I installed Linux Mint for the first time on my personal Laptop just a few months ago, and it ran so well that I didn’t want to mess with it to try out different distros.
But today, my company’s IT department announced that they have some spare old Laptops to give away (technically because they didn’t meet the specs for Windows 11, didn’t stop the IT department from giving them out with Windows 11 pre installed though)
So now I got a few devices to play around with!! They’re a Precision 7530 and a Latitude 7390 2-in-1!
I already got ZorinOS running on the little guy because apparently Zorin is nice for Touchscreen support. For the big guy I was initially thinking that I could try Bazzite, but the installer was like “Intel UHD Graphics aren’t really recommended” so I might try something else first. Any recommendations? I mainly just want to try as many different flavors of Linux as I can haha
I always wonder why mint is the one people try. It seems so out of date.
Fedora these days works really well and is really up to date.
Mint is very boring and middle of the road, exactly as a default recommendation should be. They are also very protective of the user experience. They are unlikely to embarrass me.
Mint has a familiar UX if you are new to Linux. It is not nearly as foreign or locked down as GNOME. It is not as configurable and complex as KDE. There are good GUI tools for most common tasks.
Mint does not change too rapidly or have too many updates but the desktop and tools are kept up-to-date.
They are being very conservative with the Wayland transition. But nobody on Mint is moaning that Wayland is not ready. They are very protective about the user experience.
And there is really no desktop use case that Mint is not suitable for.
I do not use Mint but it is a very solid recommendation for “normal” users.
I think Pop!OS is back to being that too and COSMIC is Wayland only (so no future transition to manage).
Mint has a familiar UX if you are new to Linux.
See this one is confusing to me. It is very different.
You are greeted after install to configure mirrors. What is a mirror? The dialog offers no help, there is no apply, or maybe this one. so you click “restore to the default”. What does that do? And then down the side what is a PPA? Should I have a PPA (answer is NO, you should not). Additional Repositories, auth keys, maintenance…Fix merge lists…
Where is the clipboard? Oh there isnt one. And typing clipboard doesnt offer one. Typing clipboard into software sources offers too many (25 of them!).
Mint is alright I don’t want to come across as bashing them. I just am surprised it is so highly recommended that is all.
I always broke it before long, but that is the Ubuntu curse: super fragile and always breaking.
I always broke it before long, but that is the Ubuntu curse
There is a Mint based on pure Debian if you think the Ubuntu-based one is “too fragile” as you put it. You actually made me curious in how you keep breaking Mint, I’ve been using it for several years, incrementally upgrading it since 2021 with little to no breakage at all.
So trying it again recently on a VM, seems like they changed their upgrades? Used to be a series of priority ranks. I think that confused the users. I think the ppas confused the users.
And making poor choices there broke it.
Ubuntu is just broken out of the box on the other hand. Every damn time since version 4 something stupid happens.
Yeah, PPAs usually complicate things. IIRC the advice is disabling them before upgrading major versions, but this can be a pain if you use many repositories simultaneously
have you actually tried it? trying mint after using arch for a year (btw), it’s actually really well made and the consistency is crazy good. The UI looks and feels better in person than in screenshots
Yes. And they improved the updater it used to be much more confusing.
Its too out of date and doesn’t have KDE so it really isn’t for me.
A lot of beginners (like me) use mint because it is very simple out of the box and user friendly. It just works (unless, like me, you try using commands from arch on mint, and you break it)
Except when it doesn’t. And really people are missing out, because there is so much more out there. I was playing with it today and I wonder how many people think that is what linux is? Fedora Gnome or KDE is even simpler and also just works.
But choice is good. I am just always surprised how often it is the default linux for new people. When it would be pretty low on my choice of distros. I set it up as a spare computer for guests a few years ago and it turned out to be more of a chore than I wanted to deal with.
…yeah it does break sometimes. Right now my grandma has it on her spare computer, which is a potato, and she said she didn’t know it was linux on there, even though I told her when I installed it. It’s mostly used as a bootloader for the browser, and it’s dual booting whichever windows and mint
It doesn’t always work, I agree, but for some people it does what they need.
If it’s broke, I will absolutely try to fix it anyways, but not on anyone elses stuff.
I have mint as a safe distro, so if I mess up my stuff trying to use a distro I’m not ready for, I can take 3 minutes(ish) fixing it and hoping I didn’t wipe the bios or anything else important off my computer when I tried installing arch with no clue how.
Umm… With 2 free computers and nothing on them.
Run down the list and install all the different distros. Test them out for a few weeks then onto the next. Pretty soon you’ll one that you prefer.
Advanced distro hopping form, distro rotation.
Installing one distro on one laptop and then only using that laptop to figure out how to install the next distro on the other laptop! That would give me an actual goal in each distro I install too, since I’d have to get the wifi and browser working and figure out how to run that program that burns iso files onto a usb stick :0
… that would be such an entertaining youtube video concept too, I wish I was into video making haha
You should try Fedora. It’s the one used by Linus.
OpenSUSE is very less recommended but I would suggest it
https://media.ccc.de/v/5012-the-first-encrypted-steam-deck-runs-opensuse#t=0
Also check out their AEON it is still in RC but worth looking out for. Meanwhile Fedora immutable can be used with Intel.
If you are tach savvy want to tinker look for NetBSD or Ironclad OS
Suse has such a corporate feel to her.
“Intel UHD Graphics aren’t really recommended”
Because Bazzite is gaming oriented and Intel UHD is barely good enough to render a display?
I have a Dell with UHD+Nvidia, took me a while to get Prime working to switch video cards. Even on UHD, it could do basic Steam games and Minecraft if you didn’t have high expectations.
dont forget your programming socks
Man I wish I could participate in the programmer socks joke, but I feel like it just doesn’t really hit the same when an afab person does it :(
well, we can’t let you out of this, we’re all in this together. Let’s make programming “tidy whites” a thing! XD
Snagged a thinkpad today for just over 100$. Guy mentioned it was because of windows 11. Its hippie christmas for linux!
I just got a new laptop for my work (which I also use for personal stuff, it’s a family business).
It came with Windows 11 but I’d got a bigger SSD which I’d installed before I’d even turned it on so Windows never even got a chance to boot.
I installed one of the Fedora atomic distros and it seems to be pretty good, though I’m trying to figure out how to tune battery life. I’ve setup TLP but haven’t noticed any improvement, though, it’s still much better than when I first tried Linux on a laptop.
I’d never used Fedora before, but the first distro I ever used was Ubuntu Dapper Drake and I’ve dipped my toes occasionally since then, but never fully committed until now
Did you try CachyOS ? https://cachyos.org/ I’m impressed by how snappy it is on older computers.
Not yet, but I have seen that it is very popular on Distrowatch! :D It’s definitely in my backlog
I’d say try fedora. Then give Debian a spin as it will expose you to more technical details.
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You can, if you have far to much time in your hands, install arch, gentoo, vor any other distro with a non graphical installer. I believe its a great experience, especially because you learn a bit more about the internels, and a few cool bash commands.
If you wanna have fun, i woild recommend bedrock linux, haven’t tried it, but it sounds cool and interesting. Also nixos might be fun to try in my opinion.
Nix might be a bit overwhelming when his first installation of linux was only a few months ago, I guess :D
It might be overwhelming but still fun to explore new things, right?
Ooh, Nix looks interesting, I’d be down for the challenge!
Yeah! I was just coming here to recommend GuixSD or NixOS! Not because they’re normal, but because they’re not, and you have an opportunity to screw around 😅
Fedora and Debian are different but also pretty similar. Arch or Gentoo are more different. The atomics like bazzite and silverblue are even more different. And then there’s NixOS and GuixSD that are basically a completely different paradigm of how to setup a system. And that might be frustrating if it doesn’t work for you, but as a test computer go wild! Heck, try NixOS and GuixSD to experience their differences from each other!
The only other thing I might recommend for a challenge is something like Linux From Scratch where you don’t have any distro and you just build everything yourself. Definitely not recommended for normal people! It’s a project rather than something you can just try out for a weekend. And it may be frustrating, who knows. But if you’re into that kind of thing it may be enlightening!
Void linux xfce. Just uses so little ram I love it.
Very reasonable in this economy!
I trialed several distros on my Precision 3550 and settled on Garuda. No regrets!!
