MiddledAgedGuy

@MiddledAgedGuy@beehaw.org

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(Constructively) What is your least favorite distro & why?

I’ve been distrohopping for a while now, and eventually I landed on Arch. Part of the reason I have stuck with it is I think I had a balanced introduction, since I was exposed to both praise and criticism. We often discuss our favorite distros, but I think it’s equally important to talk about the ones that didn’t quite hit...

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

TL;DR: Ubuntu. Because I want choices.

Ubuntu. And I’ve felt that way for a long time, so it’s not something recentish like snaps.

I don’t want my distro to decide what DE and software I’m using for me. They used to have a minimal iso which gave you, as the name suggests, a very minimal install. But now their minimal image is meant for containerized stuff and if memory serves comes with some extra cruft for that purpose.

I got annoyed and I left. And every distro I’ve tried since, even if I didn’t stick with it, I liked better.

To add some constructiveness, as that’s just complaining. That can be a good thing, just depends on the user. If they want the crafted experience Ubuntu provides, then it’s a good pick. It’s just not for me.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I wonder if it is notorious?

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.

Food for thought, I guess.

MiddledAgedGuy,

X11 is like a big dilapidated house. It doesn’t work very well anymore and is difficult to maintain.

Wayland is new modern house. Smaller and more efficient, but missing some amenities that the old house had that some people still want, like a wood burning stove.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Oh cool! I didn’t know about this. Thanks for sharing.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I wonder if they ever really have? When I was in school they taught you how to use a computer, but not what the computer was doing or how it worked.

I’m not too connected to the educational sector anymore but anecdotally it seems like becoming tech literate has a growing stigma (it’s always had a stigma). Happily ignoring what it’s doing while it’s actively abusing you.

MiddledAgedGuy,

This is my hangup as well.

I agree with the premise of this sub. The way car first places such as the US does things is a problem. The cars themselves and the underlying infrastructure, such as that exchange.

But I also don’t want to live in cramped multidweller unit housing. I’ve done so most of my life and I hated it.

I don’t know what or even if there’s a good solution that accomodates both, but I hope so.

Scraft161, to privacy
@Scraft161@tsukihi.me avatar

Hardware security key options?

I've been thinking about getting a hardware security key and have heard of yubikey before; but I want to see what my options are and if they are worth it in your opinion.
My current setup is a local KeePassXC database (that I sync between my PC and phone and also acts as TOTP authenticator app), I know that KeePass supports hardware keys for unlocking the database.

I am personally still of the belief that passwords are the safest when done right; but 2FA/MFA can greatly increase security on top of that (again, if done right).
The key work work together with already existing passwords, not replace them.

As I use linux as my primary OS I do expect it to support it and anything that doesn't I will have to pass on.

PS: what are the things I need to know about these hardware keys that's not being talked about too much, I am very much delving into new territory and want to make sure I'm properly educated before I delve in.

@linux @technology @technology @privacy

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

Yubikey and OnlyKey are the only hardware keys that work with keepassxc. So if that’s a requirement for you, then those are your only options. This is true for me as well.

They cover this in their docs and faq page: keepassxc.org/docs/-yubikey-2fa. OnlyKey is an unknown to me while I’ve heard of Yubikey for years.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

Don’t have one I love. Will have to review these comments!

Currently I use the Jellyfin web UI. Usage-wise it’s decent, but I don’t love using a browser for music.

Previously I was using mopidy + mopidy-Jellyfin + ncmpdcpp but it broke and I never got around to figuring out why. I didn’t particularly enjoy ncmpdcpp. Great piece of software, don’t get me wrong, just didn’t like the TUI music client experience as thought I would.

Checking out GUI based mpd client ecosystem seems like the next logical step.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I don’t like Ubuntu, and I do like Arch’s philosophy. But I think Arch is the more prone to breakage of the two.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Running with your holiday meal analogy, it warrants adding that while we can’t stop people from coming to the table, we are able to make them leave.

Of course the onus to this would be on the hosts of the meal, or in this case the admins and mods of Beehaw. I’m sure that’s a difficult, unpleasant, and often thankless task.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

Doesn’t track for this human.

This meal: would try out of curiosity.

X: won’t try because garbage.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Two facts:

  1. I love people doing weird things with tech.
  2. I absolutely hate this.
MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

Wayland != X11

Not 100% feature compatible != broken.

My opinion and also a TL;DR: of the article.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I see what you’re getting at. It’s a matter of perspective, I guess.

If you presented someone with a list of features from two similar but different pieces of software, they wouldn’t say software b is broken because it’s featureset is different from software a, right? But I acknowledge it’s not that straightforward. It’s more like telling them software b is going to replace software a that you’re currently using, get ready to say goodbye to some features.

I still don’t consider wayland broken, but I understand argument that it is.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Arch. Rolling release is too much maintenance and AUR can be a pain. I do like the minimalist approach though.

For those of a similar opinion and aren’t familiar with it, check out Void. Also a minimalist rolling release, but aims for more stable packages so less updating. Decent package selection in their repos as well.

Is Ubuntu deserving the hate? (lemmy.ml)

Long story short, I have a desktop with Fedora, lovely, fast, sleek and surprisingly reliable for a near rolling distro (it failed me only once back around Fedora 34 or something where it nuked Grub). Tried to install on a 2012 i7 MacBook Air… what a slog!!! Surprisingly Ubuntu runs very smooth on it. I have been bothering all...

MiddledAgedGuy,

Ubuntu is a tough one. I don’t like it. I don’t like snaps, but more than that I don’t like their direction in general.

But I have some respect for them too. I think they played a pretty significant role in Linux being as popular (relatively speaking) as it is, and I don’t feel like they have any ill intent.

So I don’t personally care for it but I’m glad it’s around I guess is my point?

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

My guess is you have an nvidia card and are using the nouveau (open source) module instead of the nvidia (proprietary) one.

Assuming that’s correct, here’s Ubuntu’s documentation on that. ubuntu.com/server/…/nvidia-drivers-installation

MiddledAgedGuy,

Oh I totally misread, Ubuntu was what you had in the VM.

If you open the Nvidia settings and it sees your GPU(s), then it should be working, if you hadn’t already come to that conclusion.

Fedora is a solid choice!

MiddledAgedGuy,

I’m not personally familiar with PopOS, but in reading up real quick it looks like it’s selling point is baked in proprietary drivers.

If you want a “just works with my hardware” distro, that sounds like a solid choice. But, since you’re technically inclined I might suggest avoiding it. Proprietary drivers come with their own problems and I think there’s value in having to consciously choosing to use them, which will make you more able to handle/remove them if needed. There is some personal bias in this I admit. I don’t care for proprietary anything if I have a choice.

MiddledAgedGuy,

What kind of problems? I use syncthing, curious if your past issues might be my future ones.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, and there’s a good number of responses so maybe I’m up in the night, but it seems to me Manjaro’s philosophy is somewhat counterintuitive to Arch’s. Arch pointedly obfuscates system internals as little as is reasonable to “keep it simple” from a system perspective. Manjaro simplifies things for the user but creates additional obfuscation. I can see some people who value Arch’s approach being less than amenable to that.

But that’s not a reason to not use it. If Manjaro’s approach appeals to you, use it.

BTW, I don’t use Arch (at the moment)

I use linux for the same reason I wear fuzzy socks and sweaters

My understanding of the history of fashion is that back in the 1950s America it was expected that you wore a suit/dress at work unless you had a different uniform. There were a bunch of very boring people who thought that we should be wearing office job garb all the time, because they wore suits so much it was their default...

MiddledAgedGuy,

I appreciate the not your office OS commentary. I have the use Windows for work. I do this mostly via RDP to a work provided laptop, as well as a win10 VM for MS Teams. And I take great pleasure in shutting those down at the end of the work day.

The last tolerable version of Windows for me was XP. I find myself fond of Windows 98, but that’s probably just nostalgia speaking.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I don’t doubt this this is generally the case, but most of the games I enjoy playing with friends offer their own servers. Which got me thinking about it, and they tend to be indie games.

So it’s not gone. Niche, perhaps.

MiddledAgedGuy, (edited )

I’d recommend against any of those choices.

  • Puppy Linux: It’s a solid live boot environment but it’s not really ideal in comparison to the major distros on a permanent install.
  • Alpine Linux: Since it uses musl instead of glibc, you’re likely to run into problems
  • Linux from scratch: Going through LFS is a great way to get a solid understanding of Linux, but unless you want to spend more time maintaining your system than using it, it’s going to be a frustrating experience.

Try one of the distros others have suggested.

Edit: I checked the specs on that hardware and yeah that’s going to struggle. Maybe Alpine would be ok. It’s fairly easy to spin up and might be fun to play with on that hardware. You’ll probably want a fairly large swap if you’re planning on using a desktop environment.

MiddledAgedGuy,

I symlink the AppImage. It’s still a manual process in that you have to recreate the symlink but feels like less of a hassle than updating the desktop file.

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