Makes sense. Thanks for the details.

Yes, I understand this point. LMDE is the backup plan, but is it actually inferior to regular Mint based on Ubuntu? If not LMDE could be default Mint.

If your current distro works, there’s no reason to switch. Switching means a fresh install, repeat whatever customization you want or need, restore your backup. It’s not difficult, but can be time-consuming until you have everything configured they way you want it.

I wonder why they make both Ubuntu and separate Debian based Mint. That duplicates the work.

I would probably jump from ubuntu to mint if they drop ubunutu in favor of debian. But then, debian itself is a perfectly fine distro and i could also use it directly.

Too much choice.

Perl?

This is something that a web designer / developer does. It’s not a Firefox feature or controlled through user settings. However, you are right, that one could probably make an extension that overrides the original setting and forces a different behaviour.

I didn’t know this, but Oracle is shity in so many ways.

Resistent to rust.

Debian is fine distro and many people rely on it as strong foundation including the people that build ubuntu and mint. Maybe Debian is the hidden champion.

When Ubuntu became popular, it had some advantages like reliable release cycles, slightly newer packages, better integration of proprietary drivers. Stuff that was not wanted in Debian stable main at the time.

Other non-debian-based distros also brought some advantages.

Personally, I’d love to see Debian as the base distro with Mint, Ubuntu and others building ontop of it. I like my apt update. I just won’t send novices straight to Debian when the derivates have more desktop users.

How to install Linux software using GUI?

On your GUI Desktop Environment, you use your GUI Application Launcher to start the GUI Terminal emulator. Then you simply type “apt install foo”. Easy.

See, the GUI is not harder then the normal way.

Well, if you prentend iterm does not exist, you can probably still use a mac to browse the web.

You don’t have to switch if you like what you found. Some people distro hop, some stay on the same one their whole life.

Too answer your question: Keeping your data is not hard and you should have a backup. Keeping your configuration/customization is a different story; if you don’t like the defaults, the tweaking is practically lost when you swap distros or DEs.

Too address the elefant in the room: Those beginner-friendly distros (e.g. Mint, Ubuntu, …) that you “start with” are actual full-fledged Linux distros under the hood. They usually try to create a UI that’s easier to navigate for someone switching from Windows (rarely from mac) and have a friendly community. They are opionated on some design choices but otherwise 99% identical to the underlying generic purpose distro.

Ubuntu is based on Debian. Mint is based on Ubuntu. Most Everything build for Debian will also work on Ubuntu or Mint. If you like Mint and it works on your hardware, there’s no objective need to switch to Debian (or Arch or Gentoo) ever. People switch as a learning exercise or for bragging rights.

The main purpose of trying different distro is to find your style. Experts could probably configure Debian to look and behave just like Mint, but it’s easier and more consistent if you get it all of the box.

I could live on 50% my salary now – after building my retirement funds. I’m probably a lot older than you are. I’m not married. In Germany if this matters.

Progressive taxation and health insurance costs help a lot. You’ll earn half the brutto, but the interesting question is the netto. You can run your numbers here: https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/teilzeit.php (in German)

1400 net can be a perfectly liveable depending on location / housing cost, but you need to think about retirement savings!

It’s Secret Intervention Group, but close enough.

SIGKILL does, though

Third-party email clients would work if not blocked for employers configuration.

Teams works on Linux and i think OneDrive is technically webdav. I avoid mixing Microsoft and Linux, but i believe the modern (web) applications should work everywhere.

PhD candidate

A pointer?

20 years too late?