your blueprint
The Civilian
The computer is an appliance. This one just refuses to show you ads.
- base
- Linux Mint
- desktop
- Cinnamon: looks like the computer you already know
- gaming
- Steam + Proton, if it comes to that
- escape plan
- LibreOffice + the browser you already live in
- terminal
- you will never need to open it (it's there, though)
- bonus
- updates that ask politely and mean it
second opinion · Fedora Workstation, if your laptop is very new and you want the modern stack at the cost of a slightly less familiar desktop.
What will still annoy you: Friends who use Arch will call this boring. They rebuild their audio stack on weekends. You have a life.
your setup prompt
Paste this into the LLM of your choice. It contains your hardware, your skill level and your blueprint. The AI walks you through the switch, one step at a time, and debugs with you when something breaks.
This is the generic The Civilian blueprint. Take the quiz to personalize it with your hardware, your Windows anchors, your terminal comfort, and to get a copy-paste setup prompt that makes an AI install it with you.