Corgana

“any media outlet, no matter how big an empire it is, that is not owned or funded by the state” is not the common definition of “independent media” (it’s not even the definition given in the hyperlinked definition). “Independence” in this context refers to journalistic independence.

Zorin is another distro that (very successfully imo) does a windows-style taskbar with GNOME and is parent friendly, though like I said before, I think today I would go with something immutable for a non-techie because they’re very hard to break.

KDE is the easiest for coming from Windows, you almost never never need the command line or anything “extra” to customize it (beyond what even Windows will allow).

GNOME (especially in Ubuntu) by default is more Macintosh-like which might appeal to some people, it’s “simpler” but any customizations will require navigating the add-ons (and in my experience inevitably the command line too).

I think KDE is the one for most people who just want a functioning PC. GNOME could be good for the PC you might make for your parent. Bonus points for an immutable distro which are even harder to break.

OP if you enjoy a fun weekend project, don’t go with a pi-hole. It literally only takes about 5 minutes. Also I recommend the blocklistproject lists https://blocklistproject.github.io/Lists/

FOSS land is always going to be populated by freaks and geeks. The well socialized devs get jobs at Google. It’s impressive the “system” works as well as it does, IMO. Passion is a big motivator.

There is a reason the type of devs who have the talent, passion and time for projects like this are not spending 60hrs/wk at Google.

Honestly I had the same thought. But on the other hand, internet outrage talking points have also become extremely formulaic…

Bitwarden

Do you mean Bitdefender (the antivirus)? Bitwarden is free.

Before anyone well ackhuallys me yes, there is a very cheap $0.80/mo plan if you want an authenticator.