I think the real reason people recommend mint is, while deep down they know users will have a better time on Ubuntu, they cannot stand the idea of recommending that company’s product directly.

I have no guilt when I say Ubuntu, and their managing company, have pulled enough shit over the years that it’s not a good first choice for a new user.

But in practice the similarities are only skin deep and to me if they’re already going to need to learn all the ways it differs from windows, why not put the same effort into learning something that also varies

The average user never leaves the web browser. The average gamer never leaves the web browser and steam. Skin deep is as far as most people ever go.

This not a condemnation, but it’s important to be aware of the differences between the average user, the average gamer, and the average Linux user. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/

I had that issue for a while too. It’s gone now, and I have no idea what change did it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Plus I hate the windows style DE UIs so it seems like a weird choice

The average user hates the changes involved in switching away from the windows distro. The thing you hate about it is an objectively good reason for recommending it to a new user.

I have tried it multiple times over the years and I did not have great luck with things “just working” as everyone claims.

I have used it for several years now (with multiple sets of hardware) with no issues. Every single Linux version is going to have something it can’t handle. Linux mint is stable and handles most stuff just fine. A bad experience is possible anywhere, so this isn’t really a good reason to not recommend it for new users.

Having choice is hard.

Linux mint cinnamon will be the easiest possible change to make. It’s the most bland, least interesting choice out of them, and I love it for that. You can always switch later if you don’t like it or want something more adventurous.

I am the middle of struggling to backup my calendars from nextcloud after my GPU failed. Nextcloud in docker containers is terrible for any sort of recovery. They’re not even broke, you just can’t run them with a GPU setup, remove the GPU, and then expect them to still be able to run.

The major content websites deprioritise Australian and UK content outside of their respective countries.

That’s rough. Signal is the only app that can actually be trusted to resist state monitoring because it has a successful history of it.

I guess another option to throw into the pool is https://docs.cwtch.im/ then. It’s new though, and not as easy to use.

And just FYI, use case is simply texting with friends and family, while avoiding state monitoring.

Signal. There’s nothing better for security, ease of use, and features. It’s a drop in replacement for texts and imessage and facetime.

They’ve got xep-0503 on the roadmap, so it’s not there yet, but is for sure something worth keeping an eye on.

Xmpp already survived Google divesting from it, so I’m more inclined to believe it has real staying power compared to all these new apps partially written by ai or with problematic security policies.

I imagine sitting on coach, searching for show. Then you want to watch some, and then you have to wait half an hour for full episode (or even season?) to download.

This is a fair take on how a locally hosted video server would go. It’s the same as someone who has a collection of disk media instead as well. Finding new media to watch is not instant, even with the best setups.

I actually consider this to be a feature, instead of a bug. The algorithms that Netflix (and YouTube and everybody else that serves content) have a lot of issues. The ability to find content, the act of discovery, is something I think is actually very valuable, and has been lost since we switched to online streaming.

I run a jellyfin server for my immediate family, and one of the benefits of not running an auto-download tool is that we all have a groupchat specifically for requesting new series/movies. I didn’t expect it at first, but it has been a great way to connect with my family over varied media we watch, as well as a way of sharing what’s new and interesting to them.

Of course, I switched from Spotify to a physical mp3 player with my own personal library, so maybe my perspective is a bit skewed. For sure there is a place for a lack of barriers (including skipping out on analytical thought) for consuming content. I just don’t think it should be the default.

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Yeah. I ended up getting a couple ms of latency back when i pulled the isp router too.

Mine has been running flawlessly for nearly two years now. ISPs are lazy and only change things when they’re forced to.

what protocol does the ISP use over fibre?

Any way to figure this out?

This is a good place to start. https://pon.wiki/

It very strongly depends on which ISP they have. There’s a few that make it easy. There’s a much larger number that can be hacked by a competent pc person (which I’ve done). There’s also a small amount who have worked to make it impossible / hard to do, and don’t have any public info on the process.

My ISP is att fiber, and all I had to do was change the vlan id on the outgoing side and match the ip settings to make it work. I used the guides from https://pon.wiki/ to do it, and the discord is also incredibly helpful.

Of note, this used to be impossible / very difficult so you’ll still find forum posts saying it can’t be done. However, a couple nerds have changed that over the past two years so make sure your info is up to date before deciding it can’t be done for your specific setup.

Valve’s better than Epic Games, but they still have every incentive to keep users in their ecosystem with DRM.

Very true.

Thats why Proton on the Steam Deck only works with Steam running in the background.

Lmao what? You have proof for this? It’s just as likely that it was easier to do it the way they did.

Their service was genuinely good for the short time I used it. You’ll note in my post that I would still recommend it to anyone who doesn’t plan on doing more than average browsing and light torrenting.

They just wanted an excuse to cut me off since I made more use of it than the average person likely does, and their ‘unlimited’ advertising means you can’t actually know what their real limits are.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been enjoying the heck out of AirVPN since then, with absolutely no issues.