Even if someone never runs into a technical issues (which is unrealistic on any OS), simply picking a distro is a hobby of its own. It’s the Windows/PC debate, turned up to 11. As it isn’t just picking a platform. It’s pick your kernel, do you want actual Linux, or Unix with something like BSD, what desktop environment do you want, do you want a desktop environment or a window manager, do you go with one of the big core distros and configure it to your liking or find a smaller distro that matches what you want, what do you want in a distro, what file manager, what kind of desktop theme, what package manager, traditional apps vs Flatpak vs Snap vs AppImage, how’s the community for that distro, the list goes on.
All of that is one decision with Windows or macOS. Getting something pre-installed could solve it, if the person never knew about this whole debate, but they’ll find out the second they try to do anything, because looking up how to do anything will give different answers depending on what is picked, and people can’t help but debate it at every opportunity.
I don’t buy that. You either want that as a hobby or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Buy a PC and use the distro on it. They seem alright. Or use the mainstream distro of today. They come with a desktop and a browser and LibreOffice installed etc
Or you want everything 100% specifically tailored to you and make all the important decisions yourself.
You just cant have both at the same time. It is just physically not possible. And that isn’t a limitation of the OS.
And also with other computers you do answer that question. Do I buy a Mac, do I buy something with Windows, maybe a Chromebook? Acer? Lenovo, HP?.. M2 processor or Intel or AMD? It’s pretty much a hobby…
(If you want an honest answer to your other questions: Use your distro’s defaults unless you specifically need something different. I cannot stress that enough. Otherwise you will need to put in extra effort. And it’s going to be your fault. Always use the distro’s package manager if possible. Don’t use Flatpak, Snap etc if you aren’t specifically told to because of proper reasons. And don’t listen to Ubuntu and whatever they’re trying to push nowadays. This might change in the future. But I think it’s sound advice for the next few years. And don’t use custom file managers etc. You’ll get one of the major destop environments. Use the default software that comes with it. It comes with a default file manager etc for a reason.)
Even if someone never runs into a technical issues (which is unrealistic on any OS), simply picking a distro is a hobby of its own. It’s the Windows/PC debate, turned up to 11. As it isn’t just picking a platform. It’s pick your kernel, do you want actual Linux, or Unix with something like BSD, what desktop environment do you want, do you want a desktop environment or a window manager, do you go with one of the big core distros and configure it to your liking or find a smaller distro that matches what you want, what do you want in a distro, what file manager, what kind of desktop theme, what package manager, traditional apps vs Flatpak vs Snap vs AppImage, how’s the community for that distro, the list goes on.
All of that is one decision with Windows or macOS. Getting something pre-installed could solve it, if the person never knew about this whole debate, but they’ll find out the second they try to do anything, because looking up how to do anything will give different answers depending on what is picked, and people can’t help but debate it at every opportunity.
I don’t buy that. You either want that as a hobby or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Buy a PC and use the distro on it. They seem alright. Or use the mainstream distro of today. They come with a desktop and a browser and LibreOffice installed etc
Or you want everything 100% specifically tailored to you and make all the important decisions yourself.
You just cant have both at the same time. It is just physically not possible. And that isn’t a limitation of the OS.
And also with other computers you do answer that question. Do I buy a Mac, do I buy something with Windows, maybe a Chromebook? Acer? Lenovo, HP?.. M2 processor or Intel or AMD? It’s pretty much a hobby…
(If you want an honest answer to your other questions: Use your distro’s defaults unless you specifically need something different. I cannot stress that enough. Otherwise you will need to put in extra effort. And it’s going to be your fault. Always use the distro’s package manager if possible. Don’t use Flatpak, Snap etc if you aren’t specifically told to because of proper reasons. And don’t listen to Ubuntu and whatever they’re trying to push nowadays. This might change in the future. But I think it’s sound advice for the next few years. And don’t use custom file managers etc. You’ll get one of the major destop environments. Use the default software that comes with it. It comes with a default file manager etc for a reason.)