I think the biggest fundamental concept for any computer regardless of operating system is filesystem hierarchy. The concept of nested folders is core to using a personal computer, but for the last two decades UI/X teams have done everything in their power to obscure and abstract it away. Many younger people conceptualize the storage on their device as just an amorphous blob that apps manage autonomously. Windows is starting to go this way as well with OneDrive being sold as the way to manage all your data, but on Linux the file system is still king.

Your mom is presumably old enough to have some experience with desktop PCs, so hopefully that basic hurdle is already cleared. And honestly once someone is at that level of base competence, along with basic interface concepts like how to use a mouse and keyboard, clicking on icons, use of a web browser etc, with the right distro you really don’t need to explain much else. There might be a few quirks of the UI to explain depending on what you choose, but most of that can be handled by just watching them use the computer for a bit, and/or asking them to give you a list of questions and annoyances after they use it for a few days.

The biggest difference is one that most “I just want it to work” users will actually love, and that’s relearning how to install software. Having one central location to install verified software from is a change from the wild west of downloading installers from the internet, but it shouldn’t be a difficult transition. Most people these days don’t even install software beyond maybe Zoom, so you can probably get away with just installing any third party software they need in the initial setup.

I recommend an immutable distro like Fedora Silverblue, at least if a) you’re setting it up and are reasonably technical, and b) you don’t want to go over and help them fix stuff often. I set my mom’s laptop up with it 4+ years ago and she’s only had one problem since then.

Because the entire US political spectrum fits nearly inside of “neoliberalism”. Liberalism in general is just capitalism+.

Is it non-trivial to enable non-free repos?

You are agreeing with the person you replied to lol

Having been in this position, sure, but I’ve also had to end relationships because the person transitioned in a direction I wasn’t attracted to. Communicating honestly and openly is the key, as it is for pretty much everything about interpersonal relationships.

Well anecdotally many of us have the opposite experience so I guess sucks to be you?

No, it’s called using terms accurately instead of the propaganda that’s designed to mush it all into one un-discussable bogeyman.

A) that’s not a criticism… Every game in any defined genre is “just another x”.

B) I still think HK is superlative among its peers in many ways.

C) Ori is fine but is a lot more one-note than many games in the genre. The story is very derivative and the main interesting gameplay element is the mechanical way the jump works. The second game I really disliked, but the first one is unobjectionable.

Oh okay yeah on big hits there is a bit of hitstop.

Yeah the “for console” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Mmm, there is a bit of knockback. There’s a trinket you can equip that basically eliminates that, but learning to deal with it is just part of the combat flow.

Hand-drawn animation, creative world and character designs, charming voice acting, abilities that are fun to use and combo in interesting ways, boss fights that are challenging but fair, a world that’s much bigger and stranger than it first appears, satisfying endings, a bunch of free DLC… Yeah you’ve got a point I can’t see why people like it either.

The Bioshock games are the most popular and least good of their spiritual franchise. Prey (2017) and System Shock 1 and 2 are all fantastic games. For story SS1 is my favorite, while Prey has the most developed gameplay (perhaps obviously given the release date). I still haven’t played more than a couple hours of SS2, but it’s a classic on the level of Deus Ex.

SS1 also has the distinction of being possibly the most influential game ever made. It’s bonkers how many systems and ideas it was the first to explore or use. A very faithful remake came out recently, with one for SS2 under development.

Your inability to deal with extremely minor setbacks is pretty funny given the content of the game. You got filtered by being too much like the protagonist, RIP

I hate NMS. I got gaslit into playing it again after people clamoring for years that they “fixed the game”. Big surprise, it’s still the same miles wide but micrometer-deep puddle that is was on launch.

Everything aspect of the game is clunky and frustrating and unsatisfying. Exploration is literally the only reason to play the game and even that manages to be stale and minimally exciting, which is truly impressive given the numbers on display. Within 45 seconds of landing on most planets you’ve seen everything there is to see on them, and the exceptions usually just mean another chore.

Sure, you can build a base, you can build up a fleet of ships, you can play with your friends… But to what end? All the ships handle the same, they just have more space or slightly better numbers. Combat is hilariously boring, and the ostensible goal of reaching the center of the universe becomes old far before you get even close. The story that exists is very “I’m 14 and this is sci-fi”, and they stretch it so hard that each crumb you’re given just feels insulting.

What was revolutionary about it? It was just a mid arena shooter.

You were probably a PC player. Halo was designed for the console experience, which is why (on top of massive marketing) it did so well. It really dragged shooter design into the mud for years, arguably we’ve never recovered.

Yeah… TotK is better, but I felt like I already burned out on how repetitive BotW was so I stopped after a couple hours. If I had only played the second game I bet I would have a more favorable opinion.

I will say Witcher 3 kind of forced AA/AAA games to up the quality of their writing. It still stands up as some of the best writing in games, but maybe a little less obviously so after a decade of other competent game stories.

What’s really exceptional is how pretty much every sidequest is also very well written, with believable characters and compelling situations. Many games, again especially before W3, might have pretty good main plots, but the sidequests would just be endless dross with maybe one or two standouts.

As for performance, you probably enabled some silly options. Both Witcher 2 and 3 pushed the envelope in crazy ways for PC graphics; there’s an ultra setting on W2 that was still bringing GPUs to their knees a decade later as well. The game still looks great if you turn it down a little.

That’s crazy… The only complaint I ever hear about the game that I have to begrudgingly accept and move on is from people who just detest any amount of backtracking, i.e. people who hate metroidvanias.

Everything about the game’s feel, from the controls and movement to the art and atmosphere, I would rate as best-in-class. Unless you get creeped out by bugs or cannot stand anything animated, I cannot fathom what your complaint is.

I’m curious how much you played – I will say that the game does bury the lead a bit, both artistically and mechanically. The first area seems almost monochrome and until you get the dash your prime form of locomotion is walking. But once you’ve been to a few different areas you start to realize how much bigger the game world is than you initially thought.