I also love Mint, though I now run the Debian-based one (LMDE).

Traditionally they’ve been email lists. Easy to set up and everyone has an email address.

It meets their needs and preferences, simple as that. I tried Arch in like 2008, and thought people were crazy for all the trouble it took back then. Nowadays there’s a lot of nice distros built on it, so you can get the benefits (such as they may be) without all the low-level tinkering.

“May”??

A thing about Linux is that there’s usually like 10 different ways to accomplish something. If you hit a dead end in terms of your ability or tolerance for frustration… just go back to square one and find a different approach. For games, I recommend starting with Steam.

Why the hell would they include Israel??

Me, a hacker, targeting anyone who says they use Arch btw.

“They say America first, but what they mean is America next!”

And even if you don’t want to… Find someone who does! Donate that laptop to someone. Find a LUG or Mutual Aid group or a friendly local anarchist :)

In terms of games and programs, it’s best to look for/ask about the specific ones. Things have improved a ton with Steam/Proton, but just make sure there isn’t a deal breaker in there somewhere. Otherwise, there’s great distros out there that are EZPZ for normal everyday computer tasks (web surfing, file browsing, office shit).

In the backwoods of Fennario, the black and bloody mire, the dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing round the fire.

I don’t want anyone to get discouraged because of this post. Bottom line is that it is very easy to make a “live USB” of a Linux distro and play around with it. There is zero risk or commitment in doing so. Another great option is to install it on an old computer you have or can easily get. It may or may not “be for you”, but it is very easy to try out.

qbittorrent.

I have studiously avoided learning any bash scripting for the 17 years I’ve used Linux, so all I can say is good job! Actually just today I found a command that I needed to get a certain appimage to run without crashing, and I remembered enough that I was able to make it into a script (I struggle with whether it’s !# or #!). Having just done it today, I can confirm you don’t need to include ‘/bin/bash’, just FYI. I believe that is assumed.

Gotcha. I feel like I learned a lot of Linux stuff by standing up and configuring servers (log analysis, iptables, systemd…). I guess that’s the stuff I’m interested in though. I’ve never cared about compiling packages or tweaking the kernel for example.

Start self hosting some web services.

Maybe you could narrow the field a bit by identifying projects that need help (have actively expressed desire). That could help avoid the Nextcloud issue you mentioned. Limit the contest to that list of projects.

I use Ninja at work, and all I know is there is no remote desktop support for Linux. You can install the Linux agent, and you can run remote terminal commands. I set up RustDesk to remote control one of the few Linux machines here.

Start running servers if you haven’t already. Use an old computer, or an SBC or VPS and setup some Linux servers. There’s lots of different ways to do it, so mess around and break shit over and over. You can’t help but learn that way, though I would highly suggest you take notes/documentation. This is a habit I’m trying to develop after too long :)

Linux Mint Debian Edition. You can use Debian testing repos for more updated packages and kernels if you want. Also, it seems like more and more applications are adopting flatpak anyway.