I lived in Japan when streaming was becoming a thing. Everything was region blocked, and DVDs were (and still are) horrendously overpriced for what you get.

I’m sure all of those programs are great, but in the modern world I can’t think of any reason why I wouldn’t ever just use VLC.

Left that unchecked, I’ve got 16gb ram so I don’t think that was the issue

This is true of the consumer market, but the OP asked about governments, and 90% of government computers in China run Kylin or NeoKylin, with plans to consolidate the two into a single os. This follows the overall trend of China’s tech sector seeking to replace imports (and copied versions of foreign tech) with fully domestic alternatives.

Well yeah I guess if you’re buying a used machine from six years ago with millions in existence because tons of businesses bought them it’ll be cheap no matter what manufacturer it’s from. Thinkpads do hold up better against age than most.

Arch users

LinuxFromScratch users

low prices

On a Thinkpad!? Unless you’re buying a last-generation one that’s on clearance, that’s a laugh.

Joining the by far largest instance beats the entire purpose.

There’s kind of a tension here between Lemmy’s design and what makes most people join social media websites. Most people want the biggest, most centralized website.

That sucks. I’ve found that 90% of stuff works fine in Linux, 5% works if you jury rig it enough, and 5% just straight up doesn’t work - and if that last 5% is needed for your job, then you’re SOL. For me the few things that don’t work are worth giving up because of how much I hate Windows’ spyware and adware, and all my work apps work fine in a browser window so I’ve never had to worry about that.