F-Droid isn’t the only one: I also like Neo Store, which has more than just the F-Droid repository and I think has a better interface. However, I think not all repo are 100% safe because F-Droid verify all the apps they have while Neo-Store doesn’t because it simply list known repos, which you can activate however you like in the settings.
Pop!OS is a pretty stable distro, so there shouldn’t be any dependencies problem: you usually have that on arch or arch based distros, even if it’s quite rare. Have you ever uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it but without some of its dependencies? Or ignored a package it asked you to install with it afterwards? If not, maybe it’s just an update that went wrong, like the PC shut down during an update or something. So update your system, uninstall firefox and reinstall. Your data stored in your home directory (in .mozilla, a hidden folder) like your history, extensions, opened tabs, should be conserved, even if you use apt purge.
Well good for you if that’s the case, but be careful, you’re better safe than sorry. Lack of good sleep is a big problem in today’s society and one of the sign can be falling asleep very fast, so considering it can have serious consequences on one’s life, it’s always good to keep an eye on that. Anyway, take care
5 minutes is pretty damn low: are you sleep depraved? If so, you must be exhausted at the end of the day or constantly tired throughout the day. The average and normal time (when just being tired and not exhausted at the end of the day) is about 20 minutes. You might want to checked on that and get a better sleep quality as you seem to say you have 6 hours of sleep per day, which isn’t ideal but good enough.
Openboard and Florisboard are pretty good alternatives. I don’t like them though (nor do I prefer Gboard or Swiftkey) as I prefer a type of keyboard very practical to write due to it’s rounded keys, which is Typewise.
Unless it’s a RAM filling issue, because you would have too little RAM, and even then, the entire OS crashing and not just Firefox would be very unlikely, I don’t see any reason for it to crash your entire OS. Regardless, there are Firefox forks that use much much less RAM. You’re using Windows, Mac or Linux first? Try to uninstall, clean everything and reinstall with a new profile, it may work, who knows. If not, then it has to be your OS.
You have to give them a reason to get interested in the OS and the programs they’re using. I gave Linux a try because I was concerned about privacy and I wanted to use more ethical and user respecting OS and software than what I used at that time. Linux and the FOSS world was an obvious choice for me. Custom ROM on Android was sort of the bridge which allowed me to transition. If it wasn’t for that, I would still be on Windows and I wouldn’t learn that much on how an operating system works and what differentiate them, aside from the look. The fact they’re kids or that they play games have nothing to do with it: a lot of adults don’t know either what type of OS they’re using, despite it being in their best interest. The problem is that we don’t give or show them the reason they should be interested, or at least be curious about it and most of time, before people get a degree, we end up killing their curiosity.
As they play Minecraft, you can advise them to switch to Prism Launcher instead of the minecraft launcher, especially if they mod the game, it’s much better for that. It could be a good start.
Honestly, I think it’s great: if it annoys people enough, they will move out from Chrome and install Firefox (or one of its forks) with good extensions for blocking ads on YouTube. It seems to be the only solution to break the monopoly of Google on browsers. So go Google, I believe in you!