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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • Assuming your laptop has hardware that has Linux support—wifi cards manufactured by certain companies are what typically make things difficult—a just works distribution like Ubuntu, Mint, and Pop!_OS will have a gentle learning curve for doing things that you want.

    Mint is almost purpose made for people new to Linux or for people who just want to use their computer. It also has a large and friendly community around it, so there is community support, if you get stuck or confused on something. My parents, who are no tech people, have been happily using Mint for a couple of years now, with far less headache compared to Windows.

    As others have said, the installation of whatever distribution you chose will probably be the most intimidating aspect of switching to Linux. It doesn’t require being technically savy, just a willingness to learn and follow the procedures. It will be helpful to have your phone handy when you are doing the installation, so you can look things up incase there is something you don’t understand.

    If there is anything on the laptop that is important to you, back it up. The simplest way to install Linux will make whatever on the drive inaccessible. Additionally, find and record your Windows product key, just incase you want tk go back to Windows.


  • Mint is an Ubuntu derivative like Pop, so the package manager is apt. Synaptic is a gui for apt.

    If you want to learn and use ansible, go for it, but it might be a bit more than you need. If you are just wanting to install the apps you want, you can just write a quick bash script that installs all the apps you want.

    The file structure should be the same in Mint as Pop, so restoring your dot files should be straight forward.





  • Messing around with a Raspberry Pi was what got me over the threshold of learning enough to utilize Linux primarily, and then eventually exclusively.

    Obsessed? No. Persistently interested though.

    I communicate Linux as an option when the circumstance are appropriate. It is often not worth getting involved in other people’s tech decisions. My mother is now a satisfied Mint user, after she asked me if there was more pleasant and private way to use her computer. It has been great for me, because my providing tech support has gone to basically zero.


  • ardent_abysm@lemm.eetoLinux@lemmy.mlFonts
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    8 months ago

    I use fonts.google.com for discoverablility, but download the fonts from the GitHub repositories.

    UI: Inter (if I bother changing the default)

    Reading: Source Serif 4, Literata, and Noto Serif

    Terminal: Fira Code

    Text editor: Fira Code

    Document output: EB Garamond, Source Serif 4, and STIX Two Text

    Symbols: Noto Sans Symbols, Noto Sans Symbols 2, Symbols Nerd Font

    Microsoft fonts largely don’t have the character coverage I need or are not better than what is available under open licenses.

    Embedding fonts in documents negages the need for others to have matching fonts installed on their computer.