Gamepad… I just use it wired because it was an easier solution. Like I said, sometimes things that should be settings become problems you need to solve.

That’s just part of the Linux game.

Its not really a deal breaker to me for the other benefits I get, but it really can be annoying. And more annoying that on average the Linux community doesn’t really acknowledge this.

I can completely understand an average person not wanting to deal with stuff like this, especially since its so inconsistent across distros.

Progress!

For me its the nuance of things.

Like quality of life settings. Turn Bluetooth on automatically at boot. Yeah, you can do it, but not by looking at settings and turning that option on. No, you need to recognize that’s a problem then search for an answer, determine which of the 2 or 3 answers you find are right, then do it. Is it a deal breaker? Absolutely not. But I don’t want to “solve problems” for every thing I want to do.

My other gripes would be lack of software support. As great as some apps are, others there are no support for Linux.

Ironically I miss Affinity. But se la vie.

Proper power management on my laptop is the biggest one.

There are many software applications that don’t support Linux that I would like to use.

Linux does what I tell it to.

Windows does what it wants. Either what it thinks I want it to do, or what Microsoft wants me to do.

Considering I paid for my computer, I like having control over it. It’s that simple.

This. I use LibreOffice at home and M365 at work. It’s definitely not 1:1 compatible like most people say. That’s not to bash on LO, it’s just the reality of it.

I still swear by Excel. While Calc is fine for essential spreadsheets, I run a VM just for Excel because there’s no alternative for the advanced tools.

Good to know about the odf extension though. That’s a good improvement.

There’s a lot of info in these comments and a ton of it is good.

I will say that the best advice is to boot from a USB and try out a system for a bit. You can easily swap around that way without a commitment.

I will also say that my opinion is to start with Mint. It’s similar enough to windows in layout/workflow to feel familiar and is “boring” in a stable, easy to use way.

Use it and learn Linux. I say learn, because it doesn’t matter what the OS looks like as much as how it works, and Linux (any flavor) works differently than windows. Learn those idiosyncrasies and then of you decide you want to try something else then you’re up to speed to move on and judge a different system with a baseline.

I don’t think anybody is critiquing the production quality or the right to get paid. I’ve seen nothing but complaints about the content quality (sensationalism) in the comments.

For me, I don’t hate the guy or the channel. But I found I stopped watching his videos. I just felt like they were too long and could get to the point faster. I didn’t really see it as sensationalism myself, but understand that view. He’s essentially building it up to say why this is a big deal and you should continue watching the video.

I just see it as an hour long video can still be made very well if it were half that. There’s a time commitment involved so when I see fluff that could have been cut it makes me not want to watch. The fluff doesn’t add value, not even entertainment wise.

I personally think anydesk is the easiest to deploy and use, cross platform and little effort.

Rustdesk is great too and my go to as a self hosted option.

It basically works offline.

You need a canva account associated with it, and there is a periodic online check in if I recall correctly. But it’s not an online always scenario in the slightest.

Though I have never used their AI tools/features at all, which might require online because it uses their servers (just speculation)

You can also try Caffeine which will prevent sleep and the monitors from turning off. It would be a dumb solution but could be a good temporary work around / troubleshooting tool.

Gotcha. That’s a fair point. I kind of jumped to the end because the typical response is to “just use libre office” and OP is clearly a power spreadsheet person where that’s not gong to work.

That’s my point. There are lots of spreadsheet options, but if they don’t meet all the needs then they really aren’t alternatives. Maybe it’s semantics, but I find that definition to not be misleading and keep expectations in line.

There is no Excel alternative. It sucks, bit its the reality. I run a VM specifically for a couple windows apps and 90% of that is excel.

I use version 2019 and manipulated the installer to only install excel and none of the other office suite apps.

You can also do the same in a docker container instead of VM (winboat) if that’s more your jam.

If you want more info on any of that I’d be glad to give you more details.

One of the things I appreciate about the prequel is that it ends seamlessly into the first movie. It actually builds that tension that leads from the originals beginning. One of the best moments of the movie.

Secondary comment. Linux aside, I appreciate your Thing video. Yes, that’s exactly the difference with the original vs the prequel. I enjoyed the prequel much more than most (and you give it a nod at the end) but it’s far from the original.

Disclaimer, I did not watch the video other than the intro.

I intend to scrub through it, but its very long for an basics video. Maybe this should be broken up into a series.

Looking at the topics, it seems odd to including gaming for Grandma. Again, if it was a series you could do an offshoot gaming focused video for non grandma.

Though to be constructive and positive, I love your intent here. When you know nothing about Linux there’s a lot of information to process and understand (even for non grandmas). You cover a lot of important topics and how to get going.

The problem with tech support in general is that people want to have a trusted source. If you are successful in your endeavour, then you are that source. Therefore you will be called for everything. Absolutely everything.

Suddenly all people forget how to search online themselves or to actually look at the problem before reaching out. Not even a turn it off and on again mentality. You are now their source and will do everything for them.

Then it degrades from there. Problems become vague descriptions of “acting funny” and you spend far too much time trying to get accurate descriptions and scenarios to understand the problem before even being able to try to troubleshoot it.

All this jaded negativity is just me making a point that reasonable charges won’t get you very far. You will need to charge more to cover the time (yours or help) and then you will be deemed too expensive and people won’t call.

while you’re probably looking for some very tangible reasons in a bullet list of how its better, there’s really one foundational reason and everything else is a distant second.

Linux (mint or otherwise) is your OS that you use on your hardware. Period. It’s not going to tell you how to use it, what is allowed, what is right, or anything of that nature. It’s yours. Have at it.