36 Pickled Eggs 
For me, the hardest part of getting a new computer is deciding what to run on it. I was tempted to play with #cachyos, but have decided to stick with a #fedora base. But, which spin? I want to give #niri a try, so maybe fedora server + niri or Sway spin + niri. Also new to me is this is my first exposure to Intel Arc graphics.
Oh wow. Mastodon rocks. @YaLTeR is on here! I get the feeling from your github docs that you run a Fedora base for your Niri development. Which spin are you starting with?
Ivan Molodetskikh@36pickledeggs just regular workstation (or Silverblue in my case)
@YaLTeR
Hmmm... I don't know if I can get myself to install the gnome spin. I have a somewhat irrational disgust for the gnome wm, even if I would not be using it directly. Maybe I'll risk it and try adding Niri to the Sway spin. And maybe even Sway Atomic. I still have not played with that. But, I could always fall back to Silverblue if it turns out to be a mess.
Hmmm... I don't know if I can get myself to install the gnome spin. I have a somewhat irrational disgust for the gnome wm, even if I would not be using it directly. Maybe I'll risk it and try adding Niri to the Sway spin. And maybe even Sway Atomic. I still have not played with that. But, I could always fall back to Silverblue if it turns out to be a mess.
@YaLTeR
I see you are working on your PhD. Is Niri part of your thesis?
I see you are working on your PhD. Is Niri part of your thesis?
@36pickledeggs no, completely unrelated
The reason I'm not going the CachyOS route is that I'm happy with the stability of Fedora and if I really want the performance features of CachyOS, I should be able to introduce the same in Fedora. Arch is great, but, uhg. It also feel like an extra hobby just to keep it updated. So much is through the AUR and that brings supply chain risk concerns. Maybe I'm just getting lazy.
Tagomago@36pickledeggs Why Fedora, though? Never tried it so far.
@tagomago
Partially because I am used to working with RHEL/Rocky/CentOS in the enterprise. I'm certified for all that, and Fedora is the upstream. I've got an overall distaste towards all things Ubuntu and Debian is too conservative. I tend to bounce between Fedora and Arch, but Fedora is just so stable, and yet leading edge. Tech often arrives to Fedora before Arch. Their release workflow is top notch. It has a huge community, especially when you add in the RHEL world. And Fedora is fast.
Partially because I am used to working with RHEL/Rocky/CentOS in the enterprise. I'm certified for all that, and Fedora is the upstream. I've got an overall distaste towards all things Ubuntu and Debian is too conservative. I tend to bounce between Fedora and Arch, but Fedora is just so stable, and yet leading edge. Tech often arrives to Fedora before Arch. Their release workflow is top notch. It has a huge community, especially when you add in the RHEL world. And Fedora is fast.
@tagomago
But, I would also say Fedora is user friendly without getting in your way. Our whole household have run it, with my kids not knowing anything else until they got older and played with Arch installs on their own. And funny enough, they have been moving back to Fedora primarily for gaming.
But, I would also say Fedora is user friendly without getting in your way. Our whole household have run it, with my kids not knowing anything else until they got older and played with Arch installs on their own. And funny enough, they have been moving back to Fedora primarily for gaming.
@36pickledeggs Do you reckon Debian is too conservative in terms of estability, bureaucracy...?
@tagomago
Not sure this is still the case, but in the past they tended to be super slow to support new technologies. Like, there was a ton of drama around systemd, for example. Their release schedule was slooooooow too. Not sure if that is current. I don't come across many folks daily driving it. I'd probably be more tempted to mess around with a bsd distro again before I'd bother with Debian at the moment. I don't even like it as a container base. But, just personal preference.
Not sure this is still the case, but in the past they tended to be super slow to support new technologies. Like, there was a ton of drama around systemd, for example. Their release schedule was slooooooow too. Not sure if that is current. I don't come across many folks daily driving it. I'd probably be more tempted to mess around with a bsd distro again before I'd bother with Debian at the moment. I don't even like it as a container base. But, just personal preference.
Benoit@36pickledeggs @tagomago systemd was developed by Lennart when he was working at Red Hat. It was a major change over other init systems, so yes it took a while for non RHEL world to adopt systemd.
@benoit @tagomago Right, and I'd say that a lot of new tech is developed on Fedora rather than Debian. I'm not saying Debian is no good. It just doesn't have what I want in a desktop distro on new hardware. It has a two year release cycle and is overall conservative. That might be great for server or embedded systems, but not so great for my daily driver where I've often experimenting with the latest stuff. systemd was BIG drama for the project. At the time, some wondered if it would end it.
I think it really comes down to personal preference in the end.
I’ve used quite a few distributions over the years: Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, and Gentoo.
Eventually, I fell in love with Arch and have been running it for many years now. My main PC will probably always run Arch.
That said, I still enjoy experimenting. Who knows, I might tinker with something else someday and fall in love all over again.
Void Linux has been a really nice surprise, especially for older machines. I instantly liked it as well.
@benoit @36pickledeggs NixOS seems to be the new Arch in terms of nerd adoption 😁 Have you two tried that one?
@tagomago @36pickledeggs Yeah kinda tempted... Someday. It's hard to find the time.
@36pickledeggs Keeping Arch updated is the same as any distro. What's complicated? Run the package manager updates, that's it. Occasionally update config files, but same with other distros...
You can literally use it without AUR, all is core packages.
I have only 8 packages coming from AUR.
@benoit
Maybe true. kid1 spends a lot of time on updates and much of it is paru compiling stuff he added and probably doesn't even use anymore. I really like Arch. But, I see it as an equal to Fedora for a daily driver, but with different strengths and weaknesses. One low hanging fruit for Arch would be to display breaking change notices at update time, rather than just on the Arch wiki. I've been burned with Arch updates a few times. Maybe only once on Fedora.
Maybe true. kid1 spends a lot of time on updates and much of it is paru compiling stuff he added and probably doesn't even use anymore. I really like Arch. But, I see it as an equal to Fedora for a daily driver, but with different strengths and weaknesses. One low hanging fruit for Arch would be to display breaking change notices at update time, rather than just on the Arch wiki. I've been burned with Arch updates a few times. Maybe only once on Fedora.
@36pickledeggs I’ve very rarely broken anything, but my setup is pretty simple. Also I don't update day to day.
I do remember messing up my initramfs at some point, but it was nothing major, just boot into a rescue environment, chroot into the system, and fix it.
I try not to tinker too much. Like I said, I only have eight AUR packages installed.
And one of them is maintained by me https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=jquake
If you ask your kid, he’s probably experimented with half the community repo by now.
Christian Horn@36pickledeggs I've tried the Fedora #sway spin the other day on the Steam deck, and it's a nice start config.
Actually, don't care to much about the spin. It's just about the package selection and a default config, but you can remodel everything into all other combinations.
Actually, don't care to much about the spin. It's just about the package selection and a default config, but you can remodel everything into all other combinations.
andi242@36pickledeggs I'd go with a gnome base and add niri on top. gnome brings a lot of things that eases the first 'run' :)
If not a fan of the bloat it brings, follow this thoroughly: https://niri-wm.github.io/niri/Example-systemd-Setup.html / https://niri-wm.github.io/niri/Important-Software.html
Perhaps try in a VM first, get some scripting done and transfer over to the live machine?
Brandon Lipani@36pickledeggs fedora my go to Linux distro it’s great