Ulu-Mulu-no-die

The vast majority of desktop users don’t give two flips about security, nor freedom, they don’t even know what those things are and don’t care to be informed.

I’ve even seen a few (on reddit) asking for Linux to support giving kernel level permissions to applications, so they can play a few videogames, they are fine with having rootkits on their PC, that’s the level of “care” they have.

But that’s ok, Linux is already a de-facto “monopoly” on the server side, the most important one, it doesn’t need to win over also desktops.

It’s mobile devices that are eroding Windows market share on desktops, not Linux.

Linux already dominates the server space, it runs the internet and super computing, but it will NEVER be a threat to Microsoft on desktops.

Unfortunately I believe Apple hardware is unsurpassed when it comes to solid builds, care into details, functionalities and beautiful appearances.

I’ve been using Linux for over 20 years, never had problems making my desktops look good and work fine with the right cases and components, but laptops? meh

Only once in 20 years I found one that I like aesthetically and has all the compatible hardware (full Intel only), I got it at half the price because they weren’t making it anymore…

Keep all work stuff contained in a (encrypted) virtual machine, that’s what I do.

I work for a big enterprise, in a case like that, you seriously don’t want sensitive company data on your personal PC, it’s asking for troubles if you do.

Our company PCs are Windows, I got permission to install VIrtualbox so I can use Linux that’s so much better for many things. I encrypted the VM I use for work, so I can keep a copy on my personal PC when I work at home, without any risk of data breaches.

The advantage of a VM is that it makes it very easy to separate work from home, you start it up when you work, you shut it down when you’re done working and it doesn’t “interfere” with your personal stuff that way.

Any chance he’s willing to try another distro? Linux Mint maybe?

What you say is especially true for laptops, those have the highest chance of having weird non-standard components that give a lot of problems on Linux.

Much easier on desktops, especially if you build your own, you get to choose which components go into it.

Nvidia is shit on laptops but it’s fine on desktops.

I’ve been using Linux for over 20 years, always had Nvidia on my self-built desktops, my experience has always been flawless, I just have to install proprietary drivers.

My experience with laptops has been hit and miss, until I learned to buy laptops “full Intel only”, on those everything works out of the box.

Debian 13 itself does not seem to generate any files there

I noticed that too.

I did it manually, deleted the old list file, it works fine.

I work for a big enterprise, we have very strict policies when it comes to work PCs, no way anyone would be allowed to change the operating system.

BUT I got permission to install Virtualbox so I can happily use Linux for many things nonetheless.

First thing to consider is they all use the same Desktop Environments.

Unlike Windows, in Linux the “graphic” is completely separated from the operating system, any DE can be use on any distro, so trying different distros that come with the same DE, might make you think there’s very little difference (at first look).

Second, almost all distros are derivatives, that contributes to make them feel similar. The original ones are just a bunch: Debian, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSe, Arch, Gentoo, everything else is based either on one of those or on another derivative, if your curious you can have a look at this graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg.
So for example, if you take Ubuntu and Mint, they might look similar because Mint is based on Ubuntu.

If you want to see the real differences, you need to look at the original ones, the core differences are: the way software is packaged and managed, and the “philosophy” behind the way the system is overall administered, maintained and released.

Derivatives add differences to the user experience, they main reason they’re created is someone is not completely happy with the way a distro does things and they create one the meets their needs, for example, Debian is improved dramatically on the user experience lately, but many years ago was quite arduous to setup and use for non-experts, so Ubuntu was born.

Now to answer you question

as long as I choose one that gets regular updates, it doesn’t matter fundamentally?

It does matter, tho it’s not as much world-changing as some people seem to think (especially when it comes to gaming).

The most important things are support for your hardware and easy of administration/use. Most distros will recognize and setup your hardware out of the box, but some might require tinkering or extra steps. Some distros automate almost everything so the user doesn’t need to think about it, others require more knowledge and more manual intervention, you have a much finer control of your system this way at the expense of some user friendliness, it’s up to you to decide what you prefer.

Then it comes the Desktop Environment, different DEs do things differently, which one to choose is totally personal preference.

As for software, unless you go after some niche obscure distro, you shouldn’t have problems finding it in the distro repositories. For edge cases you can always use Flatpaks or AppImages.