I don't want to be rude, but recommending Arch to a newbie who wants to dip their toe in is just mean. Why not tell them to set up an OpenBSD desktop while they're at it.

And the laptop they're using is from 2015. Why would you need the latest drivers for that?

To be fair, Fedora has opt-in telemetry. It's 100% anonymized, though, and helps with development. I always say yes when I'm running a beta (like now).

That having been said, you should always check the privacy policies of any given distro. They tend to all be pretty up front about it (kinda hard to lie about it when anyone can check your source code...).

AFAIK, though, neither Mint nor Elementary collect telemetry by default, although they might have opt-in like Fedora. Both are based on Ubuntu LTS, but they also both scrape out so much stuff that they're devoid of most of the Canonical junk.

That's actually the beginning of the Armed Services oath you take when you join the military here.

But yes, kids do still say the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. That's hand on the heart, not raised right hand though. And it also sucks.

Ah! I see what you're talking about! That particular load screen is becoming pretty common these days, although the themes differ quite a bit. I kind of miss the text flying by too, at least sometimes.

If you're wanting to try out Gnome 45, the Fedora 39 beta is probably the easiest way. That's what I'm doing. The loading screen you're talking about is called Plymouth, and it can be easily disabled:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-disable-plymouth-on-linux

This process should work on any system running Plymouth.

I feel like the 2020s will be remembered as the Decade of Enshitification.

Well, he's not a representative of any state, so technically assassination wouldn't be an act of war...

I'm not advocating, just pointing out that as an individual, his position is a bit more precarious than I think he realizes.

He's working on concrete steps?

…

Any chance some one could shove him down them?

Who in the world would like that many options.

KDE fans?

Awww, Plasma fans, you know I'm playin'.

Heya. I'm an American, and I've got to say thank you. I seriously look forward to calling someone a "ball violin" in English, but if fully intend to add klootviool and and klootzak to my day to day swear bank. Those are so satisfying to say!

Caffeine occurs naturally in cacao. AFAIK, there is no way to process it out. That's all they meant.

Although you'd kinda have to eat a lot t get a significant dose.

I went to DL it and try it out, and… dude, I hate Sourceforge. I know how privileged this sounds, but I'm not spending a half hour DLing something that I can DL in a minute and a half somewhere else.

Anybody got a line on a torrent?

Hey, the other day I set up a fresh Arch install in like an hour; it was easy as hell with Arch Installer in its current state. But that's me - I've been running Linux for a while, so i might be a bit out of touch with what new folks have issues with.

That said, I think a lot of problems new users have with Linux really do come down to foolish mistakes, an unwillingness to read manuals, expecting Linux to work like Windows/Mac, or a combination of the above.
Not all problems, but many.