The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

[Aidan]

I’m a newbie to Linux and have finally decided to just say fuck it to Windows and make the jump. The question I have is what’s the best Linux distribution software for 2023? I have a PC with 16GB RAM available. Since I’m new to this I’d prefer something more beginner-friendly, though I’m of course willing to learn is the distro is good enough.

I don't understand what you're asking but use Virtualbox or VMware to set up virtual machines and see what distro works well enough for you. They all pretty much have the same software available to them. Debian-based distros are probably the easiest to get help with. Of those Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu are probably the easiest to just jump into. ParrotOS isn't geared towards normal users, so to speak and maybe I'm blind to any hiccups a non-linux user would run into with it, but I toted it around a few times on my laptop and it's nice.

Try them all in virtual machines to see what works best.

inb4 just use debian inb4 gentoo inb4 arch

 

[Dell Conagher]

I've heard of LTSC but have been stuck with win 10 home/pro for a while. I'd definitely want to try it out in a vm but can you encounter more issues with newer drivers since it's not updated as regularly?

While this is a linux thread, and ill try not to deviate too much. in the No stupid questions thread, On the most recent page, @awoo had the same question as you in spirit, so you can read more there. but LTSC 2021 is based off windows 10 21H2 which should give you very few problems. but if you are concerned you could just spin up a windows 10 in a VM, since its all in a VM, Microsoft cant touch your no no square

 

[skykiii]

So I'm now trying to install Riven on Linux Mint. PlayOnLinux specifically had a thing for the GOG install of Riven which is making things convenient. Right now though Wine is downloading something called a Gecko library which it apparently needs but it seems to be taking an awful long time.... should I back out and do something else or should I give it time to do its thing?

EDIT: It got past that... then couldn't install because it was trying to grab some sort of XP patch from the internet archive but the checksums didn't match and I have no idea how to fix that. Fuck.

I honestly feel like it would be easier to get a Virtual Machine running so I'm gonna try that.

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

So I'm now trying to install Riven on Linux Mint. PlayOnLinux specifically had a thing for the GOG install of Riven which is making things convenient. Right now though Wine is downloading something called a Gecko library which it apparently needs but it seems to be taking an awful long time.... should I back out and do something else or should I give it time to do its thing?

EDIT: It got past that... then couldn't install because it was trying to grab some sort of XP patch from the internet archive but the checksums didn't match and I have no idea how to fix that. Fuck.

I honestly feel like it would be easier to get a Virtual Machine running so I'm gonna try that.

Let me know how and if you end up getting it to work! I love Riven and when I get my system configured would like to figure out how to install it.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Neon isn't really developed as a "distro", it's intended as a showcase of KDE. I've seen people report that trying to use it as a daily driver is a disaster as updates tend to create problems.

I'm currently daily-drivering it after getting it on the kde slimbook (though once my current contract is done, I'm going back to devuan and backporting the latest KDE) and I've had no issues, systemd fuckery aside. It's pretty much just Ubuntu with the latest and greatest KDE installed. Better than Kubuntu in my experience.

 

[PFM]

I'm currently daily-drivering it after getting it on the kde slimbook (though once my current contract is done, I'm going back to devuan and backporting the latest KDE) and I've had no issues, systemd fuckery aside. It's pretty much just Ubuntu with the latest and greatest KDE installed. Better than Kubuntu in my experience.

I'm looking to jump ship from Kubuntu before 20.04 loses support. Ideally I want the latest KDE, Ubuntu or Debian base, no systemd would be nice, and to lose snap packages. Any tips on backporting the latest KDE in Devuan? I'm a pretty simple Linux user but have been using it since ~2007 or so.

 

[teriyakiburns]

I'm looking to jump ship from Kubuntu before 20.04 loses support. Ideally I want the latest KDE, Ubuntu or Debian base, no systemd would be nice, and to lose snap packages. Any tips on backporting the latest KDE in Devuan? I'm a pretty simple Linux user but have been using it since ~2007 or so.

It's been a while since I actually dealt with backports and repo dickery, so I'd have to look it up myself. IIRC KDE 5.27 is still only in unstable on devuan, so the way to do it would be to add the unstable repo to apt and then change the priority of the KDE packages so it uses the unstable repo, rather than whatever you're currently on. Risky. I think 5.26 is in testing, so there's a dedicated backports repo that it might be in.

 

[Dell Conagher]

Also a general question: why do we (everyone, not just here) still recommend Mint to newbies?

I like ubuntu as a first distro, yeah its got snap, flatpack aids and canonical spying. but every single issue you could ever have with it has been posted and answered in a sarcastic way on askubuntu, heres the thing as i see it, you want to balance convenience and ease of use. but with linux you have to invest time, and you have to stick with it.

Thats why i can see people recommending mint, its basically a cucked windows version ready to go, no real need for you to adapt. but with ubuntu its a little bit, not very far out there. but enough of a challenge for someone to leave their comfort zone and not crash and burn.

like this:


this is when you should take a step back if youre new to linux and say should i really just follow this blindly ?

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

So I'm now trying to install Riven on Linux Mint. PlayOnLinux specifically had a thing for the GOG install of Riven which is making things convenient. Right now though Wine is downloading something called a Gecko library which it apparently needs but it seems to be taking an awful long time.... should I back out and do something else or should I give it time to do its thing?

EDIT: It got past that... then couldn't install because it was trying to grab some sort of XP patch from the internet archive but the checksums didn't match and I have no idea how to fix that. Fuck.

I honestly feel like it would be easier to get a Virtual Machine running so I'm gonna try that.

That doesn't surprise me when playonlinux has pretty much been unmaintained for years. Most people moved on to Lutris and/or Bottles

 

[Miller]

So I'm now trying to install Riven on Linux Mint. PlayOnLinux specifically had a thing for the GOG install of Riven which is making things convenient. Right now though Wine is downloading something called a Gecko library which it apparently needs but it seems to be taking an awful long time.... should I back out and do something else or should I give it time to do its thing?

EDIT: It got past that... then couldn't install because it was trying to grab some sort of XP patch from the internet archive but the checksums didn't match and I have no idea how to fix that. Fuck.

I honestly feel like it would be easier to get a Virtual Machine running so I'm gonna try that.

If it's a game on GOG, why not install the Heroic launcher? Heroic handles both GOG and the Epic Games Store, once logged in you can download the games that you own.

 

[Susanna]

Apparently Canonical, rather than switching to Wayland and helping out with that, are doing their own display server. Looks an awful lot like NIH to me, typical. Yeah Wayland still sucks, but Canonical are the last people I'd trust to make a working display server. I wouldn't even trust them to write a nano clone.

 

[The Ghost of Kviv]

I’m a newbie to Linux and have finally decided to just say fuck it to Windows and make the jump. The question I have is what’s the best Linux distribution software for 2023? I have a PC with 16GB RAM available. Since I’m new to this I’d prefer something more beginner-friendly, though I’m of course willing to learn is the distro is good enough.

Go to each of the following, download the image that is pushed for most users, and write them to different USB sticks:

Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an open source software operating system that runs from the desktop, to the cloud, to all your internet connected things.

ubuntu.com

Get Fedora

Choose Freedom. Choose Fedora. Pick a flavor of Fedora streamlined for your needs, and get to work right away.

getfedora.org

KDE neon

KDE neon is the latest and greatest of KDE community software packaged on a rock-solid base.

neon.kde.org

Boot each USB, and see if all your hardware works. Fiddle around for a few days in each one. Try installing the things you need to work, watch, play or sperg. Get used to each one, and get a feel for what you like about each, and what you don't. See patterns in features, what each does the same, what they do different from the others. Get used to the keywords, the slang, and the autism.

Do this until you're comfortable in each, and most importantly: figure out what you don't know and search where to learn those things. You don't need to learn everything, just get an idea of what to search for if there's any issues.

Once you've achieved that, go here and follow the instructions:

Installation guide - ArchWiki

wiki.archlinux.org

Congratulations you are now an Archfag.

There is not best distro, expect maybe Slackware. Everyone uses what works best for them.

So I'm now trying to install Riven on Linux Mint.

ScummVM

ScummVM is a collection of game engines for playing classic graphical RPGs and point-and-click adventure games on modern hardware.

www.scummvm.org

A single minute of searching "riven linux".

I like ubuntu as a first distro, yeah its got snap, flatpack aids and canonical spying. but every single issue you could ever have with it has been posted and answered in a sarcastic way on askubuntu, heres the thing as i see it, you want to balance convenience and ease of use. but with linux you have to invest time, and you have to stick with it.

Thats why i can see people recommending mint, its basically a cucked windows version ready to go, no real need for you to adapt. but with ubuntu its a little bit, not very far out there. but enough of a challenge for someone to leave their comfort zone and not crash and burn.

like this:
View attachment 4696570

this is when you should take a step back if youre new to linux and say should i really just follow this blindly ?

Linus is a retard that should've been aborted a minute after conception. Him making that video collectively reduced the IQ of the human species by a few points. Anyone who listens to him deserves all the bullshit he introduces to their lives.

I agree with you on why Ubuntu is still a good base for newbies, my issue is Mint goes out of it's way to do things its own way. And Mint isn't alone in this, Pop and Manjaro both seem to do things differently just because. Neon is just Kubuntu done better, if it didn't exist, I'd recommend Kubuntu instead.

 

[ZMOT]

I think (and this doesn't only apply to linux) that it's important to never stop learning. I learn new shit about this stuff every week and I've used it for almost two decades (??) at this point. If people don't want to learn anything and don't really care about how anything works and just want to click symbols and receive product, I'm not sure I'd recommend Linux at all and I'm not sure why other experienced Linux users try to draw such people in and accomodate them at every step of the way. I feel in general people just don't have any patience for anything anymore nowadays. They want everything now now now. There's no point in doing this to yourself if you're one of those people, IMHO. Just stick with MacOS or Windows or Android or whatever, where people get paid to provide you a solution. You can do powerful stuff with these OSes too, I personally don't agree with them but don't let that stop you by any means. I'm sorry if that sounds elitist or something but that's just my opinion.

there's not much difference for a normie user, when windows breaks they google "X doesn't work", maybe try a bit before giving up and then re-install or if even that is too complicated call someone "who does IT stuff" (son, male friend etc.) or take it to a shop. exact same would happen if they'd use linux or apple.

I'm currently daily-drivering it after getting it on the kde slimbook (though once my current contract is done, I'm going back to devuan and backporting the latest KDE) and I've had no issues, systemd fuckery aside. It's pretty much just Ubuntu with the latest and greatest KDE installed. Better than Kubuntu in my experience.

what about openpepesuse?

Apparently Canonical, rather than switching to Wayland and helping out with that, are doing their own display server. Looks an awful lot like NIH to me, typical. Yeah Wayland still sucks, but Canonical are the last people I'd trust to make a working display server. I wouldn't even trust them to write a nano clone.

wait what, I thought they dropped mir years ago

 

[Susanna]

wait what, I thought they dropped mir years ago

Wow, I am such a retard. The timestamp on the article I read was 2013 and I didn't even notice.

 

[The Ugly One]

I’m a newbie to Linux and have finally decided to just say fuck it to Windows and make the jump. The question I have is what’s the best Linux distribution software for 2023? I have a PC with 16GB RAM available. Since I’m new to this I’d prefer something more beginner-friendly, though I’m of course willing to learn is the distro is good enough.

If you're mostly trying to run Windows games via Wine and do usual internet bullshit, Ubuntu and Mint are going to be the best supported for that. Any problem you have there, if it's fixable, will have been encountered by someone else before you and have a documented fix. Ubuntu dominates the home desktop Linux user space.

If you're trying to run enterprise applications, especially in science & engineering, go with a RHEL or SUSE derivative, because that's where all those applications actually get tested. Ubuntu's a much smaller fraction of the enterprise space.

 

[skykiii]

Let me know how and if you end up getting it to work! I love Riven and when I get my system configured would like to figure out how to install it.

Keep in mind that for me this is a learning experience. That's why I jumped to things like Wine, PlayOnLinux and VMs first thing--when I first used Linux years ago those were the way to do it. I'm only now learning better options exist.

That being said, if you really want to play Riven specifically and playing it on Linux is your only option, there is an easier way...... Riven got ported to PS1. And Myst III got ported to PS2.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

Reporting in to advise all you peasants that my shit is actually stable for once. I just get some visual glitches when unlocking my computer but aside from that, everything works. Everything fucking works! It's a god damn miracle. It fucking works! It'll probably stop working next time I update it, but for now, everything works!

I actually cannot believe it.

Update: Plasma 5.27 overhauled multi-monitor support and now my shit is a buggy mess again. If I leave the computer idle for too long Remmina, Vivaldi and Sublime Text will be conspicuously dead and I can see a plasma crash in dmesg.
Figured that maybe this is a sign I should try wayland again as maybe the bugs causing sddm to hang have been fixed. Sure enough, the sddm issues are no longer present and now my shit isn't randomly closing but now I'm having cilpboard issues again, Flameshot only works on one monitor and Remmina has become a buggy mess that fails to capture keystrokes on RDP randomly and crashes way more often in general.

I'm sorry guys but my Linux journey is over for the meantime and I'm going to install Windows 10 LTSC 2021 shortly as somehow the grass is looking greener over there. Though this 6 month or so stint of using Linux has been more positive since the last experiment back in 2019 and in this case it was moreso death by a thousand cuts than a series of dramatic fuckups and game breaking bugs.

 

[Gatdam Animal Person]

Speaking of the devil, since KDE got updated to 5.27, when my computer wakes up frklom suspend, my main monitor is no longer detected. I can fiddle with the monitor or cable, or even reboot, but it's a pain in the ass.

Using Fedora 37 on KDE Wayland, in the previous version I could simply suspend the PC again and it would work 100%.

 

[Susanna]

My Remmina issue on plasma 5.27 is very different.
I just get a black screen when I try to connect to my virtual machine. If I then ssh into the virtual machine to read the logs, my desktop is replaced with the desktop of the virtual machine, while Remmina stays black. If I then close the ssh, Remmina starts working and displays the virtual machine desktop in the window.

I can only throw my hands up in frustration here. I don't even know anymore. I discovered a weird workaround and hopefully someone upstream will fix it for me before I lose my mind completely.

 

[pylosurf]

If you have the resources, another solution to the Windows gaming problem is to just dedicate a machine to that purpose. Don't bother with dual booting, just treat Windows as a malevolent black box dedicated to games, similar to Playstation, Xbox, etc, and use a separate Linux machine for everything else. It saves a lot of pain and keeps your personal data isolated from the intrusive bullshit that closed source gaming entails. If you only use Linux for non-gaming purposes, you may well find that an older machine with unacceptable specs for games is perfectly fine as a daily driver for web / email / etc.