Could always attempt firmware updates from within a Windows VM but I suspect your mileage may vary and there’s always the risk of bricking a device when updating firmware (and a VM may increase that risk, I don’t know).

I would echo the suggestion of others, simply add a second drive, don’t dual boot, just change the target device for boot in the UEFI settings when you need to load windows. Also, I wouldn’t bother buying windows if you will only boot it for firmware updates and that’s it — waste of money — and with what MS is doing with windows as of late (ads, Recall, etc), I have personally dumped windows altogether.

This is what happens when you overcharge for something that has no real apps and its best competitor is 1/7 the cost with a plethora of apps.

There is simply no incentive to buy the Vision Pro. It was dead on arrival.

As a workaround which does not solve your specific question, and assuming you have control over the WiFi network and the router would have to support it — set one network band on WPA3, and a different network band on WPA2. Then in Linux, connect to the WPA3 band and on windows connect to the WPA2 band.

May I ask what school work requires the use of Windows? Adobe creative cloud or something?

Yep you’re right, it’s mainly set up for gaming (especially the Dragonized version). And the theme/style is a bit over the top.

I am with you on the laziness which is why I just accepted the default style :) I may, one day, switch to a different theme. I just wish KDE would not reset the apps I have on the application bar when I do.

I like that last statement. I might steal it 🤣

Thanks for your insights.

Perhaps. I concede maybe it makes mundane tasks simpler and quicker.

But it should most definitely not be used for fact-based research and testing. Not yet and not until it is proven to produce only credible fact backed by credible sources.

School shootings, intercom not working, teacher not available and student bleeding on the floor, etc, etc. There are numerous reasons for safety for the availability of a cell phone.

When did I mention the use of a smart phone?

They may eventually be useful in this space. But for now, they are more work than they’re worth and completely discredited for proper fact-based research. And the teachers my kid has had who used it for testing resulted in completely wrong answers that the teacher didn’t bother to check.

Yes that is the teacher’s fault, but so is using it to generate a test in the first place.

I will die on this hill. LLMs of any kind right now are not something that should be trifled with in a critical thinking-based curriculum. In time, perhaps. But not yet, not when LLMs are so easily manipulated (whether trained on public data or private). The various implementations haven’t earned credible trust despite CEOs drooling over them.

There are other Arch distros with a graphical installer: Garuda (which is my choice of distro) and Manjaro are the main ones I can think of. Doesn’t require the RTFM route, but Arch is definitely not your grandma’s Linux (or maybe it is, I don’t know anyone’s grandma).

I hear you. But my child will have a cell phone in case of a real emergency when the adults don’t properly act. While I trust teachers rather implicitly, my experience with most school administrators is far less stellar. Also, a student calling 911 when the teacher is having a heart attack or some other life threatening event will save time and possibly their life.

Barring any emergency situations, my child’s phone better be put away.

Agreed on the teachers getting more pay and time.

And I agree that checking for objective fact with respect to teaching and testing is necessary.

But…ChatGPT is not a credible source. So using it in the classroom is not exactly fine (outside of showing it as an example of a source that isn’t credible). It is in its infancy and any educator who uses it in the classroom and relies upon it is doing a considerable disservice to those they educate. That’s like teaching using Wikipedia. I get that it has information, many times accurate, but it should never be used as a source.

As a commentary…Far too often in this modern world people (not you, just a general sense of society) seem to see something that may be 50, or 75 percent accurate and claim it as fact. This is how entertainment news organizations function to get ratings. And if kids are to be taught critical thinking they must be taught how to discern what is or isn’t credible.

Otherwise we’re lost. And perhaps we already are.

I am in full agreement that cell phones should not be out of the backpack or pocket unless there is an emergency or it’s lunch time / outside of class.

But for the love of critical thinking, also please ban the teachers from using ChatGPT to create their tests for them. I was appalled at finding out teachers at my kid’s school are doing that. While I support any tool (and funding!) that can make the lives and jobs of teachers easier, using a tool like ChatGPT is as irresponsible as telling kids to just Google it. And teachers/administrators should damn well know better.

One word: Recall

Yeah Lunduke showed his true self and I’ve written him off as yet another narcissistic crazy in the world.

Do we really want that?

As long as competition and choice continues to be the mantra of the Linux desktop, then yes, I’d love to see more and more people using it.

We have it pretty good right now. I would actually say we’re living in a golden age of desktop Linux: there’s constant innovation, good support, you get to do pretty much everything you need, while flying under the radar.

Very true.

Unwanted attention from Microsoft, who I bet are not going to be doing nice things once they start getting paranoid about it.

I mean, Ballmer called Linux a cancer pretty early on, so that ship sailed a long time ago.

I really don’t think that large companies like Adobe will care about Linux

Once they start losing large sums of money due to people switching and finding viable alternatives, they certainly will care. Right now Adobe has one main thing going for them – apathy and muscle memory of the aging demographic of their users. That will eventually change.

the least we get to interact with them the better.

Absolutely. I used to be an Adobe fan, back when Kevin Lynch was a part of it, and I was a Flex developer. Then Jobs wrote his thing about Flash, and a year later, not a month after Jobs’s death, Adobe dumps Flex – and literally overnight my position changed from Flex to HTML5 and Java.

The installer is garbage in my opinion. But aside from that, the distro is probably fine.

No.

Hmm, yeah my PC is about 2-3 years old now and it booted just fine. If normal Arch can boot (EFI ideally), then Garuda should be good.

Garuda Dragonized