Hey dust, I have been using linux for about 24 years ago and I’m gonna explain it to you straight here.

debian is rock solid. It’s great for servers. It’s also great for laptops: That is laptops where you don’t really care about having anything bleeding edge. I need tmux, a few compilers, vim, and a browser. Debian!

I’ve got a kid and get at best 45 minutes per week to code on side projects. My system can never be broken. I use Debian on my Linux laptop and my droplet server. No surprises.

But if you want to occasionally get a brand new desktop environment hot off the presses, Debian‘s gonna work against you. I think Ubuntu mint is great.

Good luck

During the pandemic nadir I kept thinking about “viewing” and “seeing” and Zoom and Gladia.

Cheese

Here’s the biggest reason: we are evolved from savannah primates for whom the ability to make eye contact and hold it was a signal of “you can trust me, I’m not about to bite you.” Paper and pen don’t signal “I have decided to break this evolutionary/social contract” in the same way a phone or open laptop does.

I help mentor a lot of young people in early career and their generation with a phone is an excuse for an x-er/boomer interviewer to punt them waiting to happen. It’s career and comp limiting, right or no.

Also if one finds a taken note is missing something, contact the original party. A conversation that begins with: “you got me thinking about this more deeply and I think I may have missed something…” is the key to mentorship, advocacy, and growth.

In short from a transcoding of bits perspective, other media may be better. But for those they acknowledge human constraint and opportunity a nice notebook and (a cheap shill from me) a Lamy Safari medium nib fountain pen will do you quite well.

The A* paper standard and the metric system. A Pythagorean can dream.