All I need is a sudden jolt of “I need to test other distros”, distro hop for a day or 2,and then end up back in my distro of choice. This happens every couple of months give or take.

No

I wanted to offer some friendly corrections and context on a few points:

1. Google using Ubuntu on MacBooks
     While there have been rumors and isolated internal reports over the years of various corporate users trying out different Linux setups on Mac hardware, there’s no verified evidence that Google officially used Ubuntu on MacBooks as a standard environment. Google’s internal usage tends to be quite varied and often kept under wraps, so the claim might be more anecdotal than fact-based.

2. Canonical and Ubuntu’s direction
     You mentioned that “not everyone likes what Canonical is doing anymore.” While Canonical’s moves (like the snap ecosystem and various design choices) have sparked debates, many users still appreciate Ubuntu’s focus on ease of use, hardware compatibility, and community support. It’s all about personal preference and the tradeoffs between innovation and long-term support.

3. Fedora’s complexity and documentation
     Saying Fedora is “weirdly more complex” might be an oversimplification. Fedora often targets users who appreciate the latest upstream software and development practices, which can feel more hands-on. Its documentation is actually quite robust and maintained by a passionate community—even if the style and depth might differ from Ubuntu’s more streamlined guides. It comes down to what learning experience you value more.

4. Arch Linux and its learning curve
     Your take on Arch is fair: its wiki is indeed one of the best resources out there, which is why many users swear by it as a learning tool. However, while it’s true that Arch offers a very pure, “vanilla” GNOME (or any desktop environment you set up) experience—similar in spirit to what Fedora might provide—it’s also worth noting that Arch’s philosophy means it won’t hold your hand. For newcomers, that means more risk of “breaking things,” but also an invaluable hands-on learning curve for those willing to dive in.

5. Starting with Ubuntu for hardware compatibility
     The suggestion to use Ubuntu to test hardware support is a practical one. Since Ubuntu has a broad driver base and a large user community, it’s often a good first check for MacBook (and other hardware) compatibility. However, sometimes even if Ubuntu exhibits some quirks, other distros might work just as well or even better depending on the kernel versions, desktop customizations, or community-contributed fixes. A USB Wi-Fi adapter can indeed be a good temporary workaround for connectivity issues if they arise.

In summary, each Linux distribution has its own strengths and challenges. It really boils down to your priorities—whether it’s stability, a polished user experience, cutting-edge software, or a chance to learn more about the inner workings of a system. All these distros contribute to the vibrant, diverse Linux ecosystem, and exploring them is part of the fun!

Hope this helps provide a clearer picture, and just enjoy tinkering with Linux!

Absolutely. Maybe I’m a bit biased. I can’t stick to anything immutable (other than my Steam Deck, and believe me, I’ve tried many times), and always come back to distros I can have absolute control over.

However, I have all my employees running Silverblue (mostly because none of them even know what CLI means 🤣).

Chances are that, if you do break something, it’ll be on the Windows side.

Bazzite is very solid for new users as it’s very convoluted to access and modify anything system related.

Having said that, if you have any intention to learn how to use Linux distros, and eventually remove Microsoft from your life, immutable distros like Bazzite will limit you dramatically, so I suggest you start with a regular “mutable” distro. Now, if your intention is just to have something that works, scape Windows every now and then, and come back to Windows, it’s hard to beat an immutable distro.

I just told my wife she’s going to have to share now🤣

You give the info, and then a link to the source? There’s still hope for humanity 😉

I love how this went from “.deb” to “Mullvad VPN repo configuration” 🤣

I’m already married, but, would you marry me? I’m guessing you’re probably very useful to have around.

My experience has been the polar opposite of yours. Of course, depends on the dock and TV as much as it depends on the deck, so our mileage will vary.

For me it’s hit-or-miss with Nord and with Proton. As a matter of fact, works more times than not. This is on Brave browser, just to be clear.

https://media.tenor.com/iWH2JuFYqoUAAAAM/go-on-continue.gif

Dock for playing on a large screen paired with a Google Stadia controller.

Gnome. Love how it just gets out of the way and let’s me do whatever I want without interruptions.

You can hide your phone number from other users, bit still need a phone number to sign up or to use your account.

Lol

I’ve had mine for a year and 3 months (LCD) and it will run me Horizon Zero Dawn for an hour and 15 minutes (give or take) since day 1. No difference that I’ve been able to appreciate.

I play docked exclusively, unless I’m traveling. Never thought about this need because of what I play on my deck, but maybe KDEconnect can help there.

Yeah. The solution to that is using WiFi all over, but that’s not feasible for most people. That’s the 1 thing I’m still stuck with. There’s no 2 ways about it. Either you keep feeding your location to your mobile service provider to have internet everywhere, or you sacrifice that convenience and go completely dark. Fortunately the option of VOIP for voice calls instead of a voice Sim is available, which lessens the issue a bit. I use JMP.chat for that. Seriously thinking about getting their data Sim as well.

All too aware of that. Fortunately I use nothing mainstream at all. For example:

Pretty much all of them. If I recall correctly, after the 3rd question everything was AI.