OK, in broad terms you want a distro that is reasonably up to date, but doesn’t have to be bleeding edge.

I run Mint Cinnamon and Arch KDE for the limited gaming I do, they both work perfectly fine.

Almost all games that have a Linux port will have the support & requirements specified for Ubuntu, which has a KDE flavour, however most people won’t recommend Ubuntu (for good reasons). An Ubuntu derivative with the issues removed however is a decent choice: Mint or PopOS.

Mint is by a long way the most recommended Linux distro for beginners and for good reason - the install process is easy, the community is supportive, and it does pretty much everything straight out of the box.

Cinnamon desktop environment is customisable, not as much as KDE. If you’re really keen on sticking with KDE then either EndeavourOS (which is basically a bundling of Arch so it’s easy to install) or KDE Plasma - which is Debian based but more up to date than Sid I believe.

I don’t recommend Arch for beginners unless you’re highly technical and willing to RTFM.

Most windows games will work in linux via proton/wine etc. You’re Your only really blocked ones are the couple of companies that insist on kernel anti-cheat and are anti-Linux (EA I think ?) it’s a handful of AAA games that are locked out.

Generally you don’t need any hardware changes nowadays, in fact it’s often the other way around - stuff that W10 & 11 no longer support can often be made to work on linux. AMD & Intel GPUs are less troublesome than Nvidia, but it’s generally not a big deal anymore.

Reddit’s /r/linuxgaming has fairly reasonable people (for reddit) and a fairly deep archive that will allow you to search for the specific games you most play, and ways to get them running.

The full list of employers caught is on the press release linked above - maybe your employer wasn’t there ? There’s also a link for working out if you’re being gypped and what to do (if you’re not on the list)

KDE is not a Mint supported DE and the KDE files are not in the Mint repos.

This can be made to work if you’re experienced but is definitely not a good idea for beginners. It will eventually break, and dependency hell is a thing.

For a KDE option suitable fir beginners, Fedora offers KDE as does Ubuntu, or there’s KDE Neon

What arguments did you hear before?

The voices in his head were arguing with each other

There already is a tax on sugary drinks

Ubuntu touch project runs linux on a tablet while retaining the phone/android functionality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Touch

https://ubuntu-touch.io/

https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/userguide/install.html

https://liliputing.com/ubuntu-touch-mobile-linux-distro-is-now-based-on-ubuntu-24-04-lts/

There’s a list of supported devices there. Lenovo was one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_British_royal_family#Assets_held_in_trust_by_the_Sovereign

https://www.investopedia.com/ahead-of-king-charles-coronation-here-is-the-british-royal-family-s-net-worth-7486580

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-57559653

I’ve never dug into it but these are the first couple of links for Harry personally

https://parade.com/culture/prince-harry-net-worth

https://www.businessinsider.com/prince-harry-meghan-markle-net-worth-spending

NFI of the accuracy of any of that

Thames Water suck

Caveat - I don’t use skylight or bluesky

A cursory search indicates the US should work. It also came up with a reddit thread suggesting it’s basically just bluesky - dunno how true that is.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueskySocial/comments/1jquvhe/creators_to_follow_on_skylight_social/

"Your followers and follows on Bluesky and Skylight are the same unless you make separate accounts; something to keep in mind. "

Which implies they’re different front ends for the same thing.

Guys don’t get sucked into the misdirecting packing - this is nothing to do with keeping children safe. Better parental effort isn’t going to make this UK govt stop the initiative because it has absolutely nothing to do with child safety.

This is about authoritarian tracking of everything a UK citizen does and says online - that’s why the careful quote is about it being ok for adults to have VPN not kids.

You know how they do that ? They make it necessary to show ID to have a VPN so then they can track what the adults are doing on a VPN.

The “think of the children” pearl clutching is a sham and a scam

God help me when I’m barracking for 4chan

Please tell me you forgot the /s ?

Well it’s an epithet I use because it appropriately mocks a govt who were elected on a groundswell of “we’ve had the Tories up to the back teeth” and then preceded proceeded to do things even the Tories shied away from. I dunno where Starmer & Streeting got the idea that being a Poundland Reform was going to endear them to voters but the polls answer the question. That and the fact he’s filled his Cabinet and the Human Rights board with TERFs, cracked down on protests worse than the Tories have previously done and generally made the worse parts of the Conservative party seem like reasonable people. I can’t recall who it was but a former Tory minister criticised him a couple of weeks ago for going too far on authoritarian crackdowns. Hell the welfare changes he walked back were ones the Cameron govt considered and rejected for being too extreme.

edit, incorrect word selection correction

Which based on the last 12months of Queer Harmer’s govt seems to be a fairly accurate position

Kick the can down the road and download the MASgrave Win10 script (I think that’s it, I don’t use windows) that puts you on the Long Term support - iirc that gives you until Jan 2027. That’s enough time to get through the zero parental sleep phase and be able to think clearly…

If that’s of interest I’ll dig the correct details out (ping me) or I’m sure someone else knows what I’m waffling about & will drop the link

Yes but don’t use it for anything valuable. USBs have a high failure rate when used for heavy read writes.

You can get USB enclosures for M2 drives if you want to go that route a bit more reliably. Ensure you use USB3 (which will still be slow but not as boneachingly bad as USB2)

Seconded. I really dislike Gnome and use KDE or Cinnamon for myself and family, but for a user who has been on Macs and using it on a tablet…

Use Gnome.

Yeah. Don’t do that.

It sounds great in theory but you’ll run into issues. I put a lot of people on mint but use arch+kde for myself.

I’ve done KDE on Mint in VMs 3 times now and every time something goes wrong.

I’m no fan of ubuntu but just run up kubuntu or fedora kde. KDE neon might be a bit cutting edge. Endeavour is arch on easy mode and comes in KDE. First two for beginners, second two for those with some tech experience.

Mint out of the box rocks for new linux users, never a problem. Once you start putting it in unsupported configs you’re ditching the primary reason to recommend it (stability in the reliability sense)

<shrug> I’ve put later kernels on Mint a half dozen times withno dramas, but whether you should depends on what your use case, preferences and skill are.

I personally wouldn’t do the arse-ache that is an immutable system, but plenty here love their Bazzite it seems. Different strokes for different folks. Nothing wrong with that.

If you love Mint except for the kernel version then it’s an easy fix. If you don’t have deep feelings then either try & be ready to ditch, or pick an alternative.

Just for the record there is no “doing all that” about it. It’s a simple couple of clicks. It couldnt be easier. I’m not sure where you got the idea it was difficult.

Lol at the downvotes, it’s like 3 clicks. Not rocket science.

https://www.fosslinux.com/138008/how-to-install-and-try-different-linux-kernels-in-linux-mint.htm

Mint deliberately uses an LTS kernel because it’s primary value proposition is stability & simplicity but changing kernels is pretty safe.