for me immutable makes more sense on like a web browsing basic use laptop that u plan to have for a very long time. And like very basic gaming. Cuz with immutable u never have to do a full upgrade which is nice on a laptop thats gonna last like 10+ years.

Im actually curious if Windows will lose significant market share. Not saying linux would take over but MacOS could really start to eat into Windows with Apple pushing more affordable hardware too lately. Linux will take some too but like if i was a normie and didnt know what Linux was and was choosing Mac or Windows id choose Mac at this point.

you can probably just force it to play and itll have some glitches or something. I googled it there are programs that repair video files. If u have a partially downloaded one.

Lol i think most of us Linux people just forget how basic most peoples computer usage is. An example, i wanted a program yesterday. Im on Manjaro and it was a .deb so i had to look it up in the AUR, clone it, compile and install it. All in command line. To someone who is used to that its not a big deal just some copy and paste and searching. To someone who is used to windows where you download .exe, and click install thats a herculean task.

I disagree that people shouldnt use linux if they cant fix stuff on their own etc. I fully support making some distros entirely GUI and really easy to use because some people just need that and theres nothing wrong with not wanting to get all into the weeds setting up a computer. Thats the whole point of distros is to have various options for different use cases. I hope youll be able to find a linux setup that works for what you need. As of now a little bit of terminal may be needed even in the easier to use distros depending on what your doing tho.

Just wait til you have a laptop that wont turn off until you take it apart and rip the battery cable out. Its like an execution.

Thats not a person. I am 100% convinced that an Alien saw like 3 people, created a body with features from each randomly chosen, and then went to the pool, and not understanding the concept of bathing suits and just not wanting to get their clothes wet started to get naked. Then were baffled when everyone freaked out and they got arrested. After being released they said im never coming back to this planet.

im not gonna change anything rn. I had tried Mint, OpenSuse, Debian, Pop Etc all trying to find an OS that had proper touchpad drivers for my laptop. The touchpad works on them but will randomly get very sluggish and have really bad input lag. Manjaro so far is the only one that has been working for me so unless i can figure out what magic they did to make it work, or if i have some other issue i dont see myself switching.

my grandmother is in her 80s and uses linux dailt cuz all she uses is a web browser. She has no idea what an operating system is but she knows the word windows. She just thought windows was the browser.

I had lots of issues on Pop. Switched over to Manjaro and its much better for me. Laptop runs cooler, doesnt slow down, etc.

Not sure about the other stuff but qbittorent in its settings has a spot to specify which network interface to use. I always just select my vpns virtual interface. Never used surfshark so idk if itll work the same. Are the minecraft servers and everything you dont want on the VPN just LAN connections btw? I use Mullvad and it has a toggle to allow all the LAN connections through that you can turn on and off. Not sure if thats what u need tho.

If what you want is a used laptop id look into the Lenovo Thinkpad T480, or Dell Latitude 7400. Both have great linux support, are very repairable, and upgradable, and personally i own a 7400 and love it. You can pick either up for around 200$ and spend the rest upgrading them. The thinkpad one is gonna be a bit slower probably, and a bit less slim, but will have better thermals, and battery life most likely too. The 7400 for me required a good bit of tweaking to get it running nicely. i added some thermal pads, repasted cpu, flashed bios update, and did some software tweaks to get thermals under control. If your not up for that the T480 has a massive fanbase online to help with any issues. Careful when looking at options that you dont go for the cheap screen. Get a 1080p screen option one youll regret it if you get the shit screen.

if he wants to try it on the pi itll def work and all just maybe explain the experience wont really be the same he would get on a regular pc also to really try linux out id suggest letting him try a bunch of different DEs and see which he likes. Personally i think on small screen mobile devices like a laptop that Gnome is best, and on a desktop id go with KDE plasma. Cinnamon is also pretty good just depends what you want.

My main concern is if its him trying out linux for the first time and hes on a pi he might associate things like no ARM compatility for some programs, slowness due to low system specs, etc with the linux os rather than with the pi itself. Its comparing apples to oranges. To compare 2 OSes you should run them on the same type of machine.

Why do this on a raspberry pi and not just boot a live usb on his normal computer, or on a small partition?

My laptop has a microsd card reader that when filled is almost flush so i just keep a micro sd card in there and have timeshift back up to it. Partitioned with full disk encryption so it cant just be stolen and scanned.

Cant wait to buy a used X Elite Thinkpad in 3 years once all the linux support is done and theyre cheap lol

Batteries dont always decline at an expected rate sometimes they just fail when yesterday they worked fine. Sounds like u need a new battery.

ya i also use gnome and kinda just wish the customizations were built in. but i have to say idk what it is but gnome just seems to feel so much smoother. Like its animations, and app switching experience. I think its way of doing things is perfect for a laptop, and i prefer closer to the typical windows layout for a desktop. On a laptop the screens a bit small so i auto hide the dock, and hide the top bar and just run everything in full screen. If i wanna check the time or access top bar menus i just tap the super key real quick then tap it again when im done. I use pretty few extensions, but i do worry sometimes ill get fucked by an update lol. So far so good tho for me.

Lol that explains it then. Thanks for the info.

mine just kinda fixed itself for no noticeable reason. Maybe try a reinstall, and reboot?