As a percentage of desktop users or percentage of any users (including people who use their phones mainly)?

I used to switch a lot, and created scripts that install distroboxes with all the stuff needed for various purposes like java programming etc. Now on a fresh install I can get back to having all third party libraries and IDE set up with extensions, git configured etc in a couple of minutes. Debian distroboxes for things where versions don’t matter, tumbleweed for latest versions when needed. I looked forward to distrohopping all the time. But now I’m just on debian as the “host” system, no need to switch.

What does this mean?

I agree on all points.

Banks sometimes need a 2FA app, this is what some people need “banking apps” for. The bank website itself is trivial to just use, but you need to be able to log in. In sweden, much of society, from fetching a post package to booking an appointment with a doctor or getting a bus ticket, relies on this 2FA app. You can barely function in society without this app.

A thorn in everyone’s side.

You wrote “It is a myth that arch is unstable”. Arch, being rolling release, is by definition changing. This is, imho, the opposite of stable. This is why it’s important to use precise words. I have no interest in continuing this discussion since you don’t seem to argue in good faith.

If you have a better word for the concept of unchanging functionality and interfaces, I’m open to using that in this context. In describing distros, I’ve only come across the word stable for this. Reliable is a wider concept to me, and also includes being relatively free of bugs. A stable distro can still be buggy, if it’s the same bugs tomorrow as yesterday.

Well, for the sake of clarity, lets separate stability and reliability? Stability means unchanging. Reliable means it won’t crash or behave in unexpected ways.

Do you think you would have that opinion if you ran arch on mission critical production servers for a couple of years?

Back in the day, ubuntu used to be the most user friendly distro. Linux for humans. It has a faster release cycle by not following stable debian releases. It had hardware support that you had to jump through hoops in debian to get. A great community. It made sense to base mint on ubuntu.

If I may ask, where are you from? The city I live in is a nightmare for cars, the roads were made for horses and walking, narrow and winding cobblestone streets and the city tries its best to keep cars out of the center.

Ubuntu is Debian based yes. Not all ubuntu-based comes with snap (for example Mint). Sometimes I think “why are there so many different distros? We only need like five of them”, but then, sometimes I think it’s a strength, each distro exploring a new direction to see what works.

Polishing dotfiles for the color schemes and vimrc. Version controlling those dotfiles. Using neovim to edit the dotfiles configuring neovim. Scripting the tiling wm to open neovim in a way that fits editing the neovim config. Configuring ansible to be able to deploy the neovim dotfiles quickly from codeberg after reinstalling arch because it’s the weekend and the kernel had some bloat parts so the whole system felt wrong.

You can always use sid. Or debian stable but you do everything that needs bleeding edge in a distrobox.

Yes, true. But then you need to carry an extra device. I know it’s just inconvenience.

A little bit yes, since the BankID is owned by private companies. There are those who are working on a free software version and some people think that the government should have an official authentication app free from private interests. But it’s been hard to make people aware and care about these issues. It’s like the xkcd worlds smallest open source violin. At the same time, many things that relate to proving that I am me has become very convenient in this society. For example I moved to a new apartment and they just sent a link to the contract and I signed it with the app and that was that, I did my taxes by just checking that the info they had was correct and signed it on my phone, etc.

In Sweden many parts of society requires an app called BankID. We authenticate getting mail packages, sign contracts, book a time in health care, etc with this app. It’s needed everywhere. Buying a bus ticket. A phone without this app is not sufficient to function in swedish society.

They don’t seem to have any supported devices apart from community contributions?
“These are the most supported devices, maintained by at least 2 people and have the functions you expect from the device running its normal OS, such as calling on a phone, working audio, and a functional UI. Besides QEMU devices, this is currently empty.”

What does Mint bring that makes you choose it over Debian on the desktop?