End of an Era
My Linux machine has been made nearly worthless and I'm actually kinda dejected. I'd been doing this for probably 2 years now. [Redacted] got me into Linux and I really enjoyed it. Learning computer stuff and solving (menial) challenges. Getting newsboat to work. Writing the config file. I probably spent a dozen hours or more writing, testing, debugging, and improving the macros to do exactly what I wanted. I wrote aliases for my programs. I wrote scripts to perform other tasks like renaming, archiving, shredding. For the first time in a long long time (maybe ever) I felt "empowered" while using a computer. It was doing MY bidding, and not just because I asked it to, but because I "taught" it to. I would do something, ponder whether I could automate it, and then spend hours on forums and in man pages trying to piece together the script to do exactly what I wanted. And when I was done, most often at 2 AM, I would feel pride in my work. That I'd done something. That my computer was now better than it was before. And not just because I'd found a new program or something someone else had built, but because I made it better.
And now that's all gone. With the end of [cancelled service]... I have nothing to use the Linux machine for. I'll still use it for Strawberry and my music library work. I'm not really sure what else I'll use it for anymore...
Man. This is a real bummer. I always knew there was a chance that this service would just cease to work. But it had been so resilient. They made changes and it broke the tool, but they would always patch it. But now... I guess it really is over for me. I didn't expect it to be so devastating to me. But it feels like a gut punch. And I guess there's really nothing I can do about it either.
Yours Truly,
[Redacted]