the Chrultrabook project is what youll wanna look into, but basically yes. You can reliably get new-ish hardware very cheaply and flash FOSS stuff like Coreboot onto it.
No idea why tbh. The equivalent laptops outside of ChromeOS’ ecosystem are usually much more locked down, to the point where the most powerful systems you’ll find being able to run Coreboot are decades-old thinkpads on 3rd gen mobile i5 and Kepler mGPUs.
I gave one step more to achieve the holy sanctity of FOSS hardware I bought a Thinkpad and flashed Libreboot in it. Waiting for the bless of Saint iGNUcius
Lifetime Microsoft expert here, I have had machines with Linux in one flavour or another for 15+ years at least.
But for ease of use I just keep coming back to Windows… Because I know it backwards and upside down.
The structure of it makes sense to me. And I have ADHD so I have a terrible working memory and Linux relies FAR too much on command console to do anything effective.
But Linux is hands-down the better system to get away from Microsoft’s enshitification of Windows. But I personally like Windows better.
So I will always run both. But if I need to be really productive, Windows Desktop it is. If I need a server, Linux every time. (Unless it’s MS SQL or a website).
I like it, but I’m not exactly a power user and the only other distros I’ve used are Ubuntu and mint. I think if you want a Debian based distro that’s not tied to Ubuntu then Mx is a good choice. I know there’s LMDE too but as far as I know that’s only available with cinnamon, so Mx having KDE plasma is nice too.
There’s the whole sysvinit Vs systemd but I don’t have a dog in that fight and enabled systemd, which Mx makes very easy even though they advise against it.
I started this way today but kept coming up with an error with rsync during install. I tried in Virtual Box and had the same error. I gave up and just installed Fedora in the end.
No clue what rsync would be doing. Maybe there’s an issue with the current ISO, but I’ve installed it on a few systems in the last couple months with no issues.
I mean, it’s one dropdown/checkbox click, to enable codecs sources. I get your point though, having to remember to enable that.
I’d used Nobara if I knew it was being supported by more than just one (great/special; I’m aware of his contribution to gaming on Linux) guy (please correct me if this is no longer the case?), since it would be installed on my daily driver box, and it’s important for me to have a high level of reliability, even though I do more gaming tasks than non-gaming tasks on it.
I’m aware that Nobara is based from Fedora, but am nervous about having a single point of failure, support wise.
I run Kubuntu on my desktop and laptop machines but I’m seriously considering switching to Debian (which I run on my server). Any reason I wouldn’t want to do that on my desktop or laptop?
(Previously I ran Slackware on everything, so both of them feel like gliding softly on a cloud to me.)
Yeah it seems to work very well on my server. I’ve always just wondered why I don’t see more people recommending it when they’re switching from Ubuntu/Kubuntu. From what I’ve seen on the server (which I mostly access remotely), it seems decent.
You probably will not notice that you are in other distro when you start using Debian. They are the same in most things, but without Snaps and most propietary stuff (by default. But if you really need propietary things, you may see the official non-free sourcelist)
I really do not know. But what I can say for sure is that during the installation of Debian, it allows you to choose the desktop environment at installation time, so you can have your Debian with KDE at minute 0 after installing it.
On the other hand, remember that Kubuntu is derived from Ubuntu. I don’t see Ubuntu fans very enthusiastic about creating another Debian-based distro with KDE preinstalled when they even offer it (live images) to you here.
Weird. I’ve been trying to find a distro I’m happy with and was setting Fedora KDE up today. Ran though my bookmarks and found no videos played on Twitch. Had to install codecs to get it to work. I hadn’t seen this in previous distros. Is this specific to Fedora? Other than this hiccup I’ve enjoyed it so far.
I liked how straight forward Linux Mint is but prefer KDE Plasma. Plus Mint seems quite far behind in versions.
In their gnome version, during the setup process (first boot, not install), they would prompt for third-party repo and codec (Enabled by default, IIRC).
I think you might have unchecked that? or KDE not offering such experience?
EDIT: NVM, I just checked, and I have never installed the codecs… LOL.
Fedora is notorious for avoiding shipping proprietary software with their distro even at the cost of new users.
I think this might stems from the fact that fedora used to be a distro aimed for advanced users. It is slowly getting better at being new user friendly.
Do most Linux users (in this context we’ll say people who specifically choose to use Linux and by extension chose a specific distribution) look unfavorably on proprietary software being excluded by default?
For me, I prefer it so I don’t see it that way. But it is also an extra step and an annoyance if you want things to “just work”. Which is an understandable position.
I’d like it if they weren’t necessary and everything was AV1, then I would be alright with the codecs being omitted by default without any simple way to install them.
Similarly with the NVIDIA proprietary driver, NVIDIA actually recommend installing the driver through the package provided through your distro on thier download page
I don’t run Linux (though I’m admittedly more interested in it than I used to be) but the reddit API stuff definitely made me learn more about foss, and value it more.
I do value FOSS sodtware and like linux for it being foss(there are many other reasons too though). I do think understanding importance of Free software is much important than admiring one of the(most important) free software projects. I can see yku usibg linux soon or later in the future, along with other free programs
I think maybe I’m misunderstanding—are you saying that valuing free software is more important than valuing FOSS? FOSS is inherently free, no? Free Open Source Software. I would understand if I was talking about open source in general, but FOSS does include being free. Maybe that’s not what you meant.
Interesting to know that steam, gog, and epic (specifically) all work well for you, I’ve heard mixed results with Epic, some say it doesn’t work. Maybe I’ve gotten wrong info.
I have an older laptop, and as soon as I can upgrade to something better, I’m going to use it as a Linux practice.
I am using heroic launcher to play blazing sails on epic right now. I am on Arch, which I believe is a positive since the steam deck is arch based (i heard).
The escapist 2 i have not gotten to work properly though. It runs but with like 1fps. Apparently this is because epics implementation and it runs smooth with steam. Definitely test things on a game by game basis.
It’s a good reminder of how influenced we are by our surroundings, even when we try to be aware of the effect. Or maybe especially when we try to be aware.
I was staying strong until I saw they were already sundowning windows 10. 10! They just came out with that shit. I have no intention of upgrading to the latest advertising package.
….windows 10 came out in 2015. I wouldn’t say it just came out, 8 and a half years ago. Thats a pretty good run for a retail OS. There was only 5 between the release of 3.0 and 95.
My big gripe with 11 was that it seemed like MS was going to go away from major releases and go to something somewhat closer to a rolling release model. My big gripe with 10 was all the telemetry.
It’s actually pretty telling that from “insert installation media” to “working web browser”, just about any Linux distro is a faster, easier, and less demanding installation experience than 10 or 11.
Isn’t nix mostly for multi-system install? I did the nix thing a few years ago, spent a month on the config, and then never needed it again. Personally, I don’t see a use-case for single desktop installation ;)
I use multiple systems and even I feel NixOS is overkill, especially with their confusing and sometimes incomplete documentation.
On the other hand, Nix the package manager has been fantastic - especially if you’re on an immutable OS, or running some ancient “stable” distro - you can get all the packages you want, without breaking your system - and no need to learn the Nix language and write convoluted config files.
I’m running nix on my PC turned server, and there’s definitely a lot of advantages…I highly recommend it for people who can pick up languages easily and prefer fixing a problem once by brute force trial and error.
Doing easy things is much harder, but doing hard things can be laughably easy
I probably wouldn’t pick it as-is for my primary PC, but for a server? Amazing.
Google EOL’d my beloved Asus C302 Chromebook, and now it runs Fedora with KDE. I’m super happy with it ❤️
Now tentatively working on turning my 2009 Mac Mini into a Fedora server/homelab.
So far it’s running Fedora desktop/KDE, and I’m slowly trying to figure out how to get Docker to work so I can run stuff like Audiobookshelf. If I manage to get it working, I’ll try going full Fedora Server instead of the desktop version.
There’s so much waste everywhere, let alone in tech. Being able to both “recycle” old hardware, and find legitimate use for it, should be celebrated.
Now if only I knew what to do about my old phones … I’m pretty good at making them last, so my older ones are very old, and I can’t think of anything useful for them to do that whatever phone I currently have doesn’t do much better 🤔
Reddit death > installing mint on my second PC > realising I can run most of the games I play and installing mint on my main PC > start learning Rust as a first foray into programming in a long time > realise I want to go back to uni and study info tech to get out of my shitty marketing job > get a shitty second hand laptop off my parents that struggles to run windows and install endeavourOS to try something different.
It really is a slippery slope. When does it end???
The next step, you’re handwriting a fixit code because said ancient one off laptop won’t compile linux from scratch properly and some stupid piece of essential hardware is blocking your efforts to get to the shell first time.
You still have yet to get through some pis, then a couple of OSX boxes, a Windows VM on proxmox or when you find something in particular you want that’s easier in that direction. Then move into kubernetes.
You’ll end up with a couple of everything living their best life.
realise I want to go back to uni and study info tech
I highly recommend it! College as an adult who’s been in the workforce is way better than college as a kid fresh out of highschool. Great opportunity to make some more friends, do some cool college activities, plus there’s lots of good opportunities for student pricing on stuff if you have a .edu email and its a brilliant change of pace.
It ends when you write an AI better at configuring Linux than you are, but is also very good at soothing your pride… The latter is the infamous “alignment problem”
My slippery slope started with buying an old laptop off my company and deciding to install Ubuntu on it. Now all of my devices run Linux, I switched to Android with a FOSS ROM, degoogled myself in almost every way, and I run Nextcloud on an old laptop. Feels great to really own my devices and data.
Ubuntu GNU/Linux is not entirely FOSS, as it ships with non-free software by default. If you’re committed to FOSS principles, I would recommend Debian GNU/Linux instead.
However, it’s important to note that Debian GNU/Linux is not recognized by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as a completely FOSS distribution. This is because Debian includes non-free firmware packages for those who need them.
From a security perspective, this is acceptable, as the Linux kernel won’t load these packages unless the corresponding hardware is available. Debian ships with Free Software by default, and I would suggest giving it a try if possible!
It’s essentially the same as Ubuntu, but more freedom-respecting.
Completely FOSS isn’t completely self-sustainable either in the real world - you’d need to be using something like RISC-V with coreboot and a completely open hardware stack with zero proprietary firmware blobs in the mix + not to mention running a fully self-hosted email/cloud stack. And if you’re using a mobile phone - even a dumb one or a pinephone - then you’re not fully FOSS. I’m not aware of anyone who’s fully FOSS out there, except maybe RMS?
TBH, once stop running Windows, everything gets easier. And if your running Ubuntu or Mint, it’s not even that painful to start and hardware more or less just works.
Debian is nice for servers, but it’s a little out of date for desktop. YMMV, welcome to the club and ignore the snobs ❤️
I was referring to the spectrum computer, which can’t run Linux. It wasn’t about people on the Spectrum, which are probably all of us, in some fashion?
If you like ubuntu and you want to remove amazon and junk that ubuntu has you can go to debian. But in the future, just familarize yourself with everything first
The reddit api blocking 3rd party apps pushed a whole bunch of people onto lemmy, and lemmy is very big on FOSS and Linux so it’s been a gateway of sorts
Not to mention, Reddit’s assault was followed by seemingly every tech company looking on and saying “hold my beer”
I’ve always been wary of the ability of tech companies to pull the plug of services on a whim, but holy shit did 2023 bring that way up the priority list
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