tyrant

I don't think you'll get the results you are hoping for. I'm not sure it would harm it but you'd need some sort of agitation or scrubbing to actually get it clean. I'd propose a soft toothbrush and iso. Or if you're dedicated to dunking it, maybe try one of those ultrasonic tubs

All the options you listed are downstream from a company. Fedora is from red hat, mint is a fork of Ubuntu, open suse is from... Suse? I can't remember. That's not necessarily a bad thing but figured I'd mention it.

Any distro you choose can look however you want. This is something I didn't understand at first. Your version of Linux lives below the desktop environment. You can install (almost) whatever desktop environment you want on top of your version. Then you can tweak your desktop however you want. Some distros come pre-tweaked but don't pick a distro on looks alone.

So really your deciding between 3 base Linux distros. Most "distros" are just the base system with some choice drivers and software to help you get going. A few of them are tweaking at the kernel level. You can do the raw version of any of the base Linux versions if you prefer to control and limit any software on your system.

Debian - updates slowly but stable, focus on testing before stable releases. You might miss new Linux features but unless you're running the latest hardware you probably won't know the difference. Distros based on Debian: Ubuntu, mint, popos, elementary os (looks like macos!), a hundred other ones.

Arch - updates rapidly with the risk of something not working. If you want bleeding edge features or every drop of performance choose an Arch distro. Just know that you MIGHT need to help it along. I don't think arch distros being difficult is as true as it once was. There are some excellent distros out there making arch accessible and easy for the masses. Notable distros based on arch: endeavor, cachyos (my personal favorite right now), omarchy

Fedora: kind of a mix giving you fairly up to date software with a stable system. Honestly it's probably the best place for a newbie to start. It's not perfect though and you'll want to read up on install if you have a Nvidia card. Fedora based distros: nobara, bazzite, but most people just use vanilla fedora.

Matrix is good but not as simple as discord. Lots of users aren't going to like it.

Dems are on thin ice!

I've not bought this in my adult life but was recently reminiscing about it and was planning on buying some. I better do it now!

Here's my combo, the rain shell could be swapped out for any of the other million brands that make basically the same thing. It's kind of pricey but versatile, warm, and lasts a looonnnngg time

Wool base layer: https://www.smartwool.com/en-us/men/base-layers/tops/mens-classic-thermal-merino-base-layer-crew/SW016349.html?dwvar_SW016349_color=001 Wool blend hoodie: https://chromeindustries.com/products/mens-merino-cobra-3-0-hoodie Rain shell: https://www.outdoorresearch.com/collections/mens-rain-jackets/products/mens-stratoburst-stretch-rain-jacket-300893

I seem to have similar use as you but use layers. I've had best luck with chrome wool hooded sweatshirt with a rain shell over the top. If it's really cold I'll put on a wool base layer too. It's really warm and lasts a long time. I wear the sweatshirt nearly year round.

What's with all the new users in the past week or two?

They should just release the steam controller while they figure out RAM stuff.

Maybe try The Fisherman by John Langan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fisherman_(novel)

I usually read sci Fi stuff but that was a good horror mysterious one.

Have you tried setting a filter for "act blue"? Might be helpful. I donated $10 to one particular charity and I swear they spent $50 in postage asking me to donate more.

This one thing!! We could tell you in the title what it is, but we won't!

I'm old and have never experienced a lady smelling "fishy". Don't worry about this. There's definitely better things to worry about.

I too was scared of the arch but it's been as easy as any other distro so far

That's not what I said. My experience with nobara personally hasn't been great and while I use bazzite at home for gaming PC but wouldn't recommend it at this moment because it seems that the dev team is having some drama. I use cachy daily and find it wonderful and super easy. Not the arch difficulty that I was expecting. It's a downstream.

Yeah I thought it would be great and bought into the hype. It ended up being one of the more frustrating distros for me. Maybe your right about the de being included in base packages? Regardless, it lost me after the second issue. On cachy now and happy. Plus I really like the little terminal update animation thing if pacman C eating the progress bar.

Once I tried to install a different desktop environment and that didn't go well. Another time it just... Stopped working? I hadn't changed anything. It seemed like a Nvidia thing but I never did recover it. Ended up doing a fresh install. If you're 2 months in you've done better than I did! It might just not like my machine

You might just want to recommend fedora with the caveat that he'll need to do a little setup with drivers. Bazzite and nobara are both fedora distros.

I strongly disagree with the order. To me, nobara has broken more than any of these (quite frequently actually), pop os is clunky and not intuitive, cachy is surprisingly the most stable for me and easiest despite it being arch based. Bazzite I use on my home living room computer and it's been pretty solid. I'm a little concerned with it though because I believe they are having some maintainer issues that might impact future releases.