Encryption

Oh no! … … anyway

Switzerland

A bit late but I was reading the comments and thought I share too.

Overall we are doing good, as far as I can tell, if not a little better than 20 or so years ago. But we also have problems that seem to getting bigger but not many seem to be concerned about them, as mentioned in an other comment people seem to be more disconnected and just follow their bubble interests.

For one, there is the global opinion the world has of us, the war in Ukraine really shook us and how we see our identity as a neutral nation. Our neutrality is now a big topic in discussions, especially the youth is very divided about it. Neutrality is something we all grow up with and see (or saw) it as a big part of our nations strength, how this will play out will show the referendums and initiatives that are planned for the next years, votes will decide.

Then there is the looming finance crisis that seems to come closer. Overall we are still doing good, as our inflation is very low in comparison to other EU countries (we even managed to lower inflation to a new low since a few years). Some now start to get financial problems, rents get raised yearly, public transport prices too and overall living gets even more expensive.

A new kind of crack floods the illegal drug market, and you can see junkies (sorry I do not know a better word) more and more. They not really bother others at the moment but you can sense a coming pandemic of this substance. Together with the financial problems I see a big danger in that.

There are other problems too, but those are the ones I see most present at the moment.

There are also good things of course, wages are high and steady when you work in specialized industries, going to university costs at most 700.- per semester, our government does not follow surveillance trends like the UK or EU. Overall I would still say, Switzerland is a good country to live and work in, I especially like our approach of direct democracy and our culture of privacy.

Smartphones are not a tool to manipulate and spy on tge population.

Oh boy, wait until you learn about Google-Analytics on Android phones, or how they predict (or lets say know) where traffic jams are. Does the Section 702 of the USA ring a bell?

They certainly started as a good idea, but they evolved into a widely used surveillance tool for companies and governments across the world.

True, but you can easily switch to Flatpaks and use them instead.

I think to start, Mint or Ubuntu is a good choice, it has support for most hardware and will probably run on whatever you install it.

Also something that I think most new Linux users should focus on; instead of distro pick the desktop environment (DE). As a beginner it does not really matter if you use, lets say, a Debian- or Fedora-based distro. Pick a DE that looks pleasing to you maybe GNOME or KDE and take the installation with that DE. Maybe do not start with Arch or Gentoo as they are for more experienced users that already have some Linux experience.

Distros will be way more interesting and important when you got a hold of Linux and you want to explore the differences of them.

Last tip: Make a separated /home directory, so when you want to change to a new distro you do not have to delete all your files and start over with an empty machine.

I wish you a good start into Linux and do not hesitate to ask questions if they arise!