I have a friend group that insist on all events being planned through facebook.
I’ve missed out on events in the past due to not taking part.
It’s no longer a hill I wish to die on.

I agree and use Signal myself.
But people like the extra features of WhatsApp like desktop/web clients with seamless history sync and all the other little things that WhatsApp provides.
The average Joe doesn’t even think about security or privacy, they just know that the results of using WhatsApp are superior than using SMS.
iMessage is a non starter everywhere out of the US, it just doesn’t have the market penetration.
As an Australian, no one I know (many of whom own iPhones) talk about the blue-green bubble stuff.
They recognise where the fault lies and simply don’t use the app.

In certain places like India, WhatsApp is the default means of communication for everyone.
You can use it without phone data if you are on wifi, it supports better quality than sms for sending images, you can video chat with it, it’s cross platform, etc etc.

What’s more amazing to me is that it’s not more popular in western countries.

Nah, that was worth watching.

Funnily enough, I’ve got a few friends who are long time iPhone users, who actually point this stuff out themselves:

“OMG! Have you seen the eye watering price of the new one?”
“Yay, I finally get stuff you’ve had for years.”

Neither party would ever consider anything else, and they both buy the new model every year. 🤷

At this point I admit that my reasons for choosing Android all those years ago no longer exist or matter, but I can’t imagine changing ecosystem either.

I think all the existing answers are on the basis of creating a new Linux VM.

And if I understand you correctly, you already have a bare metal Linux install that you want to run whilst Windows is up.

This is the best search result I could find: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=93437

It sounds like Virtualbox will indeed create a pseudo vhdx that points to a real partition, but windows is going to give you permissions drama.

The above link is out of date though, so its best viewed as info rather than guide.

Good luck.

A lockdown browser?

If you need to use windows because of a software issue, not a hardware issue, you’re probably best off running windows in a VM.
That way your linux install is making the WPA3 connection, and as far as the Windows install is concerned, it’s on a wired lan.
This has the added benefit of not having to reboot, you just always start linux and turn the windows VM on and off as required.

This requirement is designed to be hard, and as such is a major red flag to me.
What else is this company going to be difficult with?
Can i only get customer support or cancel my account in person, between 9-4 on the 2nd Friday of the month?
I would consider alternatives, if possible.

Assuming they used the top link, Fedora?

https://www.gnome.org/getting-gnome/

Can’t tell if you’re joking, but a Request For Comments is effectively a proposal for how a process should be performed.
Some of them are eventually ratified as internet standards by the IETF.
Plenty of them remain useful as defacto standards even without formal acknowledgement.

I’d guess the fine line is “Valve intend to earn money from something official in the future”

Windows XP is basically firmware at this point, and has been for over a decade.

Lots of proprietary hardware that works perfectly, will not work on newer versions of Windows due to lack of drivers.

I see it constantly in factory situations with scales, scanners and robot controllers, it would only be worse for million dollar x-ray machines.

Think about your audience and the specific features that will potentially appeal to them.

Depending on who that user is, the same feature/quirk can be either a pro or a con.

There’s lower user numbers here compared to something like Reddit, but the people involved tend to be of an average higher tech literacy.
So there’s not as much noise, but there’s also not as much signal.

As a user, you can spin up your own instance, which gives you complete control… But it also introduces a financial and moderation expense, not to mention inherently leading to fractured communities.

Just look at the Android discussion, it’s occurring on at least:
Android@lemmy.world
Android@lemdro.id
Android@lemmy.ml

etc etc