Luckily, here, while admins can see how many up- and downvotes you have, it doesn't influence anything, and that's by design; besides, it's unlikely that any proper implementation of karma system is possible in a federated network for individual users.
My switch to Linux started 1,5 years ago with Manjaro KDE - and since then, I am still a fan of KDE, which is kind of "Windows UI done right" for me. Ergonomic, configurable, consistent. I also find Pantheon, Enlightenment, and Budgie to be cool concepts, but from a practical side, KDE is a no-brainer for me.
Mint comes with Cinnamon by default, and I guess that's what you're using. For me, Cinnamon is too old-fashioned, it's like you're back to at least Windows 7 timing. Some people like it, but for me it's just old and out of touch with the progress of UI's.
GNOME used in Ubuntu is good with app theming (yay for adwaita!), it is unique and minimalistic, but its overall design is just...not for everyone, and customization is heavily tied to unsafe practice of plugins which has been exploited many, many times.
With all that said, try everything out in a VM or something and see what's good for you. There are really no wrong choices!
We often talk about toxic newbies, but sometimes we don't pay enough attention to how we ourselves changed as a result. Make them feel welcome, and see how much Lemmy changes back.
If you (yes, you, reader) are new to Lemmy, have my wholehearted "Welcome"! Hugs on demand, cookies right there, make yourself comfy :)
Avoid politics-oriented communities unless toxicity is your thing. Start with any instance (most likely you chose lemmy.world as your starting point?), but explore others and what they have to offer. You can even be on several of them if that's your thing! Enjoy!
It's kind of a game of balance to me
We should make sure toxicity remains unwelcome, but new users should be welcomed without negative expectations. Otherwise, we either make all newbies feel like they don't belong, or turn Lemmy into another Reddit, which would also alienate users since this is what they fled from.
The games are good, but studios are often doing trashy moves.
Apex was one of the few top-tier online shooters that flawlessly worked on Linux out of the box. And now the dedicated Linux userbase is here, but the game is not, because apparently Respawn doesn't care.
Apex was one of the titles that just worked, flawlessly. And I never faced anything that I could attribute to cheats over high skill.
Yes, there was some ALGS drama, but as a regular player, I never faced it.
Modding a niche Lemmy community is a breeze, honestly
Not much is happening, but not many troublemakers, either. Modding is pretty much zero effort.
I fail to see how this is relevant to my comment :D
The point is probably that they don't have a car to begin with
Congratulations! Hope it goes better and better for you two!
Without discussing validity of the argument, which is pointless anyway, billionaires are in many ways similar to autocrats: they have a ton of unchecked, unelected power, near zero incentives to put this power to benefit everyone except for goodness of heart (but even then they are tied by laws obligating them to give profits to public companies), and every incentive to benefit themselves.