I would go with Debian package but for me the primary consideration is how much I care about having the latest version of given software. Often I don’t really care that much. Although it needs to be said that I’m on Debian testing.

With gl/Vulcan and some other libraries that’s pretty challenging to do if your goal is to become more portable not less portable.

I still don’t see how this is different from Windows. Games on Windows ship with DirectX. Ship whatever graphics libraries you need if you’re worried about ABI breaking.

Shipping also sort of different libraries with your proprietary game could also be a licensing issue.

No, it’s not. Any library you’re dynamically linking to that’s present in a Linux distribution, you can distribute yourself.

Linux ABI compatibility is a fuck.

I’m never convinced by this argument. If game developers have problems with ABI they can do what they’re already doing on Windows: ship their game with all the dependencies. Casual gamer’s Windows system might have more versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable than they have games installed. This had been my experience.

Because those recommendations are written for new users. A new user will be better served by a distribution which puts user-friendliness at its forefront. If you’re not a newbie you probably don’t need recommendations because you already know what distributions are available out there.

Switch from what? Are we talking about MacOS or OpenBSD? Did I say switch from Safari?

At this point I don’t know if you’re arguing in good faith. First sentence of your post (emphasis mine):

I’ve been seeing a lot of people wanting to switch to GNU/Linux(shortly just Linux) recently, owing to various reasons including Windows 10 EOL, forced integration of AI tools, screenshot spying, bloatware, etc. and I thought I’d make a comprehensive guide based on my experience.

Later you’re discuss switching from Edge and not Safari.

You seem to be vehemently butthurt over the fact that I just didn’t leave it at the native Firefox/Chromium that a distro might provide.

No. You’re missing the point (and also you seem to be the one butthurt that people may think there’s nothing wrong about Firefox). The point is to not overwhelm people with unnecessary information. If you want to write comprehensive guide about switching to GNU/Linux, write a comprehensive guide about a single distribution aimed at new users.

I’ve installed Librewolf on some really old, non-technical people’s systems and they’ve not complained.

You have installed. They didn’t have to do anything. Now you’re writing a guide about a complicated process of installing a new operating system and include unnecessary steps for them to do.

Why would I want to decide who’s going to be reading this?

Because that makes the text coherent. If you don’t decide who your target audience is, the text becomes useless for anyone. This is true of any text. If you write text for someone maximally patient, someone minimally patient won’t read it.

Someone already rebutted you on this on how people will get frustrated with their installation if they didn’t know that HDR/VRR don’t get supported on X11. And I’ve also been talking about gaming. So, yeah. A lot of them care about GSync/FreeSync and 10-bit colour.

Then pick openSUSE and recommend that if you’re so concerned about Wayland. Don’t bombard people with jargon they don’t care about.

More lost data? How so?

Through the process of failing to make a proper backup of the data.

I said this was my experience and there is a reason why I started using/recommending these apps. A lot of people would just simply disagree with you claiming that Firefox or Chromium have nothing wrong.

You’re writing a guide how to switch to GNU/Linux. If you want to discuss browsers, do it in another guide. If someone wants to switch operating systems, confusing them with browser choices isn’t helping.

Again, this has been my experience. And the title does say ‘comprehensive’ guide. Not a quick guide.

You’re also saying the guide is for people who recently got interested in switching to Linux. Those people don’t need to hear about Arch. They don’t need to understand what immutable distribution is. A comprehensive guide for that target audience should focus on comprehensively describing one or two distributions targeted at that target audience.

But not everyone will be looking for X11 support and therefore Mint.

Someone who just started looking into switching to Linux is looking for neither X11 nor Wayland support.

And wrt Bazzite, not everyone will want to use an atomic distro.

That’s why I wrote ‘if your entire focus is gaming.’ People who just want to play games, don’t care. They just want their stuff to work.

I see you want to simply stuff and just ask people to resort to one or two things. But that’s not going to stop people. They’re going to experiment different things.

Of course. But the way I see it, that’s not the target audience. Someone who so far had been using exclusively Windows, does not need to be front-loaded with all that information. Describe Mint in detail, especially pointing out differences they can face between Mint and Windows, and mention that other distributions also exist if they want to try them in the future.

You say this is a comprehensive guide, but it’s comprehensive in the sense that it touches on a lot of different topics. It goes broad with its scope, but for a new user going in more detail with typical Mint installation would be more useful.

For those who are only on Linux, I’ve been told that running fsck(file system consistency check) on a corrupted NTFS drive may not go well. Hence the reason I asked them to convert it to ext4.

I reckon converting would lead to more lost data than just using NTFS partition. This also locks users into using the drive under Linux. I just don’t think this is a useful recommendation for someone who is just switching from Windows.

If you’re targeting this at Windows users who just heard about GNU/Linux and consider switching, this is a terrible guide.

Edge → LibreWolf, Ungoogled-chromium/Trivalent.

No. When someone wants to switch to GNU/Linux, don’t also shove your other opinions onto them. There’s nothing wrong with Firefox or Chromium, which often come preinstalled.

Picking a distribution. There are a lot to pick from.

This whole section is way too long. Here’s what it should say:

Use Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition.

If you want to say more:

Use Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition. Or if your entire focus is gaming, use Bazzite.

No new user gives a fuck what Linux distribution is. They don’t care what atomic distribution is. And talking to them about Arch can only lead to disaster.

SteamOS, also Arch-based, is typically not recommended for Desktop systems, I think.

No. Do not recommend unsupported distribution which doesn’t work with the most popular GPU brand to any new users.

Picking a Desktop Environment

This section unnecessary since the previous section should already direct the new user to either Mint or Bazzite.

Avoid Balena Etcher. I’ve seen people have issues with it.

And you think Rufus with magnitude of options and Ventoy will leave users with fewer problems?

If you’re using auto-partitioning,

There should be no ‘if’. A new user should not do manual partitioning. If they are interested in doing it, they’re already way too advanced to read your tutorial.

→ For those who ditched Windows completely, make sure to back up your data and convert your external drives’ Filesystem to ext4 too for Linux-only use.

Uh? Why? Let them use NTFS if the drive is in NTFS.