

my guess is a little bit before and for a minute or so after turning the curve.
I am Lattrommi. Yes, that one. You’ve never heard of me? I’m not surprised. It is often said that anything you put on the internet will live there forever. It becomes immortal. I do everything backwards and wrong. I do not live forever, I am always dying. ¿|√∞²|?
my guess is a little bit before and for a minute or so after turning the curve.
That was me recalling a time when I was using MX Linux XFCE edition. i installed something that I didn’t realize was pulling most of KDE in. i was still very new to linux and still relied on a couple windows programs, so i was dual booting as well. i was using zim because it has windows support, so i could keep notes in zim in both windows and linux, sync it to my dropbox and not lose notes switching between them.
I think my default text editor changed, either by me and forgotten or from something after KDE was pulled in. i think it went from mousepad to kwrite, and kwrite uses kate, which made zims behaviour change because it was using whatever was the default editor as its backend. i think. it’s still a bit beyond me honestly. one change had to do with how tabs are processed. some tabs were done as 4 spaces instead of a tab, which messed up some formatting i did in zim. so i thought i had to figure out which text editor to set zim to use to get my tab key to work like expected again.
me saying “a dozen” is an extreme exaggeration. i do that sometimes, use hyperbole too much. the application launcher grouped libreoffice stuff with kwrite, mousepad and kate. i think it had emacs and vim in there too. i kept trying to figure out which one was was causing formatting errors. there were issues with newlines due to going from windows to linux as well i think.
it led to me getting trapped in a recursion, doing test notes in linux with different editor backends set in zim, going to windows to see the effect, going back to linux and trying another editor, repeating this while sometimes forgetting to sync to dropbox, forgetting that kate and kwrite are connected, or forgetting what i was doing and just sort of going insane. i don’t have any friends that use linux. at the time, i had severely limited internet because of data caps with my isp. it was also the first year of the pandemic. so other factors were involved.
i eventually tried uninstalling everything KDE but that did not go well and i ended up without a DE at all somehow, it just booted into busybox and i started over. i’m pretty good at making the wrong choices and reacting by making worse choices. creating my own hell. i feel like i’ve witnessed other new users doing similar things too, so that adds to my reluctance to encourage beginner users to try things that might be too much.
Maybe things have changed and it isn’t that bad anymore. Doing a search for something along the lines of “installing multiple desktop environments” and you will see there are plenty of people suggesting to not do this. Probably just as many saying it’s usually fine. Note that the OP asked for a beginner friendly distro. That implies they might not be experienced enough to understand how some things work.
Saying “literally no problem about trying it out” is incorrect in my opinion and this applies to all contexts I can imagine, whether related to Linux or not. There is always a potential problem when trying something out. Nothing is idiot-proof or immune to wear and tear or perfectly free from bugs, software or literal. I personally am blessed with the uncanny ability to make the wrong choice in the majority of situations where I have a choice. That may even include the choice to make this reply.
Maybe for your use case, on the hardware you have, you haven’t had any issues, with the software you use. That doesn’t mean the issues don’t exist. I’ll mention again, do a search online. There are problems that can happen. They have happened recently. They have happened a lot. Not everyone has them.
I hate to come back to this example, since OP never stated they had it, but since you have ADHD, you may be familiar with analysis paralysis and executive dysfunction after being overwhelmed by too many things. Maybe forgetting which text editor worked best and seeing a dozen in the application launcher and start searching for the right one but by the time it is found the short term memory loss kicked in again and the original reason why it was needed has been forgotten. There could be frustration when starting to hyperfocus but an app is not working the way it did and so instead the night is spent grinding through preference menus already configured previously and eventually seeing that an update for one of the DE’s rewrote a config file or is using a differsion of python or it could be more than one of these things happening and one program also has a bug that spams the journal so troubleshooting becomes much more difficult… I’m digressing and projecting too much.
Have you ever uninstalled a DE after having more than one installed? Sure, it is possible. It’s easier and less time consuming to reinstall the whole OS in my experience. I’m not a professional, far from it. I know it didn’t go well. I can’t remember the specifics, I think I added a KDE package while using xfce and accidentally hit continue instead of cancel. It brought in all of KDE, which I didn’t want so I tried to remove it and everything broke because it removed shared xfce dependencies. It might be better now. I’d prefer not to try until I’m confident I know what I’m doing and what to do when things fail afterwards.
My point originally was, and still is, that it is often not recommended to do, especially for a beginner. I mean no malice towards you and hope this doesn’t seem aggressive or angry.
some nuisances are not so ignorable. having duplicate apps all over the place, each with their own settings, so if you forget which one you are using, you might find yourself spending more time in settings than desired. then there’s browsers. switching DE’s can cause browsers to log you out of everything, so switching often and you end up having to sign in to everything repeatedly, which for some can interrupt workflow and be frustrating. then there’s the fact that some use gtk and some use qt so title bar buttons and program menu’s can become confusing and ununified. can these things be ignored? sure, some people can. some cannot, such as people with ADHD for example, who can easily be sidetracked when the “file > open” menu is in a hamburger menu in one app and a bar on another.
I did say that I read about, but did not try, installing two and setting different users for them. i believe the idea is that they are both installed but don’t generate config files until you log in with a user. so keeping two users, one for each DE, works but only if you never log in with the wrong user. from what i understand, i could be wrong. i believe SDDM and LightDM can both facilitate switching DE’s from the login screen.
I have a few possible options but they all rely on other things you might not have or want.
There’s a fillable spreadsheet in g∞gle sheets but that requires having an account with the company and to fill it out, you make a copy from the file menu and go from there. It’s best to make the copy for your account and leave it blank, making extra copies of that one, in case my link stops working someday (it’s been good for at least 3 years so far). Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DrSwhSxJdEfO7gAih4UHcd3myJfNh2eW6Kxv0UblAO4/edit?gid=1270711241#gid=1270711241
If you use Discord, there’s avrae, a bot that integrates with discord for online d&d sessions. https://avrae.io/
it can be used offline as well but regular pencil and paper would be more convenient in my opinion. it can read character sheets from online sources, including ones made from the spreadsheet link i shared previously, as well as others, the suggestions they give are https://dicecloud.com/ and https://www.dndbeyond.com/ although the latter i found frustrating to use for reasons i cannot recall.
Another website worth checking out is https://www.flapkan.com/ for pdf form fillable character sheets. i have not used this, it was in a folder of bookmarks i have and i forgot about it. it looks promising.
as for linux native programs unfortunately i cannot help, i do not know of anything specific. i’ve used a few different programs but none were strictly linux based and most used proprietary code so they wouldn’t be FLOSS. like for example, I used yEd https://www.yworks.com/products/yed which works on Linux but uses java stuff. I liked it because I could set links to pdf files within the character sheets i’d made, which would open to specific pages of the rules related to what was linked, like rules for spells, how abilities worked and weapon stats and all that.
i suppose a caveat of the ‘you do you’ mentality, should include no interefering or infringing on the rights and actions of others, but the more people there are in any given area, the harder that becomes as far as resources and personal space are concerned.
i do feel that realizing when you are being an asshole or not doing enough is a step in the right direction. it may lead to you being motivated to attempt change for something better. maybe what might seem like not enough, is seen by someone else and inspires them to change just a tiny bit for the better.
there’s that saying ‘an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind’ (except that last one eyed person but all the blind people finding their way with sticks are sure to poke that out eventually) but the opposite of that is something like ‘one good deed deserves another’.
maybe if enough people strive to do just a little bit more to effect positive change in the world, no matter how insignificant, others might see it and might decide to do the same. i like to hope it grows and turns into a movement, where everyone lifts people up before putting anyone down, until we all have the same respect and responsibility for everything else. or something like that. i can dream!
I’ve frequently said that i am incapable of thinking inside the box. it’s a reference to a common interview question about whether or not a candidate can think outside the box. i believe most people start off like this, outside the box looking in. by the time they reach adulthood (or earlier) and begin looking for work, oftentimes they have become boxed in, now looking out from the inside of their structured life and the system which creates the walls. the walls don’t really exist, they are metaphors for what society deems to be within the realm of what is normal and what is not. i have a developmental disorder effecting my short term memory and learn through repetition until something becomes a muscle memory moreso than through study and training like one would find in schools or when starting a new job.
i think a lot of people are more like me without realizing it, which creates a sort of contradiction in my argument here, as the majority decides what is and is not inside the box. it might be better to assume there is no box, that the greater good is part of the walls, that doing what feels right is more important than doing what the world claims is right. more simply, you do you. you can go with the flow until landing in a majestic ocean or you can throw a rock into the river from the bank and laugh at the watery explosion. in the long run, the river will be unaffected, it will find ways to continue flowing until the stream has dried up. it is what it is. if you want meaningful change, get a bunch of friends and divert the river with lots of rocks. alternatively find those whose thoughts align and build momentum into a tsunami. maybe just float on, hoping things will continue going the right way, maybe the path is set regardless. your choices in life might mean nothing. they might mean everything. you don’t even have to make a choice, just you do you, as best as you can or want to.
to answer your question slightly more specifically, i’m probably a problem for current society. i use electricity, although i try to limit it. i create garbage, but try to minimize it. i don’t work but not for lack of trying, i simply lack the qualifications and abilities to do anything useful for a paycheck in my area. so i spend my time doing things on my computer of little consequence and alternate that with walking around my neighborhood, picking up trash. i also bite the hand that feeds me, by protesting the actions of my government while at the same time being reliant on the programs and benefits it provides. i hope i can help enact the changes needed for society as i see it, to become more like a society i’d like to be in, by going downtown and holding a sign stating that the president should be hung for treason and his main lackey should be deported, hoping that enough people see it and agree with the statement, to the extent and reach that takes the box i’m outside of and inverts it, so that i can be inside the box for once. much like a cat in a box, there is no change or purpose when i’m inside or outside, other than perhaps minor comfort, the illusion of safety and (because it’s a cat) a sense of superiority. is that helpful? probably not. i’m doing me. you do you. if you happen to be a straight woman between the ages of 32 and 52 and live in the US near the Miami Valley, maybe you could also do me. (that last line ruins this whole comment and i should omit it)
Yeah this is important to know as installing two DE’s can and will cause a lot of problems.
I’ve read, but have not tried, that installing each DE under it’s own user can prevent the majority of these problems. This also prevents using apps from different DE’s simultaneously, you have to switch users to do so. Session saving makes it faster than restarting constantly but it can still interrupt workflow. Again, I have not tried this myself but have considered trying it.
I’m proud of the fact I don’t know who that is and even more proud that I don’t care if anyone thinks that is not impressive. I hate that I learned who poodiepie is and have yet to meet any fans that weren’t mentally challenged. It is a waste of space in my brain and I would happily live under a rock if it meant I didn’t have to know about the existance of vapid, self-centered, so-called “youtube celebrities”. They add nothing to this world of any value and wouldn’t be missed.
First watch these:
When you have finished those, you should be filled with hate and suffering. You will welcome the dark side. Now you are ready.
Start watching
Stop watching before the pod race ends.
Play the videogame
Crash the first pod race, killing little Anakin.
Congratulations!
You’ve stopped the evil Sith lords from rising to power. You’ve saved the Ewoks. You’ve saved Jarjar. Balance in the universe remains balanced. You truly are one with the force. You are ready for the light side.
Watch
The animated series that aired on Cartoon Network. Not “The Clone Wars”!!! That’s different. Don’t watch that one. It sucks. You want the one made by Genddy Tartakovski, known for his masterpieces, Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory and his pivotal work in the series The Powerpuff Girls.
You wont need to watch anything else.
You wont want to watch anything else.
Ever.