liveusb or vm - try before you don’t buy - especially if you have a tonne of specifoc requirements. distro doesn’t really matter.

In linux i think qemu/kvm is preferred for virtual machines - it’s a bit fiddly, but i think it performs better and removed oracle.

tldr Sudden Death card

dd

I think you might be missing the part where memes are not real. aur is useful. arch wiki is useful.

going to surpass ‘unknown’ any year now. it’s happening.

https://invidious.reallyaweso.me/watch?v=qK5nqmHz0UA

I love programs like freecad despite the really hard/unintuitive gui. 95% of all the modelling i need to do (as an amateur) can be done easily in a python script.

The finishing touches like adding filets and chamfers are the annoying part were gui is easier, due to the way edges are referenced.

Likewise at work, we have to produce a lot of regular reports in excel. All done via python / sql.

replace HDD with SSD, number one thing to do if possible.

lxde or lxqt are quite a bit lighter then xfce.

you could try tiny core linux. it really depends what programs you want to run.

OpenGNU/SE

something like raspi-config ( i know that’s console based GUI, but it’s gui to me), or even the endevourOS launcher screen?

the year of the unknown desktop!

what do you think about:. “you don’t need to choose one” and “you don’t need other people to choose for you” and “distro isn’t that important in many cases”

I can agree 100% on what distros I use for what types of computer. And I can agree 100% on what I’d have used now, if i were a beginner again.

But all i can recommend to a stranger is, backup all your stuff properly,

try a few out (v.m. or liveCD/Ventoy) and be prepared to change.
make sure to check application versions in the base software repository - for any programs where that matters to you. and ease of updating - if that matters to you. and check out some flatpak if you think that might be a useful way to get extra applications or in some cases up to date.

if in doubt, choose gentoo /s

it might’ve been ssh i can’t really remeber. The library catalog was maybe the telnet one. IIRC don’t think either service was accesible via the internet though.

not SunOS then ):

my whole university email server was accessed via telnet. So everyone used tty for email.

I think there may have been a gui or mail app that you coud point to it, but no one did. There was about a million(trillian?) gui’s people used for icq messaging though.

yeah, that’s what i meant; 2000 killed off the old one.

I forgot about Me though - never used it.

I’d agree with that.

I think the windows NT lineage should be considered separately from the MS-DOS based ones (pre win 2000).

So I’d say MS-Dos family died with windows 2000. and the current windows lineage traces back to the early windows NT business oriented stuff - not back through windows 95.