I grew up in a village called Cumberland that is growing in slow, moderated steps…

As someone who lived during a large chunk of the Cold War, let me add some personal perspective on this. You are absolutely right in that the Soviet Union and the West were in a war from WWII on. A spy war, an economic war and several hot proxy wars.

The US lost nearly all of those, but they did win the economic war, and in doing so broke the USSR economically and politically.

After the USSR fell, the Cold War was over. Done. Finito. To emphasize this, capitalism came pouring into all the former SSR’s and former Soviet citizens got to taste consumerism triggering chaos that took a full generation to hammer out. And then the 2010’s came along and Russia began using it’s natural resources to become more and more integrated with Europe.

To the point where some analysts were beginning to be worried that Russia might come to dominate the EU economically.

In fact, if Putin had waited another 5 years Europe would likely have become so dependant on Russian natural gas that they would literally have been unable to effectively protest any move Russia made, in fear of them turning off the tap. Russia was on the road to being THE dominant power in Europe, and Putin literally threw it ALL away chasing dreams of a renewed Russian Empire.

Quantity has a quality all its own

Some might argue that we already are lucky, considering where we live 😀

I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I’m in Canada and I’ve noticed none of this. No video load delays, no anti ad-blocker pop ups, none of it. I’m not going to stop using Firefox or Ublock Origin though.

Used Ubuntu Linux for a year back around '08-'09. Didn’t have a great experience and went back to Windows. Since then I’ve never had a reason to try it again. That said, I’ve nothing but respect for those that use a flavour of Linux or Mac OS. At the end of the day doing the things you need done is what matters and if a different OS than mine gets you there, that’s awesome.

The day I can’t get around youtube ads is the day I stop using youtube. I already refuse to use it on my mobile device or my TV, due to the ads.

It’s actually pretty easy to permanently disable updates in Windows.

• Go to Services.msc
• Find Windows Update Services
• Changed it to Disabled

Done.

I go there only to check r/ukraine with an old throwaway account.

I’m positive I hate them for what they did to me and our kids. Every so often, when I feel myself slowing down a little bit or becoming complacent at what I’ve built in the wake of her destruction, I pull out that little coal of fury and blow it back into a roaring fire that propels me forward into the future and lights the way for my kids toward a better path than what I walked.

Used Ubuntu for a year and while initially it was nice, I got tired of having to spend two weeks learning which magic spells to chant at my computer every time I wanted to install a given application.

I’d use Mac again, except that it tries to punish you every time you go outside the Apple box. For me, Windows is the right balance of ease of use, scaling degrees of complexity, and ability to boldly go where I have no damn business going.

Your experience may vary, and that’s good, because you shouldn’t have to like what I like, and vice versa.