You are the only one with the answer closer to what I’m looking for, everyone else is thinking in terms of user accounts, where root can override. An encrypted volume can not be unlocked by root without having the password of the said volume.

No, it’s something else actually.

Yes, there is. If a folder or file is encrypted (with a different password), it is safe from root too. That’s what I’m after. Root can’t change the password of an encrypted volume.

Not if you have an encypted folder etc, with a different password than the user account. That way, is safe even from the root account. The problem here is that the app is a .deb, it doesn’t come as an appimage, and it needs constant updating too. So it’s the main system executable file that I want to make user-authenticating, with a different password than that of the user account.

I’m having trouble with wifi with two macbook airs from 2011 and 2013. Those broadcomm chipsets are simply not maintained anymore well on the linux kernel. The solution: a $5 usb wifi adapter. Works wonders (blacklist first the internal wifi).

Mint is very, very stable. However, not all hardware is compatible, especially since Mint is using older libraries. For most people, Mint is the best solution. For your hardware, it seems to be Debian-Unstable. I personally use both and I’m happy with both.

QCAD can read/write DWG files on Linux, it costs just 40 bucks, and it has an autocad-like interface. But if your instructor says that they need autocad, better keep a Windows machine too.

Another way to read/write DWG files is to download and make executable the appimage here. It converts DWG to DXF. https://www.opendesign.com/guestfiles/oda_file_converter Then you can load the DXF on the Community (Free) version of QCad.

Sure, you could load that DXF file on any Linux app (e.g. librecad, freecad), but qcad is the most autocad-like app of them all. Even Librecad is a very, very old fork of qcad, which hasn’t progressed much since. https://qcad.org/en/ You can make their trial version of QCAD (that supports natively dwg) to become free community edition by removing some library files they request on their UI. The ability to read dwg goes away, but then you have the converter above to do the job.

Linux user since 1998 or 99. Debian-Testing for my desktops, Mint for my laptops. I like things that work well with a GUI (I dislike the terminal, despite being well familiar with it), without bad surprises (Debian-Testing is surprisingly stable).

Ι must say that Arch Linux’s wiki pages are easily understood. But man pages are not. I can’t follow the standard manual format. Just like with IKEA instructions, they just don’t make sense to me. My brain is like that. But Arch Linux pages are good.

Different OS, different apps. When you move to another OS, you move your apps too, not expecting to run everything Windows does. If you really want to play that game, stay on Windows. Although you probably did something wrong, since others can play cyberpunk fine (maybe not the cracked version though, or a special pack for it – just vanilla game).

If you want a compatible laptop, you get one that has a version that comes with Linux, without major kernel changes. For example, the DELL laptops. The DELL laptops get hate, but they are tested against Linux. I personally got the 5640: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/129/776/310/532/073/original/ffe65da00bfd0b39.jpg It now runs Mint and Debian-Testing.

I paid just $900 euros with 32GB of RAM, and my husband got the same with 64GB of RAM for $1000 here in Greece. Everything works 100%, except touchpad’s palm rejection (I made a bug report about it).

The ability to upgrade my cameras’ firmwares, as it requires specialized Win/Mac utilities. Other than that, nothing.

Avoid. It’s mostly games that work well. Use open source alternatives instead.

It’s very simple.

You simply switch your apps too, not just the OS. Everyone thinks that they can switch the OS 1:1, but it’s not like that. You will never be happy if you expect the same apps on all the OSes. Instead of photoshop, you use Gimp. Instead of Illustrator, you use Inkscape. Instead of resolve/premiere, you use kdenlive. And so on. You will have to invest some time to relearn not just the OS, but the apps too.

Same issue on ubuntu…

I like this, because I’m on a slow line here in Greece, and pretty much every time there’s an update, the linux-firmware package is 600 MB, which is massive to download.

Ok, so, here it is: If you just want to cut stuff, without much fanfare, then these four are your best bet:

1. LosslessCut: https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut possibly what you’re looking for for most things, download the .appimage for x86
2. Shutter Encoder It just cuts and exports. https://www.shutterencoder.com/
3. Video Trimmer, get it on flathub. This one is newer.
4. https://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ (the old guard)

If you want to do a tiny bit more stuff, like subtitles and blurring, you MUST use a full video editor, like Shotcut and Kdenlive. These features aren’t simple to implement so they’re part of a full editing experience.

He should start with Mint, learn the system in general, and then move to Bazzite, CachyOS, Pika or Nobara, which are more game centric.

Yes, I agree. I personally like Cinnamon and Gnome, XFce if my PC doesn’t have much ram. I don’t really enjoy any of the other ones.

I use the cli on macos often, because some apps need to be manually signed from the terminal. Power users on windows also use the terminal. However, the best of what you ask is Linux Mint.