Geekly Update - 03 November 2021

Strong's #3326: meta (pronounced met-ah')

a primary preposition (often used adverbially); properly, denoting accompaniment; "amid" (local or causal); modified variously according to the case (genitive association, or accusative succession) with which it is joined; occupying an intermediate position between 575 or 1537 and 1519 or 4314; less intimate than 1722 and less close than 4862):--after(-ward), X that he again, against, among, X and, + follow, hence, hereafter, in, of, (up-)on, + our, X and setting, since, (un-)to, + together, when, with (+ -out). Often used in composition, in substantially the same relations of participation or proximity, and transfer or sequence.

Argh... to Windows11 and its new 'horizontal taskbar". I have a combined 48 inches Left-to-Right with dual-monitors but only 13 inches Up-and-Down.
Just because MacOS puts their taskbar on the bottom of the screen; does not necessarily mean that it is the most optimal use of the square-inches available.
I installed Win11 and for the next few days, I could not figure out how to access open programs from the "new" taskbar. So, I decided to go back to Win10 and wait for a solution to be available before permanently moving up.

I think that I shall wait until some of the bugs are worked out before I migrate to Windows 11.

I refurbish older Windows laptops for redistribution to people who need entry-level machines - and none of my current stock qualifies for W11 at this point. They are a CPU generation or two too "old" - even though I have persuaded them all to run W10 21H1. This is frustrating and wasteful, especially after Microsoft trumpeted W10 as "the last version you will need"!

None of the "upgrades" seem meaningful or worthwhile. Not rushing to try W11 on my home machines. On the other hand, I have fixed one of the laptops with Linux for a test run with some of my clients in mind.

Regarding the observation that "the main selling points of Windows 11 are the spiffy new interface", I have felt for more than 25 years that a "spiffy new interface" was and is the main reason for most of the version "upgrades" of any Microsoft product, not just their Windows operating system. The ability to run multiple tasks/programs simultaneously that was introduced with the Windows system was the last substantial improvement that was delivered by Microsoft. Everything since then has been mainly changes to the look and feel with few if any substantial additions to functionality.

Indeed, it seems that Microsoft management believes that reorganization is an indication of progress, when in fact it is only an illusion of progress.

I've about had it with any of Microsoft's spiffy shenanigans. Usually, once the computer starts up I am either on the browser, writing something in word, or playing a game.
It doesn't seem I need anything for the OS to do but start up the fricken computer and get the hell out of my way. Linux does this without the spiffy BS that begs for more resources.
I'm going to do what I had promised myself I would do years ago... Switch over to Linux and dump all proprietary OSs. My favorite is Linux Mint Cinnamon.
I really left Microsoft at Windows 8 and went to Mac OS X, but even that is getting bloated. Besides, I have some really good running laptops; Lenovo T420 and a few more running different Linux OSs.
Goodby Microsoft and Apple...

So Meta sounds like the Hebrew word for dead? We can only hope!

Facebook or Meta? either way more garbage from Zuck, and how much time did I save by deleting my FB account? a whole lot! better spent on reading Bob's posts and such!