Oof. I hope you’re doing better now.

A heart attack. A sense of impending doom can be a sign of a heart attack. Health line article

That’s a great tip! It turns out I must have already tried some of that. I found multiple settings in about:config. Anything with a file picker works (open, save as), but the “open folder” from the Downloads dialog must just not use xdg-open, since none of the settings had an effect on that. It’s not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have my Dolphin bookmarks and places.

Edit: Adding this here in case someone in the future finds this searching for the problem. It looks like I’m bitten by the bug described in comment 55 (near the bottom) of this Firefox bug report. TL;DR: it works if I have Dolphin open already, but if not, it starts Nautilus. While this isn’t great, at least I have a workaround.

Thank you for replying, very informative. I think I have most of the actions/types I wanted associated with my preferred ones now. The most noticeable one is Firefox when I open downloads from the menu. I’m not sure if Firefox uses xdg or not? I don’t mind GTK or Gnome at all, in fact I probably have spent more time on Gnome, but I do like when things are consistent.

Looking forward to this. I do have a question for the more seasoned people here: I installed Fedora 41 not too long after its release on a new PC, which has been my daily driver every since. Very happy with it, tweaked everything to my liking. However, by mistake I installed Workstation (with Gnome) and then switched to my preferred KDE Plasma as the DE. This has left some corners of my system with the Gnome look and feel, which is fine, but I prefer if it were more consistent.

My question:

1. Can I/do you recommend that I upgrade Fedora in place? I prefer this if it means I don’t have to reinstall everything.
2. Or do you recommend I do a fresh install anyway for a clean upgrade and at the same time clean up my DE? What is the least disruptive way to do this?

No offense taken at all. I just agree it’s a sad state of affairs.

I don’t mean to be a doomer and I do try to give my kids more than a black and white picture. I’m not a parent who tells them to just suck it up. I support them every step of the way.

But I do try to keep their expectations realistic. I think it’s fair to let them know that what they see in glossy college ads isn’t typical.

Finding a job you actually like can be hard. Working 40 hours a week can be hard. But eventually you will manage it. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the rent.

Usually you have to play the cards you were dealt while you look for better opportunities. Few people can afford to be out of work for a long time. I consider myself very lucky to be able to sit here right now and discuss work/life balance on Lemmy, rather than trolling the Internet for jobs.

Yes, it is. But it’s the reality of being a working stiff in America today.

I have a kid who’s just starting full time work out of college. I’ll tell you what I told them: you’ll get used to it. You will eventually settle into the habit and it becomes routine.

However, there will be tough times where you need to work hard to motivate yourself to go to work. Those happen.

What works for me during those times is the same that works for me exercising (which I hate): one step, one mile, one day at a time. Tell yourself it’s just one more day to the weekend or to vacation. Have something to look forward to.

Burnout also happens. What works for me there, is to draw an absolutely strict line between work and life. You need to fight for your work/life balance. Maintain friendships outside the office.

When you’re not working, try to do something not related at all to work. If that’s working on improving your health, that’s even better. A healthy body and healthy mind has more energy. Do literally anything except working or thinking about work. If you can’t turn it off, practice setting boundaries until you can.

Finally, and this surprised me as I realized that all the stupid corny stuff we do in the office: luncheons, raffles, TGIF, “just another day in paradise”, and that, are coping mechanisms. Play along, but don’t get sucked into a negativity spiral. Humor can be a great stress reliever, but watch out for HR watchdogs.