I think their point was that MacOS -> GNOME was a another transition than a diffetent desktop environment would have been, which led to them naturally discovering more keyboard-oriented workflows. Not that GNOME is any more keyboard oriented than other DEs.

As already mentioned, Ubuntu/PopOS/Kubuntu/Mint are maybe the four most identical distros in the entire ecosystem. But your point really does hold true even with less-identical distros.

Currently, I have an Ubuntu Server, an Arch PC, and an old laptop “test machine” running Fedora. These are totally different limbs of the Linux family tree, but things pretty much work the same in all of them. The main difference is the package manager: Apt vs Pacman vs DNF. But like, they’re all doing basically the same thing under the hood: checking your installed software against some repository to see if anything needs an update. The actual workflow is pretty much the same with any of them.

After that it’s pretty much just a question of downloading the desktop environment and software you like. Or finding a distro that comes pre-installed with what you want. To make a gaming analogy: linux distros are like Dark Souls classes: starting stats and equipment, but the starting point doesn’t lock you into your you build in the future.

NixOS is a different beast for sure.

Two outlooks, neither work?

Glad everything is normal aboard Orion!

Mint is a good choice for your first linux.

“Arch isn’t a difficult distro! All you need to do is run pacman -Syu now and then! Even my grandma could handle it!”

(Which is true until something goes wrong and now you’re way more on the hook to un-fuck the system than just about anything that could ever go wrong on a Debian or Fedora based distro)

But it can be “software I forgot I installed and consumes resources despite me not really using it”

• Neckbeard
• Transfem

sudo pacman -Syu

[No patch notes were read, zero idea what that update will do]

Synology, with QNAP as a close #2. There are other decent options, but they aren’t quite as polished so they may require more “actual computer knowledge” to troubleshoot from time to time.

I don’t think this is a rating, but a diagram showing how tall the socks of the users of each distro are

The easiest offsite backup would be any cloud platform. Downside is that you aren’t gonna own your own data like if you deployed your own system.

Next option is an external SSD that you leave at your work desk and take home once a week or so to update.

The most robust solution would be to find a friend or relative willing to let you set up a server in their house. Might need to cover part of their electric bill if your machine is hungry.

It’s fine. For legal reasons (particularly in the EU and California) they had to add a Terms of Use fit the browser, and the had to translate a bunch of broad, idealist, simple phrases into legalese so they wouldn’t get killed by those governments.

I don’t think “mods per user” is that important of a metric. “Mods per daily/weekly/monthly post/comment” is a more useful gauge of a community’s activity.

Joke’s on me, I still have to use windows at work!

Even then, there’s a warning that the upgrade process can take several hours. Even if it’s largely hands off, that’s not exactly my image of an easy upgrade.

Specifically upgrading major versions. See the official documentation for upgrading Debian 11 to 12. It’s far more involved than minor version upgrades.

https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.html

Here’s the official documentation for upgrading from Debian 11 to 12. The TL;DR is that it takes 8 chapters to describe the process.

https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.html

The problem is when it comes time for a major version upgrade. Debian 12.10.0 to 12.11.0 probably won’t be a big deal. But upgrading from Debian 11 to 12 was a pain. Debian 12 to 13 will probably be a pain as well.

The thing with Debian is that yes, it’s the most stable distro family, but stable != “just works”, especially when talking about a PC and not a server (as a PC is more likely to need additional hardware drivers). Furthermore, when the time comes that you DO want to upgrade Debian to a newer version, it’s one of the more painful distros to do so.

I think fedora is a good compromise there. It’s unstable compared to RHEL, but it’s generally well-vetted and won’t cause a serious headache once every few years like Debian.

Depends on the exact Nvidia card you’re using. The newer parts all have good drivers, but as you get older things get more fiddly.

But most of the improvement is in Steam’s compatibility mode. Proton allows you to run so many games with one click that use to be a whole project to configure.