I kind of wonder who is behind the over exaggeration. People with real concerns or those that do not want strong open platforms. Too much controversy and bifriction and those that push it for their own ends are the enemy.

Same. There is an Android version now too.

You have to want to use FOSS software. If you want to use certain proprietary applications then buy the commercial platform they run on.

The other is interest and ability to solve your own tech problems.

Keep in mind there are a lot of ways to start. Install it in a VM, buy hardware with Linux installed, or install it yourself.

I use it for when I want a custom system. Big ripo, and clean minimal installs along with security updates. I run it my workstation and on my vps systems.

Look at FairPhone. I got a Pixel 8a recently and flashed Graphene and I think this is the best tradeoff but I understand wanting jack etc, as I would have liked too.

In hind site for me, turns out Blutooth is great as it works well with my OTC hearing aids and my Bluetooth headphones too. I liked the hearing aide support as it gives me proper calibrated sound where generic stuff will not.

I use primarily debs but if your using Ubuntu it will include Ubuntu supported snaps. This is all from the distro supplied repos generally.

Installing random stuff not distro support contains a lot of addition risks such as potentially more bugs and malware.

I think the only 3rd party program I have installed is an AppImage of Joplin. I found the snap buggy.

I am not big fan of snaps or flatpacks as I had issues with both. One rarely needs them on Debian based distros anyway.

Just thinking what possibilities. Some thoughts.

• We always use Ubuntu LTS and do not install or upgrade a release until is out for 6 to 9 months. For Debian we use stable.

• Make certain your install media is good and also the computer storge media.

• Keep the system updates current.

• Use packages installed from the standard repo and supported by the security team.

Not sure what else.

Just FYI. My family has used linux for 25 years on many systems and we do not have stability issues. We use mostly Ubuntu or Debian.

Have no idea why your having issues. Could distro or hardware related. Also are you sure your storage media is good.

Yes. I support one youtuber that way. They put extended content there and stuff youtube would sensor. Do not actually use it that much but it is a nice thank you one gets for supporting them.

You can share a name or handle now but I think you still need the phone number otherwise though you no longer have to share it.

The big upside of signal is that it is better then SMS, and has more adoption then any of the other reasonable options. Adoption is still not enough to make it that useful when compared with Messenger and SMS and even with this addressbook thing your complaining about trying to drive it.

Big downsides abound too including needing a phone number, and being tied to a phone.

2 is probably wrong. Molly exists. Trademark cannot be used to prevent other implementations, just the use of the name or other dress. What may not be open is the server side code and federation is not supported.

You could go to Vanguards website and look at their funds just as an example. They have funds that are totally international for example. If you look at target date funds theirs are maybe 40% international. Me personally I prefer the 30 to 35% range simply because international has not had the returns of US though hey maybe finally international will out perform US. Who knows.

Well you have a choice. Either diversified portfolio and that includes international. Or some tilt to it that reflects your values.

Keep in mind if you had a pension or an annuity they would be doing the same thing so both have portfolios. Just one is more direct and you have more control.

There is a lot of good advice on the internet. Boggleheads for one.

All about diversification. If your in one of the target date funds, you should already have 30 or 40% foreign stock and maybe 60/40 stock to bond ratio depending on your age. Look at your asset allocation.

That assumes you can tell and that the best people and processes are flawless which is not true by a wide margin.

This assumes all human therapists are ethical and never make mistakes, and that all of their offices, notes and data syatems are secure too. All security is porous.

Peertube is the distributed Fediverse platform. The issue of course is ability to monetize and discoverability, both huge issues for creators. No creators, no content.

Reguarding apps, you said typewriter, movies, music, games. Office suite look at LibreOffice. Movies and music if it is online just Firefox or any other browser you choose. Firefox is good at working with PDFs too. Any distro should come with a document viewer, photoviewer, video player, and music player. You can choose from tons of other or more advanced tools. Debian for example comes with over 60K packges and Ubuntu and Mint are similar. There are also 3rd party sources too. Flathub or Snapcraft for example if you want something not in the repos.

If you go with a Debian based distro with a lot of apps in the repos, you probably my not need these other app souces, but some people like smaller distros, something special just not in the repos, or a newer or different version of app. For example I use Joplin which is a notes app that is not in the Debian repos.

For apps finding an app name and starting links https://alternativeto.net/ is your friend. For distros, https://distrowatch.com/ is your friend. Strongly favor a distro in the top 10 on distro watch unless you have some special need.

Edit: You will notice that the top 10 are all Debian, Arch, Fedora, or SUSE based in that general order of more to less popularity. Linux distros tend to be based on these base distributions. For example Mint is based on Debian and so is Ubuntu.