If that is enough for your needs, that’s fine.

from the moment you realize just how easy and powerful using the console is, you learn how to use it

Yes, I understand that; there is a learning curve. For some, too steep.

The short answer is yes. But the interesting part - and I’m talking from personal experience - is that from the moment you realize just how easy and powerful using the console is, you learn how to use it.

And it does not mean you are going to turn into a full on expert or geek, tinkering around the console. You just learn a few simple commands that enable you to do something (or somethings) quicker, easier and cleaner than going through a GUI.

Can you? Yes. Should you? No.

Tiny Core OS, because I want a super light distro to run from memory when trying to access computers where the data is still there but something went sour with the OS

Librera was flagged as unsafe for some time due a security issue connected to a deprecated library, if memory serves me well. I use it and I don’t receive daily updates; can’t comment on that.

If an app makes it to FDroid, it has already went through a vetting process. Between an FDroid and a Google Store one, I’ll quicker trust FDroid.

Librera FDroid version is almost the gold standard for android ebook/pdf reader.

Still on FDroid you only need to do a search for “pdf” and take a look at the results.

There’s OrionViewer, MuPDF, KoReader, etc. Try a few and see what best fits your needs.

I like so say I want someday to see my work out in the world in the form of (e)books, so I want to keep my options open.

Thank you very much.

Can I get some links, please?

Version control is an interesting idea.

I used to write fiction as a hobbie and want to return to it again.

The blank sheet of a standard text editor messes with my nerves. I lose myself editing, formating, etc.

If I could find a prompt that I could pre set the font, layout of the final work, and then have the program leave me alone, it would be perfect.

Most writers solutions come with a lot of bells and whistles, like word counter, time elapsed, goals, etc. Unnecessary. Distracting.

Prose. Fiction. Not programming. I may learn to code in a near future but I want to start writing for leisure again.

Bunsen Labs Linux and, for the experience, Tiny Core Linux

Has the potential to be as bad as…

What are the chances this will not produce wrong doing?

Once, some years back, I posted a topic on how could I slim down my Gnome DE.

It sparked a rather long and complex discussion and the bottom line was that Gnome integration was already at a point where so many parts depended on so many it was not an easy task.

I opted to move to a GTK compatible DE. Currently I use XFCE but spent years with Mate.

My first laptop was a MSI AMD+Nvidia, circa 2005. It was a low spec machine yet it outperformed and outlived laptops coworkers had with higher specs. Back then I used Ubuntu and drivers were available out of the box. It managed cpu better and the machine ran smoother than under windows, which would stress the cpu more. Ran it for almost 9 years and I retired it because it made no sense spending the €100+ to have the graphics card repaired.

From that point forward, all my AMD machines were always responsive and reliable.

My current desktop is already 10 years (Sempron based) old and it outperforms my laptop, which is 5 years younger (AMD as well).

I am a bit of a Linux missionary and every single machine I ever managed to bring to the dark side always ran smoother under Linux, regardless the core, but Intel often posed some extra hurdle to install. One particular case I still remember today was a laptop that required to manually install network card drivers, both wired and wireless. The required driver was available in the installer but it always failed to load.

I’ll risk anything from the last 10 years will be good. I’d personally recommend a minimum of 8GB of ram, DDR3. The technology is really cheap and mature at this point.

My personal experience comes from running several machines over the years and AMD always returned the best results, from laptops to desktops.

My current desktop is reachin 11 years of service and still reliable.

As anecdotal as this may be, out of several machines I owned and installed and reinstalled over the years, AMD centric were always easier to install, while installing Intel based machines from friends and family always got me grinding my teeth out of frustation.

I vouch for AMD based on my history with working it - and I repeat: I am not a tech guru - even without putting linux support on the table. I’ve ran AMD machines for over a decade, with no hardware problems, while I had Intel based hardware fail me in three or four years.

As a general recommendation: whatever you get, try your best to have an AMD core.

Not a tech guru in any way but any AMD machine is just more friendly for linux

Back to Debian after a long hiatus and XFCE was my choice for the exact same reasons.