My guess is that if most things “just work”, Linux may be fine. I mean, there’s a whole second laptop available and I’m reachable most of the time. I just don’t want to play support all the time.

I’m also not that worried about locking things down. The parents can’t even lock down Windows properly and have resorted to restricting internet time via a router setting. It’s MAC based, and I think if the kid figures out how to change MAC addresses, they deserve a little extra Roblox time until the parents notice.

At the moment I think I’ll sit down with them and we’ll set this thing up together. That way I can teach them a bit about the differences and show them cool things like ad blocking or Steam and see how they do by themselves … and then make my (hopefully final) decision.

I would just like to say that I really appreciate everyone’s contributions so far; even the little off-topic discussions.

But you are completely misjudging the situation. When I spoke of “first assumption”, said they "know their way around Windows" and stated they found ways around prior parental locks, I was actually referring to the fact that “my kid” hasn’t even been born yet. We’ve just slipped two iPads in, one with a YouTube-Kids Elsa Gate loop and the other constantly doom scrolling TikTok and Twitter.

I’m definitely not talking about someone who is a several years older than I was, when I got my first internet connected PC.

Sarcasm aside; they are more than old enough, according to their actual parents. They had a phone for quite some time; same for a Windows notebook. I just happen to have a better notebook laying around, but feel like Windows is sort of shit, and I need a little help with judging if Linux is the right call.

Just want to add to the difference in experience:

I leaned Linux, because I wanted to learn Linux and as such I was fine with stumbling a bit from time to time. They want a working computer that does Roblox and homework and don’t care much about the rest.

I daily drive Silverblue (and the terminal is not useless >:c), and in a vacuum I would probably install Silverblue or another atomic desktop. But I worry about Windows compatibility.

Imagine the feeling when “you just click the .exe and everything installs itself” works for everyone but you. It doesn’t matter that downloading executables from random websites is way worse than a proper package manager in pretty much every way.

It’s still alienating. Going along with everyones technical dept may still be a nicer experience, because at least it doesn’t require the effort of doing something different.

That’s what I’m worried about.

Is the image edited? 75% sRGB coverage on an IPS panel? That’s terrible. I’ve never seen IPS panels that cover so little sRGB colorspace. Almost all of them will easily achieve the same amount of Adobe RGB per default.

75% is horrendous. You’ll definitely notice that.

it even has a tutor

Yeah, people are just lazy. I remember when I invented a new login screen and was told it was “difficult”, “confusing” and “took some getting used to”.

It even came with a free 100-page manual and a 4-hour master class. Some people, I tell you!

^This is meant more as a joke than an actual critique, even if it kind of reflects my thoughts. But ultimatly, I thought it was a funny bit.^

The initial comment resonated so much with me, that I feel the need to answer, even though I wasn’t even asked: YES

A few years ago I was in a really dark place. I lost 3 kg in 2 months and when I wasn’t at work, I was lying in my bed on the verge of crying, half-listening to YouTube just to scare the thoughts away.

But the thing, that finally got me out of the loop, was getting myself a houseplant, after watching a plant YouTuber for a while. And when I got home, rather than cry, I obsessively cleaned every speck of dust off the leaves, measured the soil moisture with a stick and just watched it be. And something just clicked inside me and I realized that I had found something I wanted to do; probably forever, if given the chance.

Still have the same plant; cut, repotted and propagated. And while I’m at a much better place now - physically, mentally, financially - just thinking about giving that (houseplants) up feels like going back.