flatbield

Just saying, not my experience. I have used linux for over 25 years and nontechnical users in my family have also for almost 20 years. Buy in large it has worked just fine.

The big issue is Linux is not to OS that is supplied when people go to the store and buy something (well except for Android and Chromebooks which are Linux and are popular). It is also not the system or have the apps their friends use. It also does not have the huge supply, support, and word of mouth ecosystem. Buying hardware especially addons is confusing. Getting support is hard unless you have friends that use. Buying Linux preinstalled often costs more. Change too is hard and there has to be some driver and for most people there is not.

Using LVM is advanced. No nontechnical user should consider.

Doing dual install is advanced. No nontechnical user should consider it.

This is the big issue. It breaks a lot of X11 features. Remote desktop via VNC or RDP should still be possible. Another is ssh and sftp. Edit the file on the client. Another go all in with command line. Nano is easy. Emacs or VIM more powerful but harder. Screen is a useful command line tool too.

Interested in what others suggest.

MS supplied LO translator in MS Office is not very good. That is their issue. MS is not even that compatible betwen versions of their own software.

Ribbon bar shit, personally I hate the MS ribbon bar. So for me the LO interface is way better. Just depends on what you like and what you learned and know well.

Except for MS format compatiblity, not my experience, Not sure where MS format compatibility stands now, but that has histically been the biggest issue.

Keep on mind that MS supplied LibreOffice translator is not great either so they have issues too. MS really does not plan on being compatible even between versions of their own software.

The need to do it plus the realization that you can script anything based on it.

Drivers. Using recovery mode. Administration. Wanting to describe what to do rather then manually do it. Wild cards are really powerful and so is find and xargs. The text processing commands are useful too.

The other thing is having started computing in the 1970s. Everything was command line back then. GUI systems only become universal in about 1995.

I kind of wonder who is behind the over exaggeration. People with real concerns or those that do not want strong open platforms. Too much controversy and bifriction and those that push it for their own ends are the enemy.

Same. There is an Android version now too.

You have to want to use FOSS software. If you want to use certain proprietary applications then buy the commercial platform they run on.

The other is interest and ability to solve your own tech problems.

Keep in mind there are a lot of ways to start. Install it in a VM, buy hardware with Linux installed, or install it yourself.

I use it for when I want a custom system. Big ripo, and clean minimal installs along with security updates. I run it my workstation and on my vps systems.

I use primarily debs but if your using Ubuntu it will include Ubuntu supported snaps. This is all from the distro supplied repos generally.

Installing random stuff not distro support contains a lot of addition risks such as potentially more bugs and malware.

I think the only 3rd party program I have installed is an AppImage of Joplin. I found the snap buggy.

I am not big fan of snaps or flatpacks as I had issues with both. One rarely needs them on Debian based distros anyway.

Just thinking what possibilities. Some thoughts.

• We always use Ubuntu LTS and do not install or upgrade a release until is out for 6 to 9 months. For Debian we use stable.

• Make certain your install media is good and also the computer storge media.

• Keep the system updates current.

• Use packages installed from the standard repo and supported by the security team.

Not sure what else.

Just FYI. My family has used linux for 25 years on many systems and we do not have stability issues. We use mostly Ubuntu or Debian.

Have no idea why your having issues. Could distro or hardware related. Also are you sure your storage media is good.

Reguarding apps, you said typewriter, movies, music, games. Office suite look at LibreOffice. Movies and music if it is online just Firefox or any other browser you choose. Firefox is good at working with PDFs too. Any distro should come with a document viewer, photoviewer, video player, and music player. You can choose from tons of other or more advanced tools. Debian for example comes with over 60K packges and Ubuntu and Mint are similar. There are also 3rd party sources too. Flathub or Snapcraft for example if you want something not in the repos.

If you go with a Debian based distro with a lot of apps in the repos, you probably my not need these other app souces, but some people like smaller distros, something special just not in the repos, or a newer or different version of app. For example I use Joplin which is a notes app that is not in the Debian repos.

For apps finding an app name and starting links https://alternativeto.net is your friend. For distros, https://distrowatch.com is your friend. Strongly favor a distro in the top 10 on distro watch unless you have some special need.

Edit: You will notice that the top 10 are all Debian, Arch, Fedora, or SUSE based in that general order of more to less popularity. Linux distros tend to be based on these base distributions. For example Mint is based on Debian and so is Ubuntu.

I personally prefer Debian based distros just because of the number of apps in the software repo. Probably consider Ubuntu or Mint in your case. My wife and I have used Linux pretty exclusively for over 20 years. Ease of use is not that much of an issue once your setup. My wife and her dad are not technical and they have few issues.

Installing, and fixing issues is more technical but it is for Windows too especially if you do not get it preinstalled. You presumably have some stratagy for Windows support. Linux same, have a stratgey for it.

People love to troll Firefox. There are only 3 brower sources Google, Mozilla, and Apple. I choose Mozilla or a derivative of them.

I mostly do. 99.9% of the software I use is a Debian package. Well on Debian anyway. I do have one AppImage.

Kind of felt like that before I retired. IT put so much shit on my computer that it was about all it was good for. One reason I retire, feedup with the BS form IT.