The updates often do take many times the install time which can be a bit frustrating, though it is an area being worked on: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/introducing-windows-11-checkpoint-cumulative-updates/4182552

I prefer starting with a netinstall and taking the time to choose the software I want rather than the kitchen sink distros. Or on Windows putting together one command to add what I want in a similar fashion, e.g. https://winstall.app/apps

I prefer LTSC and Raphire’s debloat script https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat and I wouldn’t say it’s onerous. A nit-picky peeve with ad-hoc Windows installs is that setting the keyboard input for the installer doesn’t define the default, and that Windows 11 has gone backwards in terms of setting up default user profile settings, much more single user focused.

I don’t see in the article what percentage of this increased ‘value’ was actually spent on stocks. It seems such a house of cards to say the unrealised value of retained holdings is worth anything like the figure you get if applying the most recent trade’s value to all existing shares. A value beyond a percentage of the company’s assets and projected yield makes for a pretty risky game of hot potato for anyone buying in at the end and the potential for ridiculously overblown paper losses for anyone who got in at the start of the pyramid scheme with knock-on effects that propagate out to the real economy through the contagion of doomsaying. Bonds are a far more transparent way of raising funds and incentivise productive endeavours with good fundamentals as the company needs to pay from profits rather than offloading rewards to the system of finding another sucker (which can happen with bonds as well if sold before maturity in the belief that the issuer will be unable to fulfill their promise).

1989 is a real nostalgia kick for me. Would make a great jack-o’-lantern.