GL.iNet has a mesh router based on OpenWRT and supports WireGuard.

https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-b1300/

I have the Flint 2 and like it quite a lot but don’t have experience with this other router.

I personally haven’t ever had it that difficult. My laptop has an nvidia card running mint and is dual booting with Windows with no issues. I’ve previously setup an encrypted Ubuntu on an external drive that can be loaded on any computer without issues. I’ve used Bazzite on an all AMD modern gaming powerhouse, and Kinoite on two laptops with integrated graphics with no issues. Also KDE Neon on a crappy old HP Laptop with no issues.

So you may have done something wrong in the process of installation, maybe your USB drive was corrupted, or maybe you tinkered alittle too much while not knowing exactly what you were doing.

Good points

I suggest Fedora Kinoite. An atomic version of Fedora (meaning it’s hard to mess up and easy to revert if you do manage to f things up) and it uses the Plasma desktop. The kernel is quite up-to-date and everything feels modern. I’ve transitioned a few noobs from Windows and they haven’t had any issues besides learning basics that are just different than what they are used to.

Mint with Cinnamon feels outdated and Ubuntu is a thing of the past with questionable tactics and goals.

I know she doesn’t have the “M” chip, so I’d guess it’s an Intel

Oh I didn’t realize it was like that. I’ll have to re-visit my Mom’s Macbook

I use a VPN with NewPipe, no problems. I’m using the NewPipe repo for the app

Great! I’ve got my Dad on it, just need to get my mom off of her iPad now

I recently got a Dell Latitude 14 2-in-1 with the AMD 8840U, Put on the latest Fedora Kinoite and the fingerprint reader works FYI.

Great story. I have found that pretty much everyone I have shown Linux is pleasantly surprised with how nice it is. I think people have an idea of it being a hacker person OS with code running on the screen.

StarLabs has one with an N200 but that’s still dated

I used to have a SanDisk Extreme Portable running Ubuntu. If it was unplugged, my computer would boot Windows and when I plugged in the SSD to USB it would auto boot into Ubuntu. I have no idea how I did it though. It was my first time using Linux and I followed a guide online.

Edit: found the video

I login to the student outlook email on the web and use OnlyOffice with Microsoft fonts installed. Presentations and Documents work as needed. I got a fellow student to switch to Linux and he’s had no issues either.

I use IVPN which requires no knowledge of the customer and their payment options. If I can eliminate any form of privacy invasions I will take it. My ISP and DNS provider do not need to know anything about my habits or values as their service I pay them for is internet.

Is there an option to save the new bios update file to a USB stick, then enter bios and trigger an update manually that fetches the file from said USB stick?

I’ve done it this way with an Asrock motherboard for desktop running Bazzite.

I always have a VPN enabled

I thoroughly hate that their website blocks my VPN servers

You’re welcome. I find Fedora to be much more up to date and refined than Ubuntu but also very stable still, at least the atomic variants as those are what I use. Also Ubuntu has all the controversy about trying to force their own packages at you as well as other things

You can try Fedora on a Surface with the Ublue variants such as Aurora and Bluefin, there are ISOs specifically for the Surface. Fedora atomic variants work very well. I found Fedora Kinoite works great with a touchscreen laptop.

I’ve recently converted two people from Windows to Linux with Fedora Kinoite. One of them has been using it for maybe two months now without a single issue and the other just started using it with positive first impressions. I find it very modern, simple, and familiar. The atomic system just works too. I enjoy it much more than Mint