My strategy is to always install program with flatpak, SDKs are also installed as flatpak, find graphical alternatives to command line programs. I don’t use command line a lot, so I don’t need fancy tools for it.

I only have one system package installed for inputting unicode math symbols. So that I have a clean and easily migratable system.

I might add, everyway actually seek to “consolidate” all the older ways, and always ends up adding to the ways needing to be consolidated.

Honestly after moving into our current home, we were able to avoid Amazon almost completely. We don’t buy cookware, as carbon steel, cast iron, and stainless steel cookware lasts at least decades if not forever; we have way too many mugs from market and thrift store; and all of our clothes are thrifted with some from Costco.

we get groceries from farmers market, local ethnic stores, or super market. We get shelf stable products like toilet paper or drinks from Costco in bulk. We barely replace our electronic, because I would fix them with spare parts from ifixit and eBay; when it do need to get replaced, I get them from bestbuy or manufacture. We get most of the cleaning products from refil store or supermarket; we would buy soap from farmers market or local supplier.

We would only buy very obscure product from Amazon, like replacement knob for pot lid etc, but they are very very rare. One particular product we unfortunately relied on Amazon is the bamboo electric toothbrush brush head, we are trying to find some local salers that carry that, but cannot find any.

Installing on a old laptop is great because eventually after you get a more serious machine, you probably got enough experience to choose your distros.

Linux mint is certainly the most promising option, especially if you are just using the laptop, and don’t have any external monitors setup.

LOL I thought you are joking, but it is actually called buttplug gnome: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_(sculpture)

Officially the work represents Santa Claus holding a Christmas tree in his hands but the artist has implied that it could also represent a buttplug, and that “…For me, the sculpture is also about the consumer community - as a commentary on material consumption in the Western world.”[3]