Libb

Hi & welcome from a fellow Mint user.
It’s a stable distribution that comes with a lot of things preinstalled (so less extra stuff to install, but also a lot of stuff you might not need)

• +1 for Encryption, both Luks for the system disk and whatever other internal drive and for USB stick or external storage. If someone was to steal my computer I would pissed off but OK, I can deal with it knowing they can’t access my files. Use a good password (mine is 20-ish characters long all random and, yeah, I’ve memorized them but I have a decent working memory ;)
• • for (automated) backups.
• +1 for automated updates
• +1 for not installing from any source. It’s tempting but it should be the exception (for me, it means yt-dlp and Mullvad for the most, of there is also my RSS app of choice newsboat since it’s not officially available anymore :/)
• I don’t use antivirus on Linux (nor on my Mac). But I seldom download anything and don’t open attachments I’m not expecting to receive ;)
• I would not play with services as a beginner as you risk deactivating something you need.
• The firewall as gui that’s installed by default (on my Mint, at least ;): its Gufw on the command line and it’s called Firewall Configuration in the main Mint menu. Open it, type your password, activate the ‘Status’ toggle. Done. Then you can start adding rules as you need them.

I would add to that:

• Don’t rush to tweak everything at the same time. Try one at a time, it’s easier to revert back.
• Backup your home folder regularly. Not only does it contain all your precious files but it also contains most of your settings and tweaks. So, if you ever need to reinstall you will get back all those settings/tweaks when copying back your home to the fresh install.

On that topic,I’m not much of a geek (a 50-something dude and a 35+ years Apple customer) but I did learn to use git to keep a backup of my config folder. So, when I screw up something (so far, Mint has not once screwed up anything by itself, the few issues I had to deal with were all me-related) , I know I can revert back to the previous version of whatever settings I’ve just damaged without difficulty. Learning the basic of Git is not hard, it’s just…odd, and it works great. If it was compatible with LibreOffice files I would love to use if for that too…

/Not_a_Rant

Are you sure about that?

I don’t mind people sharing their feelings about their switch, joy as well as frustration. And if I did, I would not read them… exactly like I don’t read political topics ;)

It can vary a lot depending the publisher, and some will not care at all while others will use, say, tracking features or work collaboratively (they can even be using OneDrive for that, which includes MS Office in its price), or they will require the author to use a specific Word template that they have devised for Word (with the person in charge of the final layout in whatever layout application, in order to streamline or the process and save time on that part of the job), when they aren’t that kind of publishers that simply do the final layout directly in Word before sending the final PDF to the printer. Also, as an author, if a publisher has asked you to use MS Word and some specific stylesheet and realize they tried to to be smarter than them… good luck with that, unless they’re already one of their best-selling author.

And that’s just what comes to my mind and that I have been witnessing first hand ;)

So I’m wondering if an upgrade is safe because

Imho that’s the wrong question. Without backup nothing is safe whether you pate the OS or not. Anything can happen (the disk can die, the computer can be stolen,…) and, yes, most upgrades should go without any issue but then one won’t go well and then what? You need to do backups, we should all ;)

I’m currently using Proton and still have to move to another service

I’ve moved to Filen (German end-to-end encrypted cloud you can rent (or buy) for a year or… a month (maybe worth the cost at least for a month when you will upgrade) and it works real nice for me on Mint 22.1

Depending the storage you need, you can get from 10 to 50Go for free: 10 base *+10 if you use crate your account using this affiliate link (no string attached, it’s real free storage) and up to 30Go more if you also share your own affiliate link. If you’re wondering, I use their 2To lifetime plan.

2/ Related to the first question: I’m using a old laptop (asus zenbook from 2015 or 2016, can’t remember), so would I be find with an old hardware such as mine?

It’s not that old, you should not worry much ;)

Depends what you need. Many publishers require certain features from MS Word that are not available or are not as ‘compatible’ in LO Writer (not that its LO’s fault ;), but for most use case I would agree. Things are a bit more complicated in the case of Excel as far as I can understand what I read (edit: I don’t use much spreadsheets myself).

I’ve quit using MS Word a few years ago, fully switching to LO Writer. There are a few issues here and there but nothing that’s a deal breaker (and Word had its own issues too), and I must quite like many things in Writer—beside the app not spying on me, I mean ;)

Sorry I didn’t used PKMS as keyword :/

Don’t be, it’s not that obvious.

To answer your question… Yeah I suppose analog note-taking is probably the best, You can write without any limitation in every direction !

Will see how the conversation goes in the pkms group, but that’s the road I went and I have zero (like in not a single one) regrets.

Yep, you’re right. I tend to forget that… way too often. [Sad face]

Oh, thx for the clarification. That certainly would not help.

It looks to me like Google has that idea they own their viewership and can treat them like trash if they fancy doing so. The not too distant future will tell us if they were right or not.

What I can say is that they don’t own me. I was a Premium subscriber fir years (I can afford it and I want to support creators) but I cancelled the day they became serious against ad-blockers. For me, it was not about them forcing people to pay a sub. It never was. It was about destroying the free Web and making it a privately-owned something a few corporations would then be able to do what the fuck they wanted with. I certainly did not want to give them a cent more of my money to achieve that.

There isn’t any community about note taking where I could post my question and no this is not a “What’s the best note taking app” question…

Here, maybe? !pkms@lemmy.blahaj.zone

A community dedicated to personal knowledge management systems.

Does anyone here has some experience and is taking notes that way? I’m really curious on your experience and maybe your thoughts if it’s feasible ? Practical ?

If you ever decide to post over there, in order to no pollute this Linux community I would happily share my own choices but they may not be the most digital solution, as I fully switched back to analog note-taking, using a Zettelkasten system (a fancy name for index cards stored in shoe boxes).

Shouldn’t you be able to access YT without a Google account? So uBO correctly configured (at least on Firefox) should do a lot already. Maybe sharing with us what specific issues you’re facing or what you want to be able to do may help you getting more specific solutions?

1. Do I actually need it?

+1

How do you judge which extension to install?

• I install as few extensions as possible, like Leraje mentioned already: I really consider if I need the extension or not. Because every single one of them is a potential security or failure risk. One extension may be cool; but if I don’t have some real need for it, I won’t be installing it. I will also consider native app solutions (I will use yt-dlp in a Terminal instead of using some web extension to easily download vids)
• When I’m interested in one extension, I consider if Firefox is recommending it or not. If not I may decided to not use it. May as it really depends how bad I need it and want to try it.
• I check the options of the extensions I’m already using

1. to disable whatever it is I don’t want
2. to enable extra features that may saves me the need to install more extensions. Because, once again, the fewer extensions I have to install, the better I am.

uBO (wikipedia) is an amazing example of that. (edit: I should probably say that I use it on Firefox which supports the extension without limitations, unlike Chrome-based browsers.)

Most people know it as one of the best, if not the best ad-blocker there is. Which it is. But it’s much more than that and it can also be used to get rid of cookie banners, url tracking, social media buttons removing (and their tracking), better privacy, I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff. Heck, it can be used to easily block whatever content I may not want to see on any website. Say, I don’t want to see Shorts or News crap displayed on my YT homepage? That’s just two clicks away.

So, thx to uBO, I don’t need install a shit ton of other extensions I would otherwise be using to get the cleaner and less intrusive web experience I wish. And it only required me to do some reading and tweakings in its settings

What’s the best alternative to Google these days?

I use Kagi, it’s great (great results, no ads, no tracking, a lot of clever filtering tools) but it’s paid. Free, I would use Brave Search but I doesn’t give me as good results as Kagi.

Edit: added links.

I recently learned that my company prefers closed-source tools for privacy and security.

I will suggest that same logic to my banker too: a vault whose key they won’t own, but I will. Don’t worry, all your money will be safe with me, it’s a promise 😇

I’ll definitely do my own research, but there’s so much information out there—it feels like drinking from a firehose. It’s overwhelming!

Because it is overwhelming. And that’s coming from a 50-something dude that is not much of a geek himself and that switched after 35+ years using Apple.

Do you have any tips or websites to help me get started, step by step?

My top suggestion would be to keep it simple. Don’t try too hard to learn everything. Just use it and learn as you go. I mean, don’t try to ‘learn Linux’ just start using it. You don’t need to read a whole lot of docs for that (using Mint the installation should be dead simple and the you can connect to the Internet, launch your word processor or spreadsheet, do some photo editing maybe, listen to music and watch videos. It’s still a computer, just with a different operating system and different apps.

Each time you will have trouble doing something then you will know it’s probably time to do some reading and research. Each time there is anything specific you want to know more about, then you will know what to search for.

Say when you want to learn why Linux is sometimes called ‘GNU/Linux’, not trying to be pedantic here it’s just to show you how there is always more to Linux than what’s on the surface. Next to the free OS and apps there is this whole philosophy of freedom as well as the Unix very specific approach to software development and the way those software should work and how they should be used and that explain why things may be very different than what you were to under Windows, both being covered by the ‘GNU’ part in ‘GNU/Linux’, which is itself also not just about those notions as GNU is also a set of developing tools and apps (that are used to construct Linux itself—expert, no need to hate me for oversimplifying here). And it’s just considering the Linux name! Really, it’s endless. Often fascinating, but endless.

To the point that learning Linux can feel like the Danaïdes sisters being told to fill with water that bottomless bucket, or poor Sisyphus having to push that same huge rock up to the top of the hill every single day for the rest of eternity—maybe not the most… fulfilling option ;)

So, as a beginner:

1. Learn how to create a bootable ISO on Mac or on Windows).
2. With Mint in mind you only need to follow the assistant instructions (and make sure your computer is working fine with Linux)
3. Use your new (and freed) computer and make mistakes (it’s the best way to learn) ;)

If you want to read an excellent docs, no matter the distribution you’re using Arch Wiki, Mint as great user forum

Aren’t they constantly? ;)

Hi,

I’m a Windows user of all life

I was a Mac user for 35+ years (still am, partly). It took me a little while to get used to new names/commands in Linux but that’s to be expected. And it is not much an issue anymore ;)

I am those persons that has bad times remembering names, words… imagine commands… Even after using it so much I remember some basics but I’m struggling a lot and I have to go back to notes constantly to do some basic operations. Even worst after trying multiple distro from from different upstreams that commands are … Different

What kind of commands exactly? I mean, I don’t know that ‘commands’ are different from one distro to the other’ as they all use the same apps. So, beside the name of a few specific ones (like, maybe the app installer).

What would be your recommendations to help me. Are there tools to help this issue ?

My two sole advice:

• don’t try to remember too many commands. Instead, focus on the ones you use daily or very often. After you get those memorized you can always decide to memorize more… or not memorize them at all. I don’t bother remembering them, why would I when I can easily use Ctrl+F and instantly find them the moment I need them?

How do I do? I keep a text files in which I store all the stuff I seldom use but still want to be able to find in case I need it someday. To make finding them easier, I put descriptive titles and comments with each command. And that’s what I’m searching for, not the command name ;)

• If you’re talking about Terminal commands, learn to create your own aliases they will let you remember a short name instead of full commands. I have a few lengthy commands and some scripts (for example, to compress/convert images) that I I regularly use. I don’t remember them. I’ve saved them in a .sh file that I can either call through a Terminal or simply by a right-click in my File Explorer (it’s Nemo and they’re called ‘Actions’, on Linux Mint)

I must be older and even more out of touch than you are, as I only use the default Terminal that came with my distro and I had to do a search to check what were Ghostty and Terminator (I know about the movie, obviously, but I’m also old enough to have been watching it in theatre the year it was first released ;)

s that no longer pre-installed, at least for camera imports? It was on 17-20.3 but I don’t think I’ve done a clean (re)install since.

I could not swear, one or the other. Let’s just say I make it my default viewer instead ;)

Jesus that explains why I’ve never used this. Pip is a security issue.

Not sure to understand your remark: I don’t use pip and have no idea what risks it could represent or not.