It does also have third party repos such as sbopkg. This does a bunch of the movement for you when installing packages though you still need to manually install dependencies, BUT If you also add sboui which is a front end package resolution for dependencies then the process is much faster. I like the stability of Slackware, and also because its helps me get better for when I try the BSD since its very much like them as well.

I dont blame em for going with that decision. Maintainer/devs are also wearing customer service/ PR and bookeeping hat on top of the things they build. Things cost money, especially time, call it greedy or not but people have to pay housing and food. Its tough and similar to a lot of industries, nobody cares until something goes wrong. All the best to this person 👍

Several things with this.

1. introducing programing and linux are two seperate things, though they do bridge when running linux, it would be asking em to learn one or the other. ( offer something already easy linux distro, to learn linux passively while focusing on programing.

Resources:

Learn linux TV - playlist available for linux and programing

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxQKHvKbmSzGMvUrVtJYnUA

Unfa - learn linux and music production

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKj_peyESIMDp5LtHlH2A

Good audio recording program thats free Ardour ( if he becomes good and makes a living on it, pls donate to the devs)

Learn programing for free Freecodecamp.org

If you are in the US. Ask the college/university for taking walk ins for classes. They allow you to attend classes for free to check out if you want to be a student. Depending on the school there will be no limit. ( honestly tech fields are mostly certifications and experience; a degree with student loans not necessary)

Local library, ive found books for programing languages to check out, use the cities resources.

Conclusion

All these options mean nothing unless the person does it and applys. You need to accept that no matter how much you suggest/guide/offer , that at the end of the day the choice is theirs. Especially at an age that wants to figure things out on their own.

Best of luck.

I luckily remembered this link from a resource i stumbled across. There is a website called

www.thinkpenguin.com

It has several periferals and devices supported by linux that they sell.

Its still going strong.

Though there are a lot more tools.

Still sysinit system and as reliable as ever on its stability.

New things are stuff such as -sbopkg(can deploy slackbuilds a lot faster as it will sync, custom the slackbuilds scripts if you want, build and install applications[though you still have to install depenencies in there proper order])

• Sboui gui style package management tool that will work with sbopkg and take care of the dependecy resolution for the applications you want to install(includes previous mentioned details of sbopkg)

I can say even on me when i was new to using it, slackware is forgiving if you make mistakes.

Alien bob still making modern packages to use as an alternative package resource if you want stuff like vlc, libreoffice and such that do not come with the default package resource.

Lol i cracked up when i saw that too. Slackware user myself. Though i do dabble in mint, arch, artix and netbsd

Lol I have been guillty of this when i first jumped over. The only answer was to VM and thats still not the solution for every application

Sorry for late reply

For about 4 hours i beleive. Though it used to be longer as i have had it for over a year and the battery not like it used to be.

Kde is the default desktop eviornment.

It helps that its a non systemd init system so it doesnt pull as much resources on the backend since systemwide is controlled via scripts.

If i were to run a lighter one such as xfce, qtile or dwm it would run longer(varies on configuration though)

As someone who runs VMs, i suggest you dont. Ivd been doing it for about 2 years and i still have moments where lets say i want to expand my storage and a bork it, or accidently removed a virt selection on virt manager by mistake.

An easy solution. Run conty.

https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty

It creates a virtualized arch linux with all the needs for gaming without having you worry about the heavy stuff. All the list of programs already on the list including other launchers for other games.

Here is a video explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugKXXzAdqY

Windows -> macos -> pop os -> debian -> fedora ↓ Now

• linux mint(desktop)
• slackware(laptop)
• arch linux(Kvm/Qemu for gaming)
• Netbsd(older hardware/for fun)

As an example, i use mint as the base of my kvm/qemu virtual machine since i run an arc 380 on base and nvidia gpu for the guest. I made the mistake of updating my experimental kernel and forgot to set quiet and mint menu on grub to select the kernel at boot time. I popped in the install disc i had used previusly and fixed it by using the inlcuded programs to edit the grub and undo my kernel update. Fixed and i saved a timevault snapshot of the fix in case i mess up again. Linux mint saved me from reinstalling my entire os from a simple mistake.

Most desktop enviornments work with most distros. There will be a selection of linux users that say it doesnt matter because though its true you can make any distro look like each other. The navigations can change depending on the distro you use. I agree with most of the comments here, since you are starting out, mint is a solid choice. You get the backings of ubuntu, + its very user frienldy. A gui for packages/drivers and good sweep of software for daily usage. Im using it now since my arc 380 gpu is supported on it to use as the host for my virtual machines. ( i virtualize other distros/BSD and windows [for those pesky windows only games/programs])

Do you want it to be persistent(all your stuff is saved) or you dont mind it starting fresh everytime you plug in to devices?

I have one, great use for my notification. Works with gadgetbridge to update as well. I cant upload resource zip files however that say will have new watch styles that is included seperately. Id have to link it to my linux phone to do that. Overall though for the basics its great and the price is nice.

I concure, i had pop os with virtual machines for windows via kvm/qemu. Total noob but i got it to work somehow. Anyway several games i couldnt play due to anti cheat, i had destiny 2 on my steam account that i cant play do to this problem as i risk my account being banned just for having linux. Eventually after some tinkering i broke my pop os(wanted to use lightdm and lighter desktop enviornment to save ram/cpu).

Only use windows vm for non linux friendly titles i have already paid for. Everything else will be via linux vm for gaming. Since vm is my goto i like keeping my host computer minimum. Also i prefer hdmi audio for my vms as my switch box has an toslink(fiber optic) audio out. Keeps the audio part super easy to add using astros or equivilant gear that have optical support.

When i was still really noob to onward i have jumped from ubuntu, pop os, fedora, linux mint, debian, manjaro, artix, slackware.

I go back between distros from time to time but for a noob and support with out the box experience.

Linux mint is the choice to go, out the box:

• removed ubuntu snaps(snaps seem way too bloated for me)

• nvidia drivers are easy to install via gui

• docs are simple and easy to follow, i had jumped up 2 versions in an old thinkpad w/ nvidia quite easily.

• it does have display refresh rate changes.

• since its based off ubuntu it does have support for games as well.

• really user friendly

Stuff most linux distros have

• tinkering out the box, only a select few remove that to have the distro set to read only for user or are heavily integrated to work a certain way where tinkering is a pain.

• programming-you can setup it however you like for programming, via ide or through text editor such as vim/neovim etc

• vpn remote access for media- its supported in most if not all distros as well.

One thing i want to know is what your computer specs are, since wether a stable distro such as mint or rollin release such as an arch based will depend on your hardware.

Many thanks for this, ill be going through this thouroughly to see about getting this running. This is huge help thanks again.

As stable or user friendly fedora and debian are, their whole structure due to the way they setup their ecosystem including their package management differ in how to change things system wide as you dont want to go too heavy on it to avoid breaking, especially if you tinker things to where you conflict with its package manegment. Aka your configs vs apts/dnf package managers configs, at some point a conflict will occur to where you will need to fix it.

Slackware lack of package managers creates the initial issue of well now i got to manually take care of the dependencies. However in exchange, the packages are close to the way they were initially developed and your config system wide has significant less competition on what happens to your configs systemwide.

You can make your debian or fedora your system, however slackware gives you that initial power out of the box hence its superb stability + even if i make a mistake i find slackware to be more forgiving to fix the issue.

I was scrolling down and had to scroll back up because 4MB ram is wow, thats low ram. Amazing

I have an intel arc 380 gpu, i know slackware current has preconfigured kernel. I havent tried building my own kernel but would it be easier using preconfigured or just build it?

I know intel arc requires 6.2 kernel as the driver and i believe mesa 22(or newer) .