If a debian based distro there’s several ways to copy your package choices from one machine to another, the likes of using dpkg --get-selections and using that output on the new machine with --set-selections, but probably the easiest way is to use apt-clone, which streamlines that process to install the same packages on the new machine.

As for your firefox and desktop packages, they’ll be saved in /home/username (usually in .hidden dirs) - so just copy all of that over.

Alternatively, use an image cloner like clonezilla to make an exact disk copy and install that.

Or run your machine as a vm inside Proxmox or another hypervisor. That way you can have instant snapshots before you do risky things, as well as multiple scheduled entire-machine backups.

Or ansible (which I do a lot of), which can set whatever packages and copy your golden-image files over as you want. (But keeping those up to date requires a little thought)

I can’t, but I take my brother with me who’s even slower.

Um, do you? I don’t seem to need to, never had except for major release updates and changing sources.

Just now;

root@backups:~# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="13"
VERSION="13 (trixie)"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.5

Then “apt update” and “apt upgrade” followed by “reboot” and

root@backups:~# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="13"
VERSION="13 (trixie)"
VERSION_CODENAME=trixie
DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.6

(My history)

 497  apt update
  498  cat /etc/os-release
  499  apt upgrade
  500  reboot
  501  uname -a
  502  cat /etc/os-release
  503  history

I do, and have printed instructions in a “When I die” sealed envelope.

But I think this is more of a people problem than a technical one. 99% of the pictures in my immich instance are of no interest to anyone else, along with most other things I back up. Some websites I’ve made I’d like to continue so have their source in github and on free hosting, but eventually the domains will expire and they’ll go away.

What you can’t provide is selecting what’s important enough to the family and what they want shared, which is the hardest part. And in some cases, that’s what people post on socials. How you want to be remembered is often just your facebook feed.

Amplification - drugs /can/ turn a small problem into a huge one.

Plus sometimes people do start drugs for temporary or even trivial reasons - boredom, curiosity, peer pressure, even just availability - they don’t always need to be escaping something.

When they say drugs ruin lives, it’s a truism often enough to be accurate.

Good shout! I use syncthing myself to sync all my useful stuff between multiple devices seamlessly.

OS update fuss level is hugely dependant on distro though.

EL and rebuilds? Full new machine and copy services over (or if paying RHEL, use their migrator which can have mixed results). Agree, huge fuss.

Debian/ubuntu? Dist-upgrade, normally safe and much quicker.

Plus a bunch of rolling release distros that just keep up to date (but will occasionally add breaking changes that you might not be ready for)

Can’t so easily get around hardware issues, so build cattle that can be easily redeployed or scaled. Doesn’t fit all situations though.

rEFInd

Good shout. Not something I’ve heard of before and I’ve certainly had my share of problems with grub2, even recently.

Total agreement. So many unsung heroes involved in Debian. Work has agreed with me - today’s job involved migrating those load balancers to Debian underneath.

#lifegoals

The humblest!

Summary of answers so far:

• Yes.
• No.
• It will break your windows.
• Do $other-thing instead.

I hope OP found clarity…

Can your phone reach your server at the address you’ve given?

There’s not a lot in your question to allow us to help you. Explain what you’ve done so far and what error message you might be seeing.

Genuine question: Do you think linux would be better or worse today without that influence?

https://publicapis.io/

In the Bible they had to make a law against it

So they did about eating Pork, but Christians like the taste so eat it anyway.

“Leviticus 11:7-8 that pigs are considered unclean and should not be eaten.”

I’m pretty sure “zoophilia” is more about being into animals rather than actual sex with them

I wasn’t sure about this, due to the common link with sexuality - but it looks like - at a semantic level - you’re right.

From the original Greek via Aristotle;

philia is commonly translated as friendship or affection. Its conceptual opposite is phobia

Continued today with Bibliophilia, Dendrophilia, Thalassophilia etc (Books, trees, the sea) - all non-sexual, and there are hundreds of other examples “used in everyday language to describe completely normal, passionate hobbies and aesthetic appreciation”

You’re assuming others are all like you.

Sure, alone doesn’t == loneliness for some people. Life the life that you want to live, there’s nobody keeping score, everyone’s too busy living their own lives to care much about what you do or don’t do, within reasonable societal norms - just idle judging as you’re doing about them.

This isn’t some new thing btw, I’m 55 and only had two people I would consider good friends. I married one, and the other died in his 40s. People come into our lives and leave, but I doubt I’ll make more real friends. I’m fine with that, partly because of the reasons you mention.

Linux’s only objective is to get better.

Any commercial OS has the sole objective to make money for its owner.