after jumping between distros for a couple years, I'm now at the same point. I just want something stable and easy to use, having documentation from any program I want to install as well as being able to expect .deb files is the best luxury.

I’ve seen Aaron mentioned a few times. His story is sad but it’s an important one. Excellent documentary as well.

I personally still don't understand the point behind instances. It seems to just introduce confusion about the sign-up process, and also makes usage unrealiable. I don't understand why it can't just be one large decentralized instance, in a similar (though obviously not exact) way as blockchains were distributed account systems.

All these introduced technical details are deterrance for non-technical users. I would consider myself a very tech savvy user and still have been offput by both Mastodon and Lemmy, but have still pushed myself to both due to their recent corporate counterparts going to shit.