I’ve been keeping an eye on Linux since the late 90s. It took me not having to use any non-Linux software or hardware on the computer in question. Currently I have two laptops running Linux, one has Windows in case I need it (which so far has turned out to be never), and I have a workstation that has Linux as a secondary OS but I’m always in Windows on that one because of software and hardware.

I’m testing OpenSUSE Kalpa on an old machine, and I guess it’s alright if you do standard normie things. I found there are tools I want that aren’t available. There are usually a way around that, but it takes some faffing around. But I tend to want to customize and control my system in a way that is ideologically almost antithetical to immutable distros, so, meh. But YMMV.

It sounded like you were testing the (one and only) backup in a live environment is all.

Then to confirm it would restore the system, I deleted everything on root path. as in /

I’m a noob, so forgive me if I’m being very ignorant here, but how on earth could that be a good idea? It sounds like “in order to see if I’ve installed these airbags correctly I shall now crash head first into this concrete bridge foundation at max speed”?

Most people in the US don’t vote because those parties don’t meet their needs.

Even if that’s true that doesn’t mean they all agree and would vote for the same candidate. In fact that seems very unlikely given how distributions usually look. And in a first past the post system people usually vote for the party that has the biggest chance of beating the party they dislike the most, not for the party they like the most, and over time that usually leaves the system with only two viable parties that a lot of people don’t like. But it doesn’t mean they all agree.

Wdym? Harris looks like she might win over Trump. And yes, the Democrats would prefer Trump over someone like Sanders who wants to change the country in a fundamental way to benefit the people instead of corporations and the rich - the two groups that both parties work for.

While I agree that someone like Sanders would be a better candidate, it would require him (as an example) to have the full support of the Democratic party. And he certainly does not have that, as seen previously when he was running as a Democrat and the Democrats fought him harder than they’ve ever fought a Republican.

Harris is the only realistic non-republican candidate on the table, and so far she’s doing way better than Biden did and would have done. Biden certainly would have lost this election, Harris has a decent chance of winning. A Democrat Sanders would have lost due to constant sabotage by the Democrats and the Democratic aligned media outlets. An independent Sanders would also have lost, and split the vote for a Republican win.

At least that’s my 2 cents.

?

As a Tumbleweed user I don’t understand how it’s so rare that distros come with these features implemented, configured and activated out of the box. Snapper has saved me a couple of times in a year, with hours of headache avoided. It’s the biggest reason I finally feel like Linux is a viable platform for me.

When I studied at the uni 5 years ago we only collaborated over Google Docs. I’d strongly recommend online collaboration over sending files back and forth. For most things I ran Linux, and booted into Windows when there was a particular need for it, which wasn’t often. But it all depends on what software you’re expected to run during your studies. If you have room on your drive maybe having a minimal Windows install along side Linux could be a good thing?

Also, I’d recommend a distro that comes out of the box with working BTRFS snapshots. The last thing you want is have the machine you rely on for school shit the bed due to a bad update or something you do, and you have to learn how to repair Linux in the middle of an assignment that’s due tomorrow. With snapshots you can just roll back to before it shat the bed.

people say that arch is like super hard, but honestly after actually learning it I disagree.

I mean, once you’ve learned something it shouldn’t be hard. Personally I stay away from Arch because it seems like way to much work. Tumbleweed ftw.

Just a note to OP since they mentioned Kubuntu: Aeon is the Gnome version of OpenSUSE MicroOS Desktop. The KDE version is called Kalpa. (Kalpa is however still in beta)

My first thought was Apocalypse for the Amiga. Did not expect to see the Amiga mentioned already!

It’s huge. I’ve been using ~10 distros sporadically over the past 25 years, and I never ever felt like I could depend on my systems running Linux. Because one simple mistake by either me or an update could render the computer unusable because I didn’t (and still don’t) know how to fix it. And that was always something that finally happened that made me revert to Windows full time. Tumbleweed is the first distro ever where I feel like I’m standing on solid ground instead of on a house of cards that I can’t put back together, because of the snapshots. It gives me confidence and I feel like I finally can use Linux while slowly learning it at my own pace. Absolutely love it.

Also, I see that I have a typo to fix in my previous comment lol.

Totally agree with that. I’m just wondering how many people read things like welcome screens etc where such info usually is presented.

They should have all necessary software installed and configured for people to easily get to things like those you mentioned. And have a clear help section in the OS, preferably with sections for different large topics and what not, that links to forum sections or similar. Steer them right before they even hit the web sort of.

I think immutable distros could be great for newbies, but I’m just thinking they’re still so new that if you go online to look for Linux advice or help, most things you’ll find are very much not for immutables and I doubt a true newbie understands what’s what.

That’s also a reason I’d recommend something like Debian (although I’ve actually never even used it myself) because there’s so much compatible info out there. I would recommend OpenSUSE, even Tumbleweed, but there’s just not as much help or there to find as there is for Debian. But even with that said, OpenSUSEs snapshots and the way they’re configured out of the box is an absolute godsend and game changer for newcomers.

Since the user can select to show unverified software I’m very much in favor of this. As long as it’s still very visible that a package is unverified after you changed the setting. With security being one of the main selling points of Flatpaks, there should be a clear distinction between verified and unverified packages, and the goal should be that all packages should be verified.

Alt+Tab to cycle through windows. Add Shift to cycle backwards. Meta+Tab to use an alternate switcher with a different layout (that I basically never use).

Ctrl+Alt left/right arrow switches virtual desktop. Add Shift to drag the active window with it to the next desktop.

Ctrl+Alt up arrow switches to the last Activity (KDE).

Ctrl+(Shift+)Tab to switch tabs in all apps that can support it, and I have those key combos mapped to macro keys on my keyboard. Also mapped to macros are other tab-switching-related combos for Firefox such as go to first tab, go to last tab, go to left tab and go to right tab. Also Ctrl+W to close tabs, and whatever combo it is to undo closing of tab. Did anyone say tab? Tab!

Edit: I prefer Ctrl+T for new tab (also macro mapped btw, plus one that also pastes the clipboard content into the adress bar and presses Enter) and Ctrl+N for new document. I don’t want to mix up tabs and documents in my head to cause confusion down the line.