TLDR; I believe Generations is the best of the TNG films and easily in the top 5 classic films, even if the TNG film series as a whole falls short.

I admit that overall, I would call TOS films the better series of Trek films - Search for Spock and Final Frontier are probably the only ones I wouldn't rewatch, meaning 2/3 overall of the TOS films are actually enjoyable in my opinion. In comparison, I am not a fan of half the TNG movies (NEM and Insurrection).

However, I disagree with lumping all the Next Generation movies as "completely null"; First Contact was at least reasonably fun. My biggest complaint might be the Guinan snub for Barclay.

Meanwhile, I feel like Generations is the rare Star Trek film that really just feels like a 2 hour episode (with TMP and maybe Voyage Home the only two other ones like it). I enjoyed the mortality commentary (almost worth the sacrifice of Picard's entire family, but not quite), while nothing strikes me as more classically Star Trek than campily choreographed fight scenes between a bunch of old men. I also personally enjoyed Data's arc - I feel like they made sure when it got annoying, it was purposeful, and they dialed it back right when they needed to.

Overall, I don't think it's fair to lump the first two TNG films into the bottom 5 like their later counterparts (which do deserve it); Generations probably joins Voyage Home for my favorite Trek films to rewatch.

Anyhow, have a wonderful evening. 🖖

I love Generations. Now disliking V is something I could get behind.

Bem better come apart, or this one will make sure someone else does.

I've been enjoying my Thinkpad E16 1st gen AMD on Debian 12. You do have to run a newer kernel to get it working. I ran into a bit of Wi-Fi trouble because I accidentally got a Realtek model, but I've long since fixed the issue entirely - I've posted the solution elsewhere here.

On another note, maybe we should just have a yearly hardware recommendations post pinned on this forum - it feels like we get a question like this every week or so and they sort of clutter the forum, no offense intended to OP.

Edit: Here's my Linux Hardware probe from when I first got the laptop https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=1e50fb1862

You’ve got quite a bit - it’s in TNG S4, so you’ve still got all of TAS (if you choose. If you’re thinking about skipping, at least watch Yesteryear), the first few movies, and the first three seasons and six episodes of TNG to go before you hit this glorious staple who will last through DS9.

Un-cancel Lower Decks. 😉

Honestly, though, I feel like most media groups in general forget why the streaming model worked in the first place. They want Office-level hits, but forget that The Office wasn’t immediately successful. Not immediately killing it just because of that gave it time to find a fandom.

Most shows should automatically get 2-3 seasons, and they often aren’t getting that.

As for the whole “none of them knew what Star Trek was” anecdote - I find that a bit exaggerated. I’m a college student, and I wore a Boimler costume for Halloween- most could identify that I was something Star Trek. Around other people my age, they can at least think of Spock or Patrick Stewart.

How I got into Trek as a kid was my mom would be watching it, and she’d let us join even though we were supposed to be doing homework. TNG was the one I saw the most during that.

P.S: As I’ve floated around this forum several times, I think an animated anthology series of strange new crews would be awesome.

I don’t know. You should make sure it doesn’t have a Realtek Wi-Fi card. Otherwise, it looks fine. I found the Linux Hardware report for it here: https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=7144bb41

I think the price to performance doesn’t look the best, though. Maybe go for a Thinkpad instead?

The filter preview feature seems really nice!

Honestly, Inkscape is at the very least almost as good as Illustrator - call me deluded but I find more intuitive in many cases.

Now if only GIMP could actually have some money pumped into it and a sane UI… 😒

I almost had a panic attack until I realized this was for UBlock Origin Lite rather than the normal, manifest v2 version. Still mad at Mozilla,though.

For one, AI datasets often break copyright law, frequently appropriating from artists. Executives are also trying to use it to eliminate the jobs of artists, and I feel it’s wrong to try and obsolete something people love doing.

In addition, they take a lot of power, not helping in the way of the needed changes to follow climate goals.

Clarification: Copyright laws can be annoying, and I don’t always agree with them. However, it also protects smaller artists. I think there are many cases where piracy is totally fine, though, like if a company vaults an animated streaming show and gets rid of all other ways to watch it.

Also, the use of AI-generated images on their website.

I feel like what they did with Jerri Ryan was worse. At least for Deanna, it was in character.

Seven was a well-written character, but the wardrobe choices still infuriated me. That is probably one thing PIC got right.