Libb

Like others have said: go see therapist, do not try following random advice online. That is coming from someone having to deal with A few lifelong health issues of their own.

Also, start small and slow. This was huge, for me. And allowed me to do so much I never imagined I would be able to, on the long run.

1. Books. Every single masterpiece that was printed before... a certain date (it will depend the country you live in), is available for free online. They are not just 'free', they're concentrated thoughts/cleverness/creativity available to anyone willing to take the time and, sadly nowadays, to make the effort of reading them.
2. Not really public domain but close enough: public libraries, most of them will be free and they will also let you access non-public domain books too, even the most recent titles.

For me, it's an everyday little miracle that publishers have not yet managed to convince lawmakers public libraries should be made illegal... because a lot of those publishers only want us to buy their books, much more than they want us to read them.

Public libraries are one of the most undervalued resource in many countries. One day, they will be gone, and a majority of us will not even care. Sad.

edit: typos.

I've seen lmde mentioned on Mint website but if I recall correctly they also presented it like a somewhat experimental version?

• Debian + Xfce on the desktop, because it (mostly, see below) just works, it's snappy, reliable, and I don't need my apps being constantly updated (I have very simple needs and use cases)
• Mint + Cinnamon on the laptop, because it's still debian-based and because unlike Debian, Mint was able to connect my AirPods out of the box and I use them a lot when on the laptop... I also quickly learned to appreciate Cinnamon, I must say.

edit: typos

Imho, the best way to help a beginner should have happened many years before they put their hands on any Linux distro. It should have happened when they were still a small child, at school. In the way they were taught how to... learn and how to get better... aka, by expecting difficulties and by expecting to fail, often.

Failing should be expected as a beginner learning anything new. Like, say, we all learned to walk as toddlers. It was not by being told we walked perfectly but by falling on our diapered butt. Failing at outing one foot in front of the other and falling, over and over again.

That sounds obvious but, to my old eyes at the very least, it also sounds almost like an heresy when compared to what I see kids being taught nowadays. That things should be frictionless and that nobody should fail at anything, ever. That's such a poor choice that doesn't prepare them much. Well, imho.

When I switched (from 35+ years being an Apple user) to Linux, it was frustrating.

Even when where things went smooth, it could still be frustrating and it often was. If only, because it required me to change 35 years old habits. And when it wasn't going smooth, even when I was using the best docs and guides, at times it could be incredibly and utterly frustrating, when not completely maddening. Either nothing on my machine was ever exactly like described in the doc, or the app version was different and some setting had changed, or my issue was a somewhat different, or the solution simply did not work, or I missed a tiny detail or a word somewhere in the guide. Whatever. Frustration was a constant.

That's what people should be taught to expect and to be fine with. And not just with Linux, btw ;)

I mean when I try to educate folks

Maybe that's one of the reasons they don't listen? I'm really sorry if what follows sounds a bit agressive, it's absolutely not what I wish, I just don't know how to say it more formally in English.

Sure, many people are very much not interested by anything that goes out of their usual ways but I would not be so certain it's the main issue at play, here.

I mean, why do you try to educate them? Are you their parents, or their teacher? Are you some kind of (moral/scientific) authority they (and we all) should listen to?

Personally, as one of those 'people' you're referring to, I tend to steer away from any person thinking they should educate others. Not that I refuse to educate myself and certainly not that I know all there is to know, far from it. It's just that in my experience, way too often, all what those self-proclaimed teachers teach is how great/admirable their little person is and, incidentally, more often than not why we should then rush to buy their latest book, or their whatever it is they're selling. Imho, there is little value in that kind of teaching and most people would be right to ignore it. I would even say that I wish more people would stop listening to those snake-oil vendors.

Once again, I'm not saying, you're such a person — how would I know, I don't know you — just that it's too frequent to not express some serious reserves when faced with it.

As tor the reason why people refuse to listen? Beside what I just said, I think most people already have enough things to deal with in their day to day lives, a lot of real shitty things, to not be willing to spend their free time listening to some 'teaching'.

Instead, you may want to show by example, by doing things and not by speech? Let them be surprised or intrigued by your very own actions and then, maybe, let them start a conversation by asking you question. They should be much more receptive if they do the first step, and you may get more positive results. Hopefully.

Then, don't hesitate. Do what you really like.

Also, don't be afraid to try new stuff if you feel like those are not enough.

• One cannot can fight an addiction by deciding to do boring or not as exciting stuff. You need to find more exciting/interesting activities outside of the Web, be it on reddit or whatever.
  So, the question boils down to: do you have any passion, hobby, side activity you wish to invest more time in it? Now would be a good time. And if you don't have any, now will the best time to start trying out new activities ;)
  Don't be afraid to try stuff and then to change if you do't enjoy them.
• What may also help you is to realize you have one live to live, with a (very) limited amount of time before it's over. We all have.
  So, do you really want to waste any second of your time reading some bullshit and interacting with assholes or morons (that are proud of their crass ignorance and their constant hatred)?
  I certainly don't, my time is way too precious to waste it with them.

Enjoy spending your time doing positive activities. Things that will help you grow and appreciate life even more. Play music, write, sketch, paint, dance, do a movie, sculpt, or go out for a walk, have a look at whatever nature remains near you... while there is still something to look at. Spend as much time as you can with the people you care about, your spouse and your family maybe? Not with a bunch of hateful and dumber than shit morons.

I am not a US-citizen nor am I a woman (if I was, I would probably be a little too old to need that kind of help) but, very naively I'll admit it, this is really not the kind of guide I would have imagined would become so urgently needed.

It seems a very well made guide, with a lot of very useful suggestions.

Which makes me feel even more sad to realize this is indeed useful and very much needed.

like for example, one time i was browsing through some neofetch screenshots and i found out that a lot of them have anime or furry stuff as their wallpaper or profile picture, but they use linux.

younger me would’ve freaked out by the idea of having proprietary files, but i still enjoy linux. what do you think?? please

What should they use in order to not freak younger you? A screenshot of some lines from the kernel source code? A picture of Stallman and Torvalds tenderly embracing (quite unlikely)?

On my Debian and Mint computers, I have countryside pictures (I live in Paris, I miss seeing some real country landscape, mind you) and paintings (oil and watercolors, all works I admire) and some illustrations (comics, manga, whatever I appreciate enough to be wanting to look at it from time to time).

Sorry for younger you but I don't have a single image related to Linux nor to GNU philosophy, no matter how much I appreciate them.

freaked out by the idea of having proprietary files

I would suggest you read a little more about what the four essential freedoms are and how they relate to code and the user rights, not so much to do with art and wallpaper choice.

I understand. Maybe two things to consider:

• It will depends how you installed your apps, but I have file containing a fe useful instruction in case I need to reinstall my system, one of them is just a 'sudo apt install followed by the name of every single app I want to use'. I only need to copy and paste in a next terminal window to gat all my apps installed. All except the few that I don't install using apt, say the few appimages I also use. For me it means three more apps, so it's no big deal to download them by hand ;)
• Most user settings and configuration should be stored somewhere in you home folder (for example, I know there many settings stored in the .config folders, others (related to the system and the DE you're using maybe stored somewhere in .local, all my custom fonts are stored in ./fonts, and so on. I'm sorry, I'm no expert so I'm not very precise). All of that to say: by baking up your home, you probably also are backing up a lot of your configuration and tweaks.

I have no idea how those settings are portable between two completely different distros, but I have once reinstalled my system and got most of my settings instantly back just by copying my home folder over to that fresh install. That plus the single line 'sudo apt list-of-all-my-apps' I was almost completely operational in mere minutes, including all my customer menus, panels, text size, themes,... The one thing I remember not working from that backup was my SSH keys. No idea why.

What else?

My only advice would be these two:

1. Don't be afraid or ashamed to start and to not finish a book. It's fine and it's legit. There is no moral obligation on your part as a reader to finish a book you don't enjoy. Just close it and try another one.
2. Don't be afraid to reopen a book you did not like before. We all change. So do our preferences. It's not guaranteed (decades later, and after many repeated attempts, I still do not enjoy reading Marcel Proust) but some of your taste will indeed change with time. A few of the books I cherish today (in my 50s) were among the 'wtf is that thing?' the first time I tried to read them decades ago. Like, really.

What are your reading habits like?

• I read at every single opportunity I have. I never waste my time scrolling on my phone or watching TV (we don't have a TV set). For me, doom scrolling is not even a temptation as I always have a (much more interesting) book with me. And when I don't read and still don't want to 'waste' my time looking at my phone, I will sketch in my pocket notebook instead. No matter where I am.
• I read at any time of the day/evening/night. I have no fix work-schedule (I'm my own boss).
• There are books waiting for me to grab them everywhere at our place. I mean not neatly stored in a bookshelf but lying in places where I will see them (my spouse is OK with that). I just checked, there are four books (one essay, one novel, a children book and a how-to guide) just here on my desk. Plus two dictionaries. And my personal diary which is another book I regularly re-read.
• I always have more than one book started at the same time. So I can change book if I don't feel like reading one in particular.
• When I don't want to read, I don't read. That's not a job. I very much like going out for long walks too and those will often take precedence over reading (but I will have a pocket book and a sketchbook with me, just in case).
• I recently quit reading ebooks almost completely to read printed books (want to know why? check the link to my blog in my profile, there are three posts talking about that choice).
• I always take notes while reading, no matter the type of book. I carry a bunch of A6 index cards within each book and a ballpoint pen. Cards on which i write the page number and a short note/comment/quote. I keep all those notes organized in a box which later helps me easily and quickly go through all what I read to find whatever I am looking for and also often find new ideas while doing so (wanna know more about that card thing? Search what is a Zettelkasten, aka a fancy German word to describe a box with a large stack of somewhat organized but not too organized index cards in it, it's like a second brain, just better).

What do you like to read?

Essays, poetry, novels, phylosophy, history, short stories, sociology,... Younger, I used to read a lot of plays (Racine, Shakespeare, Godot,...). I read in French and in English (starting to read in Spanish too, but I still have a lot to learn). I love all eras, from antiquity to very contemporary works. I like reading children books a lot too, even though I'm 50+ and my spouse and I have no children. Some of those books are pure masterpieces, text as well as illustrations.

The thing that may help you get into reading more (beside not forcing yourself to finish one in particular) is to try to widen your horizon by trying stuff you would not normally read.

Say you like fantasy, ok, try horror instead. Or scifi. Or historical romance. Or essays. And so on. Just keep in mind you're trying it, don't force it if you don't like it. To save money, use your public library: it's probably free ;)

What kind of stage of life are you in, and how does that affect it?

Not sure to understand the question.

50+ I now need glasses to read. Beside that... I still try to read widely and to never let anyone's expectations about what some dude like me (my age, my genre, race, social situation, whatever) is supposed to be reading and enjoying.

Have you made any changes, positive or negative, to your reading habits?

Positive: like I said, recently I quit reading ebooks and went back to good old paper. Zero regret, quite the contrary: I'm more tranquil. Once again, feel free to check my little (and seldom updated) blog if you're curious to know more about that ;)

Negative: I sometimes read less, out of sheer laziness. I always regret it.