Hey now…!

Just kidding ;P Real monarchs can piss off.

But Mint is better <.<

I guess the thing is “Ubuntu is the friendly distro” but then also “Mint is the friendly distro?” Way back in like 2009 (okay, turns out it’s been a little while) Mint was super comfy and Ubuntu already felt like it was in my way without actually being any easier.

She goes by “Debra” now ;P (Do we really both have an Aunt Debbie/Debra?)

Also, for sure I don’t mean to pressure anyone nor suggest that you do. I also tried other distros first, even fearing a little that I’d break something. Dual booting (I knew Windows better back then… dunno if I’d know what to do with 11 😅) was a help, but also I started with easier distros (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Mint… definitely Mint gets my recommendation as an easy/comfy/friendly distro even though I haven’t touched it in over a decade) and found that I wanted them out of my way so I could set up my computer how I wanted it to be. All’ the stuff happening “for me” kept doing things I didn’t like and changing things I did, so I moved toward the “harder” or “harder-core” distros less because I wanted Linuxy cool-cred (though I did a little bit ;P ) and more because I just wanted to get my OS out of sight and out of mind rather than having to fight the thing over control. Arch mostly does that, Gentoo does it a bit more. These days I don’t have the latest high-powered gaming hardware and I myself am starting to feel a little old (2⁵+1 years! Augh!) so the compile waits don’t feel so great… but I’ll be back 😅I’ve been oscillating between Arch and Gentoo (may try Funtoo next time! Could be a fun… or two 😹) for ages so unless something else fits I don’t see a reason to quit.

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, no need to jump right into Gentoo or LFS or something… but also no need to worry if one does! I really want to make one point in particular: everything can be fixed. Everything. Broke the kernel? Fixable. Broke networking? Fixable. Package manager set off a bomb in its own backend? Fixable. There’s always a fix, whether it’s rolling back a package to an old version, booting another OS or computer, GRUB’s recovery console, a fallback kernel, rolling forward a package to a new version, using a newer/patched/forked kernel that doesn’t crash your graphics driver on a new laptop. No matter how deep into “I’ll just go until I trip on something,” you can get back up and you can learn something from it… or you can just reinstall or hop to the next distro.

And maybe the thing you tripped on was a cute kittycat who you can appease them despite their annoyance at you for tripping on them :3

Also no, I don’t know why I felt like yapping for ages <.< Sorry about that? 😅

Breaking things is arguably the best way to learn

Hee hee, some may agree with you. jumped into Gentoo very early and hasn’t stopped breaking things yet. Sometimes for fun, sometimes 'cause some distro maintainer type did something horrible ^.

I definitely support “Just try things, see what breaks, then learn to fix it” as a learning method. Not necessarily for everycritter and not necessarily as a sole learning method but certainly it can be many fun and very productive, sometimes in ways that other methods would not be.

Assuming I’m understanding you correctly (I think I am: “ghost files” would be files of the old filesystem read and kept by the new one?) No, that’s unnecessary unless you have data you specifically want unrecoverable, in which case you’ll want a ‘file shredder’ or srm type tool to handle that. Other than that you’ll probably not be using any filesystem format Windows offers, so it also won’t be recognizing any Windows files even if such a thing would otherwise be possible.

As for your main post, you seem to have the right idea. Steam recognizes that Windows games won’t run natively on a Linux system and will either “automatically run with a compatibility tool (Steam Play)” (or something like that) or refuse to launch/install the thing until you configure it to run everything non-native with Proton by default (which is a checkbox in the normal settings menu, not anything weird or buried).

…Also sometimes it just launches Wine? At least for me? That’s kinda weird, honestly, but I set up my systems in weird ways so that may just be a me problem 😅

Simply put: I think you’ll be fine just not worrying about anything and going directly to your “boot from install/live media” step and not worrying about anything else unless there’s a problem… at which point you come yell at us and we help you fix it ;P

Yay Vulkan! Yay Yayland! sways cheerily for Sway!

LLM “AI” fans thinking “Hey, humans are dumb and AI is smart so let’s leave murder to a piece of software hurriedly cobbled together by a human and pushed out before even they thought it was ready!”

I guess while I’m cheering the fiery destruction of humanity I’ll be thanking not the wonderful being who pressed the “Yes, I’m sure I want to set off the antimatter bombs that will end all humans” but the people who were like “Let’s give the robots a chance! It’s not like the thinking they don’t do could possibly be worse than that of the humans who put some of their own thoughts into the robots!”

I just woke up, so you’re getting snark. makes noises like the snarks from Half-Life You’ll eat your snark and you’ll like it!

Hey, I like that game! Oh, wait… 🤔

“A” game? v.v creaky old person noises

Why do I keep looking at these threads? The way people talk about this stuff on all sides is so asinine. Nearly every good point is accompanied by missing a big one or just ricocheting off the good one, flying off into space and hitting a fully automated luxury gay space commulist. Hopes, dreams, assumptions, and ignorance all just headbutting each other and getting nowhere.

Oh yeah, I wanted to know what “superintelligence” was and whether I should care. Welp.

[Very joke] Wait… if I buy the latest fishgame I can get double XP at Little Caesars?! If only I even knew where to buy those things!

But you “do even” think it’s sensible to demand perfect security like that’s the only valid alternative to Windows for anyone?

“[brand] makes slow cars!” “What do you recommend that does 0-60 literally instantaneously?” “This is a reasonable question and implied suggestion and I will now proceed to thoughtfully engage with it, taken literally as stated. Here is my breakdown of companies producing physically impossible road-legal motor vehicles:”

I’ll just leave this here.
https://kotaku.com/mcdonalds-grimace-wiki-ad-happy-meal-fandom-history-1850552640

Grinning at critters remembering Tribes and Global Agenda ^. Also hoping this one is many funs, though I kinda just wanna play Tribes 2 again and doubt this’ll be much like that.

Okay, that’s fucked going after the researchers. On the other paw, if we get catpeople out of this I may still forgive them :3

(Of course that demand is BS, though. Bleh!)

YES. Hero sib ^. 🎵

As a Gentoo user currently vacationing in Arch-land I’m not sure whether to feel insulted or affirmed. Imean, it is but some might say that to disparage it or its users 😅

I so want to join that one :D Brilliant name.

… Then go back to Gentoo and stay anyway >:P

Thanks :3

… I’ve been secretly thinking of changing both >:P

I just like them <.< particularly the cheesy ones, and pork (both Maruchan; there are not many options in general for me… though sometimes Yakisoba is available, which is nice). Dunno if there’s any actual meat in there. Could just be salt with salt flavouring in salt sauce. I don’t add any salt.