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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • I think Debian is close to new user friendly IF they pick Gnome or KDE with all the default stuff there, and has getting closer with non-free firmware enabled by default now, but still isn’t quite there as a plug and play new user friendly distro. Things like flatpak w/flathub or snap out of the box isn’t there, and it’d be hard to get a full Debian setup without using the command line (especially for a non free software zelot who wants Spotify and discord out of the box)

    Something like mint is just a tad easier, and that might be the different between an easy install and an unexpected set of hiccups that a new user might struggle with. The mint installer is also a lot more intuitive, at the cost of being less universally compatible (a big goal of Debian).







  • My understanding is that it’s not really the disrto, but the software running on it that’d effect battery life and performance. Both Debian and Arch can come pretty bare bones on a blank install (Ubuntu and derivatives tend to come with a fair bit of stuff bundled out of the box).

    I’d personally reccomend trying a Debian installation (I’d likely say use stable, but testing or sid are also options if you need quicker updates and don’t care for flatpak/snap/appimage/distrobox). The installer plays nice with Windows, and you can skip installing a desktop during installation then CLI install a tiling window manager to really minimize ‘bloat’.


  • One word: Mint

    It’s pretty streamlined, more reliable than some newer trendy Ubuntu spin offs, and still powered at it’s core by the same old kernal that even the “advanced” distros use.

    I applaud you for trying Arch, and if you can figure it out while learning Linux in general that’s a great achievement, but it’s overly complicated and I personally wouldn’t reccemend it to anyone starting out (or even a most experienced users unless they had a particular need for it’s features).

    If you continuously get issues across all distros in VMs a live environment might also be worth checking out (live being booted off external media without an install).

    Ultimately, though if Linux does mess with your workflow, then use what works best for you. Sure I like Linux, but if it breaks what you need and Windows or Mac doesn’t then use what works best for you. But, there’s a saying “the more the island of my knowledge grows the greater the shore of my ignorance”. The more you learn the more that you realized how little you know. It’s always the case for anybody who’s either not an extreme expert or a narcissistic, but it’s also a great motivator to keep learning.


  • Assuming you’re fine with non-free drivers I don’t think there’s too much to worry about nowadays (at least that’s what I’ve gathered from personal experience & the lack of hearing other scomplain).

    That said, I’ve never had any issues with HP devices, and even an HP Chromebook worked without too much hassle.

    Thinkpads are also a classic Linux machine, and I doubt you could go wrong with those either.


  • Very nice. I like how you went about telling the user how to make a decision and provided and their various options rather than just spitting out a list of distros you like without telling the user why you did so. One thing I would bring up though, depending on whether you want it to be closer to a one stop shop or a springboard to further research, would be that for a new user touching a few pros/cons of the various aspects you mentioned (e.g. stable vs rolling releases) to maybe point them towards what would be a good fit for them. But that’s more so depending on what your philosophy is on the “what’s good” vs “how to find what’s good” slider of things.


  • A lot of it will come down to what you’re running for a desktop environment and software. I’ve got an old laptop with a duel core 2Ghz (x86_64) processor and 2G of ram, and running Debian with XFCE it can do basic web browsing, video playing/streaming up to ~720p, game emulators, etc with the same snappiness as a normal computer.

    Ubuntu is a bit bulkier than Debian and some other Debian derivatives, so if you go with Ubuntu you’d probably make sure to go with a more lightweight ‘flavor’ with a non-gnome desktop and remove anything you don’t need.

    Alpine and Puppy Linux are two other super lightweight distros that also might be worth checking out (albeit Alpine being a little more advanced and Puppy Linux being a bit limited).


  • My biggest piece of advice would be to research flatpaks and/or snaps if you use proprietary things like Steam, Spotify, Discord, etc. You don’t have to use flatpaks/snaps, but they’ll fix any issues like the famous LTT Linux challenge where dependency issues with steam nuked his desktop. They’ll also get you the latest and greatest if you need the bleeding edge of any particular piece of software.

    Secondly, Pop is based on Ubuntu, so if you can’t info you need then searching about the info for Ubuntu might answer your question.

    Also, just like Power shell or Cmd Prompt on Windows with admin settings, when you’re in the terminal as root (including w/ Sudo or Doas) there’s no safeties. Distructive commands will run if you tell them to.

    Last, if you got the time, try to figure out all the functionality you want out of your device before you need it. Simple things you want such as a screenshot tool are nice to have when you need it, as apposed to going on a mini adventure to find one when you need it.

    Good luck!