Over the weekend, I decided it was time to update the operating system on my home computer (I built it from parts, and it's been running various flavors of Linux, instead of Windows, since I built it in 2008). The most popular Linux versions expire after several months, and aren't supported, so to maintain security, ya gotta upgrade.
I'd been running Linux Mint, which comes as a "ready to roll" version: for example, it comes with software so that it can play sound and video files, even though these files are proprietary instead of free (free, as in free speech, is a big thing in the Linux world). However, the emphasis is on stability, not on novelty.
For the upgrade, I tried Fedora Linux, where the emphasis is on the new stuff.
A mistake. Fedora uses software designed to make the programs usable on new (touchscreen) devices, but these changes made it extremely hard to use on my old-style, mouse-and-keyboard computer.
I'm back with Linux Mint. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, and every couple of years, Ubuntu comes out with a long-term-support version, supported for two years (probably to come out next April). When that happens, I'll probably stick to that.
If you've been thinking of messing around with Linux, and you're using a standard computer, I suggest Mint or Ubuntu. Stay away from Fedora.
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