There’s a lot of correlation and speculation going on along with deflecting potential liability.

It would seem if you have one of these drives, make sure the firmware is current, and you should be fine. (Prerelease firmware and heavy load seem to be the “triggers”)

If you don’t plan for hard drive failure, you’ll learn that lesson eventually…

EndeavorOS provides a GUI installer with what’s considered “sensible” add-ons included.
It’s where I am now. I started with Mint, played with Debian some, now “Arch”-ish.

It’s been good to me.

Glad you found one that worked for you.

As far as I’m aware, Logseq also just uses .md files. I back those up regularly and I do use the cloud sync. The cloud sync lets me alternate use between my computer and my tablet for work. I could use just one device, but this was a significant advantage for me.

I also keep a separate log for personal work which I can add to via special shortcuts from my phone.

Logseq for notes and task tracking. It’s an open source alternative to obsidian. Life saver for tracking stuff at work.

https://logseq.com/

I don’t think I can agree with all that on a burger, though bacon, cheese, and pineapple on a burger could definitely work.

Thanks for sharing the reasons for your approach.

There’s so many ways to accomplish this, such as ad guard or portmaster then add on the drivers for our choices. Finding the balance between privacy and easy of use is tough as it is. Then add in the rest of the family that’s more interested in things “just working”.

I played with a pi-hole setup for a bit. It was nice. I got distracted and set up NextDNS. That’s where I am now.

I like I can easily turn it on/off when I just need to do something and no time to fuss with it.

I’ve got a home server, just not fully setup and going yet, but someday…

Any thoughts on why I might do pi-hole over something like NextDNS? I think the cost is roughly $1/mo.

Why the pain of Arch? You probably fell in love with the rolling release, wiki, and the AUR.

If their computer can handle running a windows vm on virtualbox, I’d recommend that over dual boot. Windows update will almost certainly cause issues on boot…eventually.

Jump into Linux with both feet. Use the vm as a crutch or a bridge to windows only software.

Follow the advice below… backup everything. If you have a 2nd hd, this makes it easier to keep files and is separated.

If you’re prepared to reinstall, it’s easy to nuke it and try again. It’s part of learning and sometimes easier to troubleshoot.

Bard on my experience, Mint is probably the best gateway distro into Linux from windows. Debian and Ubuntu forums are relevant and useful. My wife and I are both IT professionals, and mint was just “natural”. She couldn’t care less what os, de, or wm is in use as long as it gets it done. She’s got mint on one laptop and Debian with gnome on another.

Once they decide they want something different they can find what meets those needs nice they have their bearings and a “need”.

Ubuntu never really hit home for me for some reason.

I wanted to move off mint, because I wanted the gnome DE. Yes, I did successfully slam gnome on top of mint, more as a can I do it vs should I do it exercise. Then I wanted something further upstream and went to Debian.

Then, I started tinkering with Endeavouros. This has allowed me to learn more about how things really work and WHY they work the way they do. Documentation on arch to me is second to none. Until I had daily driver Linux experience and spent some time tinkering, this was just overwhelming.

I’m using voyager, and I get prompted to sign in or sign up. I’ll have to try on pc later.

I have to login to Mastadon to see the kitty?

It might be that I’m looking at this from a US perspective. Craig’s list has been a bit rough when I’ve tried it. Scammy and shadier people. I hope you’ve had better experiences here than me.

I found cash converters out of the UK. Is that correct? It seemed comparable to a pawn shop at first glance.

Ok, I feel old. The only reason facebook has any relevance to me is the market place. What’s the best alternative?

Thanks, I’ll dig into that one sometime!

In my experience, not much, but I’m a marginally functional newbie. Mint manages things for you fairly nicely and has been the best, it just works with out messing with much/anything. (At least for my hardware)

I managed to get gnome working smoothly on mint and have been happy with it. I started and returned here since I last ditched windows as a native OS.

The only thing that has made me consider distro hopping from mint is AUR on arch and gnome, though I’ve been successful so far.

Part of trying the distros that are more advanced and give you more explicit control and configuration is the sense of accomplishment and it makes you figure out how and why things work the way they do. It holistically builds your velocity in your understanding of Linux. (Or gnu whatever that nuance is).

If your machine has enough resources it is super easy to host VMs of anything you want to try. You can try them all, and it won’t cost you anything but time!

Kagi has been the closest thing to the google from 2003 that I’ve encountered in a long time. I’ve not tried their assistant that’s only available on the ultimate plan as it’s too expensive for me. FWIW, I have the duo plan, soon to move to the family plan.

The quick answer usually works pretty well and you have access to fastgpt if you want more of the LLM effect.

You nailed it. It’s a part of the solution and shouldn’t be a weapon. Trust, guide….verify. You’re raising a “being” hopefully with the intention of being a self sufficient adult, not an over grown child. We have to help prepare them for this world.

I log DNS on all devices. This helps me see if stupid stuff is happening, or if somehow the refrigerator managed to obtain an internet connection.

Print your business cards on them.