Pros:

• Easy to manage firewall rules (UFW)
• Different distros based on need
• in conjunction with the above, it’s also easier to customize the os (I would say this is depending on the distro) to do exactly what you need and nothing else.
• Terminal usage to handle certain tasks can be much quicker than using the GUI under some circumstances.
• Choice of DE (KDE, Gnome, etc)
• Way less resource intensive with a stock build than a generic windows build (sans maybe an enterprise build but even then those still use more resources on average than most distros).

Cons:

• Distro hopping for new users can be confusing due to different package managers and just overall differences in them. Pick one and stick with it for a little bit to get a feel for how Linux works (unless it is just absolutely not your thing) so you aren’t getting confused/overwhelmed by how different they can be.
• Certain tasks can be a bit more complicated for new users (mounting drives on boot, file shares over network)
• Solidworks. I know there is freecad and blender and openscad and onshape, and they do work. But swapping over is painful. Onshape is super similar and browser based but you’re also limited by their terms for free use.

Onshape is one that I recently learned about.

I normally use SolidWorks but its annoying just because I need to switch over to my windows install any time I want to use it.

Onshape is similar to SolidWorks and is intuitive. Browser based and much more powerful than TinkerCAD. Also has a free license. The only stipulation is that anything you create there is considered open source.

The only caveat I see is updating the server/app regularly.

Updating is definitely recommended for sure but I find myself waiting between updates. I’m still running 1.134.0 and have been for a while just because I’m not having any issues and haven’t gotten around to it.

I agree with everything else here as I have had the same experience.

Edit: This recent update I will likely update to though.

Jel-ly-fin, jel-ly-fin, je-ly-fin!

You are absolutely correct.

I didn’t think about it at the time when I wrote my response but there have been situations with mine where he has done things that cross personal boundaries, at his age it’s more of him just being young enough to have that boundary himself but not understand that other people also have them.

Those were very quickly remedied by either explanation using his personal boundaries as an example or if that didn’t work then acting as if we were going to do something that crossed his boundaries so that he understands in those situations that no is an acceptable response full stop.

I could definitely see where not handling those immediately could turn into an absolute nightmare.

I have come to understand that the whole “don’t say no” thing is less about directly saying no and leaving it at that and more about taking the time to explain things to your child.

When it comes to new situations for things that I haven’t yet encountered I don’t just say no. I sit down with them and explain to them why.

Yes there are times when I will just say no, like when they know what the answer is going to be and understand why but are just doing it to do it, or if there isn’t time in that specific moment to explain I would preface it with that and then explain it later.

I think people misinterpret the whole don’t say no thing sometimes and literally just give their kids whatever they want which is obviously not good. Boundaries are not optional, and like you mention it is a flawed way of thinking and will absolutely lead to problems down the road.