You misunderstood my question. How old are those installs? Chances are they're not very old.
Arch-based systems like EndeavourOS are rolling releases with minimal testing. They'll work fine at the start, but errors will accumulate over time. Breakage is not a question of if, but when, and when that happens, Arch assumes you're a savvy user who knows what youre doing and able to fix your stuff. If you aren't (and newcomers to Linux normally fall into that category), you're going to have a bad time.
Whatever the hype around Endeavour or CachyOS is: I wouldn't recommend any of them to Linux newcomers for this very reason. Instead, it's wise to give them a stable Debian-based OS to make themselves comfortable with Linux. Once they have arrived, they may or may not experiment with other flavours of Linux.
Please do not recommend Arch-based distros to newcomers. At some point, something minor or major is going to break, and they're not going to be able to fix it. Give them something Debian-based to learn the ropes (or not). It's not going to break down on them as easily.
True, but very few of the others bullshit themselves into believing they're "the land of the free". The fall of the U.S. into illiberalism and authoritarianism is remarkable because the nation claims to be founded in opposition to both - and many U.S. citizens still hold on to that old self-image.
Travel to the U.S. again. To be fair, it's not just about the surveillance. It's also about the political dystopia that goes with it. But these two are connected.
I love you people and I love your country - you're alright. But fuck the technofascist dystopia you've allowed yourselves to slide into, and fuck the criminal sacks of shit a lot of you have put back in power. I wish you all the best for removing them. Until then, I stay away and help you starve your regime and its corporate enablers of any Dollar I might otherwise have spent there.
Kids changed things but I assure everyone, I probably have a more active and fun life than most the depressed doom scrollers on here without the kids
So much this. It's so hard to remain a miserable grinch when there's a tiny human tugging on your limbs, trying to make you touch some actual grass and engage in an epic water gun battle.
Oops. I tried it in the past and just linked to quickly without taking a close look at the repo. I've updated the above posting. Thanks for pointing this out.
That said, fuck the "disruptors" who first "disrupted" the market (not just fuelled by a "genius" idea, but also the deep pockets of VC), abusing their monopolies to buy off or quash any budding competition, squeeze every last penny out of their victims customers and continuously enshittify their services for both individuals and businesses.
You mean it's going to scare off alls the Karens and the corporations that have already enshittified the clearweb? Don't threaten me with a good time! "Darkweb" it is for me!
I won't claim to have more knowledge than you, just more optimism. Let's stick to the car example and say you're a European looking to buy a car. You can choose between a petrol-guzzling American-made monster of a car and a reasonably efficient European-made ICE car or EV. Even if I "sweeten the deal" for you by slashing import tariffs, making the American car a little cheaper, you're not a complete buffoon (unlike the American President). You know that whatever you "saved" on your initial purchase will be eaten up by European petrol prices in no time - particularly if the orange moron destabilises even more oil-producing regions. So you're not going to buy the American-made car, 0% tariff be damned.
This might have been what the EU negotiators went with: "Let's give the idiot the larger number if it makes him happy. It will have little to no effect."
I ran into the same problem recently and gave up. (You were much more persistent / stubborn than me; thanks for compiling the above list!)
All major providers prevent you from registering anonymously because they don't want to have their services abused by spammers and scammers. Your best bet might be to get a VoIP number (not one of those public ones, but a paid one just for yourself), possibly paid with crypto. (Monero?) I haven't tried that route, though, because it wasn't worth the effort for me.
While this kind of staking could deter bad actors, it might also deter casual contributors. If I just so happen to stumble upon a kernel bug and have a quick and easy way to report it, I'll probably do so. If you make me jump through a lot of hoops to first make a deposit, I might not.
You misunderstood my question. How old are those installs? Chances are they're not very old.
Arch-based systems like EndeavourOS are rolling releases with minimal testing. They'll work fine at the start, but errors will accumulate over time. Breakage is not a question of if, but when, and when that happens, Arch assumes you're a savvy user who knows what youre doing and able to fix your stuff. If you aren't (and newcomers to Linux normally fall into that category), you're going to have a bad time.
Whatever the hype around Endeavour or CachyOS is: I wouldn't recommend any of them to Linux newcomers for this very reason. Instead, it's wise to give them a stable Debian-based OS to make themselves comfortable with Linux. Once they have arrived, they may or may not experiment with other flavours of Linux.