are old. 

If I could use the MS Office suite in Linux, I might not care for Windows at all.  I assume the cloud version of 365 would be fine on Linux, but I like the apps on my PC.  Can't remember where, but I believe I used the cloud versions before and it was different than the local-based programs.  I guess I'd also need to look into how my IDE's work (if they work) on Linux. 

Other than that, honestly, I basically just goof off on the interwebz.  Can't really think of much I do that has to be on Windows.  

Is what you're doing with MS Office a work-related thing? IMHO if not, most of what you want can probably be handled in LibreOffice.

Not usually, as work has to be done on the work laptop.  

However, I've used Libre and Apache OpenOffice over the years, and while they're way better than nothing, I have run into functionality problems in both the Word and Excel equivalents.  I only briefly messed with the slide presentation software, but it seemed painfully behind PowerPoint, and I have done many personal slide presentations, and plan to do more.  

I will admit, OpenOffice is highly impressive for something that's free, and I've always had it on my Linux machines.  

I think you mean Linus.  I like him too.  He has a security blanket, my folks tell me I did something similar as a toddler.  That makes me a cool geek.  That's the connection. 

Tiger rag?

It’s funny because people are still out there running old C64’s and creating new hardware. You can buy a USB stick that will adapt, there is or was a hard drive. A few enterprising spirits have even surfed the web in some kind of text only slow mode. 

I never saw a Mac at any of my friends houses except one guy in HS who was more of a casual friend. It was so much more capable than the pc’s of the day it blew my mind, and it was already 4-5 years old. 

Honestly, the early 1980’s was such a great time to be growing up. Computers were just starting to become common, and there was so much choice in the early days. Apple ( II or Mac), C-64 and then later the Amiga, PC compatible, Atari 400, 800, etc. 
Bulletin boards, disk drives, dial up modems.