on my arch-based systems, i use repos first, aur second. appimages third. i do also have a couple minor things (that are self-contained with no dependencies) that were just 'unzipped' into their own directories and links added to menus where appropriate. note that i don't game on these systems. i don't have a lot of aur packages installed, so updates and subsequent recompile time isn't an issue.

i have yet to run into anything i want or need that isn't available in those. so no flatpaks or snaps.

hard drives are going to be slow af copying data to itself, or moving data to a different partition on it.

then you're also adding partition size manipulation to the mix, which will also be slow af when data has to be moved off the 'end' of partitions to 'make room' to enlarge or create another with a different fs.

your best option is to get another drive, even if it's also a hard drive instead of ssd. use that to move (copy, really, to preserve the original as a backup for the time being) all the data to that you want to preserve.

upgrades have been working fine here, both linux and windows, for well over a decade.

only if a system is also being repurposed at the time of the 'upgrade', or if i'm changing the connection type of the boot drive (such as from sata to nvme, or switching an older system to ahci mode) do i install 'from scratch'.

definitely keep windows on it to begin with. once you're fully settled-in on linux and haven't even looked at windows for at least a couple weeks, make one last backup... then nuke it or repurpose it.

as real as artificial cheese.

the scammers are already using 'ai'

raise your hand if you ever thought training 'ai' on the whole of the internet was a good idea.

first boot: no i don't want a 365 trial.

still first boot: no i don't want 365 'basic', either.

(you should know this msa already has a one-off office license on it, you fuckwits)

and yea, still in first boot: no i don't want game pass trial.

then game pass notifications shortly after from the 'store'.

this was this past weekend setting up a new desktop with 11 pro.

upgraded here. no problems. didn't even notice the version increment until i went looking for it.

those were so long ago they're small enough that windows would still be able to format them fat32 even with its built-in limitations on formatting that filesystem.

what would be completely useless is scrolling through a larger flash drive' or card's files, one or two at a time.

"decades" from now, autonomous vehicles will have their own roadways, designed for them and with the infrastructure needed for the tech at that future time.

the streets as we know them today will be for last-mile (literally) transport, pedestrians, bicycles, some forms of public transit, and what not.

Full autonomous vehicles, and particularly significant levels of adoption of them are decades away

the only way fully-autonomous vehicles will truly work and work as envisioned, is if user-operated ones are taken off the roads entirely. and yes, that is at least 'decades away'