Lol. Yes I am! How did you know?? 😜

Not sure how uncommon you’re looking for, but I think I already did this.

I chose Sage.

According to some quick googling (read: not sure how accurate this is), Sage wasn’t in the top 500 names for my birth year, but my given name was top 100.

Though both names I’ve used have been trending towards more common for most of my life. Looks like my original name is now a top 35 most common, but Sage is still outside the top 100 for females and outside top 300 for males.(Really wish there was more data for the popularity of nonbinary names. I think Sage is probably one of the more popular enby names, so maybe it’s not all that uncommon, depending on how you define it.)

This is good advice, I appreciate it. But I should clarify, I definitely won’t be launching my practice before I’m comfortable with the OS. I’m probably going to take some other user’s suggestions and do some test runs on my home machine to figure things out. I’m not launching tomorrow, there’s no real rush. My current contract runs until May 2024. So I’ve got 6 months ahead of me to figure things out.

Oh I’m aware the OS is free. The affordability I was asking for was for the actual computer to run it. I guess that part wasn’t Linux-specific. Mostly just looking for a good option for a work computer that will last a while. Will probably just get some kind of refurb laptop, I’ve always had good success with those.

But if someone has a specific recommendation I’m all ears.

Yes, mostly paperwork and email for sure. Some basic spreadsheet stuff for tracking clients and payments and whatnot, but there’s also programs for that.

One less common, yet essential, thing I haven’t gotten a specific response on yet, is converting word docs to PDFs with searchable text. Not sure if you know things about that, but it popped into my head while responding here so hopefully someone who sees this knows something.

And, a generic thank you to everyone who has responded, this has all been very helpful. Even if I don’t respond to you specifically, I appreciate it.

Yeah some counties use pointlessly complicated programs to distribute videos. I often have to try a few different players on windows to find one that works. If VLC has trouble with something, are there others you’d recommend as well?

This is a great tip, I’ll definitely do some test runs, thanks!

This seems like a good thread to ask this… I’m sure I could find the answers I need myself but frankly I trust the userbase here more than most online articles.

As my username hints at, I’m a lawyer. I’m considering starting my own firm as a solo practitioner. I need a computer and/or laptop for it, and as a new business my budget would be pretty tight. I’ve mostly only ever used windows, but I’m getting fed up with the bullshit, so I’m considering going with Linux.

I assume Linux is capable of doing everything I need, which is primarily handling word documents, viewing PDFs, watching evidence videos, and online research. But my concern is that some of the more commonly used video types might have trouble on Linux, or that some of the word document templates I use in Windows might have compatibility issues.

I’m also nervous about using an OS I’m not familiar with for business purposes right away.

So I guess I’m asking a few questions. What is a reliable yet affordable option to get started? Are my concerns based in reality or is Linux going to be able to handle everything windows does without issues? What else might I need to know to use Linux comfortably from the get go? Is it going to take a lot of time and effort to get Linux running how I need it to?

For reference, I do consider myself to be somewhat tech-savvy. I don’t code or anything, but I’ve built my last two home computers myself and I’m not scared of general software management, I just don’t make it myself.

So, yeah, sell me on Linux, please.

Hi there, I’m a non-binary trans person, might be able to shed some insight here.

So, trans is a spectrum. You can be mtf, or ftm, or somewhere in between. Mtf and ftm are “binary” trans identities, because they fit into the typical gender binary. Trans women are women, trans men are men.

But there exists a whole spectrum in between there, which is where I live, which contains many different gender identities. These include genderfluid, demiboy, demigirl, agender, bigender, genderqueer, and many others. The shared characteristic is that they are not part of the binary male or female. You may also hear the umbrella term, enby (phonetically derived from NB, for Non-Binary).

These are still trans identities, because they are not cis. Cis means you identify with your assigned gender at birth (AGAB), trans means you don’t.

What is right for any given person is really up to them to know what feels right. As for why we need labels in the first place, it’s because it gives us a sense of belonging. It helps us feel seen. Like we’re not going through this alone. Not everyone will identify with labels, and that’s fine, but I’ve found that for the majority of trans people, having the labels helps them come to terms with who they really are.

When I was first figuring out that I wasn’t cis, it was very confusing. There’s a lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming. But seeing all the different labels helped me to learn how to talk about my experiences, and which genders I identified with more than others, and overall just made me feel like this was just something to figure out and think on, rather than it being something wrong with me. I knew I’d figure it out eventually, it was just a process of trial and error.

I can now proudly say I am bigenderfluid, which is a gender that I think I may have invented. But to me, it means that while my “ratio” of femme to masc presentation varies day to day, I always feel like a little bit of both. So, there’s always two, thus bigender, but it’s not firm, thus genderfluid.

Hope this helps! And I’m always happy to answer (good faith) questions, so feel free to ask any follow ups you may have.

Actually, here’s my fun fact: Alaska is the farthest North, East, and West state in the U.S.

See, e.g., the war on “drugs”

The GOP has been working towards making the US a dictatorship since the 60s. We passed the civil rights act and the right was so appalled that they had to treat people of color like, well, people, that they’ve been coming up with new ways to ensure progress never happens again ever since.