hello!
I'm a 22 yo female about to start grad school. My major has absolutely nothingg to do with programming but I'm super passionate about it. I'm learning python on my own which seems like a mega challenge considering my close to zero experience with programming :P I'm also a big fan of linux, am 100% pro open sourcing code and am very keen on cybersecurity & privacy. I came across this community through reddit (someone linked it) so here I am. What elseee i love gaming (tho i rarely do so nowadays ever since my bro gave up his console & i use linux which doesnt support most games), cats, reading and I one day hope to build my own pc. cheers everyone!
Welcome to the forums jagannath :)
Hello and welcome!
What have you majored may I ask?
AVOlio wroteWelcome to the forums jagannath :)
at first i didn't get what you meant but that user isn't me. I just happened to see the post on reddit & its replies and came here.
Welcome to the forum, if I were you I'd watch LinusTechTips' new video with Level1techs. You might be gaming again soon :)
Smackcat wrotehello!
I'm a 22 yo female about to start grad school. My major has absolutely nothingg to do with programming but I'm super passionate about it.
Why not? There are persons who study programming for various reasons and aren't that passionate about it.
So that's a good thing, I'm guessing passionate people like you are needed.

I like using Linux but it has many shortcomings, for one thing I wish the user-space environment was more secure like Android. Many parts of it are outdated or lacking but they're not being updated as much as I'd like to see.

I like the Gnome desktop environment, I prefer the UI to Windows or even OSX - but I have to ignore the bad performance and the parts that don't work well like for example the software center.

By the way, welcome.
Welcome to the forum.
I'm learning python on my own which seems like a mega challenge
Great challenge, good luck! Python is great. If you have questions, please ask ahead in the forum.
i use linux which doesnt support most games
This is still true, unfortunately, but the situation has improved drastically in the past 5-10 years. Steam has been ported to Linux and with that a serious chunk of games have been ported too. Some of the most successful titles are now available like:
  • Dota 2
  • Civilization V
  • Counter Strike GO
  • Minecraft
  • Borderlands 2
  • Rocket League
  • Team Fortress 2
  • Ark: Survival Evolved
You can also find some amazing indie games like Stardew Valley (definitely worth checking out if you're into farm simulator games!) or Garry's Mod.

Finally, you can find some very solid emulators of older consoles available for Linux. I've been using Desmume to play Pokemon (Black, a relatively recent game) for the past 2 weeks. It's not actively developed anymore, but some maintenance and support is still provided via their forum and light patches. You can always find emulators of your favorite consoles to play the games that were popular 5 years ago.