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…

I’m definitely interested in getting out of my routine.

That’s a great thing to do, imho ;)

Wishing you to get better soon

I’m not much of a reader, though I would like to get into the Star Wars lore. I had not even thought of that, thanks! 🙂

You’re welcome ;)

Do you have any recommendations for what to read?

I don’t know what you like so it’s a bit like i I asked you what should I eat tonight?

Imho, if you want to give Star Wars a try that’s a good starting point. I don’t know now much about Star Wars so I’m probably not the person you should ask. I do love scifi though and among my favorite authors I would say Ubik, by Philip K. Dick (the guy was the inspiration for films ranging from Matrix to Blade Runner, and many others). It’s fun, it’s not too hard to read and it’s not too long either. And it’s at least as pertinent today as it was when it was written in the 60s.

That said, allow me one advice if you’re not used to reading: don’t be afraid to not like and not finish a book. That’s OK. You have no obligation to.
I read a lot and I never hesitate to quit reading a book I don’t like. Also, I know that my tastes can change (I now love books I hated when I was a kid or a teen, or even a young adult). The Ubik book I suggested is not a difficult read, but you may also not like it at all, and that’s fine. Just look for something else to read ;)

/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 ;)

There is no book you wanted to read?

[user banned for having an opinion that diverges from the group]

Is this something I’m supposed to react to? If so, sorry I don’t get it.

Does anyone else feel this way about their Lemmy experience?

The out of the box experience is not great (neither is Reddit, if you’re asking me, it’s at least as depressing to see the amount of trash/low effort posts on their home page). But once I switched to ‘Subscribed’ only view, things were already much better since I was only seeing content I was interested in (aka no politics or drama of any sort).

As already suggested: !newcommunities@lemmy.world is good place to see what’s new, also there is !communitypromo@lemmy.ca

Most importantly, Lemmy is not Reddit for many reasons but this one is more directly related to your question: it’s much smaller (to give you an idea, I moderate a journaling community we recently reached… 300 members (of which less than a handful is active), whereas the Reddit journaling community is 2 Million+ ;). So, there is a lot less content posted on Lemmy. Back on Reddit, I was mostly a commenter (barely posting anything new myself) but I quickly realized that if I wanted to see stuff I was interested in on Lemmy I better start… posting myself ;)

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).

I was still a kid when my dad brought home a brand new Apple II. Before that computer appeared in his home office (and in my live, as I used that Apple so much more than he ever did ;)), I learned to type on my granddad’s typewriter.

100%.

The same reason I care about a working democracy. You can’t have one without the other.

Less people using public libraries (and reading books to learn stuff) around me because 'who needs to read books when there is everything on the Internet and I can Google anything’?

And, at least as saddening and frightening to me, seeing more and more people willing to censor whatever book, author, or idea, they hate or even they just don’t agree with (most often, without even reading it). It’s even worse when I see librarians supporting that — it doesn’t matter how ‘good’ their motivation is, censorship’s only success is in the promotion of stupid ideas (if not of sheer ignorance), hate and fear.

Masking tape and a pen

imagine people can’t afford to watch all the movies produced in a year — crazy supposition I know, but let’s say a ticket has become so expensive people need to pick the film they will watch — would you rather have them pay to see a movie featuring living actors (and while doing so giving those new actors an opportunity to start their career and become the next stars?) or have them pay to watch a product made out of dead actors (and greed) that will only enrich the studios?

Dying is part of the life cycle. Once you’re dead, you’ve become a legit part of the past. And you’re supposed to stay gone, so the younger people have their chance too. Sure, those young will not be a clone of Bogart or Bacall but they could become… themselves. That is, as long as Studios don’t focus their attention (and greed) on dead actors (and AI-powered scenarios, while we’re at it).

Plus, as a 50+ dude myself, imagining an instant I was an actor, I would not want anyone getting the idea that they can inherit my ‘image’ once I’m dead and use it however they fancy. Money and stuff, help yourself but let my image — my effing face — let it disappear with the body it belongs too. I’m not a product, I’m someone — even if I was an actor.

Also, it makes me wonder is their face what people really miss from dead actors? Are Bacall and Bogart just their face?

And then, I imagine neither Bogart and Bacall would smoke in their new movie? Smoking is such a bad habit, we certainly would not want to give kids such a poor example, right? So what the remastered version of Bacall and Bogart would do, instead? I know, stare at their phone screen (and rage on X or share images of their last meal on Instagram), so modern viewers can identify with them even more easily. That sure would be a much better example for kids.

Not the OP, but that’s a great idea.

Like the OP, my spouse and I have become quite tired of those (overpriced) full-plastic pseudo brands that are worth shit, and we’re also not that interested in connected robotic battery-powered vacuums either. I will check around if I can find some good old school wired vacuum, and also ask my local thrift store owner if they have any idea where I could find some around here.

I am going to quote myself here:

Allow me to quote myself too, then:

That’s not the point.

I do not disagree with your remarks (I do not use Telegram), I simply consider it’s not the point or that it should not be.

Obviously, laws should be enforced. What those laws are and how they are used to erode some stuff that were considered fundamental rights not so long ago is the sole issue, once again, im(v)ho ;)

Well, except Telegram isn’t a good tool for privacy.

That’s not the point. The hunting down on tools and their creators (and on our right to privacy) is the issue here. At least, imho.

To keep YT under control: Firefox is my web browser, with the uBlock Origin extension installed. So, all Shorts/Suggestions, ‘News’ and ‘Related content’ are now automatically removed from YT '(easy to achieve with uBlock Origin when using Firefox).

😍🥰 Firefox + uBlockOrigin

And whenever Google/YT suggests me some turd content, I dislike it and ask it to not suggest the channel/content anymore.

In the end, my feed is mostly made of stuff I enjoy watching, with so little noise that it can not be considered an issue.

I appreciate your feedback and understand where you’re coming from. However, I believe

You’re more than welcome to believe whatever you want. That does not make it a fact. And certainly not something I’m interested in or I’m willing to consider worth discussing.

Have a nice day.

Although I must admit I would feel a bit embarrassed asking them as well 😂.

You, or someone else is paying for that prescription. There is nothing to be ashamed of in asking them to provide something readable.

My eye doctor is a very strange person as she uses that very novel piece of high tech called a computer and a printer, and never writes a prescription by hand. Oddly enough, nobody has difficulty reading what she writes :p