What brand names do you insist on buying?

A pretty silly one but...
AMD because they are better supported in Linux in my experience. I dropped Intel and Nvidia a while back now.
Similarly, I have had better experiences with MSI for both motherboards and GPUs more recently than any other brand. ASUS was a long go-to for me but has failed me a lot more in the modern era.
- Amds are beasts too. It's unfortunate they aren't competing with top tier because they freaking brought it with the 6900xtx. Beats my Nvidia hand over fist.
  Only place I recommend Nvidia right now is if you're doing AI workloads with CUDA - and even then amd is catching up
- I had to go for Nvidia last time as I needed a smaller form factor GPU which AMD didn't seem to have at the time, but hopefully will be able to get back to AMD.
  Agree that ASUS appears to have gone a little downhill.
- Only bad thing about amd gpus is the video transcoders are the weakest from the options. My jellyfin server, I installed an Arc a380 for $99. Cant beat it for the transcoding performance at that price.

Sensodyne. Too many fizzy drinks as a teenager, unfortunately.
- That does nothing to me. I can't even let cold tap water touch my teeth - let alone chilled beverages.
- Same, also because it doesn’t have Sodium Laurel Sulfate, which gives me HORRID mouth ulcers!

Honda, Toyota, Mazda, (and maybe Mitsubishi) in that order.
I refuse to buy any other brand of vehicle if I can avoid it.
This a result of growing up in shops, working on every brand available in the US, and a large family having owned or driven pretty much everything out there.
American and European cars are just garbage in comparison. Even Mitsubishi is better (and they were really diminished by the Chrysler merger).
Along with the car theme, Nokian tires if you live in a climate with real winter.
Milwaukee cordless tools, but only because I like their vast variety of tools that use the same battery. I've had other brands that have been fine (and I'm not nice to the tools): Dewalt (still have some 20-year old tools with Milwaukee adapters), the store brands from Home Depot and Lowes, etc.
Work clothes: Carhartt is really hard to beat, but Dickies are damn good too.
- Idk about Toyota now, I just got a new Toyota (a pretty expensive one 2x my last new car 10 yrs ago) and they are making some bad choices. Their infotainment system is terrible, their app is terrible and costs a monthly fee, Android auto drops all the time, and I've blown 2 fuses already doing pretty normal stuff.
- I loved my Honda, I loved my Toyota, and I currently LOOOOVE my Mitzu. Honda died of natural causes at 230k miles. Toyota was hit so hard his wheel fell off when my partner and I were drunk as hell… in our bedroom, playing games. He was parked outside on the street. I no longer do street parking.
  Mitzu I’ve had for oh gawd, six years now. She’s killin it. Nicest car I’ve ever had, and she’s from 2015 so no spyware. Maybe 70k miles now. I hope I keep her forever.

!buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
!buyitforlife@sh.itjust.works

Sadly I learned the Yorkshire tea bags release microplastics along side all other major tea brands. (Yorkshire tea was super solid and my go to till that point)
Switched to loose leaf and haven’t looked back.
- loose leaf ftw ;)
  I have one box of tea bags, in case someone really insist on using that but we buy our tea in bulk from Dammann Frères, a well-known and rather old brand here in Paris. It's kinda expensive, but so effing worth it. Just thinking about it makes me want to prepare a cup of tea for my spouse and I ;)
- Honestly, even cheap loose leaf tea is better than whatever brand bagged tea. It's the preparation that makes a huge difference.

Unpopular take on Lemmy: Apple phones.
I had the first Android phone (HTC Dream) and it was magical. I used Android until my partner got an iPhone. I played around with it and fell in love. Bought an iPhone 5 as my first one and had it for 4.5 years. It had some issues (defective battery, power button broke) which were fixed for free from Apple. My last phone was an iPhone XS Max, which I had for over six years. No issues, original battery. Still fast as hell when I upgraded to a 16 pro max. I only upgraded cuz I wanted 120hz, more space, and better low light pics of my cats (which holy shit, the camera)
I don’t use iTunes for anything but backups… I love that it has a one-click encrypted incremental backup. Plug my new phone in, it’s exactly like my old phone.
I just don’t wanna fuck around with my phone to install a custom ROM. I want it to work with zero effort (and I don’t use any Google services.) I have four Windows machines and three Linux boxes I use every day, if I wanna fuck around, I play with those. I want my phone to be super easy and fast and last forever.
- I gotta say, as a long time android user, when I had to start relying on my phone for work, I was forced to switch to Apple and it’s just a better build. The hardware quality is much better and you can feel it.

It's Tetley Tea or nothing.
- If you bring it to my house, I'll throw you out haha
  
  Ha! If you're going to serve up Yorkshire Tea, I ain't coming.

Yamamotoyama oolong tea is tasty, ubiquitous and cheap.

Wera for screwdrivers and wrenches. Best tools I ever had.

My tea brand of choice is Stash... mostly because they're semi-local but they also make great tea.
Most of our dairy comes from Tillamook.
- That's Tillamook you fucking philistine. 😜
  Their aged white cheddar is to die for.
  
  Thank you. Fixed

Knipex makes the best pliers and Savotta is among the best camping/military gear manufacturers. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else I'd be buying based on the brand.
- Came here to say Savotta. Made in the EU, with top notch materials. Also agree about Knipex (I only have a wire cutter which I use for my guitar strings, but damn is it nice).

I rarely drink lemonade, but when I do it's tonissteiner.

Cholula hot sauce. Always.
- I'm torn between that one and Tapatío.
  
  Tapatio is good, but Cholula has more flavor.
- first thkng i thought of lol, im lucky where i live there are lots of local chilli sauces, but damn if cholula isnt kinda just perfect on everything

North face. It's probably advertising but after rotating between a dozen coats over the past 15 years, North face was the only one that looks stylish, is extremely durable, and kept me, my neck, and my mouth warm.

https://www.zojirushi.com/ appliances, they are nicely built and have never broken yet. I still have my first rice cooker
- They are the best and they are worth it. Practically a BIFL item in every case.

Allegra. Generic fexofenadine gives me heartburn.
- Oh, that's interesting. I wonder why?
  
  Cheap inert ingredients maybe?
  Heartburn is a listed side effect of fexofenadine, but for me, it only happens when I take a generic version.

Crocs. Actual Crocs ^TM are like walking on a cloud of happiness; knock-offs are like walking with shoes made of dried-up old chewing gum.

These things fall into two categories—stuff that you buy because the quality is unquestionably higher than alternatives, and stuff that may or may not be a little bit better than alternatives but that you have strong, minimally-rational feelings about.
I find the second category more fun to talk about, so I offer up the fact that this is a C&H [sugar, US based] house. Once my wife brought home some other sugar, and I complained until the bag was gone.

Merrell shoes, nothing else feels half as comfy to me.
- But their boots barely last a single winter.

Oofos, their slides in particular, if you want the plushiest slippers ever.
Knorr Liquid Seasoning. You can dab that thing on any savory dish to level it up.

Scott Ultra Strong is the only type of toilet paper that everyone in my house finds acceptable. The other ones either are too rough, leave little bits of paper behind, or your fingers go through them during use.

King Arthur flour. Almost all the store brands are good here. But flour is very finicky in some applications so having a brand that is exactly the same all the time is important.

My shirts only come from Hyena Agenda and Nomad Complex.

Right now I am on a Duckworth wool clothing binge

Audio-Technica headphones. My first pair was the ATH-M50, and despite being an Apple fanatic I still think AirPods (and Beats before) sound like trash.
- Damn, see I loved A-T but then I got their earbuds and was supremely disappointed.
  
  I’ve never liked earbuds but I’ve thought about picking some up recently due to my recent obsession with podcasts (wearing huge over ear headphones just for podcasts feels silly).
  Do you have any recommendations? Initially I wanted AirPods (for the convenience) but the audio quality is just awful. I was actually looking at some Audio-Technica ones recently.

Hellmann's/Best Foods for mayonnaise.
- I used to be on that level but when I went vegan I switched to Veganaise. It turns out that it’s leaps and bounds better than Hellman’s.