David Gerardyeah so microsoft just fucking lied about not forcing copilot, cos of course they did https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-10-gets-copilot-as-part-of-mandatory-update
SMHS@davidgerard ...anyone need a hand installing linux, you are welcome to bother me.
ShadSterling@smhs @davidgerard I know just enough to be dangerous, and I’ve never been able to figure out how to choose a distro for desktop use. I’m using at least 5 different ones for various headless purposes, but every time I’ve looked at the options for desktop Linux I can’t even figure out which sets of problems I’d be choosing between much less which set of problems I’d rather put up with. It leaves me with no idea how to plan to buy a Linux laptop
@ShadSterling @smhs honestly just start somewhere. Mint is probably inoffensive. or just plain Ubuntu or Xubuntu.
most run off a USB stick so you can try out desktops and see if any particularly appeal or annoy.
a usb stick is also useful cos you can check it supports all your hardware. linux hardware support is extremely good these days, but it's always nice to check.
@ShadSterling @smhs oh yeah and definitely get an AMD video card, Nvidia has bursts of actively hostility to Linux but AMD are really good at making sure their stuff is supported
@davidgerard @ShadSterling Yes, AMD all the way. I personally would say CPU too. You can play CP77 on a Ryzen 7 5700g and no videocard at all.
@smhs @ShadSterling a cheap ex-corporate business laptop off eBay but with an AMD chip gives you a nice setup that works quite well if you check compat
@davidgerard @smhs that sounds a whole lot more time consuming than making my next laptop one that has about the same specs as I’d get without switching but comes Linux. Learning all the GUI quirks would be time consuming enough, but returning to the bad old days of hoping not to have driver issues and having to figure out what to do with incompatible hw, and aftermarket upgrading the storage, and…
Sure, it’s more flexible, but more yaks than I can shave
Sure, it’s more flexible, but more yaks than I can shave
@ShadSterling @smhs that's fair, but i can tell you it's way better these days and mostly shit just works
@ShadSterling @davidgerard Almost any iron can handle Linux or more like the other way around, even winsh*t preinstalled is okay, just remove it.
I tried a lot of distros before settling on Ubuntu - because I was sure the popularity will grant ways to fix things, as in, it is discussed a lot on forums. ...and is practically Debian, a popular "friendly" one. I just removed all the cr4p from it. If I restarted I would go with Arch but as a start start, Mint, indeed is a good choice.
I tried a lot of distros before settling on Ubuntu - because I was sure the popularity will grant ways to fix things, as in, it is discussed a lot on forums. ...and is practically Debian, a popular "friendly" one. I just removed all the cr4p from it. If I restarted I would go with Arch but as a start start, Mint, indeed is a good choice.
@smhs @davidgerard one thing I want is a way to get informed about which sets of problems I’d have to put up with from each distro without having to try a lot of them like you did. (Eg preinstalling a bunch of crap I’d have to remove vs less popular and harder to search for solutions.) I want to be confident that I can buy a Linux laptop and just use it, without having to worry that I’ll find problems later that require replacing it or switching distros
@smhs @davidgerard 20 years ago I would have thought it was fun to get a bunch of cheap computers and try a different distro on each of them, but I did that kind of thing enough and now I don’t want to go back to it. In the past I’ve found a few sites that try to collect and make usable some info about which distros have which problems, but the gaps never came close to lining up with things I don’t care about. I hope next time I look they’ve improved
@ShadSterling @davidgerard A strange mix of comments from you... you say you are able to install different distros and then you say you'd have to replace a laptop cause of ...problems? ...what? It seems like you already know about these things - are you trolling with us?
Linux Mint is great for starters. Forget driver and GUI issues, all I did with my printer is plug it in. Don't try to undermine something that works. Microsoft is horrible. Ignore big corp. Love. Peace. I'm out. +
Linux Mint is great for starters. Forget driver and GUI issues, all I did with my printer is plug it in. Don't try to undermine something that works. Microsoft is horrible. Ignore big corp. Love. Peace. I'm out. +
@smhs @davidgerard the distros I’m using are on cloud VMs; I didn’t install (or choose) the distro, and they’re not on my own hardware. While compatibility has improved, my feeds and search results are pretty clear that to reliably avoid having to replace hw to resolve driver problems I’d have to buy hw that comes with Linux preinstalled. Which is fine, I want to switch with my next new laptop anyway, but having to switch distros wouldn’t be about hw
@smhs @davidgerard having to switch distros after switching to Linux would be about problems more like these: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112797528879185884