Month: April 2026

I bought a new laptop.

I opened it up and powered it on. It booted up and started taking me through the setup process. After more than thirty minutes of downloading updates, I cancelled the update (which was 15% complete!) because I was ready to move on.

What followed was awful. I counted at least twenty different screens prompting me to sign up for Microsoft services, use Copilot, customize my experience, restore from backups, set up new backups, subscribe to Office 365, install Microsoft’s gaming platform, consent to advertising and transmission of my personal data (“to personalize my experience” of course), and on and on. I couldn’t believe how many things I had to click Skip or Do this later to get past. It probably took me another fifteen minutes to wade through this morass of services I don’t want.

Now, nearly an hour later, it’s well past midnight and I finally have the Windows desktop before me. Hallelujah. I opened a command shell, ran a quick command to find my Windows product key, and shut down the laptop. (I’m hoping to use the product key for a Windows virtual machine I need to run in order to prepare my taxes, but that’s a tale for another day.)

Tomorrow I’ll install Linux and KDE on the laptop. From long experience, I know the entire installation process will take around ten minutes. When it’s done, I’ll be able to boot up the fresh installation and login immediately. No ads, no offerings, no requirements for email and phone number, no subscriptions. It’ll just work.

My friend Lisa was recently diagnosed with aggressive cancer, and is about to enter an intense six-month treatment regime. She’ll be hammered with chemo and all the usual poisons, and she’s pretty scared.

Today I got an email from another friend, Paco, who was sending his message to all of the Boulder ultimate players who know Lisa. He’d just dropped off a plastic crate in front of her house. It’s labeled Box of Wonder and in it are crossword puzzles, old DVDs, homemade crafts, cards of sympathy and encouragement, and anything else people want to add. People are invited to drop by Lisa’s house and leave her a little surprise to get her through the tough days ahead.

Although I live a thousand miles away, it warms my heart that my ultimate friends are coming together to support this good woman who’s facing some hard times. Not only does it remind me how amazing the ultimate community is, it restores some of my faith in humanity. There are good people all around us. I hope I can be one to a friend in need.