Not just a US thing. EU is pushing for much more restrictive measures regarding mandatory ID registration. And it will be EU-wide for us. US will most likely be much better in that regard from 2027 onward, since only a few states seem to change things.
My country reduced European VAT tax on coffee and nearly every coffee shop kept the prices at the same level. The government raised them back again later. I’d say this is not starbucks-specific, reducing VAT to lower the prices just doesn’t work.
There are certain Linux distributions that come with all basics pre-installed and are designed to be convenient. All ubuntu derivatives, Mint, Pop_OS, Zorin etc. I know it because I use one and it’s just as convenient as Windows.
You can be sure these distributions will cause you no trouble because they are made by companies that put them in their computers or design them to be on pre-builts and therefore cannot be allowed to be difficult to use. For example, System76 developed Pop_OS to be used in their PCs. SteamOS is developed by Valve for the handheld console. These aren’t indie projects some hobbyists made.
For your programs, we now have flatpaks/snaps that make a program work even if it’s not developed specifically for your distribution. Valve developed Proton for its console, and it “translates” almost all games to Linux, including some games with anti-cheat. I have a library of 500+ games and they are all compatible. You can install any program with a click of a button, it’s just as easy as running an .exe file.
I have Linux on my personal computer and Windows on my work laptop. Best of both worlds. Linux is currently a very nice 0 stress experience for gaming/casual stuff. With Proton, gaming on Linux is nearly as viable as on Windows.
Switched to Kubuntu about a week ago. 0 friction. The OS supports all the stuff I used to do on Win11. The KDE Plasma environment is eye candy. For me, it’s prettier and nicer to use than Windows. Only thing I had to configure was enabling Flatpak, but this is a personal preference.
DM the mods to fix channels. If they refuse, you’ll have to leave. Don’t give Discord any info. A community I was in moved to an alternative and it’s still there, right after Discord announced it would implement ID registrations.