Meanwhile https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/petition/content/0729%252F2024/html/Linux%2Bstatt%2BWindows just closed with 2474 Supporters

I also have a SteamDeck and it’s IMHO one of the best device to promote Linux. Just hand skeptic the device, let them play and ask them how the experience then if they can guess the OS.

never could get away from Windows entirely. Especially for gaming, and a few critical apps.

Been gaming exclusively on Linux now for few years, including in VR. Just few hours ago before my work day I was playing Elden Ring with controller. 0 tinkering, System key, “EL”[ENTER] then play. So… unless you need kernel level anti-cheat, Linux is pretty good for gaming nowadays.

Same of the few “critical” apps, I don’t know what these are but rare are the ones without equivalent and/or that don’t work with Wine, sometimes even better that on Windows.

Anyway : Debian. Plain and simple, not BS with a mix bag of installers (but you can still use AppImage or am or even nix whenever you want to). It just works and keep on working.

Another Debian suggestion here, including for gaming and even VR. It basically just works.

considered OpenWRT […] now I just need a commercially available solution.

FWIW you can buy OpenWRT based hardware, no tinkering, e.g. https://www.turris.com/en/products/omnia/

Looks like https://old.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/d3m0fz/how_to_open_links_in_mpv_with_klipper/ is a good starting point, i.e

• Open menu in system tray.
• Right click on Clipboard => Configure Clipboard.
• Go to Actions Configuration => Add Action.

then… to try! :D I’m just discovering this too but seems like the right way.

That said I’d be cautious and limit the use case to only what you have, e.g. Spotify links, at least at first because I imagine one can get into hairy edge cases quickly.

Keep us posted!

I can’t vouch for them but there are managed solutions for Immich, e.g. https://elest.io/open-source/immich

I wish I had know both how painless it was AND how happy (even proud) I’d be about it!

Honestly the 1 thing that matters is : having your data backed-up. Everything else is secondary. Sure, you will have some UX hiccups, the UI will be new, some tools won’t behave exactly like you are used to, so what? Live and learn the same way you did with Google products. We have been absolutely brainwashed (and I do mean “we”, I don’t mean “you”) to believe that whenever there is a big bright BigTech logo, it’s safe and easy. It’s not! We are just used to it and when we genuinely think back, we did learn where everything is. When things change we assume we’re at fault.

Anyway… if you are genuinely nervous, just try for a month and rollback or, IMHO better, switch to another provider. I’ve been a paying Proton customer for years (all services) and I like it but it’s not perfect either. If Proton goes to shit, I’ll switch.

it’s European which I aim to support

Indeed, to be clear it’s in Europe but not in a EU country “Proton services are operated by Proton AG, a Swiss corporation whose primary shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland.” but they are still GDPR (data protection law from the EU) compliant, cf https://proton.me/support/is-proton-mail-gdpr-compliant

Might want to look into Immich or PeerTube.

I’d add :

0. back up your data

To clarify, I’ve been using Linux for decades… and I still take notes! For example https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Shell or https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Ffmpeg so please, pretty please, do NOT keep it all in your head! There are myriads of way to record your learning so don’t be shy about it.

First and foremost, welcome to Linux!

Few pointers to hopefully help the process :

• “Not knowing where to find anything.” indeed, it’s disorienting but it will come. You can find actual “maps” but honestly, just as you would do in other operating system, use the search function. If it’s not obvious this way, search online. The first few times it will be weird then each time it does become easier until it actually makes sense!
• “The lingering feeling of instability.” have a /home directory (not “folder”, that’s funnily enough a Windows term as they tried to be different, going from the unanimously used / to their own C:\ things) so that you can actually go “nuts” with your installation, actually messing things up but without the fear of losing your precious data! Each new install is an occasion to learn. That being said, Linux is very VERY stable. I’ve been running the same installation for years, on desktop and servers alike. If something goes wrong it can usually be fixed and it’s, again, an occasion to learn. That being said, having a dedicated /home directory on its own partition or even disk gives you the opportunity for a low effort low risk blank slate.
• “The capslock works differently” … well this one is quick, you’re looking for the SHIFT key if you only want to type few characters in uppercase ;)
• “Every once in a while, my desktop icons get rearranged.” yet another occasion to learn. What’s the bug from? Is there an issue open? Is it being worked on? By whom? How? Why? You might even be able to fix it!
• “It seems impossible to get Firefox to not restore sessions after shutting down the computer with it still open.” it’s in the Firefox preference : Settings -> Startup -> untick “Open previous windows and tabs”, literally the first option.
• “The above all add to a bit of a general ‘stuck together with adhesive tape and love’ feeling.” nice, and that’s just the surface, it’s now YOUR system so you can do whatever you want, even if everybody else disagree.
• “Not knowing how to install programs.” well that loops back to all the learning opportunities above and the last remark, it’s YOUR system so you can use whatever you prefer, both in terms of apps, settings or even how to install (or not! Check e.g. Nix) apps. There are even “weirder” things like https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM but the point is, you decide, again, always!

scrot if you want to use the CLI, (KDE) Spectacle if you need a UI.

FWIW each new install is faster, especially if you write down the “weird” steps.

My gosh people… this… this might be the year of Linux on the desktop!

(not even being sarcastic here, the reach streamers have is huge. I bet a lot of their audience is thinking now “Wow… if he did it, maybe I could!”)

Well I (a developer) collaborated with an artist (3D modeler) recently and… I did not ask them to install anything.

Instead what I did is a develop a Web drag&drop page. They’d visit it, drag&drop their model and… see if it worked (e.g. visually or running animations) as they expected. That was it.

IMHO finding the boundaries that are important, and thus how to collaborate, is more important than a unique reproducible environment when roles are quite different.

TL;DR: IMHO no, you don’t, instead find how to actually collaborate.

set up by non-programmers (such as artists) […] requires users to learn i3wm and possibly use the command line

Very cool, thanks for the in depth explanation.

ROCm

I’m curious. Say you are getting a new computer, put Debian on, want to run e.g. DeepSeek via ollama via a container (e.g. Docker or podman) and also play, how easy or difficult is it?

I know that for NVIDIA you install the (closed official) drivers, setup the container insuring you get GPU passthrough, and thanks to CUDA from the driver, you’re pretty much good to go. Is it the same for AMD? Do you “just” need to install another package or is there more tinkering involved?

Yeah I don’t think you’re addressing what I wrote, you’re mixing up my suggestion (to clarify the important part is “or”) with DistroBox then more general comments. Might be that I wrote it unclearly but anyway it wasn’t what I was saying.