NightEyes DaySpring
I'm getting more serious about switching to Linux; last night I set my desktop up to dual boot with Linux Mint.
Feb 3 at 1:52pmWeb
Show threadSoftwarewolfFeb 3

@nighteyes Mint is a solid starting choice!

I still run Mint in a few places and I still use Cinnamon (the Mint desktop environment) on my non-Mint machines. :3

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@faoluin Cinnamon seems really nice, and I prefer it over the default Ubuntu interface. I have poked at Ubuntu a few times over the years. What distro do you use by default?
Show threadSoftwarewolfFeb 3

@nighteyes Yeah Cinnamon feels closer to the classic Windows UI, which after all these years is still just what I'm used to.

For desktops I use the Debian Testing, which is what Ubuntu is based on. For servers I use Debian Stable.

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3

@faoluin My two Linux servers are just two raspberry pis I am not doing anything with, but I have been keeping them updated. I need time to sit and work out OpenVPN on one and get docker up on the other.

I am not a total noob at Linux, since I have dabbled with it over the years, but I feel it is time to much more seriously embrace it. My one real hurdle is I don't like the look and feel of LibreOffice, and I need full Word comparability.

Also, the cursor is being weird and resizing with a flatpak application with the screen settings I have.

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@faoluin I also will need to set up Wine for Scrivener.
Show threadSoftwarewolfFeb 3

@nighteyes I'm not a complete expert on WINE, but looks like there's some tutorials out there on making it work:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=12274

https://keyboardplaying.org/blog/2020/10/install-scrivener-3-linux/

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@faoluin Yeah. I'll need to walk through it. Linux has gotten a lot better, but there are still pain points that crop up or things that don't yet exist for it.
Show threadSoftwarewolfFeb 3

@nighteyes I run Incus (forked from LXD) on a headless PC, it's pretty comparable to a VM hypervisor but a little more lightweight, and all my servers are just x86 containers. But rpis are also a good starting point! I used to use mine as a little sandbox.

Tbh I avoid snap or flatpak or any other "containerized app" distribution systems where I can, because they can sometimes run into strange problems that are hard to manage. IIRC LibreOffice is available straight from the Mint repos so you might have better luck using that one instead of the flatpak version?

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@faoluin Oh, no this was with the flatpak of Telegram I noticed this behavior. LIbreOffice I'm sure isn't using a flatpak since it comes installed by default. I also believe Keepass, what I use as my password manager, has a flatpak distribution.
Show threadAlex, the Hearth FireFeb 3
@faoluin @nighteyes Mint + Cinnamon feels like my memories of Windows XP. It just works and I love it.
Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@faoluin @WizardOfDocs Yeah, it is really nice.
Show thread🌴 Seph 💭 👾Feb 3
@nighteyes Mint is great, I actually run the LM:DE version and have for years
Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@vextaur Yeah, it seems nice so far.
Show threadSilverWolfFeb 3

@nighteyes I did that when windowblows 11 was locked out on my laptop, its been pretty solid.

Everything just.. worked.

The command lines are a little tricky for me yet but I recommend it, reminds me of windows XP in a way.

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3

@SilverWolf I've got some more advanced needs, but so far it's pretty solid. I've got one thing I need to look into in detail.

I'm old enough to have used DOS as a pup, and I've pushed myself to use the command line more with Windows, so I'll be fine there.

Show threadSilverWolfFeb 3

@nighteyes I also grew up in a DOS world, its a fun learning experience though!

Good luck! 🐺

Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@SilverWolf Thanks!
Show threadsouthie wuskyFeb 3
@nighteyes to speak from several of my own experiences and experiences of my friends, if linux mint gives you issues at some point, consider something fedora-based and KDE before writing linux off like i had for so long. absolute night and day experience, I kept running into problems on mint nobody had answers for
Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3
@southpaw1312 I am pretty tech savy when he comes to troubleshooting, but I will keep this in mind. I have been running two Raspberry Pis for projects I just haven't had time to figure out, but I have kept them current with updates. I am not a complete newbie but this is moving beyond dabbling toward actually making it my daily driver. I still have things I need to figure out.
Show threadsouthie wuskyFeb 3

@nighteyes same here but, while this doesn't happen for everybody, mint kept giving me reoccurring problems that other distros don't and it's so much easier not to have to keep poking at them, heh

moved my entire desk setup into a different room the other day and I use a logitech Z5300 5.1 surround sound system which always stresses me out. on windows, there would always be some dark magic to get the thing outputting right and restarting. mint would forget I have an audio device at all and require me to reinstall the driver every time I booted. but nobara linux with KDE, there was absolutely zero hassle, it just worked

Show threadsouthie wuskyFeb 3
@southpaw1312 @nighteyes my experiences aside though, I think a good thing for new users to remember is that distro picks don't matter as much as DE picks or picking between wayland/X11 since you can more or less tune any distro based on needs. the Desktop Environment is an enormous difference to how a distro looks, feels and functions over the hood, and Wayland/X11 differences are a huge deal to gamers and folks doing graphics/video work and such. I stream games on twitch and most of what I do cannot be done on X11 period, but some people swear by it for their needs
Show threadNightEyes DaySpringFeb 3

@southpaw1312 I don't stream, so this isn't a need of mine. The fact Linux even can play games now is pretty amazing to me considering how it wasn't supported at all years ago. My concerns are office software, photo editing, and software development tools. I also plan to keep the dual boot going until I have resolved my needs.

I'm pretty resourceful also when I have to be. I'll customize as I have to.

Show threadsouthie wuskyFeb 3
@nighteyes something i wish I'd been told forever ago as well is that windows gets really territorial with GRUB and considers other OSs a "problem to fix" but using rEFInd circumvents this. it's a custom boot manager, and it does require playing around in the EFI a bit, but im pretty dumb and haven't managed to brick a computer with it yet by following instructions