Linux Mint is very usable these days. I switched a few months ago because I couldn't stand how bloated Windows 11 was. I haven't regretted it: it's actually refreshing how Mint just does want an OS should do and doesn't try to shove extra features down my throat.
I love what Valve has done to make gaming a better experience, but I can't see everyone just dropping everything to install Linux on their computers.<p>They bought a Windows laptop, for Windows things... People would rather go to Best Buy and get a new laptop than try something different.
We are 100% truly in the time of "desktop linux". It has never been better. Unless you have a video game that 100% must run on Windows, or a specific application, there is really no reason to be there. If you want a desktop environment that looks and feels like Windows, I would suggest KDE. Out of the box it is pretty close, but it is one of the most customizable DE's out there and can truly be made to look and feel just like Windows.
I've installed debian along with browsers and base programs for a couple non-techy relatives and they said they like it better than windows 10/11.
What's the actual attack surface for an outdated home PC? My understanding is the threat to win PCs is 50% you clicked the wrong link (outdated browser problem, not OS) and 50% lateral move (probably not meaningful in a home environment?). Like if I plugged my Windows 7 laptop, last updated 2018 into my network, what would happen?<p>What I'm getting at is "instead of throwing out your old PC you can install Linux" is just a long winded way of saying "throw out your old PC" for many people. I think "here's how to keep running an old PC safely" would be more useful advice.
I'm with several opinions around. I keep a windows box with office just because of the intrincated format of a long frequently updated bunch of related docs (about 15 years now, time flies...). Used windows 8 until the hdd "expired" recently, now 10 in an inexpensive little cube. For all the rest, mint and cinamom are a perfect fit. Simple as that. I had enough of complex machinery in my (professionally active) time...
My laptop has been running Pop OS for the past 5 years and its been a delight to use for dev stuff and random gaming, really wish i could move my desktop to Linux too but i mostly use that for gaming and don’t really want to reboot my PC and switch OS when i need to play a game with anticheat.
> However, the costs are high and double with each year of use.<p>Brandon, how high are they? For consumers: $30 per year. For education: $1 per year. Then $2 per year. The third year is $4.
Posting YT links here feels a bit lame, but this amazingly-produced animation by James Lee actually got my hopes up that people are finally starting to break up with proprietary programs and operating systems: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=lm51xZHZI6g" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=lm51xZHZI6g</a>
I had a brief (one week) love affair with Wubuntu because it tried as much as possible to have everything with the same name in the same menu in the same location etc. etc. as Windows 11. People spend years building up their muscle memory and hate having to throw it away...then I found out it was basically a malware distro. Pity. I'm always looking for the perfect distro I would reccommend to Grandma.<p>I'm still a distro hopper. Pop_OS! and Cinnamon Mint until something better comes along.<p>Rank Distribution HPD<p>1 Mint 2509><p>2 MX Linux 2187<<p>3 EndeavourOS 1603<<p>4 Debian 1268><p>5 CachyOS 1177><p>6 Manjaro 1141=<p>7 Pop!_OS 1107><p>8 Ubuntu 1072=<p>9 Fedora 957><p>10 openSUSE 705