Are your specific issues a reason normal users shouldnt use Linux? No

I cannot agree. Most of the users would be upset about bluetooth dropping connection or constant issues after running updates.

Your comment is a perfect Linux answer - it works on my computer :) And I don’t mean it as an insult. The problem here is that Linux, despite of all its advantages, is not for a global consumer.

I think, you should keep these two things (messing with containers accessing GPU and “just play a game”) separate. I mean on separate boxes. Because now you can’t “just play” because you’ve been elbows deep in OS internals. You can’t take apart your fridge and then expect it to just cool the water the next day

I agree, that’s a valid point. But, I had a clean system, prepared for a normal user (clean install, official repositories, etc. And still GPU drivers refusded to work. I have covered all basics before I asked for help and even I got some good advice that worked, I ended up in the same place.

Then I’m guessing these might need some KDE envs

True, but sill for a regular user it looks like “Linux is ugly”

Ah, you’re trying to breach the non-open wall. Is there an app on i* that allows you to set up an ftp/http file sharing server on the device? You probably could set it up as rclone upstream

I know too well the unbreakable apple garden. And I don’t mind tinkering with it but again, we are at the regular user level, that wants things just to work.

Start with Gentoo or Arch (maybe Slackware). These are close to the grass, so the way to set things up is the way to fix things up

I’ve tried Mint, openSUSE, Debian, Gentoo and Arch but I had other, non-regular user issues with those. I wanted to point out the standard issues.

are these gtk based apps? Different toolsets require different envs

Some were GTK based other were “optimised” for KDE

Have you tried syncthing?

Yes, I use it on a daily basis but there’s no easy way to get it working on iOS/iPadOS.

As I wrote, I did the clean install. Even if I didn’t do a thing with it, it would still break. As it did couple days ago.

As I said, I did a clean install and still all Steam games were failing on directx issue. Also, a “regular” user when switching to Linux will have to know what a GPU driver is in order to use it, event if it’s just for playing games. And the cherry on top - once I fixed the directx issue and I was able to play a game I wanted, the drivers update broke it. And despite spending days on fixing the issue, I got back to a square one.

Funny thing, yesterday there was an update for nvidia drivers. I was stupid enough to install it and now I have the same directx error as before. I’m done with gaming on Linux.

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

This worked. I haven’t checked the bios yet. If there’s an option to disable integrated graphics I will use it. For now I will just use the vars.

Why don’t more people use Linux?

Because Linux breaks randomly, in many cases without user interaction. New driver update - external monitor stops working, games break, etc. Official desktop widgets - tend to break without any reason. Apps don’t follow desktop theme.

I’m a software engineer and I work a lot and I want to spend my free time using OS, not fixing it. After my recent issues with graphic drivers I decided to buy a Windows PC just for gaming. I will stick with Linux for my home server and work.

Yeah, I think I messed it up :) Now my system starts in cli mode. Well, I wanted to nuke everything anyway so no harm done.

edit

I was able to switch to gui but still no luck with the gpu.

You might be right. I have a feeling that when I blacklisted nouveau rest of the stuff got deleted from this line. I’ll give it a try.

bat /etc/default/grub

───────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       │ File: /etc/default/grub
───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   1   │ GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
   2   │ GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)"
   3   │ GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
   4   │ GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true
   5   │ GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"
   6   │ GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rhgb quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau"
   7   │ GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
   8   │ GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=true
───────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Sorry about that, I forgot to add more details. I have updated my post.

First of all, update that title. It gives a really bad vibe.

As for the question, don’t try to be a “good uncle”, don’t pretend to know stuff the kid does unless you know it. Ask your friend how to approach the kid. I’m almost sure all tips you get from the random people from the internet will be useless or confusing.

I used to buy almost everything on Amazon - electronics, books, kitchen/office/cleaning supplies, etc. Back then I was a Prime subscriber so I did not pay for the delivery. As for the delivery, it was blazing fast and the item was always in a mint condition. In case of any issues I was able to sort it out within a day or two. And the price was better than the other online or brick and mortar stores.

However, at some point the quality of the products went downhill. Support became unhelpful and the prices got higher than the competition. One time I had some issues with the order. It never got delivered and the process to get my money back was way too long and too complex. Eventually I have contacted my bank and reported the fraud. Eventually I got my money back. Turned out that such issues were not an anomaly and a lot of people reported shady sellers.

Since then I have unsubscribed from Prime and every time I found something I wanted to buy I’ve checked the seller and if there was a website I bought directly from them.

For past few years I didn’t buy a thing on Amazon.

As for the alternatives, I don’t have a single one. I have several websites I usually buy from but in general I always do some research and buy the product from the seller that has the best price and is trusted enough.

KDE works ok on touch devices but if you’re going to switch, try plasma mobile.

I wrote it several times and I will write it again. Linux on a tablet is at best average. However, after recent release of KDE 6, plasma mobile got really good. In tablet mode it feels almost like a real thing. I’ve been using it for some time now and I like the experience.

Try GrapheneOS. It has some quirks but it’s a good alternative. Been using it for two years on a phone and I’m considering getting it on a tablet.

I know you said you’re not looking for a Pocket like solution but honestly it’s the best solution for your problem. With tabs you might lose it all when the browser crashes and for some reason you’re not able to restore the session. If you don’t want to use cloud based solutions like mentioned before Pocket, check Linkwarden which can be selfhosted.