If you are coming from Windows I recommend Linux Mint as a easy to use first Linux to try. Ubuntu is good too and is the base for Mint. I'm not sure how old your laptop is but there are distros of Linux designed for really old hardware.

There are many tradeoffs with Linux but I have never heard anyone that tried it say it was slower than their Windows on the same machine. Its not bloated and filled with spyware. Ubuntu and Mint have app stores that should have most of the things you need and use on Windows.

If you end up loving Linux there are tons of options and rabbit trails you can go down. But, just getting started is the best thing to do. Don't get stuck in picking the "right" Linux distro. Just go with Ubuntu or Mint. Hard to go wrong.

I use Fedora and Arch daily but I could do all my work on Mint or Ubuntu without an issue.

Yeah, I agree with this one. First off it sounds delusional. Second it is not something that gives me confidence at all since its easy to become complacent if this is all you hear. I would much rather hear steel man arguments about how it could fail. When I started reading things like that and started thinking about game theories it made me far more bullish. Hearing a bunch of young men full of over-confidence say dumb things with their chests out doesn't do anything for me. I think many bitcoiners are signaling a LACK of confidence when they respond with bravado. They are like a mirror of the tradfi boomers who mock bitcoin. All talk.

It reminds me of Christians that get angry when people ask hard questions. It comes from insecurity. When you know a topic and have conviction in your beliefs you welcome hard questions. You don't fear or resent them. I wish bitcoin had better opponents. People with better arguments about how it could fail, most are really lame and it leads to over-confidence.

I'm guessing you aren't running Linux.

A good cheap way to run a node is on an old laptop with Linux or a 1 liter PC by Dell or Lenovo. I have bought a few on eBay and put new SSDs in them. They make great nodes. Low power use and small. You can install Umbrel or StartOS

It can't hurt

Yeah, StartOS seems like its on a good path and Umbrel is doing it differently. I'm cheering them on!

I really like the Sparrow guide on when to get a hardware device.

I would for sure run a node first. You can likely do this without spending any sats. If it were me I'd do that. Then set up Sparrow and then set up the bitcoin only firmware @k00b mentioned on the trezor unless you just want new hardware. Cordcard seems better if you can afford the sats though. That said you can use your existing device as a signer for multi-sig if you decided to do that in the future.

Didn't know that. Makes sense though.

There are far too many influencers with limited technical knowledge milking controversy for clout. This happens in most movements but it gets really old. Bitcoin Twitter is full of that crap.

That's not @Scoresby but it is something to be aware of. My advice in general about bitcoin, politics, and pretty much everything is to stay calm and avoid emotionalism. Its hard to think clearly when you are fearful or angry.

They've had a Knots app for some time. Also platforms like Umbrel and StartOS make it very easy for devs to add their apps to their systems via containers.

These node in box solutions have been nothing but great for getting people to run their own nodes. I have set up several of them. I see this as part of the long path to exposing less technical people to bitcoin. Many will never dig deeper but that wasn't true for me. Umbrel and some of the other node in box solutions saved me a ton of time getting a node spun up.

I've also set nodes up completely from scratch but that wasn't my first time and probably will never be something most people will do. Its not hard to find problems with Umbrel or StartOS if you look long enough. But, its all about tradeoffs to me.

Its a new GUI. Every node in a box solution has their own GUI. Nothing to be concerned about from what I'm seeing.

It also hasn't occurred to them that many systems are not broken. They are working as DESIGNED!

I ALWAYS lead with this when I talk about the problems with communism/socialism.

Even if you have the smartest people in the world and the most moral people in the world setting it up and facilitating it you'd still fail. Why? The calculation problem. Of course the AI maxis will probably think they can do it... if people can't get that this is a fool's errand I don't waste my time.

Usually these people are very naive in many other areas as well. Looking at incentives is a great angle to take on so many things. Usually the people that get incentives aren't engineers unless they have worked with the UX or marketing side of the businesses. I've always worked closely with those sides and I'm able to talk to normal people and engineers alike. Bridging the divide. Empathy is undervalued as a learned skill IMO. It can be a multiplier for an engineer's career.

You nailed it.

My frig went out a couple weeks ago. Thankfully it was still under the warranty but it was under 5 years old. Compressor went out. The repair guy said its super common.

All I could think about was fiat being the root cause along with energy conservation at all costs. The compressors on these newer fridges turn on and off a lot more to save power. They have smaller fans. To save power. If they aren't kept clean they burn up fast.

The governments require low power consumption and the side effect of breaking is not a concern. You have to buy a new one... there's not competitive pressure from another company making a more reliable unit because that would require more power consumption.

So its fiat + the state putting their finger on the market to distort it.

In the last 3 months I have had a water heater and a fridge go out. Both less than 5 years old. Fiat does ruin many things. And almost no one talks about it outside of our circle here and in bitcoin. Some days it can be maddening.

I mean they think they can design much smaller things and fail very often in those endeavors. But with the AI hype get ready for a new crop of tech socialists.

Yeah, I know plenty that seem to think the problem with communism was that they didn't have the right people or systems in place and we can do it now with the tech we have....

I have never heard any mention Mises at all by these people. They aren't reading philosophy. I know one exception who is a big fan of decentralization but he's no socialist.

I mean, think about it. Communism was supposedly a society driven by science...

Of course that is incredibly naive.

In my experience no. But because of the type of minds that do well in engineering you get many people that think about base questions. This means you get anarchists, communists, and contrarian thinkers. You also get people that think they are contrarian but aren't. In my years in the industry I've run across all stripes. But, the vast majority are rather normie in their political thoughts.

Yep. Though if anyone was gonna do that it would have been Paul. I think abolishing the FED is a lost cause. Its one of the reasons why I'm so hopeful for bitcoin. Technology does a better job obsoleting the state than politics does reforming it.

Trump will continue to disappoint those that put their hope in him. At best we get scraps.

Honestly, it just seems like a given to me but it is wild how seldom people even consider this as even a danger... I've come to believe that its a complete blind spot to most people.

My counter question. Will "Quantum Computing" ever have any practical use?

Its wild how often people become what they hate.

This reminds me of the pricker method for killing someone that spies use. Super hard to defend against in a crowd.

I still say that I'm pleasantly surprised there aren't more things like this happening all the time. In the US specifically even though we have fallen a lot morally if there really were many people that wanted to kill masses of people it would not be that hard to do. I don't think we really realize how fortunate we are and we take so much for granted.