I know there is lots of guides and things because for clicks people like to write guides. However all the defaults on mint are sensible. You can pretty much install is stock and be done. You can use these guides if you want but they are optional. You can use flatpak, .deb, snap or whatever else you want to install things. I tend to use .debs when available and flatpaks as my backup. As a Linux user I haven’t had to do all that much tweaking in years to be honest.

You know I stopped at “meta is kicking Australian children” and had a good laugh.

I have seen such half assed stuff in my career that I am terrified at trusting companies to do this stuff. This is even before the vibe coding. Now that I see how companies mine and others are using AI I am even more concerned than ever.

I just imagine the first places that put in in-door lightnig like “here now you can work later in the day” now they will be like “Oh look you can work 24/7 now it’s never dark anymore”.