Seems like fine small talk to me.
I'm happy with my routine. Simple, quick.
For backing up my home folder, I just plug in my external drive and use rsync from the terminal, like so (change to your user name; mine is gecko. Double check the paths and edit as necessary)
rsync -av /home/gecko/ /media/gecko/media/emmahomebackup/ --delete --dry-run (test first, check for errors at the end of output, there shouldn't be any unless you messed up the paths)
then,
rsync -av /home/gecko/ /media/gecko/media/emmahomebackup/ --delete
This command will back up your home folder the first time you run it, and on subsequent runs will sync any changes that have occured since the last run.
To restore, reverse the paths.
For backing up my system files (basically, everything outside of my home folder) I just use Timeshift.
Config files for programs are in hidden folders in ~ (as you discovered) OR in ~/.config OR in ~/.local/share (yeah it's a bit of a mess)
Config files for flatpaks can be found under ~/.var/app (usually, some flatpaks have permissions to write outside that directory).
Marilyn Hanson
Green Bay
MOFX
The Guess Why
Corn
Whim!
Oh joy, more horrors.
Fedora benefits Red Hat. It's upstream. I'll avoid what I can, especially something so obvious.
Counterpoint: Fedora is a testing bed for Red Hat. One of Red Hat's notable customers is the US military. I'd prefer to stay off that path if I can help it. It's a matter of trust, and it's a matter of indirectly contributing. I've seen people say the same things about Deepin and everyone nods in agreement, but why the hell should I trust a US project, for the same reasons?
Just as my two cents, as a user - I like flatpaks because I can have up to date versions of certain applications on a more stable Debian base. I also like that application configs all go in one spot (~/.var/app/com.Example.example), and having granular permissions management per application. As for immutable distros, I'd happily use one if I wasn't already getting all the stability I need from LMDE :)
Melania and Ivanka Trump
My answer is almost exactly the same as yours. It was me and my friend doing it together.
I'm on my laptop all the time, and I don't use a smartphone at all. I'm not a luddite, I just don't like the world of smartphones. I enjoy being disconnected when I'm out. I enjoy using an OS that I can control and modify to my heart's content. Am I weird? Do I care? My friends keep forgetting and try to send texts to my landline though, which is annoying. I might replace my landline with a dumb phone, maybe. Ftr, I'm a millenial.