root doesn’t have to support login either, and I think being able to login is a pre-requisite to being “an account.”

Social media.

Configuring automatic login shouldn’t be difficult. Here are instructions on Ubuntu (should work on any GNOME system), and here’s how to do it with pretty much any KDE system. This is a feature of desktop managers (like gdm or sddm), not desktop environments (like GNOME or KDE), so if neither works for you, you’re probably using a different one. If that’s the case, reply with your distro and as much info as you can provide.

That said, what exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve? It’s usually a lot easier to login remotely using SSH instead of remote desktop, and then use console commands to do whatever you need. To login with SSH:

ssh <user>@<IP address>

So if your username is tux and your IP is 1.2.3.4:

ssh tux@1.2.3.4

And then if you want to reboot:

sudo reboot

And if you want to shutdown:

sudo shutdown -h now

I use an app on my phone to login, so I can get it done while sitting on the toilet in like 10s (I use it to unlock my computer so my kids can use it). If you’re accessing from your computer and just need to run a single command, provide it after the command in quotes (note, sudo commands won’t prompt for a password and will just fail).

Oh no!

Anyway…

I think the main reason I still stick with Apple over Linux for most things is that Linux requires more tinkering.

That’s only true if you need specific software, if you can generalize your requirements a bit, there are a lot of options. For example, if you need Photoshop, you’ll probably have a bad time, but if you just need an image editor, GIMP, Krita, or a number of simpler apps could work. If specific, proprietary apps exist in Flathub, it’ll probably just work on whatever your distro is. If it’s not there and not in your distro’s repo, you’re back in “tinker” territory.

So it’s kind of like macOS in terms of app support, but with a bit less official support and a bit more unofficial support.

And that’s also true with games. If you’re using Steam, then check the Steam Deck compatibility; if it’s “playable” or “supported,” it’ll probably just work without any effort, otherwise it’ll probably work and may require some effort. On macOS, if it doesn’t have explicit support, it probably won’t work. If you use another store (GOG, EGS, etc), then you’re firmly in “tinker” territory.

If you don’t want to tinker, stick to stuff in distro repos, flathub, and Steam Deck “playable” and “supported” games. That should meet most needs (it solves mine), but you need to be okay with replacing some apps here and there.

You should obviously delete those downloaded files like a good boy.

That’s true of Linux too though.

I was running Linux on my desktop from 2009 until I finally decided to swap the hardware last month. It started as my computer for school, I later added a GPU to play games, upgraded the GPU, then removed the GPU to turn it into a NAS (in 2017) when I upgraded the hardware (CPU was lagging in games). So I got ~8 years out of it as a desktop, then another 7 years as a server, and I only replaced it because I had better hardware doing nothing (faster and lower power).

Likewise with my laptop. I bought a Lenovo T series in 2012-ish (replaced a POS HP that was falling apart from 2009), accidently killed it with water damage (a lot of water, like a full cup) in ~2017, then got a Lenovo E series to replace it, which I still use today. The E series has been dropped multiple times (once from almost 2 meters onto a hard floor), stuffed in bags, used by kids, etc, and the only issue is a small chip in the back (fall damage) and a slightly loose USB-C charge port (mostly from kids tugging on it; still works fine). I still get 3-ish hours battery life and my kids love playing minecraft and Lego games on it. I expect it to last years still.

I’ve never had to replace a computer because of Linux support. It’s never even come across my mind as a thing to think about. Everything just works, even if I move my boot drive from one computer to another (upgrading my 2009 system to my 2017 system was just moving the boot drive).

I don’t think Apple hardware is special, they just don’t ship crap like the budget end of the market. If you buy something quality, it’ll be just as reliable, if not more. If I cared to fix my Lenovo T series, it would probably be with me today, but the newer, faster model was <$500 so I didn’t bother.

Eh, I’m not a fan of the trackpad gestures either. I much prefer a keyboard-driven workflow, and the Rectangle app has been way better than anything builtin to macOS, and that just recreates features in Linux and Windows.

Spotlight search is way better than Linux and Windows equivalents, but it’s also solving a problem I don’t have. When I launch it, 99% of the time I want to launch an app, and the rest is just noise to me. I’ve tried just using the app drawer search thing, but that’s an extra step.

It gets out of the way better than Windows, but it still gets in the way more than I’d like.

What could possibility go wrong?? :)

Even simpler! Nothing to get between you and the kernel. :)

I’m guessing you’re running either the nvidia open source drivers (way worse performance) or you don’t have graphics switching configured and it’s using your GPU’s iGPU (way way worse performance).

Bigger distros like Mint will probably configure that for you.

Nah, use Gentoo, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something simpler.

True. It’s also good for people who want to get stuff done. I used it for 5-ish years, and it was an incredibly productive, low-maintenance distro. I only switched because I wanted to run brtfs on root, so I figured I’d give openSUSE a shot since they do that by default.

So I guess musl/busybox/Linux?

And yet, if someone asks, I will link it. I’m not proud of it, but I am helpful to a fault.

Ok, but what if there isn’t any GNU? Musl/Linux?

Same, but the author claims it’s okay-ish now, so I guess they exist?

How would uber eats provide local pickup? Are you going to meet the uber driver at the restaurant? That sounds… overly complicated…

Obviously.

That’s by design… screw Microsoft…