I also have a SteamDeck and it’s IMHO one of the best device to promote Linux. Just hand skeptic the device, let them play and ask them how the experience then if they can guess the OS.

never could get away from Windows entirely. Especially for gaming, and a few critical apps.

Been gaming exclusively on Linux now for few years, including in VR. Just few hours ago before my work day I was playing Elden Ring with controller. 0 tinkering, System key, “EL”[ENTER] then play. So… unless you need kernel level anti-cheat, Linux is pretty good for gaming nowadays.

Same of the few “critical” apps, I don’t know what these are but rare are the ones without equivalent and/or that don’t work with Wine, sometimes even better that on Windows.

Anyway : Debian. Plain and simple, not BS with a mix bag of installers (but you can still use AppImage or am or even nix whenever you want to). It just works and keep on working.

Another Debian suggestion here, including for gaming and even VR. It basically just works.

Looks like https://old.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/d3m0fz/how_to_open_links_in_mpv_with_klipper/ is a good starting point, i.e

• Open menu in system tray.
• Right click on Clipboard => Configure Clipboard.
• Go to Actions Configuration => Add Action.

then… to try! :D I’m just discovering this too but seems like the right way.

That said I’d be cautious and limit the use case to only what you have, e.g. Spotify links, at least at first because I imagine one can get into hairy edge cases quickly.

Keep us posted!

To clarify, I’ve been using Linux for decades… and I still take notes! For example https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Shell or https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Ffmpeg so please, pretty please, do NOT keep it all in your head! There are myriads of way to record your learning so don’t be shy about it.

First and foremost, welcome to Linux!

Few pointers to hopefully help the process :

• “Not knowing where to find anything.” indeed, it’s disorienting but it will come. You can find actual “maps” but honestly, just as you would do in other operating system, use the search function. If it’s not obvious this way, search online. The first few times it will be weird then each time it does become easier until it actually makes sense!
• “The lingering feeling of instability.” have a /home directory (not “folder”, that’s funnily enough a Windows term as they tried to be different, going from the unanimously used / to their own C:\ things) so that you can actually go “nuts” with your installation, actually messing things up but without the fear of losing your precious data! Each new install is an occasion to learn. That being said, Linux is very VERY stable. I’ve been running the same installation for years, on desktop and servers alike. If something goes wrong it can usually be fixed and it’s, again, an occasion to learn. That being said, having a dedicated /home directory on its own partition or even disk gives you the opportunity for a low effort low risk blank slate.
• “The capslock works differently” … well this one is quick, you’re looking for the SHIFT key if you only want to type few characters in uppercase ;)
• “Every once in a while, my desktop icons get rearranged.” yet another occasion to learn. What’s the bug from? Is there an issue open? Is it being worked on? By whom? How? Why? You might even be able to fix it!
• “It seems impossible to get Firefox to not restore sessions after shutting down the computer with it still open.” it’s in the Firefox preference : Settings -> Startup -> untick “Open previous windows and tabs”, literally the first option.
• “The above all add to a bit of a general ‘stuck together with adhesive tape and love’ feeling.” nice, and that’s just the surface, it’s now YOUR system so you can do whatever you want, even if everybody else disagree.
• “Not knowing how to install programs.” well that loops back to all the learning opportunities above and the last remark, it’s YOUR system so you can use whatever you prefer, both in terms of apps, settings or even how to install (or not! Check e.g. Nix) apps. There are even “weirder” things like https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM but the point is, you decide, again, always!

Honestly I’d

• take any distribution that someone at or close to the library is comfortable with, e.g popular Ubuntu or Debian,
• setup a user profile that fits the need of the average library user, e.g Firefox with as a start page the library website
• make sure the library card system do work
• copy /home/thatuser directory somewhere, e.g /root/thatuserunmodified and insure permissions make it unmodifiable
• add a cron task so that every evening 1h after the library close any thatuser session is terminated, /home/thatuser gets deleted, copy the /root/thatuserunmodified to /home/thatuser and fixer permission
• assuming it’s fast enough (I bet it’s take 1min at most as /home/thatuser would be mostly empty) I’d do the process after each logout so that each new visitor gets a fresh session, no downloads from previous users, history, bookmarks, etc. Only what the library consider useful.

That’s it. This way one can still let the OS do it’s updates but the user experience is consistent.