It's worth noting that there are plenty of ways to run Linux virtual machines/containers under MacOS (Parallels, Fusion, QEMU/UTM, Ubuntu Multipass, Docker, Orbstack,...) which largely avoid the hardware support problems of trying to run Linux on bare, Apple Silicon, metal & let you run most of the major Linux distros (which have Arm64 versions) and container systems.

Plus, MacOS is Unix so it's a relatively easy port for Linux software: A large proportion of the major open source Unix/Linux projects can be installed using Macports or Homebrew - even if there aren't fully-Mac-ified ready built packages. (TFA does mention this as one of the reasons for not bothering with Linux on Mac)

Reality is that there's no justification for buying a new or recent Mac unless you want to run MacOS - or if you really, really want ARM and are frustrated by the lack of any ARM hardware to fill the gap between Rapberry Pi-a-likes and expensive industrial server stuff.

Asahi Linux is a very ambitious project to produce a "bare metal" Linux for Apple Silicon - but it will be a constant battle to keep reverse-engineering Apple's hardware changes with each generation of M-series processors. However, even if they're always 5 years behind Apple, that's still going to be good news: In a couple of years, Apple will probably start dropping support for M1 processors - if Asahi can get solid support for M1/M2 by then, all those cast-off M1/M2 Minis could make nice little better-than-a-Pi mini servers (even if they have to use HDMI displays...)

Only half true: A bunch of originally ad-free "included with Prime" content got moved to (or new seasons appeared on) FreeVee, with ads. Someone here has already mentioned Bosch - Legacy, Alex Rider was another one - pretty sure there was more.

...the Prime Video App requires an Amazon account - but not an Amazon Prime subscription (yes, you're probably meant to be confused).

The i3 “2018” Mac Mini was discontinued in 2020 when the first Apple Silicon Mini came out - so that’s definitely “vintage”. The i7 “2018” Mac Mini remained on sale until early 2023 so that shouldn’t b3 vintage yet. Yes, I’ve checked the actual Apple vintage products list and it does just say “2018 Mac Mini” but it also clearly stares the 5-7 year rule so one or the other is just plain wrong. The vintage/obsolete rules seem to be based on actual consumer rights laws in various non-US jurisdictions (e.g. EU and UK which give limited warranty against proven manufacturing defects for 5-6 years after sale) so it’s not really a movable feast - I suspect that the published list of models just got dumbed down.

We've had something like this *online* in the UK for years, a dead-tree "self assessment" form for decades and even before the modern "self assessment" anybody could still file their own tax return for free as long as they were capable of presenting it clearly. Plus, if you're a simple wage slave with savings interest and other income below the threshold, everything is taxed at source and you don't need to fill in a return at all.

Here's the thing, though: we are still all perfectly at liberty to pay an accountant to do our taxes if we think they'll do a better job - and, of course, if you have complex tax affairs that is probably the case.

From what I've heard, though, the US IRS makes the UK HMRC look like a cute fluffy kitten who just wants to be your friend... which is quite an achievement since the HMRC can be pretty awful (e.g. go google IR35).

I think the name you are looking for is Ursa Major which is the officially recognised constellation.

2016? It's Word Mastermind - which was a thing in the 1970s:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boar...

...except slightly easier since it actually tells you which letters are right/right-in-wrong-place.

I believe the correct term is “lithobraking”...

Sounds like a case for capital punishment... (I'll get my coat...)

Yeah, I thought that credibility left the building at that point...

It's nothing to do with whether they're selling a license or a "copy". All sales of goods/services/licenses are/were subject to VAT unless they are specifically exempt - physical books are exempt,"electronically supplied publications" are not. If you sell digital "copies" of books (and have more than £70k - or whatever it is now - annual turnover) then you have to pay VAT on sales.

I get it - you want the government to use VAT as a lever to force sellers to drop restrictive licenses - but VAT legislation is a can of worms at the best of times so that would be like using a supernova to crack a nut. It's also something that probably couldn't have been done under EU law (whereas that 2-year-old directive allowed simply cutting the VAT) which still applies until next year (and even then, fantasy Brexit rhetoric aside, it would be complex and expensive to diverge from EU law just for teh lulz - especially ones that could affect digital commerce). That's also assuming we have a surprise general election and an even more surprising change in fortune for the Pirate Party - because none of the main parties have shown any interest in "fixing" copyright and licensing. Anyway, those license restrictions stand on on flimsy ground w.r.t. doctrine of first sale, "contracts of adhesion" and the sale of goods act anyway - if the government were so inclined they could end them with the stroke of a pen.

Meanwhile booksellers could also drop the price of eBooks vs. paper on the grounds that they don't have to be printed, bound, shipped around the country/world, carry a discount for retailers, not to mention all that mess about having to guesstimate how many copies to print, suffer lost sales if you under-estimate, have to pulp unsold copies if you over-estimate... I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, it's a directive - issued in 2018 - that's how the EU works: the commission proposes, the parliament votes and then it issues directives and national governments implement them.

If you're suffering from insomnia, here's the directive... if you read on you'll see that it's already been through the EU parliament and the EU Court of Justice and - if you google around a bit - you'll see that other states have already implemented it.

Amazon don't profit from the VAT - the customer pays.

TFS is slightly confusing but the Government has removed VAT from books (...actually the EU allowed it in 2018 but Boris would like you to think it was thanks to Brexit...) It was announced last month and was scheduled to take effect in December but it has been brought forward ...sounds like Amazon is cutting prices a bit early but TFA is fuzzy on that. Once the law changes, it will apply to digital booksellers whether or not they impose DRM.

The EU allowed the removal of VAT on books in 2018... but I guess the UK government had to wait two years to implement it so they could con people into thinking that it was something to do with Brexit...

I'm in the UK so lets fix that:

Here, once all the fixed-minded voters have chosen the only party they'll ever vote for, only one party really stands a chance of winning without a following wind, the second party's chances have been decimated by the rise of Scottish nationalists and the third party insists on campaigning based on what would happen if hell froze over and they won an absolute majority rather than what they would do in the more feasible case of holding the balance of power in a 'hung parliament' . Vote for any other party in England (there's a bit more to it in the other UK countries) and at best you're just affirming that you're not too lazy to walk to the polling station, at worst you're contributing to some unpredictable unintended consequence of vote-splitting.

Even in countries with better proportional representation, the devil is still in what deals are done to form a majority coalition.

To quote the late, great Douglas Adams: nobody capable of getting themselves elected should, under any circumstances, be allowed to do the job.