@BeastOfCaerbannog This issue is that the newer question should have been flagged as a duplicate 8 years and 5 months ago before it attracted some quite reasonable answers :(
Now I have both questions and answers in front of me I suspect the older question 'How do I know if a laptop will work with Ubuntu?' would be the one to keep and the newer question 'Is there a database of Linux compatible hardware?' merged into it.
@andrew.46 Hmmm. Merging seems like a sensible action. We should keep in mind though that if the questions are merged, some of the answers would need some editing to fit the question they are merged to. If, on the other hand, one is marked as duplicate of the other, we don't have to do anything. Let me know what you decide. I would be happy to edit the answers if you go for merging! :)
On another issue: is it possible for this SO question to somehow be migrated here? It fits perfectly here, but it can be considered/is off-topic for SO.
OT no-repro: It looks like the WD external HD went finally damaged since it cannot be used by any OS, I mean the device is detected as USB device and even Linux logs what kind of device it is, manufacturer, name and model of the product BUT it isn't able to use it; similar happens on Windows.
@BeastOfCaerbannog I'm pretty sure that I can close it at Stack Overflow and ask a moderator to migrate it to Ask Ubuntu, but I'm not sure that my suggestion to migrate it to Ask Ubuntu will be accepted.
However I do know that SO migrates questions to any site, wherever the question fits.
@karel A friendly Mod went to move the question and answer but I had not noticed that question is way over the normal 60 day limit. Can only be migrated by a CM
@BeastOfCaerbannog I looked a little close at such questions on AU and unfortunately it is a rabbit warren of such questions and answers and even an attempt by somebody to create a 'canonical' answer to cover all such questions. All the gruesome details here: meta.askubuntu.com/q/17528/57576
So for the moment I am backing away from merging these questions, the merging and duplicating would start to become pretty epic unfortunately
@BeastOfCaerbannog Nothing wrong with making your own judgements about the 2 questions (marking as Dupes ettc) and then seeing how the community reacts?
@andrew.46 Yes, there would nothing wrong about that, but I asked here for two reasons: 1. I wanted another opinion about the questions being indeed duplicates. 2. Most of my closing votes get invalidated due to inactivity. You see, there aren't many people in the review queues and the Close votes one has far too many questions, even with a lot of them getting invalidated daily.
Here as well, not as in Australia, but 38-40 C are common during summer. It's the temperature difference to last week (it was about 10 C less) that makes it feel hot.
Also we don't have fans or A/C in the lab, so once the building gets heated up we feel like getting roasted (not yet thankfully).
@andrew.46 Yeah, for about 2 years now. For a while I was trying to maintain the Suggested edits queue, since I could move items out of it by editing them (a thing I usually do). However this wouldn't work to a queue like CV or LQP, were multiple votes are required to move items out of them. A mod though could single-handedly do it (just saying ;) ).
Lately I don't have the time to maintain even Suggested edits, so this also doesn't look good.
I was thinking in the past (can't find the exact conversation right now) about a collective mass-closing spree, but I don't know if that would work as I don't see many people in this room lately.
How is it possible to remove the icon of the AutoKey software on Ubuntu 20.04 from the top panel permanently?
I have used the Icon Hider extension, but in the next restart, it shows up again.