Years ago I bought an angle grinder from Aldi, for about 20,-. After 30 min it started to smell and the enclosure started to melt. I brought ist back still warm and smelling burnt in order to recieve my refund. Although I knew it couldn’t be of good quality I expected it to last a little bit longer. If you buy cheap you buy twice.
You are right. From what I saw Linux-based OSs have come a long way. The issue with Linux is when it comes to professional environments, that are not IT-related: There are niche programs that are used in certain professions that were written to work on Windows computers exclusively. They are not availiable for other OSs, because they are not wide spread or popular with non-professionals. Also, Microsoft Office (especially Outlook and Excel) is very dominant within the professional field - up to a point that it can’t be changed easily. All this does not apply to users who use Linux computers outside a professional enviroment, as there are alternatives for popular programs and services already.
I can relate. It is like those tool bars that were installed automatically if you weren’t attentive while installing software when Windows XP still was around.
They like to suffer, I let them.
Me too. I always suggest to them to install UBlock origin (or any ad blocker compatible to their browser), along with add ons that get rid of cookie consent banners. If they follow my advice, I will invest my time into helping them to make their OS a little bit less annoying (e.g. switching off telemetry data and uninstalling Copilot). If they can’t be bothered with at least installing an ad blocker, I will not waste my time on them. They clearly want to suffer.
Edit: The screenshot displays a Windows Vista UI. These Toolbars must have been aorund also while Windows Vista was around. I didn’t know that, because Vista made me settle into the other walled garden.
If I had to guess I would say that the majority of micro plastic in humans comes from food packaging and food containers.
When it comes to convenience food (like microwave dinners) everything is packed with plastic. If you poke holes into the seal in order to microwave it, plastic particles find their way into the food, and thus into your body. Plastics are everywhere: the inner lining of a tin can, for example, is made of plastic to avoid that the beverage or the food takes on the taste of the tin can. I assume that if you turn the cap on a soda bottle in order to open it, plastic particles float around in the air nearby the opening and get into the body when you directly drink from the bottle just after you opened it. Every pit of food that is wrapped in plastic will be contaminated with micro- or nano plastic particles, either by mechanical impact (caused by opening the packing) or because chemical components.from the plastic will dissolve into the food over time (hence why bottled water has an expiration date).
Another role into the accumulation of micro plastics into the human body ist that we simply breath it in. micro- or nanoscopic plastic particles from our clothes, from car-and bycicle tires (the most severe micro-plastic pollutant by the way), shoes and things made from plastics in general that are exposed to wear and tear and also to sun light (UV light will disintegrate any sort of plastic).
There is no escape.