I’m enjoying what Nix does. That said, the learning curve is very steep, and the documentation is very inconsistent and usually poor.
The repositories for both nixpkgs and nixos are absolutely colossal, which is a huge plus, but their configurations are not listed on the same page, and it can lead to a lot of confusion. Unlike Arch’s PKGBUILD, which practically tell the build system exactly what to do, you’ll have to learn the structure of current configuration files, or the more recent flake system, to setup things how you like.
I recently had the same thoughts but was Ted to try nonetheless. Asked for some beginner friendly resources here on lemmy a little while back. Might be to further help for some 😊
Its actually not that bad. A few google searches on how to setup config files and going to search.nixos.org/packages to show you what info to fill in in the NixOS configuration is all you do.
And, even more importantly, search.nixos.org/options to figure out which options to set. Always search for options first. “Installing” something by just adding the package to systemPackages etc. is usually the correct thing to do for end-user applications but not for “system things” such as services.
Do you mean search.nixos.org/packagesBecause that has config info on the page of the listed package. Unless I am misunderstanding what you meant by their configurations?
That’s technically correct. The “NixOS configuration” tab is sufficient to just install something, however out of ever package I’ve personally used, none of them have listed the available options there. For example: this theme, and what the extra options are
Nixos is at 23.11 :) Also, rolling releases are kinda fun: the latest commit so far is 46ae0210ce163b3cba6c7da08840c1d63de9c701 which roughly translates to nixos-unstable 403509863565239228514588166489915404446713104129 :D
I just got rid of my last Windows installation, and I got rid of all my Apple devices a couple years ago. The Linux life is so nice!
On the other hand, I just setup a Windows gaming machine for a friend (I would have pushed Linux, but I live far away and can’t commit to being tech support). There were so many hoops to jump through to cut through all the crap:
I had to set the region to somewhere in the EU so that my friend can uninstall Edge sometime in March, 2024 without breaking other functionality
I had to run a hidden script at a specific point during the install to allow me to not have to use a Microsoft account
I had to disconnect the non-boot drive and reinstall because the Windows installer uses motherboard drive ordering instead of UUID to decide which drive to put the boot partition on.
I had to run Win Debloat Tools to get rid of all the crap Microsoft adds to their OS
I had to find a 3rd party driver update tool because the motherboard manufacturer’s software is terrible and installs a bunch of extra crap.
I had to install a 3rd party Nvidia driver update tool because their official one requires making an account and gives a bunch of unwanted ads as notifications.
It’s seriously bonkers. It makes you really appreciate Linux as a whole and package managers in particular.
Whenever people talk about how difficult Linux is to install i ask them if they’ve installed Windows lately. They all say “yes”. I do not believe a word of it, though. If they had done so–or more likely, tried to do so–there’s no way they’d have that opinion. I’m sure they’ve gone into their OEM’s recovery menu and hit “reinstall” or whatever, but that’s a very different process.
It’s funny because I’ve built like six Windows machines and the install process is always a snap. You just select what drive to install to, what telemetry options you want on/off, and then press start.
You don’t even have to have an Internet connection/Microsoft account if you don’t want to, you can just create a local one.
I don’t understand how you guys have such a hard time with it. Certain distros of Linux are pretty easy to get going, but Windows is only hard if you refuse to leave your Linux knowledge bubble, ever.
Sure we can talk about how you have to go in and do X and Y in order to get it configured how YOU want, but that shit applies in Linux too.
I don’t know when the last time you tried to install Windows was, but when I installed Windows 11 Pro yesterday, there was no obvious option to install without an internet connection and a Microsoft account. To make that option appear, I had to hit shift+f10 at the country selection screen to open a command prompt and run the script located at “oobe\bypassrno.cmd” to have the option “I don’t have an internet connection” to pop up and allow me to bypass needing a Microsoft account.
That’s fine, and people said the same thing about Windows 10, and Windows 7, and Windows XP, and…
If you control for bloat, tracking, and ads, the install process for Windows versions has gotten steadily more difficult as time goes on. Installing Windows 11 is a snap, too, … if you don’t care about all the crap they added.
The thing us Linux users are complaining about is not how easy it is to install if you accept the enshittification that Microsoft forces, but how difficult it is to install without it.
It’s “hard” to us because we actually uncheck the telemetry settings and care about not having a Microsoft account on, including the additional debloating afterwards. For the average user, clicking next every step, ignoring the data harvesting effort and creating / using a Microsoft account is part of the experience and “normal” to them.
I’ve tried switching to Linux exclusively multiple times, and I always end up falling back to Windows on my desktop. I have multiple Linux servers and VMs, but there are two main barriers. First is gaming. Last time I tried, I couldn’t get RTX working in some titles, EA launcher was broken, and it was generally just buggy. The second reason is for coding. I’ve been coding for Windows for almost 20 years, and I am hugely reliant on Visual Studio. I just can’t find a comparable alternative for Linux.
I’d ditch Windows in a second if I could make Linux work for me, but so far I haven’t had much luck.
I have a friend that does .NET development on Linux. So I guess that’s possible. I know he uses JetBrains Rider as an IDE instead of visual studio. I’m sure there are some other hoops he jumps through, as well, but I never really dove into it with him. I always used Visual Studio in Uni, myself. I also have a Windows partition for gaming and music production.
.NET is infuriating enough on Windows. Any time I have to work with a .NET library, I always write a wrapper with a C or C++ interface first. Your friend who does .NET development on Linux has far more patience than I can ever hope to have.
I had similar issues. My Nvidia GPU was the main thing hold me back for so long. I finally upgraded to an AMD RX 7900 XTX and cycled my Nvidia GPU to my home server for transcoding, gpu compute, and KasmVNC GPU acceleration.
I also decided that ray tracing, HDR, and games that don’t support Linux just aren’t important to me, but it took me a long time to become okay with that.
For development, I guess I’ve been lucky in the type of work that I do in that Linux is a perfect fit. I find Windows to be far more of a hassle than it’s worth, but if you do game development or Windows-specific development, I can see that being a barrier.
RTX is one of those things that just isn’t optional for me. I may be in the minority, but I am far more concerned with how games look than how they run. As long as my FPS is above 30 or so, I’m generally okay with performance. I feel like Windows will always support those “extra features” like RTX before Linux, unfortunately. I really comes down to market share, I think; the developers at Nvidia and AMD are going to target Windows first, and the people who maintain Proton are stuck in second place. You’ll have to pry Windows 10 out of my cold dead hands, though; I liked Vista better than Windows 11.
For development, I’m locked into Windows at work, but my job isn’t specifically software development; it just happens to be a useful skill to have in my career. I do far more coding at home, and I certainly have the option of switching to Linux. I think I’ve just been spoiled by Visual Studio’s all-in-one approach for so long. My #1 concern is debugging. I haven’t seen an Linux IDE that allows for stepping back through the call stack and checking variable states inside the IDE quite like VS does it.
To be clear, I’m not bashing Linux at all. I’ve been a homelabber for longer than I can remember, and I have a total of 3 physical machines and VMs that run Windows compared to a total of probably 20 that run Linux, FreeBSD, or some other POSIX variant. I have so few Windows machines that I actually own legal licenses for all of them. I do feel like the people who say “Just run Linux on your desktop PC; it can do everything Windows can” are looking at the operating system through rose-colored glasses. Linux will always be the best choice for anything that doesn’t require having a monitor attached, but otherwise, it feels like it’s playing catch-up to Windows.
For sure, there are compromises no matter what you pick. I just hit the point where Linux checked enough boxes for me to ditch Windows. I hope that it gets to that point for you eventually!
Hey, why get rid of valueable computing devices 😃 there is nothing more fun than a rolling distro like arch pr openSuse tumbleweed on old apple hardware
😁 i live a free computing live where I collect trash (mostly from my father and thus apple devices) and install Linux on them to make them treasures
Linux desktop users might be the most delusional bunch in all of tech. Statements like this are why Linux is never going to be as easy to use as osx/Windows.
Bro it’s cool if your needs are best served by Windows or OS X but please don’t lump me along with childish ideologues like OP. I’ve switched to Linux on my work Desktop about seven years ago, yet that didn’t make me feel the need to go full-communist about it, nor do I hold it up as some kind of free market success story.
Damn, still hovering around negative two thousand? You can do it! Don’t let people get you down by ignoring your trolls. You are a troll, you are beautiful, and your contrarianism is annoying af! Don’t ever let anyone tell you different. I’m sorry people aren’t downvoting you at a rate high enough to smash that goal. You will get there.
Omg you did it! Bi-millenial troll-fuckery award goes to LemmyIsFantasticForBeingAnnoying!!! -2000 karma and counting! Imagine all the people having a good day when they scrolled down and saw some stupid shit take you wrote! So much fun!!!
And before you say anything, the tag only exists to identify a commenter who shouldn’t be taken seriously, which is absolutely well earned on your part. Side benefit is mild return trolling. You gotta admit -2000 karma is a ridiculous milestone, intentional or otherwise
Windows 11 Pro is $200. There are ways to get it cheaper, but that is what Microsoft charges for it…and they still collect a bunch of data and serve you a bunch of ads.
Even if you pirate it, you still pay with the immense amount of data they take, even if you opt out of a bunch of it (which you can only do temporarily anyway).
Its perfectly okay to have both Linux and Windows, and keep Windows for 5-10% use cases, excluding work/school needs. Always remember Pareto’s principle, and never try to force through things where unnecessary friction hinders you for benefits that are nothing more than ideological masturbation.
This is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of. I’m not buying any keyboard or laptop that has this key. There’s enough Linux-first vendors these days that it’s easy to avoid (Framework, System76, Tuxedo, etc). It’s time to be done with Lenovo and Dell.
I fully agree with you, but Framework is definitely not Linux-first. The only OS they offer preloaded on their laptops is Windows. You have to install Linux yourself if you want it.
I think they’re referring to Framework’s support for full Linux compatibility for at least Ubuntu, and making sure that the parts they use have first class Linux support and drivers and kernel integration.
This is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard of. I’m not buying any keyboard or laptop that has this key.
Which is exactly what people said about the Windows key.
Now it's all but impossible to buy a keyboard that doesn't have it. Worse, most of us use it without thinking.
Sure you can call it Super if you like, and even have a Tux key-cap on it, but there used to be a literal gap between the Alt keys and their Ctrl brethren in the lateral directions away from the space bar, and those days are long gone.
There'll be the niche users who stick with old keyboards without this new key, just like there are the die-hards who have stuck resolutely to the old IBM keyboards and the like from pre-1995, but if you want a new keyboard?
Gonna have to shell out a small fortune for a custom build or make do with that dumb new key.
(Shoutout to the Context Menu key which went as unmentioned in the above as it goes unused in day to day use, despite having been included with its Super cousin since day one.)
We have so many unused potential binds already, though. Knowing the way tech goes these days, they’ll find a way to hard-code the key to one macro and that’s it lol
Pure hyperbole “late stage capitalism”: they’ll have it wired directly into the board. At best it will cover one key chord.
Even later stage, it’ll send some proprietary data that only windows 11 can interpret. Linux users will figure it out and make use of it, then will be promptly sued out of existence for copyright infringement or something lol.
What, fuck licenses, we’re doing subscriptions here. With multiple tiers, first one just reduces the charge per activation, and the ones after that give you X “free” uses per 12 hours.
The article actually says the Copilot key will mostly be replacing Menu or Right Control on existing layouts. So if you’re already not using those (or are already re-binding them), it’s just a new keycap.
As you said, there used to be a gap there. Replacing a gap makes not that much harm and people find it useful even in Linux for keybindings. In more of an Alt kind of guy, but Super is also there for more combinations available.
The Copilot key appears to be going were the right Control or right Alt key are right now, so that’s going to be a bother for a lot of people.
It depends on how and what you’re measuring. A lot of Linux first, like system 76 and purism, do so e serious work on the firmware and boot systems of their systems. Which for some is a huge value add compared.
Same, I think I might give the System76 Darter a try when I eventually have to replace my Xps 9370. It’s bad enough that my computer comes with a windows logo on the super-key and often windows preinstalled. Shipping with a non-ANSI/ISO layout is a no-buy for me.
I don’t care as long as the placement is ok and I can map it to something useful. I’m a GNOME user so the Windows/Super key gets a lot of use. It’s nice to have. A new key that I use for all my custom shortcuts would actually be kind of nice. Who cares that the default key caps are a Windows icon and this Copilot thing? Change the key caps and they are just keys.
True, but the focus on battery life suggests mobility is a must.
They could dock the laptop for a desktop experience at home, including a dedicated keyboard, mouse and screens, with a good desk and seating arrangement. A USB C equipped device would be the way to go for this.
But absolutely agree for price, desktop only is better value.
It as to be a laptop. I’m mostly in my new activity, working outside my home. I’m using mostly trains as we can go everywhere with them. It also allows working while going somewhere.
Haven’t watched the video, going by your title I’m assuming it’s similar to a feature on macbooks where they can be plugged straight into another Mac, thunderbolt, or FireWire device, while powered off, and have their hard drive accessed directly from another computer.
There is code for this in the Linux kernel (sadly not quite the plug and play experience that Macs have, you need to boot after plugging in AFAIK?), and a news article about the commit that added it to the kernel for Thunderbolt was posted to this community a while back. Sadly I have no idea what devices support it, but it is at least is open source.
It also has the ability to stream your game(remote desktop) over the cable without encoding and control it from another pc with almost no latency(at least thats what the host claims)
From what i can gather from the video it only appears to be developed for windows, hence why i raised the question here
From the way linus framed what’s happening, 4 pcie lanes linking frame buffers between both gpus and this being Intel makes me think this will remain closed source but if it catches on we could well see open alternatives.
I don’t think open alternatives exist currently, though.
Debian stable is a very solid choice for a server OS.
It depends on how you’re going to host your services though. Are you going to use containers (what kind), VMs, a mix of the two, install directly on the host system (and if so where do you plan to source the packages)?
I’ve kept my Debian system very basic, installed latest Docker from the official apt repo, and I’ve installed almost every service in a docker container. Only things installed directly on host are docker, ssh, nfs and avahi.
Make sure you use a docker image that tracks the stable version of Jellyfin. The official image jellyfin/jellyfin tracks unstable. Not all plugins work with unstable and switching to stable later is difficult. This trips lots of people and locks them into unstable because by the time they figure it out they’ve customized their collection a lot.
The linuxserver/jellyfin image carries stable versions but you have to go into the “Tags” tab and filter for 10. to find them (10.8.13 pushed 16 days ago is the latest right now).
To use that version you say “image: linuxserver/jellyfin:10.8.13” in your docker compose instead of “linuxserver/jellyfin:latest”.
This approach has the added benefit of letting you control when you want to update Jellyfin, as opposed to :latest which will get updated whenever the container (re)starts if there’s a newer image available.
While upgrading your images constantly sounds good in theory, eventually you will see that sometimes the new versions will break (especially if they’re tracking unstable versions). When that happens you will want to go back to a known good version.
What I do is go look for tags every once in a while and if there’s a newer version I comment-out the previous “image:” line and add one with the new version, then destroy and recreate the container (the data will survive because you configure it to live on a mounted volume, not inside the container), then recreate with the new version. If there’s any problem I can destroy it, switch back to the old version, and raise it again.
Oh that explains the 2 linuxserver and official jellyfin then. It was always kinda strange to me.
Luckily my uni hosted a docker course and binge watched a beginner Linkedin Learning too about it, but I’m really grateful for your in-depth guide. Guys like you really make Lemmy the old Reddit you used to have and cherish in your hearts. :3
The official image jellyfin/jellyfin tracks unstable
Why did they make that choice? I am on this version right now, didn’t know it was unstable. I found it very difficult to have information regarding the docker images in general, it’s a pity we don’t have a few lines explaining what the content is.
It’s more like “latest” tracks unstable, because unstable evolves much faster and it puts out versions more often. Unfortunately there’s a practice going around that makes people just the :latest tag for everything and they don’t always stop to consider the implications (which may be different for each project).
The official image jellyfin/jellyfin tracks unstable
Huh? That doesn’t appear to be the case. jellyfin/jellyfin:latest, which is what they tell you to use in the installation instructions. gives me 10.8.13 which appears to be the latest stable release.
There are newer and unstable versions available in dockerhub as well, but latest doesn’t give you those. After all latest is just a tag with no special meaning of itself, it doesn’t necessarly give you the most recent build.
Yeah, the sole reason I don’t have linux on my old laptop is that lenovo has completely proprietary video drivers for it. I’m talking “manufacturer’s installers don’t think there’s a video card there” proprietary.
Edit. By software I’m talking about in game features.
Like FSR and such? That’s available on Linux (FSR 1.x is integrated into SteamOS for compositor-level upscaling). AFAIK AMD does not officially support FSR on Linux but it’s written in a way that it should work with minor integration work. It’s written with cross-platform support in mind, given that it’s targeting PlayStation etc. als well.
-Linux Mint: the default choice, nothing wrong with it, however not the best when it comes to gaming or if you have multiple monitors with different resolutions and refresh rates.
-ZorinOS: Looks good, but can take some time to get used to it and doesn’t have the multi monitor issues of Linux mint, however it is on the heavier side of Linux distros.
-Fedora/Nobara: the 2 are basically the same with one another, but nobara is more gaming-focused. They will also take some time to get used to how they work, but are in my experience generally snappier and more responsive.
No matter which distro you choose, remember, don’t think of Linux the same way you think of windows, think of it as desktop android, as in you download stuff from the distro’s app store and not off of the internet, unless necessary.
-Linux Mint: […] not the best […] if you have multiple monitors with different resolutions and refresh rates.
I’m thinking of installing Mint (Debian Edition) on a 2013 MacBook Pro with an even older external monitor connected through DisplayPort, while using the internal Retina as the secondary monitor.
Do you think it’d be a safer bet to go with a different distro with better multi-monitor compatibilities, or do you think I’ll be good using this hardware+software combo?
Don’t get me wrong, it will work, you might just have issues like screen tearing and choppy animations…
I’d personally go with fedora on a laptop, especially for a Mac user as it’s default desktop experience is kinda similar to MacOS, and you get 1:1 touchpad gestures.
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