Re: [orca-list] Linux full-time

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

I've been a full time Linux user on computers for many years, although I 
do use Android mobile devices as well. I primarily run ArchLinux, or 
more specifically ArchLinuxARM, because I run 32-bit and 64-bit ARM 
computers full time due to their much lower power requirements.

Although I run ArchLinux, I don't recommend it for most users who just 
want to start being productive with their computers, as although it 
works quite well once installed, the installation procedure can be quite 
daunting for the uninitiated. For new users especially, I tend to 
recommend either Fedora or OpenSUSE, as both are much easier to set up, 
and both are kept updated rather well. Fedora probably has the best 
upgrade tool that requires no reinstallation and from what I've read, 
can even skip a release if necessary. OpenSUSE has the distinct 
advantage of having a comprehensive suite of graphical tools to do 
various system administration tasks that most distributions make you do 
in a terminal using a shell.

Although the GNOME desktop environment has its advantages for some 
users, I prefer the MATE desktop, as it's very light weight and has a 
good menu and panel system. I run LibreOffice for documents, and 
sometimes Google Drive/Docs/Sheets in Chromium with ChromeVox if I need 
to collaborate. Thunderbird is my e-mail software and Firefox is my 
browser of choice. I use Pidgin for messaging and chat. Audacious is my 
preferred audio player, and Audacity is my preferred recording tool. I 
use mpv primarily for playing video, as it can use youtube-dl at the 
back end to download and stream video from various places across the 
internet, including Tubi and Crackle, which have some TV shows and 
movies I like to watch. The MATE tools do most of the basic things I 
need, including text editing, file management and the calculator, as 
well as other basic functions. MATE does include a terminal application 
for doing shell work, which I do occasionally, but I primarily use a 
different terminal application called Tilda, because it allows me to pop 
up the terminal no matter where I am right over top any other window and 
put it away again when I'm done with it. This helps me a lot, since I 
tend to organize my open windows across multiple desktops, but don't 
want to keep terminals open on their own desktop, since I don't use them 
very much. Hope this helps.
Sent from the outer limits