I use the XFCE version, it’s around 400 MB idle, fluxbox should be even less I think.

Good job!

I work for a big enterprise, we have RHEL on all our Linux servers save for a few that are SuSe for SAP.

Microsoft Teams is the official communication tool for business where I work, no need to use whatsapp tho a few colleagues use it for fluff, as for personal/family, some of my family use whatsapp but I don’t (I use Discord), if we want to talk to each other we use “good old-fashioned” phone calls :D

The concept of having to compile something yourself is basically foreign to me

There’s no need to, what software do you need that you can’t find on Mint repositories?

having to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website and having the program, whatever program, up and running reliably within a minute, the concept seems ridiculous

Having an app repository is way more secure than downloading software from random websites, it’s also way faster.

But it’s fine if you don’t like it, each person has its own preferences.

That’s only beehaw tho, it’s quite an unique community, it’s not representative of the “average” lemmy server.

I know of beehaw defederating from a lot of instances, that doesn’t make them isolated tho, there are still a lot of instances they’re federated with.

Servers are not isolated from each other, people participate in communities regardless of the server they have their account on, that’s how the federation works.

Tho if by “server” you actually mean “community” then yes, each community can have its own “culture” like different subs on reddit did.

I don’t because no antivirus can protect you from yourself, I learned that the hard way while I was still using Windows many years ago.

I had antivirus and antimalware on Windows and I kept them updated and ran scans regularly, almost religiously, than I got a malware that antivirus couldn’t detect (they take a while to be updated with new viruses/malware that constantly come out) and the only way to remove it was a blank new install following a specific procedure to clean it all.

That day I understood that no matter how attentive you are about your antivirus, you’re never really protected until it’s you who learns what to do and what not while accessing the web, so I did a bit of research about how to better configure my PC, how to better recognize phishing/scamming, using adblocker, don’t download random software, stuff like that.

I basically learned “how to behave”. I stopped using antivirus/antimalware on Windows and I didn’t catch a virus since, then I switched to Linux and I still apply the same principles of “good behavior”.

That’s not to say I’m immune to viruses, I’m certainly not, but my mindset now is that if I ever catch a virus, it will be my fault for doing something I shouldn’t have done, and I’ll do my best to learn from it instead of relying on software to do that for me.

I hate how lemmy users are like Redditors and downvote any information contrary to what they want to see

I was thinking the same. There’s one person being honest about why they use Twitter - in a thread asking about why it’s still used - and the only thing people can do here is downvoting him? It’s sad.

I see 4, none appear as removed.

Overwhelming beginners with more than they can chew is not the best way to welcome them to Linux, giving them the chance to learn a bit at a time is instead.

There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain

It’s not a matter of intelligence but prior knowledge, Arch wiki is the best thing ever for everyone, even if you don’t use Arch, BUT you need some Linux knowledge - at least Linux “lingo” - to be able to understand it.

That’s something a Linux newbie doesn’t have yet, exactly the reason why Arch is not recommended for newbies.

Being lightweight or not doesn’t depend on the distro but the desktop manager (the graphic interface). Unlike Windows, the graphic in Linux is separated from the system so you can use different desktop managers on the same distros.

The lightest DE is LXQT but it’s pretty barebone, XFCE has more features while still being very light, avoid GNOME and KDE.

That being said, I suggest you try Linux MX XFCE or Mint XFCE first, if that’s not light enough for your liking, try Lubuntu, that’s Ubuntu with LXQT as default DE.

I’m doing it exactly like I was doing it on reddit, that is, build up my personal home page with all the communities I want to see then I changed my settings to default to subscribed when opening Lemmy instead of All.

Every now and then I check the list of all communities to see if there’s something new worth following, that way it’s also easier to avoid communities that do a lot of spamming, overwhelming the smaller (more interesting IMO) ones.

Google does not own the internet, it does not own our creative works, it does not own our expressions of our personhood, pictures of our families and children, or anything else simply because we share it online

If it’s something personal don’t share it online?

Very well said, it must have not been easy at all with the huge and sudden influx of people, but everyone did (and is still doing) a fantastic job in keeping lemmy a beautiful place to be.

True but donations help, it’s the best way to support this kind of projects IMO, doesn’t cover admins time and the soul they pour into it but at least the server costs.

Yeah, this new thing will be botted to hell lol.

It’s not even that, free speech is about the government, not private entities, it’s about not being arrested for what you say, it has nothing to do with what private companies do on their platforms, they’re free to do what they want and they’re not limiting any free speech by doing so because they’re not the government.

It’s baffling how many people still don’t understand that and go on crying about free speech related to private entities.