By age 40, a Linux user stops trying to install Arch on a toaster just to prove they can.

[nixcraft@mastodon.social]

By age 40, a Linux user stops trying to install Arch on a toaster just to prove they can. They finally settle on Debian Stable or Mint because they realize they no longer have the "mental bandwidth" to spend 6 hours configuring stuff or fix broken systems just to check their email or watch Netflix. 😊

[pspssp@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft I'm 39, looking forward to that

[stfn@fedi.stfn.pl]

@nixCraft ha, I reached that point at ~35!

[nixcraft@mastodon.social]

i used to live on the edge. now i just want a desktop environment that doesn't explode when i need it the most 😅

[waynedixon@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft this is why I only install betas on devices that I can tolerate bugs and possible issues. The number of devices that I’m willing to do that on seems to keep going down.

[susan_calvin@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft in their 50s they move back to Debian Testing because they have the experience to report bugs

[goatslive@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft Yup, me too. Mint for ages here...

[veviser@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft Surely the literal toaster (that they're still installing some distro on once they hit 40, and not specifically Arch as I choose to read this 🤭) doesn't have enough RAM or a fast enough processor to support a full desktop distro 🤔

[renef@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft Happy 45 year old Ubuntu user here 😉

[danielquinn@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft I really don't get this joke. Arch isn't Gentoo. You install it, and it just works. You never need to do a system upgrade 'cause it's on a rolling release, and its packages are always modern with the features you want.

Meanwhile Debian is perpetually antiquated, forcing creative hacks to get recent versions, and requires a tricky system upgrade every year or so just to remain relevant.

[ferret@hub.workersofthe.world]

@nixCraft 🐧 I switched to Arch for everything specifically cuz Debian was giving me troubles. 🤷

[odd@gts.oddware.net]

@nixCraft I switched to a macbook as my main driver for these reasons. But now I really want Linux back on desktop. Don’t trust anything anymore, but at least with Linux on my laptop, I won’t suddenly wake up with some forced AI having taken over my whole OS without my consent. 3 years until 50 now. Hope I’ll have the bandwidth to put Linux on my macbook by then :P

[tipiak75@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft Right. Especially just to watch netflix on the toaster.

[digitalkrampus@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft

[fosstastic@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft Funny, I already reached that point when I was 15 (or so) and had been using Arch for 9 months.

Since then, I've only used distributions that I can also recommend to non tech-savvy people.

I like tools that hide the bloat from me, like metapackages, Flatpak, Podman or rpm-ostree. 😎

[debgl@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft I can never deviate from debian+gnome for my main home laptop. I cannot say enough good things about its stability and reliability. paired with a good browser it has turned out to be the best combo for me. I can print, attend zoom calls, browse and do all office work with libre office. Stared with a older macbook pro and now use older surface laptop. Even the dell docking station works allowing me to have dual monitors.
Switching to Linux has never been easier for home!

[madduci@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft as an over 40, I have Arch (CachyOS) only on my personal laptop. On all other PCs from family, it's just Debian 13 - zero stress with upgrades, especially for those who never run them

[sol2070@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft 48 here. Two years without anything breaking. Afraid It'll come at any moment now. But I doubt it would take more than half an hour.

[jqheywood@mastodon.social]

@nixCraft So very true

[aaron@chirp.zadzmo.org]

@nixCraft I stopped building/upgrading my own PCs and switched buying decommissioned engineering workstations and installing Debian on them in my late 20's.

It's just like cars. I don't want to tinker or repair it constantly. Buy something high end so it's reliable, and five years old so it's also cheap.