chaosCruiser

Back in the X11 days, I actively avoided GNOME, because Cinnamon, KDE and XFCE were so much better. I had so many issues with the design philosophy, that using GNOME felt impossible.

However, when Wayland started having some support in GNOME, I got very curious and gave it a try. Then, I also bought my first touch screen laptop, and simply had to try GNOME with it. Turns out, GNOME wasn’t that bad, as long as you’re not trying to tweak every little thing about it. If you’re a tweaker, KDE is definitely the way to go. If not, GNOME might be tolerable or even good.

I’ve done so much tweaking already, that I don’t really have that itch any more. Sure, some things like custom keyboard shortcuts have to be just right, but that’s why you have GNOME Tweaks and the dconf Editor.

The “unless you know what you’re doing” part tells me it’s totally worth it in some highly exceptional situations. You just need to be able to justify spending a few hours to figure out exactly how to do it safely.

Best thing about Linux is that you can do literally anything you want. If it works, it’s awesome. If you break your system, you get to keep the pieces and learn something new along the way.

I’m utilizing this liberty by being a lazy admin who updates things like eventually™ or soon™. Haven’t learned any hard lessons yet, so I guess it’s ok. Or maybe I just know what I’m doing…

True, but I still think there are some significant ethical questions here.

I can’t be bothered to update every day, or even every week. LOL. More like once a month or so, which means that it’s usually 100 MB or more and there’s at least one package that is more or less critical. When I start updating, and before hitting Y, I pause for a second and realise I should totally check the news first. Usually, it’s fine, but over the years, there have been a few times when intervention was necessary.

Remember this one from 2022?

Yeah, that one ended up being a learning experience… After recovering from that dumb misadventure, I finally learned to take those announcements more seriously.

In Debian, that’s opt-in, whereas in Ubuntu it’s opt-out. Tells you something about the core values, doesn’t it?

In my experience, Debian has been very low maintenance. Occasionally, you may run into an issue that would be solved by having newer packages. If that happens, consider switching to Fedora.

My Fedora installations have been pretty smooth. The only thing that always breaks randomly is the software update GUI. I just got fed up with that and ended up using the terminal for installing all updates. Apparently this distro requires a bit more maintenance.

I think this is one of the big steps that make Linux gaming more accessible to the general public. Proton was clearly the first major step and Bazzite might be the second one.

There are many special distributions designed for different purposes, such as gaming or being easy for new users. While I’m aware of their existence, I haven’t personally used them, so there’s not much I can say about them. If my list doesn’t appeal to you, don’t hesitate to look elsewhere. There’s a distro for every purpose and style.

However, Here are a few I can recommend for different kinds of users:

Debian: If stability is important, but you don’t mind the old packages, Debian is a good choice. It also has one of the largest package repositories.

Ubuntu: It offers excellent package availability and plenty of tutorials and forum posts. Many new users have already asked the questions you’ll likely have, making it generally easy to learn.

Fedora: While not as new as Arch, Fedora still offers very fresh packages. It requires very little tinkering when compared to Arch.

Arch: This is for demanding users who want to customise their system. You’re comfortable taking responsibility for your decisions and enjoy reading up on various topics. Having very new packages is important to you. This one is a rolling release distribution, so there are no big annual releases of the next version number. Just install the updates, and you’ll have the latest Arch.

It’s a familiar feeling. It took many years for me to grow out of it. Eventually, you might get tired of it, like I did. In the meantime, though, keep on tweaking as long as you enjoy it.

Nowadays, my systems have very few tweaks. A wallpaper for aesthetics, a few keyboard shortcuts for efficiency, and a coloured bash prompt for readability. Now that I think of it, these tweaks only address the things I really dislike. Looks like nowadays I can’t be bothered to tweak anything unless some issue drives me mad. 😃

Generally, I would recommend getting an enterprise laptop such as Lenovo T or X series, Dell Latitude, or HP EliteBook. In that order.

Interestingly though, these models are supported by W11, because they’ve had various security features for years. If you want something specifically unsupported by W11, the selection is suddenly narrowed down to consumer-grade crapbooks. They should be cheap though, so might as well buy two while you’re at it.

OK, thanks.

Based on those comments, it still sounds pretty rough. Are those the worst-case scenario, or should all Nvidia users expect that sort of struggle?

Are you using FOSS divers or the proprietary ones? How about power management, suspend, wake up etc?

Same. I’ve been avoiding NVIDIA for years now, and haven’t regretted it yet. However, some people say that NVIDIA divers are good now, but I have my doubts about it. Seeing posts like this one just reinforces my confirmation bias.

You’re on Hexbear. There’s your problem.

I suggest creating another account on some other instance. Start with Lemmyverse to find a nice one. Once you find an interesting instance, check Fediseer for more details. Click the little (i) next to the instance name in the Lemmyverse results, and navigate to Fediseer endorsements. If the instance has been endorsed, censored or whatever, this is the place where you’ll find some info about it.

For example, here’s what it says about Hexbear. As you can see in the “censures received” section, that list is pretty long. BTW all the biggest instances attract attention, so disagreement and conflict naturally follow. However, the way the instance is run plays a role too. If you want to access more communities, make an account on one of the less conspicuous instances that hasn’t been blocked by others.

!linuxmemes@lemmy.world would probably appreciate this one.

It’s a gateway drug. Before you know it, she’ll be installing Arch without the script.

How’s power management doing these days?

Oh, that’s good to hear.

Based on the specs, I can already see two potential issues.

1. Windows 10
2. NVIDIA

Let me guess, you can’t upgrade to W11. If so, dual booting to an abandoned system like that is risky. If I had to do that, I would only do it while the computer is totally offline. If you do get updates to the Windows partition, there are reports of Windows breaking some dual boot things. This means, that you might need to fix some things after a Windows update.

Also, NVIDIA hates Linux with a burning passion. You can make things work to some extent, but it can be a rocky ride. Wifi is another potential issue in case you happen to have a wifi chip that isn’t well supported. Just try a live USB first before installing and you’ll know if something doesn’t work.

Because of all of the above, this looks like a system that can run Linux, but you might need to prepare for some tweaking. There are easier starting points too, but then you would need to sell that old computer and buy something nicer to replace it with. With hardware like that, you’re definitely not playing this game in the easy mode, that’s for sure.