I want to mess around with Linux again, recommendations for a noob?

[mikeymikec]

I wasn't impressed with lxqt. No major problems, but it didn't feel particularly light to me. I preferred the older lxde. Plasma's a nice desktop, but it's a bit like flying a plane. Lots and lots of options, and not always where I expect them. Your description of showing hidden files doesn't sound right though. Should just be open the menu, and check the [Show Hidden Files] checkbox. Similar to Thunar at least.

When you say, 'open the menu'...?


Bear in mind I customised the toolbar only by adding 'show hidden files' and 'configure dolphin'.

Beneath the menu I opened is the back/forward buttons, then icon/compact/details view/'sort by' options.

- edit - hold the bloody phone.... see that space to the right of 'configure dolphin'... that apparently is a general purpose dolphin menu with no icon or text to identify it!
- edit 2 - I've just played with kubuntu in a VM, which had the same problem to begin with, but I think the button is blank because the icon theme pack I picked (one that kubuntu comes with be aware, 'ubuntu mono light'), has no icon for that button, so it's blank. <facepalm> The only icon packs which appear to work correctly in this respect are Breeze and Breeze Dark, but their icon packs suck

 

[lxskllr]

I'm not in front of my Plasma machine right now to see exactly what the button says, but yea, it's all the way right. I'm using the Buuf Plasma icon theme. It's not to everyone's taste, but it's unique. I almost always use a Buuf theme on my desktops. I'll sometimes switch for awhile, but I always go back.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm not in front of my Plasma machine right now to see exactly what the button says, but yea, it's all the way right. I'm using the Buuf Plasma icon theme. It's not to everyone's taste, but it's unique. I almost always use a Buuf theme on my desktops. I'll sometimes switch for awhile, but I always go back.

That looks like a several-years-old gnome theme I think?

<reads further down> last updated 15 years ago... christ, how long have I been flirting with Linux... yeah, over 20 years...

 

[lxskllr]

That looks like a several-years-old gnome theme I think?

<reads further down> last updated 15 years ago... christ, how long have I been flirting with Linux... yeah, over 20 years...

There's newer versions. The one I'm using on xfce was last updated a few years ago I
think, and Buuf Plasma(proper noun) was last updated a few months ago. But yea, it's been around awhile. :^)

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you want something that mostly just works and for every day use with not too much fuss, I find Linux Mint is pretty good. So is Ubuntu and that is kind of the default goto but I find Mint is more polished. If you want to mess more with it, like get under the hood, there's the more advanced ones like Gentoo, Arch Linux, Slackware etc or even Linux From Scratch. TBH I always tell myself I want to mess more with those and never end up doing it. I actually want to make my own distro at some point, not necessarily from scratch but basically a super custom installer for an existing one so I can automate some stuff to my liking when installing multiple systems. So messing with the more advanced ones will let me learn more how to do it.

There is also a nice diagram for the different difficulty/advancement levels in Linux distros.

https://imgur.com/HLp8z11

I always find that one amusing haha.

 

[mikeymikec]

There is also a nice diagram for the different difficulty/advancement levels in Linux distros.

https://imgur.com/HLp8z11

I always find that one amusing haha.

This is what using Debian feels like to me:

 

[Ajay]

So, looking to get away from Winders except for gaming and a few other things. Testing Win11 put me over the edge. I've tested a bunch of distros in VMware player (workstation is better, but I was too cheap to buy it). I've tried Fedora, Ubuntu, Pop_OS, Manjaro, Mint-Cinnamon and Debian - some in both Gnome and KDE. I like KDE allot, but it's available mainly on rolling distros. The L&F, well integrated base apps and ease of customization are great. Over the past 5-6 months, I've decided that I don't like rolling distros, stuff breaks sometimes and I have to go to the command line to fix it. At least when trying Kubuntu, system updates require a reboot, and that seemed to fix the problems. But, then I have to reboot more often. I'm not command line (terminal) adverse, I just don't want to spend allot of time FIXING broken stuff (I have Windows for that). So I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go with Mint-Cinnamon. Pretty easy to get setup the way I like without much effort, also easy coming from windows.

Anyway, you guys have a couple of days to approve or disapprove of my choice . Was going to post this on Saturday, but forgot. My M.2 SSD for the dual boot just arrived today - so suddenly I'm getting excited.

My use case will be typical desktop stuff. Internet stuff mostly (web, YouTube, mail && ATF!), some productivity apps and, first and foremost, for learning Science/Data development in Python (Anaconda).

I leave the gaming to Windows. At least it's good for that.

 

[mxnerd]

I like Mint Cinnamon too, just never committed Linux like most people. 😁

 

[crashtech]

Mint is the go-to for a lot of the guys on Anandtech's DC team (including myself), so there's an installed base that may be able to help sort issues. I've got six PCs running Mint currently, one of which I use part-time as a desktop. The only real annoyance I have with Mint/Cinnamon is that videos tend to hitch if I have the GPU doing something intense, but I suppose it's a niche issue. Probably solvable with renice.

 

[PingSpike]

I use mint mate and mint cinnamon. It's fairly popular and I found both of the DE's fine.

 

[Ajay]

Thanks guys. The popularity of Mint is a selling point. Great dedicated forum and tons of info on the INET (stackoverflow.com, etc.). Also, being Ubuntu based, there's even more places to turn to for help under the hood if needed.

 

[PingSpike]

Ubuntu seems to have more forum posts overall in my expeerience, but I didn't care to much for the DE myself. And ubuntu has switched to snaps which are...controversial, particularly the way ubuntu is handling them. Mint is revolting against that change and there's some possibility it would switch to a debian base as they diverge.

Just for my preferences if mint went away I'd probably consider debian or even something Archish now that steamOS is moving to an arch base.

 

[Ajay]

So, a bit confused looking into dual booting using grub. Will Mint auto-detect a windows installation and add it grub.conf and allow me to set Windows as default (with a timeout to choose). I want to default into Window10 until I get my Linux install all set with my apps, email client, web bookmarks, password manager, etc.

I understand that I'll have to set my BIOS to boot into the Linux drive - but there have been some conflicting comments in the the various forums. I'll keep looking, just thought someone here might have a quick answer.

 

[crashtech]

This is just my 2 cents, but I don't care to use bootloaders for a couple of reasons. What I like to do is just unplug/pull the 1st drive, then plug in the 2nd drive and install the 2nd OS as if it was all alone. After it is set up, plug the other drive back in and use UEFI to select the drive you want to use, usually F11 or F12 brings up the boot menu. Then you don't have to worry about the bootloader getting borked by a Windows update or the like, and either drive can easily be moved to a different PC with less configuration worries.

 

[Ajay]

This is just my 2 cents, but I don't care to use bootloaders for a couple of reasons. What I like to do is just unplug/pull the 1st drive, then plug in the 2nd drive and install the 2nd OS as if it was all alone. After it is set up, plug the other drive back in and use UEFI to select the drive you want to use, usually F11 or F12 brings up the boot menu. Then you don't have to worry about the bootloader getting borked by a Windows update or the like, and either drive can easily be moved to a different PC with less configuration worries.

Thanks, worth consideration! I'll have the case open anyway, so unplugging my main SSD won't be a problem. F8 on my mobo does the trick.
I am looking forward to the first time my wife goes to use my system when it's booted in Linux . [she does have her own Win10 system]

 

[PingSpike]

This is just my 2 cents, but I don't care to use bootloaders for a couple of reasons. What I like to do is just unplug/pull the 1st drive, then plug in the 2nd drive and install the 2nd OS as if it was all alone. After it is set up, plug the other drive back in and use UEFI to select the drive you want to use, usually F11 or F12 brings up the boot menu. Then you don't have to worry about the bootloader getting borked by a Windows update or the like, and either drive can easily be moved to a different PC with less configuration worries.

I did something similar. Windows apparently has a hard-on for hunting down and blowing up boot loaders. I just used a box with power buttons to turn drives power on and off, it sits in a drive bay (anyone remember those?) and I'd just cut power to the drive that wasn't in use.

I've since removed this device because I wasn't booting Windows anymore. I have a VM with GPU passthrough instead, but I hardly use that either. I usually just use proton or linux native games, but I'm not the biggest gamer either.

 

[Ajay]

Windows apparently has a hard-on for hunting down and blowing up boot loaders.

Even on another drive with it's own EFI partition???

 

[crashtech]

So far with Windows 10 I have not experienced any incidents of Windows Update etc. messing up my Mint install that is living on a separate drive. I do believe the big Windows updates can still screw up grub when the OSes live on the same drive, because the big updates act like a Windows installer.

 

[PingSpike]

Even on another drive with it's own EFI partition???

No experience with that myself, when I started the switch I went for the impossible to fail (in that way at least) solution.

 

[curryloti]

Trying out Zorin OS 16 Lite lately and liking it very much so far.

 

[Ajay]

Well, while waiting for parts to get my NAS operating again (not messing around w/o a backup) - I’ve done some more testing in VMs. Actually decided to got with Kubuntu. While Mint Cinnamon is very easy to setup out of the box, it’s seems harder to get the L&F and behaviors just the way I’d like. After watching some tutorials and playing around a bit - I can really get a nice desktop tailored to my preferences.

Both Mint and Kubuntu are Ubuntu/Debian based - so there are many, many sources of information on the web.

I decided to Run a light weight Kubuntu LTS on my NAS and the current release of Kubuntu on my desktop. Interop should be a piece of cake that way. I was going to run a web based NAS OS along with Linux on a bare meta hypervisor - but decided I didn’t want to deal with the extra complexity right now.

Anyway - having more fun the more familiar I get with Linux. Need to button this up soon as I want to teach myself some Data Science development using Anaconda (Python) - just to keep myself out of trouble

 

[mikeymikec]

@Ajay

I'm on Kubuntu 20.04 LTS too. My only issues with it are/were:

- having to install VLC from the VLC ppa rather than stick to the OS version because the latter has issues (for example, opening one video after another a few times often results in vlc going zombie)
- monitor standby seems to be a bridge too far for Kubuntu. No matter what I've tried, it'll make the screen flash off then straight back on again. Auto S3 sleep works fine so I use sleep more aggressively than I otherwise would.
- I've never managed to get HDD standby working properly, again S3 sleep is a workaround.
- Very occasionally when updates come in, desktop icon positioning/settings go awry. Easy enough to change back to my liking though.

IIRC none of these issues happened on Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (of course I had different issues on that version ).

 

[Ajay]

@Ajay

I'm on Kubuntu 20.04 LTS too. My only issues with it are/were:

- having to install VLC from the VLC ppa rather than stick to the OS version because the latter has issues (for example, opening one video after another a few times often results in vlc going zombie)
- monitor standby seems to be a bridge too far for Kubuntu. No matter what I've tried, it'll make the screen flash off then straight back on again. Auto S3 sleep works fine so I use sleep more aggressively than I otherwise would.
- I've never managed to get HDD standby working properly, again S3 sleep is a workaround.
- Very occasionally when updates come in, desktop icon positioning/settings go awry. Easy enough to change back to my liking though.

IIRC none of these issues happened on Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (of course I had different issues on that version ).

Well, Kubuntu LTS is for the server - so the only thing that bothers me is the HDD standby problem. Guess I'll be tinkering with S3 under Linux. I will be using the current release 21.10 for my desktop - I decided I liked the fact that rolling releases keep all the relevant libraries up to date. I don't wind up doing 'sudo apt install aaa bbb ccc xxx yyy zzz' sorts of stuff to bring packages up to date to install some application.

 

[mikeymikec]

@Ajay

Well, I'm no Linux expert, give HDD standby a try and see if you can make it work

I don't have any problems with having to manually update dependencies to get stuff to work, I think LTS status only affects apps in very specific ways, such as Thunderbird stayed on version 68 I think until very recently and went up to 91. Firefox is on the latest version I'm pretty sure. I went for LTS because I don't want to have to do a platform upgrade every year in order to get security updates.

 

[Hotrod2go]

Experimented with Tails today running on a v3.1 USB key & on 10 yr old hardware system. Works like a charm!
Dead easy to navigate around in, at least for a very infrequent linux user.
I'd recommend giving it a go, has extra features that may be attractive if one reads the documentation.