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Honestly, no. I just use direct apt commands on my Debian installs for native stuff, assuming I even use the shell for that; sometimes, if it's not a complex update that's going to hold back 1.0*10^6^ packages, I just use Synaptic or Package Updater, frankly, as one of those is what I have my XFCE Package Update Indicator set to use on any machine I use frequently and it's convenient sometimes.

As for Flatpaks, I just run the flatpak update command whenever I feel bored. I wish Warehouse GUI supported updating, just because I find it really weird that's excluded from an otherwise pretty slick application that gets rid of me having to muck through the Flathub.

I don't write Rust code at the moment, and as for Python, I'm either using the Debian version of Python packages or scattered venvs that follow a de facto standard for Python developers: "What's an update?"

True; as said, this is Debian Testing. By "major issue", I mean Grub occasionally gets borked and I have to chroot in and fix it, or the time_t_64 transition.

I found the compromise between stability and newer packages acceptable for my desktop machine, which I am usually only on when I would actually have the time to debug these things. However, these days, I'm busy, thus may switch to stable in the next few months.

Having used the same Testing install since early 2022, I'd say it's not too bad. Stability-wise, I only have a major problem once a year.

Eventually, you get tired of having to switch to Flatpaks while packages transition. I'll either stay on Trixie when it goes to stable or reinstall. It's still an ext4 system and I want something different, as stable as ext4 is. I've been using btrfs on my new laptop for about a month and have been happy.

Honestly, in the age of Flatpaks, stable Debian is fine for most people in my opinion.

I like CoreCtrl. I don’t know how well it works with Intel and Nvidia, but it’s great on my AMD Thinkpad and desktop.

Nice thing is it’s in most distros’ repos these days.

I haven't researched this (I don't have kids), but out of curiosity, what type of mobile device is your daughter using? Also, I think PiHole is a solid recommendation like others recommend.

Otherwise, from a quick Google, I don't know of anything that can integrate both Linux PC and mobile phone screen time. Honestly, this sounds like a fun project I could implement someday if I ever had the will. However, for right now, in terms of screen time all I can think of is reading system logs (perhaps via SSH) to manually analyze your daughter's screen time.

ROCm is basically AMD’s GPU compute system, like CUDA but worse but better because the card is actually usable for desktop stuff.

However, they only support it on specific distros, and they’re really weird about what cards they support. This should be changing soon - Debian’s been working on packaging it natively, and I think so has Fedora.

Assuming you have a free PCIe slot, maybe just buy a PCIe USB card to use instead of what seems to be a faulty AMD USB controller.

I agree with you on the 580, although I got mine new and use it with 2 1080P monitors. I do wonder if ROCm works any better on newer cards, but I don't have my hopes up.

Honestly, just play with Linux in a VM for a while.

For your sanity, I have several recommendations:

• Linux has a central location to install apps called package repositories. Those packages are well-tested and tend to be extremely safe, so try to install from there first.
• Sometimes, apps aren’t available from the main package repository, so you have to source them from elsewhere. To avoid some of the fear, you can try using a thing called Flathub. I won’t go into all the intricacies of how it works or why it exists, but suffice it to say, some of the apps there have a verification checkmark.
• Also, when installing an app, research it online and find the Git(hub/lab/ea) repository. Start by checking if it’s under an open source license like GPL, BSD, or MIT. Although not a sure thing (like the XZ incident, which was an isolated incident), half the time if it’s under one of those FOSS licenses means the app is legit. In addition, check to make sure the source code is actually there- repos with just an executable file and a readme telling you to buy something are red flags.
• Finally, don’t go running random commands online without first researching what it does (with manpages or the like).

I would recommend Googling the following and reading about these:

• Linux directory structure
• Linux package managers

If it can get non-destructive editing by when 3.2 comes out say… 2030, I’ll be happy.

My first question is about your laptop; is the SSD removable, because if so, even a pretty large SSD is cheap these days.

Also, the GPU question is complicated. For most use cases, AMD is better on Linux. However, since you’re doing Resolve and Blender, that gets a bit murky. It depends on if ROCm support is less dismal on later AMD cards - I have an RX 580, which AMD quickly dropped support for and I am bitter about.

This is not to say I like NVidia, but for fast video encoding and rendering, as far as I know, it’s the easier option. Someone correct me if I am wrong, please.

As for actually building the thing, you’d start by look for what CPU you want, then find a compatible motherboard, then read the board’s compatibility list for RAM. They usually have compatibility lists for storage - those don’t matter, as it’s pretty universal. Then choose a graphics card, a case with the right form factor, a PSU, and a cooler. I tend to go with liquid cooling, as it’s not that expensive anymore.

Like others have said, check kernel support for your hardware, but also, it’s generally much easier on desktop. The main things to look out for are ethernet and WiFi controllers. By the way, what distro do you prefer, because that’s definitely a factor.

For a more professional tool, I’ve heard DaVinci Resolve also supports Linux.

I would be annoyed with how much Shotcut or OpenShot crashes, but I can’t say better of Premiere.