Honestly, this is kind of a weird question. It's Google. They collect all of it. Every picture, every note, every keystroke. All of it.

The answer to "what information does GOOGLE SERVICE collect is always all of it.

Here's the thing, YouTube. When you first started running ads, I didn't really mind. They were short, there weren't that many, and if they were particularly annoying or repetitive, there was a skip button. I respected that you needed to make money and that you wanted to pay the content creators, and you respected my time.

But then you decided to flood the fucking platform and cut the revenue share with the creators. Without adblock, I can't watch a 5 minute video without 5 minutes of ads. You're trying to force me into paying for your premium service by annoying me to death.

Which I might do if I thought the people whose videos I actually like got a decent share of the revenue. But they don't. Hell, at least one of my favorite YouTubers is regularly demonetized, so they wouldn't see a penny.

So, YouTube, I'll keep blocking ads and use services like Patreon to support my favorite YouTube folks the best I can. And if you won't let me use adblock? Well, I guess I have to find some other way to occupy that hour or so a week I use your service, because I'm sure as shit not using half of it to watch ads that don't benefit the people whose videos I enjoy.

ETA: this post contains hyperbole (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperbole ).

Battle for Wesnoth

This one never gets the love it deserves. It's a fantastic turn based strategy game with multiple campaigns and storylines, multiplayer, and campaign design tools. It's an old project (started in 2003, IIRC), but it's still fantastic

• http://www.wesnoth.org/
• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/599390/Battle_for_Wesnoth/

Hedgewars

Basically, this is Worms but with adorable little hedgehogs instead of, well, worms. Single player is okay, and it has online multiplayer I guess, but the real fun (just like in Worms) is local multiplayer. Also, it has Portal Guns. There's really no downside to this one.

• https://www.hedgewars.org/
• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223810/Hedgewars/
• Itch: https://hedgewars.itch.io/hedgewars

Re-volt io and RVGL

This one's a little iffy. Re-volt was a fantastic R / C racing game with bright graphics, fun tracks, excellent controls, and a killer soundtrack. For good or ill, it was put out by Acclaim, which self destructed in 2004. The Re-volt fan community, however, doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit."

Nowadays, you can join a lively community with regular online tournaments of the game. There's a new cross platform engine called RVGL (that's Re Volt Game Launcher), and metric tonnes of mods and fan content. You still need the original game's assets, though, which is where it's dicey; they're technically abandonware not open source, unless I'm mistaken.

Anyway, links!

• https://re-volt.io/
• https://rvgl.org/

Unciv

This project's aim is to be Civilization V, but with more abstract visuals, and, or course, free. In short, it's FreeCiv, but Civ V instead of II and a UI from the 2020s rather than the 80s. (Not throwing shade here; FreeCiv is an amazing project that is exactly what it wants to be!)

• Github: https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv
• Itch: https://yairm210.itch.io/unciv

If that's not enough to keep ya' happy, I know a few more, but they've mostly been covered by other folks here.

Edit: formatting

The AUR isn't a package manager. It's a package repository that you can use a package manager (on Manjaro it's probably pamac) to install from.

There really isn't a more extensive package repository than the AUR, and there's definitely not one for any Arch based distro. If the package hasn't been updated in a while, you might have to go to the project website and check for an alternative install method, like Flatpak, AppImage, or a precompiled binary.

ETA - someone pointed out Nix, which I had totally forgotten about. I feel like everything else I say here stands though.

As a side note, and I'm likely to get jumped on by Manjaro fans for this, but on Manjaro extensive use of the AUR can lead to system instability. This is because the official repos for Manjaro are out of sync with the Arch repos, and you can run into dependency problems.

• Use like half the recommend amount of laundry detergent. Unless your clothes are filthy, it's plenty, it'll save you money, and it's better for the environment.
• Add 1/4 cup white vinegar as if it were liquid fabric softener (the food grade stuff, not the house cleaning stuff). This aids the detergent and acts as a mild fabric softener. It rinces completely in the wash and doesn't leave an odor.
• Use dryer balls - 2 ot 3 balls of felted wool about the size of a tennis ball - in place of dryer sheets. They do almost as well at killing static and softening clothes without the chemical residue.

And, finally...

• Wash your clothes less often. Generally speaking, unless they're visibly dirty or smell, they don't need to be washed. This doesn't apply to socks or undergarments - those should typically be washed, or at least rinced out, with every wear.

Edit: clarification, with thanks to antimidas who pointed it out!

No shit? Really? Wow, thanks guys! I never would have guessed that were it not for the hard working folks at the Pentagon!

😐

Gonna go with Manjaro. I can't, for the life of me, understand why it gets the support it does. It's not fantastic to begin with, with an apparently incompetent management team. Add in that all the theming is flat and lifeless, and I'm just confused.

I mean, any Arch derived distro with an "easy installer" kinda confuses me. Archinstall is fairly easy to use (although a bit ugly), and most other Arch based distros seem to miss what I see as the main point of Arch: getting to know and personalize your system. So things like Endeavor, Xero, etc. Don't make a lot of sense to me either. But at least they're not effectively accidentally DDOSing the AUR...

You know, I've been using Linux on desktops and laptops for like 20 years now. I can count on one hand then number of times I've had hardware support issues. Outside of a fingerprint scanner, I've been able to solve all of those issues.

Meanwhile, my adventures across the years dealing with Windows drivers led me to finally say "fuck it" earlier this year and nuke the Windows install on my gaming rig in favor of Nobara.

I'll take Linux hardware support over Microsoft any day of the week.

Oh. What a shock. Look. I'm surprised. See:

😐

And the Platinum Award for Least Surprising News Headline goes to...

It depends. Do you play stuff with kernel level anticheat? If no, then the current state of Linux gaming is, by and large as good as, and occasionally better than, Windows - even on games that don't run natively.

Proton is astounding, and the state of Wine is amazing compared to 10 years ago (and it wasn't bad then). Get Bottles or Play on Linux going, plus Steam, and there's very little you can't do…

Except kernel level anticheat.

(To be 100% transparent, there are other issues. I have a couple games I can't get to run reliability, but they're all obscure edge cases. But like 90% of stuff without anticheat just works at this point.)

Edit: proofreading

I am officially using it to post this, and I gotta say... I don't miss Reddit, but I did miss Infinity. I just didn't realize how much until now.