Hi & welcome from a fellow Mint user.
It’s a stable distribution that comes with a lot of things preinstalled (so less extra stuff to install, but also a lot of stuff you might not need)

• +1 for Encryption, both Luks for the system disk and whatever other internal drive and for USB stick or external storage. If someone was to steal my computer I would pissed off but OK, I can deal with it knowing they can’t access my files. Use a good password (mine is 20-ish characters long all random and, yeah, I’ve memorized them but I have a decent working memory ;)
• • for (automated) backups.
• +1 for automated updates
• +1 for not installing from any source. It’s tempting but it should be the exception (for me, it means yt-dlp and Mullvad for the most, of there is also my RSS app of choice newsboat since it’s not officially available anymore :/)
• I don’t use antivirus on Linux (nor on my Mac). But I seldom download anything and don’t open attachments I’m not expecting to receive ;)
• I would not play with services as a beginner as you risk deactivating something you need.
• The firewall as gui that’s installed by default (on my Mint, at least ;): its Gufw on the command line and it’s called Firewall Configuration in the main Mint menu. Open it, type your password, activate the ‘Status’ toggle. Done. Then you can start adding rules as you need them.

I would add to that:

• Don’t rush to tweak everything at the same time. Try one at a time, it’s easier to revert back.
• Backup your home folder regularly. Not only does it contain all your precious files but it also contains most of your settings and tweaks. So, if you ever need to reinstall you will get back all those settings/tweaks when copying back your home to the fresh install.

On that topic,I’m not much of a geek (a 50-something dude and a 35+ years Apple customer) but I did learn to use git to keep a backup of my config folder. So, when I screw up something (so far, Mint has not once screwed up anything by itself, the few issues I had to deal with were all me-related) , I know I can revert back to the previous version of whatever settings I’ve just damaged without difficulty. Learning the basic of Git is not hard, it’s just…odd, and it works great. If it was compatible with LibreOffice files I would love to use if for that too…

/Not_a_Rant

Are you sure about that?

I don’t mind people sharing their feelings about their switch, joy as well as frustration. And if I did, I would not read them… exactly like I don’t read political topics ;)

So I’m wondering if an upgrade is safe because

Imho that’s the wrong question. Without backup nothing is safe whether you pate the OS or not. Anything can happen (the disk can die, the computer can be stolen,…) and, yes, most upgrades should go without any issue but then one won’t go well and then what? You need to do backups, we should all ;)

I’m currently using Proton and still have to move to another service

I’ve moved to Filen (German end-to-end encrypted cloud you can rent (or buy) for a year or… a month (maybe worth the cost at least for a month when you will upgrade) and it works real nice for me on Mint 22.1

Depending the storage you need, you can get from 10 to 50Go for free: 10 base *+10 if you use crate your account using this affiliate link (no string attached, it’s real free storage) and up to 30Go more if you also share your own affiliate link. If you’re wondering, I use their 2To lifetime plan.

2/ Related to the first question: I’m using a old laptop (asus zenbook from 2015 or 2016, can’t remember), so would I be find with an old hardware such as mine?

It’s not that old, you should not worry much ;)

Depends what you need. Many publishers require certain features from MS Word that are not available or are not as ‘compatible’ in LO Writer (not that its LO’s fault ;), but for most use case I would agree. Things are a bit more complicated in the case of Excel as far as I can understand what I read (edit: I don’t use much spreadsheets myself).

I’ve quit using MS Word a few years ago, fully switching to LO Writer. There are a few issues here and there but nothing that’s a deal breaker (and Word had its own issues too), and I must quite like many things in Writer—beside the app not spying on me, I mean ;)

I’ve been on the hunt for cheap, unlined pocket notebooks for this sort of thing. It’s strange but they don’t seem readily available in the stores around me.

I don’t see those very often either, or they will be sketchbooks like the ArtCreation from Royal Talens that I’m using, (they’re also available in A7/pocket size, Bic pen for scale):

I don’t know why the photo made the paper so white (it’s not my phone so…) in reality the paper is much more ivory like.

Yeah, I can understand that (really sorry it happened).

But I will bring it with me when I travel for more than a day or so. If I get a little time to myself in a hotel room it makes for good writing because I can talk about the stuff I’ve done or will do on that trip

I don’t even do that,what I will do is bring a new journal for the trip.

Also, something I do with my pocket notebook is to write down on the back of the cover, in French as well as in English: ‘20€ REWARD if found + email’. It’s an email I use only for that purpose, not my personal email, and it saved my ass a couple times already.

Thx for sharing.

There is something sad for me to be reading this article while I’m making a break from my usual work, having a quick look at the pen that is resting on top of the sheets of scribbled reading notes I’ve been taking for the last few days while I’m working my way through Rousseau’s Emile, ou de l’éducation (Emile, or On Education for the few non-French speakers out there ;)).

Our mixed feelings about machine-made signatures make plain our broader relationship to handwriting: it offers a glimpse of individuality.

Schoolchildren are not the only ones who can no longer write or read cursive. Fewer and fewer of us put pen to paper to record our thoughts, correspond with friends,

For me, that’s the real sad part. So sad.

More and more often, even though I’m no teacher and don’t meet that much young people, I can see and hear their baffled reactions when they watch me take handwritten notes, or when they discover I’m always taking notes while I’m reading, or when they learn that I draft almost everything I write longhand—like some caveman, save that cavemen back then did not write even if some of them painted.

They sincerely don’t understand why anyone would not want to use the speedier keyboard, when they’re not surprised one may want to write anything at all. They also don’t understand why anyone would want to use such an impractical mean of storing thoughts and sharing them (my handwriting is shit, even I can have a hard time reading it). And I can’t blame them. Why would I?

Most of them have never experienced first hand how handwriting very slowness is key and how its uniqueness (my shitty handwriting, or the much nicer handwriting of my spouse) make it such an efficient way to internalize thoughts, notes, ideas, lists and have them ingrained in our brains… in our personality. And a unique way to share them, too.

I’m a decent typist, I can use many type of keyboard in a few various layouts without much need to look at them, but I would not exchange my fancy fountain pen or even my cheap ballpoint Bic pen for any keyboard when it’s time to take notes, to put down some thoughts and draft something. The keyboard is best for finalizing a text as far as I’m concerned, not so much before that.

“We’re trying to be realistic about skills that kids are going to need,” said one school board member in Greenville, South Carolina. “You can’t do everything. Something’s got to go.”

The grumpy old man in me is tempted to say ‘Maybe it’s that type of education that needs to go out, and quick?’ but I won’t say that.

Instead, I would suggest we question the purpose of educating kids. Why waste so many effing years of their life on school benches? What is it supposed to make out of them or help them make out of themselves? Very optimized and very performant parts of some gigantic machinery that constantly needs new (but highly standardized) cogs to keep working? Or do we wish to help them become the individuals they can be, each with their own personality and, yeah, sometimes also with their own shitty handwriting? But like I mentioned, it’s most probably just grumpy-old-me that’s, well, old and grumpy and doesn’t understand the time we’re living in and how bright and happy the future of those kids is looking like— rejoice child, you won’t have to learn cursive.

My coffee has gone cold. The conclusion is obvious: too much of me ranting, time to go back to my (paper!) book, and that stack of sheets, and to my stupid pen ;)

edit: typos + clarifications.

Thx for starting the discussion ;)

Yep, you’re right. I tend to forget that… way too often. [Sad face]

Thx :)

Oh, thx for the clarification. That certainly would not help.

It looks to me like Google has that idea they own their viewership and can treat them like trash if they fancy doing so. The not too distant future will tell us if they were right or not.

What I can say is that they don’t own me. I was a Premium subscriber fir years (I can afford it and I want to support creators) but I cancelled the day they became serious against ad-blockers. For me, it was not about them forcing people to pay a sub. It never was. It was about destroying the free Web and making it a privately-owned something a few corporations would then be able to do what the fuck they wanted with. I certainly did not want to give them a cent more of my money to achieve that.

There isn’t any community about note taking where I could post my question and no this is not a “What’s the best note taking app” question…

Here, maybe? !pkms@lemmy.blahaj.zone

A community dedicated to personal knowledge management systems.

Does anyone here has some experience and is taking notes that way? I’m really curious on your experience and maybe your thoughts if it’s feasible ? Practical ?

If you ever decide to post over there, in order to no pollute this Linux community I would happily share my own choices but they may not be the most digital solution, as I fully switched back to analog note-taking, using a Zettelkasten system (a fancy name for index cards stored in shoe boxes).

Shouldn’t you be able to access YT without a Google account? So uBO correctly configured (at least on Firefox) should do a lot already. Maybe sharing with us what specific issues you’re facing or what you want to be able to do may help you getting more specific solutions?

I’m also mindful of who’s feelings I might hurt in the hypothetical case an entry were read aloud… Unlikely, but still.

That’s something I worry about too. My solution is to not write about some stuff (very few, mind you) but I know it’s not a good solution since, in theory at least, no one will read my journal. I’m even slowly coming to the conclusion that it is not helping me at all reflect on whomever/whatever it is I’m refusing to write about. Quite the opposite.

It may have only occurred two or three times in the last decade, but I can think of a specific case where I was writing about some stress with a family member, and then decided to stay my hand on that particular entry, because I knew they were under investigation for a crime

Yeah, that’s one motivation to no write, or not everything.

and there are no specific protections in my country for diaries.

I don’t think there is much in mine either, beside our basic right to privacy, if a judge wanted to read my diary they probably just need to order me to give them.

Out of topic question, if you don’t mind non-native speaker me asking:

and then decided to stay my hand on that particular entry,

Do you mean to moderate (or censor) what you were writing?

But nothing wrong with changing the narrative just a tiny bit. I may as well be the hero of my own story, right?

100% right. If you’re asking me, I would say it’s your journal, it’s your rules. That journal ought to be whatever you want it to be :)

On a more general note, that’s one thing I’m afraid of while I’m trying to encourage people to (talk more about) journal, in the community. I do not want to weigh-in on anybody, in any way. But I may still be pushing people to try stuff… because I wish as many people to experiment with journaling at least once, and decide for themselves if it something they want to keep doing, or not. And do it however they want to do it, not like I or anyone else is doing. There is no right or wrong way. There are only ways that work, or don’t work for every single one of us.

If you feel like it, do not hesitate to develop on that ‘changing narrative’ and ‘be the hero of one’s own story’ you mentioned. I’m pretty confident more people would feel encouraged to experiment with that themselves and to talk more freely about it knowing they’re not alone—you’re not— and that it’s perfectly fine too ;)

I think if you can’t be honest with yourself it kind of defeats the purpose. But, I suppose it depends on your reasons for keeping a journal

Entirely, it really depends the motivation why you’re journaling. Nut also how you think it can best help you.

As a child, I imagined a lot of things in my journal. It helped me feel better about the not so fun real world. My mom (who started reading my journal) hated that (and probably me too) for that and because of what I was writing about my emotions. I would not change a thing at the way I journaled back then bit in regards to my (sincere) emotions (and desires) and the ‘lies’ (some would say the ‘stories’) I was telling myself. They both helped me.

As for a fear of other people reading it, the only other person who might do that is my wife and she already knows my thoughts on most of the things I write about. Even if she didn’t, I would have no problem telling her. Aside from that, I don’t care what other people might think about my ramblings.

Yeah, I can understand that. I think I talked about how I journal nowadays in some other thread. My journal constantly lies on my desk for anyone (aka my spouse) to take if she ever feel like it. I Know she would never do such a thing unless I ask her to read something in it. Like I would never go through her papers without her telling me to do so. But even if she was to read it, I would not mind.

That said, given enough time priorities can shift as can people around us, as well as ourselves.

As a child whose mother decided that, for my own good, it was her right and her motherly duty to invade my privacy (among other things) I know very well how difficult it can be to trust people that are supposed to be close to you, and how far one may be willing to go to please them. Even more so when you’re not in a position of equality. To keep my sanity against her and her inquisitorial habits (and punishments) I had to become much smarter than her. Learning to replace names and sensitive words with others, that is after I failed at hiding my journal and had to go through some shit, and then I quickly learned to write in English instead of my native French because she could not read it and, back then, there was no such thing as the Internet and no app to auto-translate.

1. Do I actually need it?

+1

How do you judge which extension to install?

• I install as few extensions as possible, like Leraje mentioned already: I really consider if I need the extension or not. Because every single one of them is a potential security or failure risk. One extension may be cool; but if I don’t have some real need for it, I won’t be installing it. I will also consider native app solutions (I will use yt-dlp in a Terminal instead of using some web extension to easily download vids)
• When I’m interested in one extension, I consider if Firefox is recommending it or not. If not I may decided to not use it. May as it really depends how bad I need it and want to try it.
• I check the options of the extensions I’m already using

1. to disable whatever it is I don’t want
2. to enable extra features that may saves me the need to install more extensions. Because, once again, the fewer extensions I have to install, the better I am.

uBO (wikipedia) is an amazing example of that. (edit: I should probably say that I use it on Firefox which supports the extension without limitations, unlike Chrome-based browsers.)

Most people know it as one of the best, if not the best ad-blocker there is. Which it is. But it’s much more than that and it can also be used to get rid of cookie banners, url tracking, social media buttons removing (and their tracking), better privacy, I’m sure I’m forgetting some stuff. Heck, it can be used to easily block whatever content I may not want to see on any website. Say, I don’t want to see Shorts or News crap displayed on my YT homepage? That’s just two clicks away.

So, thx to uBO, I don’t need install a shit ton of other extensions I would otherwise be using to get the cleaner and less intrusive web experience I wish. And it only required me to do some reading and tweakings in its settings

What’s the best alternative to Google these days?

I use Kagi, it’s great (great results, no ads, no tracking, a lot of clever filtering tools) but it’s paid. Free, I would use Brave Search but I doesn’t give me as good results as Kagi.

Edit: added links.