Linux needs to grow. Stop telling people it’s ‘tech-y’ or acting like you’re more advanced for using it, you are scaring away people. Linux Mint can be used by a senile person perfectly.
Explain shortly the benefits, ‘faster, more secure, easier to use, main choices of professionals and free’. Ask questions that let you know if they need to dual boot, ‘do you use Adobe, anti-cheat games, or Microsoft Office’, ‘how new is your computer’.
And most importantly, offer to help them install.
They don’t understand distros, just pick Linux Mint LTS Cinnamon unless they’re curious.
That’s it, spread Linux to as many people as possible. The larger the marketshare, the better support we ALL get. We can fight enshittification. Take the time to spread it but don’t force it on anyone.
AND STOP SCARING PEOPLE AWAY. Linux has no advertising money, it’s up to us.
Ignore me if you’re not still looking for solutions.
IIRC, some distros have a way to do this through the gui, some don’t. I’m on LMDE, and it thankfully does have a gui to set startup programs.
But all distros should be able to do this. Here are some a common ways:
https://operavps.com/docs/run-command-after-boot-in-linux/
Instead of a complicated script, your command would literally just be “firefox”, or “emby”. You might need to search for what the command for a given program is.
It’s nowhere near as simple as it should be, but it is certainly possible.