Its a pretty dependent question.

Depending on your hardware, I’d say if you consider compatibility first.

Touchscreen is something you mentioned, I’ve used lenovo laptops that have built in touchscreen that work well on fedora.

They want something close to windows then I say Linux mint.

I have used Linux mint with various ages past 2 years. Very on levels from beginner to complete non tech users. On those that need compatibility with various applications close to windows. Regular Linux mint

On users that just require basic internet and document usage (aka a word like application) Linux mint debian edition (why? Less complicated, for non tech savy people). Less configuration means lower chances of issues popping up.

TLDR base your decision on peoples needs, and your ability to assist with what they have. Right tool for the job. Hope this helps.

ESIM using silent.link = a phone line that can only be used to receive messages and calls no outbound calls allowed. However you need a phone with esim support.

Physical sim on another device: great but you need a seperate hardware and have something extra to carry and charge.

Physical sim on a dual sim phone. Easier to carry however it runs the battery faster and sometimes you can forget which sim you are on if you are quickly calling or texting.

Mains sim plus VoIP line example is mysudo- use one phone, seperate your communication between your actual number and an app with VoIP. Seperate phones # via software since VoIP is all on app side. Requires you have an internet connection to work properly. Not all services are happy using VoIP and stop you from registering or changing numbers to VoIP.

Lots to think about, best of luck.

It does also have third party repos such as sbopkg. This does a bunch of the movement for you when installing packages though you still need to manually install dependencies, BUT If you also add sboui which is a front end package resolution for dependencies then the process is much faster. I like the stability of Slackware, and also because its helps me get better for when I try the BSD since its very much like them as well.

I would have suggested silent.link , while you can get a number not tied to your identity via esim, the main focus of numbers is a receiver for text and calls(also because it avoid people creating spam phone calls/txt). Which was originally for 2fa that only had cell # as an option. Also a number requires the user to be vigilant in paying their annual for it or they can lose the number. Also I think they can only cater for users in US, Canada and maybe UK.

I dont blame em for going with that decision. Maintainer/devs are also wearing customer service/ PR and bookeeping hat on top of the things they build. Things cost money, especially time, call it greedy or not but people have to pay housing and food. Its tough and similar to a lot of industries, nobody cares until something goes wrong. All the best to this person 👍

Several things with this.

1. introducing programing and linux are two seperate things, though they do bridge when running linux, it would be asking em to learn one or the other. ( offer something already easy linux distro, to learn linux passively while focusing on programing.

Resources:

Learn linux TV - playlist available for linux and programing

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxQKHvKbmSzGMvUrVtJYnUA

Unfa - learn linux and music production

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKj_peyESIMDp5LtHlH2A

Good audio recording program thats free Ardour ( if he becomes good and makes a living on it, pls donate to the devs)

Learn programing for free Freecodecamp.org

If you are in the US. Ask the college/university for taking walk ins for classes. They allow you to attend classes for free to check out if you want to be a student. Depending on the school there will be no limit. ( honestly tech fields are mostly certifications and experience; a degree with student loans not necessary)

Local library, ive found books for programing languages to check out, use the cities resources.

Conclusion

All these options mean nothing unless the person does it and applys. You need to accept that no matter how much you suggest/guide/offer , that at the end of the day the choice is theirs. Especially at an age that wants to figure things out on their own.

Best of luck.

I luckily remembered this link from a resource i stumbled across. There is a website called

www.thinkpenguin.com

It has several periferals and devices supported by linux that they sell.

Thats good, congrats, it does get difficult to start an actual friendship, there are a lot of people i talk with but I dont use friends as those relationships because it hasnt evolved to that aspect. Maintaining them is very important though, otherwise one side can get burnt out with putting in more of the effort. All the best to your continued success.

Thata true, but you if used in a vm you should be careful as preset selections could end up removing functions on your guest vm.

It definitely makes you laugh once you see it.

Yes, i have seen it happen several times and i get blamed why its not showing on the show laptop. The moment i ask, “did you purchase any add on effects?” i feel like a customer service telling a customer your credit card was denied.

Its still going strong.

Though there are a lot more tools.

Still sysinit system and as reliable as ever on its stability.

New things are stuff such as -sbopkg(can deploy slackbuilds a lot faster as it will sync, custom the slackbuilds scripts if you want, build and install applications[though you still have to install depenencies in there proper order])

• Sboui gui style package management tool that will work with sbopkg and take care of the dependecy resolution for the applications you want to install(includes previous mentioned details of sbopkg)

I can say even on me when i was new to using it, slackware is forgiving if you make mistakes.

Alien bob still making modern packages to use as an alternative package resource if you want stuff like vlc, libreoffice and such that do not come with the default package resource.

Lol i cracked up when i saw that too. Slackware user myself. Though i do dabble in mint, arch, artix and netbsd

Lol I have been guillty of this when i first jumped over. The only answer was to VM and thats still not the solution for every application

As someone who works with tech, here is my 2 cents on basic knowledge.

If your computer is “not working” restarting the computer can generally fix 80 percent of the issues. We are not trying to make you mad, this is literraly first thing I am doing if you present me a problem.

Stop downloading things from unknown sources.

Use generic effects/fonts on your powerpoint. Just because you bought something cool doesnt mean it will magically transfer when you pass your presnetation to another computer for your presentation. (Microsoft does not migrate your paid effects)

For gamers Stop playing pvp on your pc/console on wifi, are you a mad?

Everyone in general We are at an age of computers. Learn how to type, it will save you tremendous amount of time, literally.

Sorry for late reply

For about 4 hours i beleive. Though it used to be longer as i have had it for over a year and the battery not like it used to be.

Kde is the default desktop eviornment.

It helps that its a non systemd init system so it doesnt pull as much resources on the backend since systemwide is controlled via scripts.

If i were to run a lighter one such as xfce, qtile or dwm it would run longer(varies on configuration though)

As someone who runs VMs, i suggest you dont. Ivd been doing it for about 2 years and i still have moments where lets say i want to expand my storage and a bork it, or accidently removed a virt selection on virt manager by mistake.

An easy solution. Run conty.

https://github.com/Kron4ek/Conty

It creates a virtualized arch linux with all the needs for gaming without having you worry about the heavy stuff. All the list of programs already on the list including other launchers for other games.

Here is a video explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugKXXzAdqY

Windows -> macos -> pop os -> debian -> fedora ↓ Now

• linux mint(desktop)
• slackware(laptop)
• arch linux(Kvm/Qemu for gaming)
• Netbsd(older hardware/for fun)

I also use them for voip #s. I have a calyx phone so thanks to micro g im getting the notifications as they come in. If you want to make it more private. You can buy google cards with cash at a store to upload to your google account. Also use private card service to create a virtual card for payments.

As an example, i use mint as the base of my kvm/qemu virtual machine since i run an arc 380 on base and nvidia gpu for the guest. I made the mistake of updating my experimental kernel and forgot to set quiet and mint menu on grub to select the kernel at boot time. I popped in the install disc i had used previusly and fixed it by using the inlcuded programs to edit the grub and undo my kernel update. Fixed and i saved a timevault snapshot of the fix in case i mess up again. Linux mint saved me from reinstalling my entire os from a simple mistake.