In simplified terms:

You are allowed to modify stuff but it is not actually changing the install as is.

This is achieved by different techniques like file system overlays, containerisation, btrfs snapshots and so on.

The idea is to replicate the classical behavior you know from embedded devices that have their core functionality in ROM with even firmware updates only overlayed or modern smartphones: You can modify your system but in the end there’s always the possibilty to “reset to factory settings” as in: the last known working configuration.

You are obviously not doing enough work with a full screen terminal being open… 😜

Compatibilty of Windows games in Linux have gone a long way, partly but also independently from Steam’s work on it.

In fact Linux nowadays supports more Windows games than Windows, as especially older games still work there but not on modern Windows anymore.

I will not pretend that there aren’t games with issues, but in the vast majority of cases that’s new games and for the simple reason that some publishers actively go out their way to prevent them from working on Linux (highlights being anti-cheat tech that Linux worked hard to make it compatible, yet with certain publishers intentionally not setting a simple flag needed to run, often with totally made-up “reasons” about Linux’ insecurity…).

A lot of companies stuff also runs on linux when it’s not free, just so they can avoid having to manage the hardware side… see: Google Cloud, AWS, Azure etc.

The amount of companies having their whole infrastructure run by one of the big cloud services on linux servers nowadays is far too high to make a serious argument of “linux is only secure because it’s irrelevant and no one cares to break it”.

there is hardly any point of creating malware for a system with such a small user base

Actually the whole world runs on linux, Windows is mostly the low level consumer end.

Which makes your argument true for a certain segment of malware (the cheap low tech stuff more akin to scams etc targeting people en mass but expected to have a low return), but not actually for the parts where the money is that justify elaborate malware and hacks.

Sure…an open source OS is worse than a closed one. Because you are too lazy to check the former, yet trust the latter ignoring all its well documented cases of spying on users…

Maybe you should try to go back to basic logic over idiological tribalism before you question other people’s perspective.

Most normal people are nervous interacting with a GUI pop-up that gives them two options

Sadly no. They should be nervous if it’s about making changes to their system. In reality however Windows conditioned them to just click the button labeled “Yes” or “Okay” without even reading the pop-up in the first place.

So because you project your habit of creating a million unnecessary accounts onto other people requiring an account for Windows isn’t bad somehow?

PS: Android works without one btw… for those who actually use stock android anyway.

PPS: Also do you seriously believe there aren’t 1 Million other reasons by Windows is bullshit?

In my experience the fuck ups on the level where you need technical help are more in line with a “just freshly reinstall Windows yet another time”-scenario

But a huge part is conditioning because people are forced to use Windows early and get used to it.

I have made the exact same “oh, this just works and is quite intuitive and convenient”-experience with Linux installs… for people lacking that prior forced contact with Windows (say older relatives with their first PC for example…).

The wiki is actually good for beginners, too. As you are often forced to reallylly read through subpages and cross-referenced topics until you somewhat understand why you are doing something instead of just how. Doesn’t make it easy ofc but a beginner can totally handle the wiki, it just takes more time.

I never really understood that concept that questioning your own sanity is actually a good sign…

…but then I experienced Russian propaganda victims and their steadfast and unwavering believe that contrary to reality absolutely everyone except themselves is mislead and brain-washed by desinformation. 😄

Yeah, that despicable russophobia that makes us brain-washed russophobes hallucinate how Russia is invading neighbouring countries while committing war crimes, attacking other countries’ IT infrastructure, commiting sabotage and flooding social media with propaganda 24/7 for years… 🤡

It’s been years since I took a look at this but I vaguely remember a handy kioskrc config file under xfce4…

found it…

That sounds like the non-techies would be able to fix it themselves on Windows without you being around, which in my experince isn’t the case.

It might be different for you with a lot of tech-affine people in your family. But for those of us being forced to be the tech support anyway, it can really make a difference if you have to fix a Linux issue once in a while or have to reinstall Windows for the 5th time this year…

You could…

But then one is an open system where you can disable the UI put on top and have a working linux system, while the other is a closed blob destroying compatibility and trying hard to lock you out from accessing the underlying linux system.

ARM is shit at hardware discovery in general. So no, chromebooks don’t need a special distro. They however need a kernel adapted to the specific hardware, often down to the model (that’s also the reason Android updates take so long on phones and there is very time limited support… there’s always someone needed to adapt new updates to the specific hardware for each device, so they don’t bother for anything but their latest products).

Decryption isn’t a problem if you use the systemd hooks when creating your initrams. They try to decrypt every given luks volume with the first key provided and only ask for additional keys if that fails.

I have 3 disks in a btrfs raid setup, 4 partitions (1 for the raid setup on each, plus a swap partition on the biggest disk), all encrypted with the same password.

No script needed, just add rd.luks.name=<UUID1>=cryptroot1 rd.luks.name=<UUID2>=cryptroot2 rd.luks.name=<UUID3>=cryptroot3 rd.luks.name=<UUID4>=cryptswap to your kernel parameters and unlock all 4 with one password at boot.

Linux is Linux.

We should send all those people, pages and guides suggesting distros to hell.

And then instead we suggest update-schemes (fixed, rolling, slow-roll), package managers and Desktop environments. People with enough brain cells to start a computer are then absolutely able to chose a distro fitting them based on that. Everything else coming with a distro is just themeing/branding anyway…

(and just for the use statistic: Archlinux, Opensuse (Leap and Kalpa), Debian here…)