This is Niko, God's strongest cement enjoyer
Welcome to my Neocities page. My main interests are videogames (mainly RPGs) and free software, especially for desktop computers. Things like Linux (both the OS and the kernel), desktop environments and window managers, distros and so on. So these are the ones I'll have the most to say about. Although this site's name and overall identity revolves around seals, I wouldn't consider them a "special interest". I have surface knowledge of them. I just think they're cute and it makes me feel good when I look at it.
This website is born out of platform fatigue. Most social media websites are adopting a stance of "engagement at all costs" and encouraging our worst impulses. The algorithms are deliberately tweaked to make you feel angry, anxious and scared, to the point where my entire feed is basically people fighting all day, often spouting viewpoints I hate. It hurt
Mandatory "in construction" disclaimer. Doesn't really need one though. A website is never actually finished, it just stops moving.
Q: What Linux distro should I use?
A: I'm not big on flavor-of-the-month gaming distros, meme distros or one-man projects. So there are only five real distros you should consider: Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Linux Mint, Debian. Arch isn't very beginner-friendly, but it's nice for people who've been around and like setting up their own stuff. If you don't know any of them, just use Ubuntu and stick with it. Everyone starts with it and it has lots of support online, so you'll probably find a fix if you run into an issue.
Some people act like Arch is something you "graduate" to as you become more advanced with Linux, but it's hogwash. You should't feel pressured to switch. There are plenty of pros who use Ubuntu and never even change the wallpaper. There's nothing about Arch that makes it inherently superior, it just has a nice, simple packaging system, up-to-date software and you set up your own stuff, so you know how to fix it if it brokey
Q: Do I need to learn the terminal to use Linux?
A: This might be controversial among Linux nerds, but yes. Even if you don't need it to get around day-to-day, I don't think there is avoiding the terminal. Something will likely go wrong and you're going to need it when a GUI fails you or isn't available for a given task. I promise it's not as hard as it seems, just memorize the man, whatis and apropos commands first so you can get help if you forget something. Take it one step at a time. Like I said, you won't need to use it on your day-to-day, it's mostly for when you run into a problem and someone on a help forum asks you for a log.
Q: What course/book/certification should I take?
A: You don't need any of that stuff to use Linux. Unless you have a specific career path in mind which will need Linux, I wouldn't advise it. It's basically a waste of money. For the casual gamer user like myself, just install it and use it. People do a lot of work to make it easy on you (even if it doesn't always seem like it).
If you do have a career path in mind, then I'm not the best guy to get help on that. I'm just a casual desktop Linux user, I don't do any enterprisey things.
If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.
Check out the experimental forum I'm working on. Still under development and it contains only AI-generated testing content.