you can add it, and switch at login. there’s a cinnamon spin of ubuntu, so packages are in the repos. you’ll also find meta packages assembled by both ubuntu and debian that will install what their respective ‘full desktop experience’ has (browser, libreoffice, utilities, and what-not).
i just switched back to debian for personal desktops after years of mint (and a few others). i’m using intel cards right now… drivers are a total non-issue… so that helps some, not having to deal with nvidia drivers. games are running great on stable kernel and drivers (heroic flatpak for launcher and wine).
you can have your ‘start button’ in the bottom left if you want, and still have the panel going up the left edge instead of along the bottom.
the panel on the side. it just makes sense–if you can get ‘used to’ it.
screens are wider than they are tall, but most content viewed by or worked on by most people goes vertical: web sites and text documents. hell, even most pictures and video people take these days, too, because they still don’t know enough to rotate their damn phones.
i almost went cinnamon when i set up my trixie here last month, but went plasma because of some kwin addons. i did install its nemo, though, for when i need a file manager that doesn’t choke on thumbnails (like dolphin does) when an extension doesn’t match what the file actually is (like a lot of images served by web sites and saved by a browser these days)
you should use firefox and turn off the ‘ai’ crap (one toggle) if you don’t want it. a few more clicks turns off the ‘sponsored’ stuff and ‘telemetry’. if that’s too much for you, then librewolf. zen, perhaps, if you want something a lil’ different.
a couple minutes to click through vivaldi’s settings will turn off all the annoying stuff (similar to firefox, but firefox is quicker to ‘set up’). i’ve never seen it re-enable things like microsoft loves to do.
vivaldi is what i use for a chromium-based browser when i need to check web client ‘compatibility’; and i like that you can customize the toolbar (like you can in firefox)… i move the back-forward stuff to the right side of the address box, and add the separate search box (so suggestions can be enabled in it but off for searches in address bar).
that’s what they’re working towards… removing the extra prime benefits.
but you’ll pay more just for that by the time they’re finished.
iirc (gnome) tweaks has a toggle for separating dialogs from parents.
it’s a dead market. once the current crop of retirees die off, there won’t be anymore because the rest of us will have to work til we die.
gnome dumbed itself down too far, it’s turning into the win10 or 11 of linux–with features, basic features… expected features and functions, now missing… and the bland ui that makes it difficult to even see a damn window border without customizing tf out of it. i do not subscribe to their idea of one workspace per window or application. fk that.
the only thing that was keeping it on a few systems here was an extension. one not even made by them. i found an equivalent kwin script for plasma. starting switching stuff over the next day.
i won’t go back. and i’ve found that gtk and libadwaita stuff actually looks better on kde, anyway. so no change in what i’m using, just what everything runs from.
i might still put gnome on for others, if all they’re looking for is a dumbed-down, simple launcher for their browser–like an alternative to chromebook, but that’s it.
my boss just emails stuff to herself… or just lets it sit in drafts (imap) with the attachment.
i use localsend, wormhole, or similar usually, especially if one or both the devices aren’t “mine”… and if it’s stuff i’m ‘sending’ to a handheld from a pc, i might instead drop them somewhere on one of our dietpi boxes and just use http
the only guy i have doing dictation into a pc (and not into a special system like for medical records) regularly uses dragon on windows using a somewhat expensive microphone, a setup he’s had for probably 30 years. he has one of those old-timey radio host voices, that might help some… but i rarely ever see him having to edit what dragon spits out
why stop there? what about the others?
i believe that’s one of the reasons why they (‘doge’, et al) was raiding all the government systems and stealing all the data… to build such a thing for the chief grifter/wanna be dick-tator and his masters.
gotta inflate those ipo so everybody (that they choose) ‘wins’.