Hi folks,

I thought it might be useful to share my advice for you to have a peaceful mind when it comes to personal computing. Probably singing to the choir, but who knows, some of you might find these thoughts useful.

1. Get a home. Yeah, I know, the new meme is "digital nomad", and sure, it has its perks, but sooner or later you will really get tired of moving around, maybe you want to settle down somewhere, have a family, have kids, you know, the usual stuff. Once you already calmed down a bit and had enough of rumbling around like a headless chicken, settle somewhere and get a home. Done? Good.

2. Once you got a home, make sure it is big enough to have a desktop computer and it accessories (monitor, keyboard, pointing device, printers/scanners, webcam, etc) with it. It shouldn't take up too much space, and most likely you already have a home like that, but just in case... Done? Good. Oh, obviously, make sure your home has a reliable elecricity service provider, computers need that stuff, you know. Also make sure to have some reliable cable going into your home. Wireless stuff is cute, but it is never as reliable or fast as good-old cable. The faster the better, if reasonably priced. If providers are bonkers, go for some of their cheapest offering, guess what, it will still be much faster than 56k modems and the Internet Veterans grew up on that and they are fine and dandy...

3. Okay, so you finally got a life, got a home, all set. Now what? Get yourself a so-called desktop computer. From now on "desktop computer" = "PC". Remember that. Yeah, that bulky old stuff. Don't get bothered that lots of strange looking young kids also look for that stuff, they call them "gaming rig" or some other esotheric names. Ignore all the fuzz and buzz about them, stay calm, and state your objective to the salesperson: "I want to buy a PC." Now, most probably you will face an uphill struggle, as the entire industry is hell-bent to dissuade you from this, but stay on course, don't bulge. Insist until you get yourself a cheap, superfast, super powerful PC. They will try to veer you off by selling you laptops, smartphones, tablets and other gimmicks. Resist the temptation and the marketing bovine excrement, stay focused, and walk home with a desktop PC dammit. Yeah, resist the Apple/Macintosh temptation, too. It is a tricky rabbithole, avoid it. Also, if possible try to buy a PC without Microsoft Windows pre-installed on it. You won't need it, so do not pay for that expensive license. If MS Windows is bundled with the PC buy it with it, it won't do much harm anyway, but for God's sake avoid the trap to use that crap. See next point...

Bonus 3.1: if you wanna have the best of both worlds with some compromise, get yourself a "mini PC", anything that is decently portable yet has many ports, preferably even slots for accessories and peripherials, in other words a hybrid, a proper PC that has adequate cooling system and could run continuously and uninterruptedly for years if needed. Pros? Portable. Throw it in a backpack and go. Cons? Much less versatile than a PC, probably also more expensive.

Bonus 3.2: if looking for a mini PC, look for one that has an optical drive (DVD burner or such) built-in (will come handy for data storage, multimedia and secure boot)

4. Okay, you have your corner with a comfortable/ergonomic (office) chair, a table, a PC (desktop computer) with all the necessary input-output devices, accessories, peripherials cabled, attached, arranged, all is fine and dandy. Now what? Probably that PC comes with a storage device (a hard disk, SSD or NvME drive, or something even fancier than that), and an operating system on it, which is probably Microsoft ("MS" from now on) Windows, probably the newest version of it. That's not very helpful, but wait, we will finetune this system so that the software you will be using is safe, fast, private, and in general the best of all worlds.

You are aiming for the sky, don't you? You do not like compromises, you want it all. Good.

I might mention considerations about the hardware in more detail later, now let us focus on software basics. We will elaborate both hardware and software, as well as networking, in detail, later.

Recommended operating systems? Linux, for sure. Okay, but which flavor, because there are zillions. I would say either Linux Mint (if you come from MS Windows in your previous life), or Pop!OS, if you come from Apple/Macintosh/OSX, Android, or simply want "the best of the best". Don't be scared by the stupid names these distros have, they have nothing to do with either mint tea or pop-corn, and most good Linux distros have weird names. If a Linux distro has a fancy name, it probably sucks. Trust me on that.

These two (Mint, Pop!OS) you can test before you install it (if at all, see later), that's why that DVD drive may come in handy later, but you can also start the PC without those, simply with a USB stick (see later). The options are legio.

Bonus 4.1: if you really want to become a pro, try Puppy Linux. Details later, but the main point is, it is the lightest, most powerful little puppy out there, it can save your life down the line, so I will insist that you learn about it and get yourself a Puppy usb/cd for rescue and other tasks for later.

5. Okay, so you are almost there. Got your home, your PC corner in it, plugged in, running as planned, and have tried some of these Linuxes and you love them. You chose one of them, probably Pop!OS, because you couldn't care less about MS Windows anymore (see later why), you are already out of the Apple ecosystem, too (see later why), and you want a fresh start. Surely, Pop!OS will be the best no-compromise, fun and powerful OS ("OS" = Operating System, the software that is the base for all your computer-related activity on a computer), and let us assume you alrady installed it on your PC. All is set!

From now on you may go on your own, you may not need any more advice. I will give you some anyway...

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