Auster

On Mbin instances, it joins 1:1 posts together. Maybe something to ask for the Lemmy engine devs to add?

If you’re sticking to Firefox-based browsers, Waterfox seems to be the fork closest to Firefox without being controlled by Mozilla.

If anything can be salvaged, I’d suggest backing those up, and then proceeding to make a fully fresh install. That will ensure you don’t come across issues inherited from the previous blunders, and also, I think, will give you the chance to take the same steps, but wiser than before, and so able to avoid the issues you either caused or came across. (Also something I’d recommend maybe around every 1~2 years, precisely because of being able to restart but wiser)

I’m more biased against Google than against Microsoft, and as mentioned in another comment, the search engines are proxies of the respective companies, so it’s hard to give an objective opinion.

Now, what I would suggest, trying to be as neutral as possible, is to test both and see which fit your needs more. After that, use mainly the better one and keep the other as a fallback option.

Even if the “grace period” (aka “offline mode”), Steam also times out without connection, and if market coverage statistics are to be believed, most people don’t seem to use services that provide DRM-free gaming. And as Steam also provides movies and series (they still do, right?), the situation is worse as barely any stores offer DRM-free videos.

(On an upside, at least musics seem to be fairly common DRM-free, including on Steam.)

Regarding wonky links, I can’t say I’m familiar with the issue. You could try checking Mint’s desktop files to see how the commands are set up, and if they work fine manually through the terminal. If they don’t, that’s probably an indication of where the issue is.

Regarding videos, those are… problematic, some times even on Windows (FF Type-0 and Mary Skelter PTSD intensifies). Perhaps you’re missing a drive, or Proton’s equivalent of winecfg may need some manual tinkering.

And regarding auto-mounting drives, are they being automatically mounted to a static path, and before Steam is loaded? Also maybe deactivating Steam’s auto-start, if it’s active, helps?

Going by the “moderates” section in the OP’s profile in his original instance, it seems to be https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/addons4kodi

Maybe in some cases, it helps to use Alt F10, or, since I’m using Mint and it may change in other systems, maybe the equivalent for yours?

Got RISC OS

mom, I’m scared

Though I have yet to get a Deck for myself, I’d probably use it a lot to read comics. Having used the Vita a lot for that, being able to control the comics with a physical controller was fantastic, and the far greater processing power of the Deck should also avoid pages taking a long while to load (loading Humble Bundle’s ebooks in measly 512 MB of RAM is an experience).

I don’t know how much of a subset I am, but I still use dictionary softwares from Windows 95~2000 era and Android softwares on a completely offline and vanilla VM, partly due to internet randomly going bad, and partly because I am neurotic about digital contents vanishing once support ends.

Can it be used offline?