only ad I see is the occasional sentence on my lock screen, “You should try $whatever!”

Why put up with any ads? No other desktop OS does this…

updates don’t matter. Security doesn’t matter. You can just tell your computer to never update anything, and it’ll be the same for a decade. You can live in your little bubble.

You are free to do what you want, but do not give out advice like this to others. Security issues pop up constantly and not updating leaves you vulnerable to them.

For the room: If you want to stay on your unpatched machine, don’t plug it into the internet. Otherwise, use an OS that is currently receiving security updates.

Literally no one is throwing away a working machine just because some deadline passes.

You need to speak to every IT department worth a pinch of salt then; as no longer receiving security updates is a critical problem. That critical problem is solved by most IT departments by disposing of perfectly good computers, paying to have their SSDs shredded, and buying new computers.

Is that a good idea?

I did it on one of my computers as I wanted a feature that was in 6.14. It didn’t cause any issues, nor should it. I believe the disto maintainer is simply being cautious and not having people auto-upgrade kernels as part of minor version upgrades.

You can upgrade the Mint kernel to 6.14 via Software Manager > View > Linux Kernels. No full reinstall required.

Though, OP, unless there is a specific reason to change it or you just like doing so, I would leave it alone: don’t fix things that aren’t broken.

Da es verschiedene Arten/Sorten von Linux gibt und ich auch hier auf Mastodon immer wieder was von #Linuxmint gelesen habe, wäre Linuxmint eine gute Wahl und warum bzw. warum nicht?

Linux Mint is what I recommend people use as well. The desktop UI (Cinnamon) feels familiar coming from Windows, and the OS is designed to ‘just work’ for the general user.

Wie sieht es mit der Kompatibilität von Dokumenten aus, die sich auf Sticks und Festplatten befinden (Stichworte: Formatierung, Windows)

If you mean the documents themselves, Mint’s built in programs will open any reasonable file you throw at it: documents, images, etc. You might need to install a program if you want to open something exotic, but I have had no issues.

If you mean what the flash drive filesystem needs to be formatted as, exFAT, FAT32, or NTFS will all work on both Mint and Windows. I prefer exFAT as it has the least limitations and works everywhere natively.

Wenn ich zunächst Linux nur auf einem Stick installieren will, wie groß sollte dieser sein und was sollte ich beachten, wenn ich zusätzliche Programme (Office-Paket) installieren will?

Running Linux off a flash drive, ie as a live environment, works well with a 16GB or 32GB+ flash drive. Do note it will be slower than running it off an SSD, but it is great for getting a feel for the OS and seeing if it works for you. You can install and do anything you could as if you had installed the OS to your SSD. Just note, by default this will be a live environment, it only exists as long as the computer is running; no changes to the live environment persist through a reboot. However, that is just the default configuration, you can make the USB environment persistent if you wish.

You pointed out an office suite specifically: Mint actually has an office suite (LibreOffice) and basically every normal program already installed for you.

Good luck man, and I think Mint is a great place to start!

GOG is DRM free though!

If it’s on the distros, don’t fret it too much. They all do everything, it’s just an initial configuration.

I have been recommending Mint specifically, as it targets the average user with a ‘it just works’ mentality.

Any specific things you are getting stuck on?

There are no anti social engineering security measurements in Linux, for instance. Just sodo and break anything and everything.

Windows gives you a UAC prompt or needs one to run a cmd prompt as admin, both of which are functionally the same as sudo…

Windows is being bombarded by malware every second of every day. Linux, with its 6% of desktop user market share - not so much.

But, to circle back to the core statement. Yes it is. And Linux holds steadfast.

Windows is being bombarded by malware every second of every day. Linux, with its 6% of desktop user market share - not so much.

Linux dominates the server space. Basically any company with access to lots of capital or trade secrets is running Linux servers. It is a massive, massive opportunity for hackers to hit jackpots. Linux gets bombarded by attackers constantly and holds steadfast. I’m not sure where you get this idea that this isn’t the case…

Edit: Just to really drive this point home, 65% of Microsoft Azure servers are Linux. Let that sink in, the majority of even Microsoft’s cloud servers are Linux. That is the one company you would think would be pushing Windows, yet here they are talking about their high quality Linux offerings!

“With over 65% of Azure workloads running Linux, our commitment to delivering high-quality Linux VM images and platforms remains unwavering.” - Microsoft

Linux adoption is kneecapped by its own users, who forget what normal people really care about.

Yep. My primary goal has always been: ‘It just works’. I’m fairly techy, but I don’t want to fix shit constantly.

What finally got me to switch was Windows no longer ‘just working’. Every update was another assault that required active effort on my part. PiHole, debloating, O&O Shutup, etc, etc. This coupled with Steam bringing Linux gaming into the prime-time, means the OS that most resembles ‘is just works’ is no longer Windows.

For most users, Linux just works. That is the angle that should be pushed. Particularly right now there is a massive opportunity to swap your family members over. No reason for Gran to throw away her facebook machine just because it doesn’t like Windows 11. Throw Mint on there, point her to the Firefox icon, and she is good to go!

Yeah, hating on the kid simply because his dad has money forces him into an us-vs-them situation. It does nothing to help.

Not to mention, it is exceedingly gross to cheer the death of someone just because their dad has money.

So what emergency are you thinking of?

You aren’t on a road and the car is confused about how to move around. You are now stranded because you can’t drive the car. I have yet to see any self-driving car even attempt to be reasonable in off-road driving.

Your buddy’s cabin in the woods, grass parking at a venue, natural disaster and the road is gone, a country driveway, getting into your backyard with the shit your bought at home depot, etc, etc.

The moment self driving cars are safe enough we are going to ban human drivers entirely

Naw. Too many people like driving, too many emergency situations that require a human. The most that will reasonably happen is people will prefer self-driving and driving test requirements will increase somewhat.

We very rarely ban old things, we mostly just convince people to use new things.

“that breaks speed limits” can be ok.

I have seen a number of US interstates posted at 55mph, when traffic moves at 70-80mph. Being stuck at 55mph on those interstates is dangerous.

get the last piece of my hardware dependence off…my 20 year old DAC

The $9 Apple DAC is unironically good. I can confirm it is plug-and-play with Mint.

Edit: To be clear, it is good if you just need an audio output (the core feature of a DAC). If you want crazy DAC features, it clearly isn’t it.

For a desktop OS, I have been recommending Linux Mint to new Linux users. The UI feels familiar to a Windows veteran, and the initial setup is designed to be user friendly.

However, don’t fret too much over it. Distros are mostly just a pre-configuration of the OS, all of them can do everything.

The issue isn’t it not working, the issue is security updates no longer being made. Feel free to keep using 10, just don’t put it on the network.