I’m a woman, and have talked to him via email 2-3 times in the last 20 years. While I’ve met Torvalds, Jobs, and others in the industry when I was living in the Bay Area and working as a tech journalist, I never got to meet RMS – only via email. I think he has social issues, maybe he’s on the autistic side or something similar. I don’t think he understands clearly some of the things he’s saying when it comes to social stuff. He doesn’t get a pass, but at the same time, he’s a bit different as an individual, so that needs to be taken into account. When it comes to software, his heart is in the right place, and in fact, if it was me, I’d be even more strict (or more “Free” – depends how you see it), with GPL.

The tricky point to your needs is getting the app’s menu bar in the top bar. The rest are easy to do with almost all desktop environments. But getting the menu bar on the top bar, I think currently only KDE supports it (with a plugin), and MATE (with another plugin).

However, if you want the general feel of how MacOS 9/X feels, then Gnome with extensions would be your best bet. The rest feel more like simpler Windows, but in a mac skin. Gnome+extensions feel more accurately like a Mac, in terms of overall usability (even if the looks aren’t 100% there). So it depends what you’re after more: the feeling of using a mac, or the exact looks of it.

This looks like a hardware issue to me.

That’s fast enough to run the latest Linux Mint with Cinnamon. I have two laptops with the exact same cpu speed (passmark score) and 4 GB of ram. With 2 GB swap file you will be in business.

I always suggest Mint Edge edition, that has a newer kernel, not the default Mint. But I still suggest Mint, because simply, it’s more user friendly than any of the other ones. It has gui panels for almost everything.

You never know how the kernel would behave compared to how the BIOS is setup. There might be some bios settings that force the kernel to behave a specific way.

Was there no option about it on the BIOS/UEFI about something like that?

To each other, of course not. But to others, yes.

We’re talking about people living there, not tourists.

Sorry, as a Greek-American (currently in Greece), I disagree with most of the people here. When you’re part of a new country, you need to be able to do your business with the authorities in the official language. For that, some level of understanding the native language is required. In fact, to get any passport from any country, you need to have a B1-level understanding of that country’s language. So yes, being in a country, you need to know the basics. And if you don’t, then make sure you learn the basics within 6 months, in order to be able to live there without issues. I don’t see that as xenophobia, I see it as common sense.

I moved to Greece from the US this year with my French husband. He doesn’t speak Greek. I can tell you, it has been a nightmare for him doing paperwork, and I need to go with him EVERYWHERE in any government office in order to get setup. It wasn’t pretty in the first few months, he was full of anxiety and he wouldn’t leave the house without me.

Also, I worked in Germany in my youth, for a few months. I couldn’t understand most of what was said (although I could pick up a few words, but certainly couldn’t speak back). It was a nightmare. There were no free programs back then to learn the language, and so I went there without any preparation. Today, I wouldn’t have done it that way. I would first learn the language in some basic form (today there are apps to do that), and then move there.

Greek military uses Linux Mint, so yeah, it’s used in some places. I believe the Indian one does too.

Personally, I prefer LocalSend to KDEConnect.

Edge is Cinnamon with a newer kernel. So, since you like XFce, try install the XFce version of Mint, and see if it works with your system. If it mostly works and boots, but not completely, you can always install the newer kernel found on Edge using the Update app (there’s a menu option to install newer kernels after installation). But if it doesn’t install/boot, but you’re confident that Linux should support your laptop, then consider the Edge version with Cinnamon.

It’s not false information. There are a lot of system-oriented things that don’t work through appimages or snaps or flatpaks, exactly because they’re sandboxed.

Do you mean a flatpak? Flatpaks are notorious for not integrating. Try to see if hidamari is available first as a .deb file in the official repos (uninstall the flatpak first). If that’s not it, then it seems that it doesn’t work with the Cinnamon desktop, which has control over the wallpaper functions.

I’d go with Linux Mint Edge Edition (not the default Mint). Better support for hardware than either plain Mint, or Debian, and more optimizations for laptops and battery (ubuntu might be hated, but they have lots of kernel patches). Also, for some weird reason, Mint with Cinnamon uses less RAM than Debian with Cinnamon. Also, easier support for third party non-free drivers.

I love BSD, but I wouldn’t want it on a laptop. They’re just not optimized for such usage with batteries etc.

Ι use Murena’s e/OS, I like the iphone-likeness of it. It works.

When it comes to expensive laptops, there are plenty of good options for Linux. But for cheaper stuff, your best bet might be a second hand DELL, a model that specifically says that it supports Linux (newer models use some new Intel webcams etc that don’t have support on linux yet).

Testing AI (knowledge system) was the first job out of college for me in the '90s (I used to be a programmer). I’m not against it, but I don’t like it in my feet either. I like using the operating system all by myself, or generating things on my own. Especially now that I’m an artist, I like painting on paper. I even dislike digital art (I find it flat), let alone generative art.

Depends what you mean by “nice”. Nice as in “genuinely good” person, or nice as a “nice behavior towards others”? There’s a difference, because in the latter one, it can involve not being honest, just so you can appear “nice”. So I’m not “nicely socially behaving” most of the time, I’m instead hammering with facts (without being aggressive). My underlying reason for being like that is because: 1. I’m not diplomatic at all, I wasn’t born with that gene it seems, 2. I don’t believe I help the situation if I just be nice for the sake of being nice. I feel more useful when I’m straight up, clear as water, without being combative or aggressive. If that makes me not nice because I’m not sugarcoating with socially expected bullshit, then I’m not nice. If that makes me nice because I try to help and my intent is pure, then sure, I’m nice.