more than half the households in my county do not have any high-speed wireline service available to them.

and you could change him into something else. links the cat was mine.

captive portal detection, certificate status verification, and iirc server settings updates. yes. none of them are ‘absolutely required’ but they do exist to improve the reliability and secure operation of the program–and none are secret nasty spying telemetry. just turn those particular settings off as desired.

snapd is in debian repos so you can add it if you want, and then also integrate it into kde’s discover.

if you haven’t added the flathub repository to your new debian kde desktop install, discover will only show you packages from debian’s repositories that were automatically configured during installation… even if you’ve added the flatpak ‘backend’ from inside discover–flathub still has to be added to your sources (see step 3 in link above).

once you have multiple sources of an application (for instance, ‘vlc’), discover will add a ‘sources’ pulldown (top right, next to the ‘install’ button) where you can choose debian system package or flatpak (or snap, if configured).

which source you use is entirely up to you. on my own debian desktop, i usually stick with debs if it has what i’m looking for, as i’ve chosen debian and have accepted their pace at which new software is added. if i wanted ‘bleeding edge’ i would have installed something else entirely on it. but you can certainly go ‘all flatpak’ if you wanted to.

i am evaluating endless os (basic install, not the kitchen sink version) right now. i have bunch of soon-to-be obsolete desktops and laptops i need to find something other than windows to load. i am very impressed so far. it’s nearly everything i’m looking for for these systems and their future home users.

it’s nearly as ‘simple’ as a chromebook but is based on debian, so it can do more than chromeos. but because of the ostree base, verified flatpak applications, and simplified desktop and ui, it’s a lot harder for a typical home user to ‘break’ than windows.

the ‘full’ endless install with lots of extra programs and offline content might pick up a few fans, too. parts of my area still don’t have faster-than-dialup internet available.

i had been set on peppermint for the lowest spec’d systems (things like c2d 4gb/hdd) and cinnamint for the others (mostly 2nd-6th gen, 4-8gb, some have sata ssd), but endless might just end up on everything unless someone specifically requests different.

i sure hope they aren’t still the same specs (ancient celeron 2gb/32gb flash) for $1100+. but kinda suspect they might be.

endless os is somewhat chromeos like, but based on debian. read-only ostree debian stable base, flatpak applications, simplified desktop and ui.

use the 4gb ‘basic’ installer iso unless you want a lot of extra programs and offline content included right out of the box. and note it’s definitely not those who like to tinker and change everything. endless is locked down pretty tight so it’s harder to break, but that means less flexibility and very few customization options.

the number of years i’ve run usb->sata adapters and had (up to a dozen or so) bare drives laying around and propped up anywhere i could find a spot…

you aren’t putting a 3.5in in that slimline bay. you might be able to rig something to hold one there, though. that’s where the get ‘‘creative’’ part comes in.

you also have the 2x2.5in at the bottom but you’re missing the rails or caddies for them. should be like 5-6 bucks each or so on ebay or azn. don’t bother with those, though, unless you’re putting in hdd there. sata ssd can just be stuffed in the cage, they ain’t going anywhere.

be careful with whatever mb->sata power cables you have. make sure they’re the correct ones, as they aren’t all the same. you could get away with a 1->2 sata power splitter once on each mb power connection, as the output of each is designed for 2x3.5in hdd anyway.

edit: just looked at a similar model here. removing the slimline optical and stuffing a 3.5in hdd there will obstruct the cpu hsf a bit. might have to swap that for a lower profile cooler to put the drive there… BUT. if you take out the existing hdd (because its caddy thing gets in the way), there is just enough room along the flipout bit between that hdd bay and the 2.5in cage below to fit a 3.5in. would need a little ‘modification’ to the case there to rig a mount for it. but it fits. then the existing hdd can slide back in. (see pic, the ancient seagate hdd is placed in that space)

you’re talking the ‘RED’ series inspiron minitower?

iirc there’s only one 3.5in bay adjacent to the slimline optical bay, and two 2.5in bays in a cage at the bottom front.

bays use drive rails which may or may not be present if the bay was unpopulated when originally shipped.

the pc uses 12vo power supply, so the drives are powered off the motherboard. those cables may also not be present if they weren’t needed for the original configuration.

slimline optical bays can often be filled with a caddy designed fit in the form factor, connecting to the optical power and sata, and hold a 2.5in ssd drive.

you will have to get ‘‘creative’’ to securely mount more than one 3.5in hdd inside.

if a specific format isn’t requested or required, and the formatted text document is not expected to be edited by the recipient–only read, possibly by computer, or printed, i would default to using a pdf.

besides these–which i occasionally use the oem option with… i just put endless on one here, it also sets up the initial user during the first boot after install.

the oem install option that is available with ubuntu and some ubuntu-based ones lets you do some initial extra package installs and stuff, though. you run a command linked on the oeminstall desktop when you’re finished with your ‘preinstall’.

anything ‘worthwhile’ is probably gonna use a lot of power, burn through bandwidth, or not exactly completely legit and legal.

to monetize the piracy of your users

that’s generally what gets sites and services in ‘trouble’

instead of having 12984 tabs open, you can have 345 groups with only a few dozen tabs in each one.

and i’m taking yours too.

my first ‘distro’ was slackware, on floppy disks. then debian or a flavour of, mainly, ever since. i’ve never really strayed too far from debian and apt over the years but i have tried most everything.

just a little lesson in ‘know your audience’.

bluesky, mastodon, lemmy, etc. demographics of the users are different than on the sites the users migrated from/are avoiding.

it’s probably gonna be plasma6 by a hair over cinnamon on a rolling distribution. as much as people shit on manjaro here and on that other site, it has never broke on me–whether i update constantly or let it go 2-3 months between them.

but if the de and the underlying os are magically compatible, and those and programs kept up to date, never obsolete, and new ones appear for it as needed or desired… then sorry, it won’t be linux… i’m going back to something like 95osr2, 98se or w2k.