Thanks for this. I guess I should have expected that answer. Bluetooth in general already tests my patience, so I’m not sure a new project revolving around things that already piss me off would be a smart move for my already rising blood pressure.

I’ll stay tuned to that protocol though, as it could probably help me in some other less complicated projects I’d like to tackle.

I’ve never heard of someone doing something like this before, but it sounds like it could have some pretty cool downstream applications (thinking Bluetooth speakers)

With your setup would it be possible to pair your headphones to your phone (iPhone in my case) and be able to pass audio from different computers to a central one that my phone could then relay to my headphones?

I often walk around my house/yard while listening to something playing on my laptop/desktop. And if I get too far from the source, it breaks the Bluetooth connection. So I usually end up having to drag my laptop around the yard with me. A much nicer solution would be to have my phone on my person, and use the wifi to keep connected to my “audio source” without needing proximity to the actual pc playing the sound.

Good deal. Seems like you’ve got a pretty good grasp of it.

When I got the sales pitch I just leaned into it, and went out and got quotes from 3 others. Compare and contrast!

That makes sense. Can’t you give PSE a call and see what the schedule is?

Otherwise you could check what the cash price is anyway, and use a HELOC or personal loan to get a fixed interest rate (this really only makes sense if you’re serious about paying it off quickly)

But seriously ask about the “cash price”. Because I was shocked at how much more the principle is on the financing offered through the Solar company. It seems solar companies are partnered with financing companies to make the monthly price palatable for larger groups of customers.

What’s with the financing? 0%-11%

Is the rate adjustable?

Ask for the cash price and see what the actual interest rate is. Generally the financed price is higher, and the interest rate is low. But if you’re planning to pay it off in 2 years, you might be better off saving up and buying in cash.

That’s just been my experience (oregon, not Washington)

Hahah! This answer works for me, because I was unsure what db0 was. Now I hopefully learn two new acronyms

I’ve found vibration sensing to be the easiest.

That’s what I was worried about. I’ll leave it be for now. If I do end up distro hopping, I’ll probably try out something I never have.

Honestly, it seems to me that there are far more tangible differences between desktop environments than actual distros.

Thanks for the reply. Seems I don’t have much to gain by making the switch. I do like that most questions I google come with Ubuntu answers that are relevant.

What are the actual differences between Ubuntu mint and Debian Mint? I’ve been using the former for a while now, but I just started exploring plain Debian (and kinda loving it). All this talk about Debian Mint is making me get the distro itchy foot.

Interesting! Looks pretty slick. Might be a nice stepping stone into that world. This chromebook is so old that it could be a perfect playground for this sorta thing. I don’t have any important files/apps or anything on it that I’m afraid of damaging or being without. Thanks for the suggestion.

After some serious googling, it looks like gestures is a feature that really only exists in the “luxury” DEs. There is something called Touchegg and Touche that can add them to others, but I’m not far along enough to know if it will do what I want it to.

I just tried debian with Xfce, and it’s pretty fast, but I REALLY love using gestures! It makes my tiny screen feel way bigger.

I’ll be honest, I’m a bit scared of Arch, but this might be the push I need to give it a go. What’s the worst that happens?

Can you add trackpad gestures to Arch?

Yeah, you don’t have to remove it (I didn’t when I tried this 10 years ago) but if you don’t you always have to hit ctrl+l when it boots, or it could get stuck looking for ChromeOS. The hardware is so old now, I don’t really care if I brick it. I’m just learning about linux by goofin.

Looks interesting! Seems it pantheon is built on top of GNOME, so wouldn’t that make it a bit heavy for my 2GB RAM beater? Or is there really not that much difference between the different DEs with regard to resource usage?

Dang, that’s a nice deal. I think I want something with a bit more juice, as I would like to play Minecraft from time to time. I’m leaning towards used thinkpad

I think this is the way forward.

I’d love it if I could find something with a decent GPU so it could run some Minecraft action.

Is eBay my best bet?

Yeah… the more I read into the pine stuff, the less fitting it is. I might enjoy one to mess with, but it won’t make a great gift!

Nice. That’s the move. I am finding it more and more difficult to find smaller laptops/chromebooks these days. If I want a big screen, I’ll sit down at my desktop!

Thanks again for the resources

Thanks for the resources. I think this could be the way forward. I’ll do some research first, as I need something super stable, since I won’t be the final user. So if it breaks, I’m on the hook.

Do you have any suggestions on possible candidate Chromebooks?