What Are Your Best Online Shopping Tips?

Google Chrome is the most popular web browser with nearly 66% global market share. Apple’s Safari browser comes in second place, and several others are below those two. So, what is your go-to web browser? Do you use Google Chrome or Safari, or opt for alternatives like Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, or something else? And if so, why? 

Our Android phones and tablets are extremely customizable, with Launchers being one of the best ways to spruce up any device. It’s easy to change every aspect of a phone and make it unique to you. Do you use a launcher like Nova, Lawnchair, or Niagara on your Android devices? If so, which one and why?

Google Search is by far the most popular way to use and interface with the web, but it’s not your only option. There’s also Bing, DuckDuckGo, StartPage, Brave Search, SearchGPT, and more. Between Search being categorized as a monopoly by the U.S. court system or now having exclusive access to Reddit, I’m wondering what search engine you use. Have you considered alternatives? If so, which ones?

Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook are two of the most popular (and most used) email providers, but they’re certainly not your only options. Do you use one of those two for your primary account, or opt for a Gmail alternative like ProtonMail, Zoho, or even AOL? Hotmail is still around, too, in case you were wondering. What do you use, and why?

A classic use for Linux is to breathe life into an old PC. Some distributions are more lightweight than others, though. Which distro in your experience has the most spring in its step?

After the disaster that was Windows Vista, Microsoft course corrected in 2009 with the release of Windows 7. The operating system was well regarded thanks to aspects like its design and stability, and many still look back on it fondly. If that’s you, what are your thoughts on Windows 7?

Web browsers are perfectly capable out of the box with no customization, but extensions take things to the next level. With them, you can tweak your browser’s appearance, improve security, and add new features. What browser extension do you recommend?

Windows Vista, the successor to the widely loved Windows XP, was heavily criticized when it launched to the consumer market in 2007. There were software incompatibility problems, an annoying User Account Control system, and performance issues. If you used Vista, what did you think of it at the time, and where do you stand on it now?

When trying to keep a laptop from going to the dump, one of the first issues you’ll likely encounter is a battery that doesn’t charge. Or, maybe, the battery just doesn’t last as long as you need it to anymore. If you don’t want to live attached to the wall socket, you’ll need to replace that battery. Have you ever replaced a laptop battery yourself?

There’s no shortage of features, apps, or customization for our Android phones these days, and the technology is pretty mature. But that doesn’t mean it can’t improve in several areas. I’m thinking of better software updates, bringing back small screens, a true iMessage alternative, or an improved and faster backup and transfer system. If you could change one thing on Android, what would it be?

Technology and the internet have drastically changed over the last two decades, but many people are still hanging on to old email addresses from the late 90s and early 2000s. That got us thinking: What was the first email service you used? AOL, HP OpenMail, MCI Mail, Lycos, HotMaiL, CompuServe, Lotus cc:Mail, Yahoo! (previously RocketMail), Gmail or something else?

This week, Linux Mint 22 was officially released with a number of quality-of-life improvements, boasting six years of security updates. The alternative PC operating system is popular for its familiarity and ease of use for people new to Linux and coming from Windows. In fact, Mint was the first Linux distribution I ever installed, and it served me well for about a year before I started trying others. Are you tempted to give version 22 a try, or, if you’re already a Mint user, are you upgrading?

While most people use Gmail or Apple Mail, those certainly aren’t your only options. Popular email app clients include Outlook, Spark, Proton Mail, Thunderbird, and more. So, which email app is your favorite, or which one do you use the most? Why?

If you’re using Linux now, there was inevitably something that led you to it, whether it was school, your job, or a video on the internet. Maybe you had a task or project you had in mind and you found Linux was the answer. I got interested when Windows was getting too bloated for my laptop but I didn’t want to simply throw it away. I started researching solutions, and an article suggested I look into Linux.

How did you end up on team penguin?

Changing the wallpaper has long been the pinnacle of desktop customizing fun, and I used to do it quite a bit. I could just be jaded, but I don’t really care what my computer’s wallpaper looks like anymore. So long as the default doesn’t look absolutely hideous, I leave it as it is. I’m spending less than 1% of my computer time looking at it anyway. Am I alone in this, or are there other default enjoyers out there?

The first video game I remember playing was Superman on the Atari. It released way back in 1979 and although I wasn’t born for another two decades, I got to play my mom’s copy of the game when she pulled it out of the attic one summer. The first game I remember owning was F1 Race on the Game Boy.

But that’s enough about me! How-To Geek enjoys readers of all different ages, so I’m fascinated to learn what some of your earliest gaming memories are.

Facebook wasn’t the first social media platform, but it was the first one that reached extraordinary levels of popularity. There was a time when almost everyone I knew was active on Facebook. These days, the only people posting are distant relatives and random bots. Do you still find Facebook worth using?

Like a lot of people my age, my first Apple product was an iPod. That was the gateway to me eventually getting a MacBook, then an iPhone, then basically everything Apple. But what did you start with and do you still use it?

Few things have matched the ubiquity and longevity of email. It’s one of the primordial flavors of the “information superhighway,” and as a result, some people are still using the same email address that they set up in the 90s or early 2000s. So, dear reader, how old is your email address? And have you ever had to abandon an email address for reasons outside your control?

There are countless Linux distros on the scene today, from headless servers to fully-featured desktops. When you get into the Linux world, though, you’ve gotta start with one. The first I ever touched was one I installed myself: Linux Mint, the Xfce edition. Which distro was the first that you used?