^ All part of the fun of KDE.
So much to fiddle with.
And never perfect.
Even from a development side, not just user configuration side. They mend something and break something else. Many perfect features, but never at the same time.
Digit
techno hippie
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Cake day: October 29th, 2023
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After 2y on Linux I can say with full confidence that switching from GNOME to KDE (for me) is a bigger barrier than switching from Windows to Linux ever was.
Huh?
How’s that a bigger barrier?
You install it, you select it from your login(“display”) manager on next login, et viola, you’re using it… and you still have access to all your prior installed programs too. No backup required, no complete operating system install, no great leap of learning an entirely different operating system paradigm, no reading new software licenses… it’s just install it, and log in to it.
How important is a DE to you?
None at all.
Xmonad’s been my fave since around 2007-2008ish.
Tried dozens of other window managers. [Special honourable mention to herbstluftwm.]
Tried over half the desktop environments too.
Much more nice without unnecessary clutter and resource wastage and faff of a desktop environment, and just a window manager.
And, as for trying new DE/WM, and needing to log out and back in to try them… even that hurdle can be eliminated. ;) There be ways to switch them without losing everything you’re currently running. https://codeberg.org/Digit/wminizer
vendefoul
https://vendefoul-wolf-linux.sourceforge.io/index_en.html / https://sourceforge.net/projects/vendefoul-wolf-linux/ back on my radar, with its IceWM/Xlibre/OpenRC release, after seeing the intro to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGf5OeL4YHE
- Already a fan of IceWM, often recommending it. It’s super light and super simple and familiar to windows users since the 90s (meaning it has a panel and “start menu”).
- XLibre, a fan, though only from afar so far, yet to try. Glorious to see X11 & Xorg(fork) getting life extension, rather than euthanized by the corporation.
- OpenRC is thorough. :) Solid choice.
All this saves [computer and headspace] resources for what you really want to do. :)
Oh hell yeah. Damn near polar opposites on my trust scale.
:) That’s what I replied from. :) / am typing on1. Refurbished Thinkpad. Is joyous.
Got a used one coming in the mail for about half the price and twice the spec of this one I got two years ago. Could buy each again at same price and still not be spending the same as new. Ample resources/spec headroom. Bought it in a hurry before ebayers realise DDR5’s skyrocketing in price.
Though… those Linux focused hardware companies products do appeal more, now that I think about it… They care more than Lenovo. Worth supporting. Will likely get something with less planned obsolescence.
1 Okay, technically I’m typing on an old Kinesis Advantage… but it is plugged into the refurbished thinkpad~ /pedantic quibble.
You can edit the original post.
ARMAMD
Help with choosing a compatible PC
Avoid Hewlett-Packard for an easier life.
Lenovo Thinkpads will still be a reliable choice. … But newer models are succumbing to being made against right-to-repair too.
May consider manufacturers/sellers making hardware with Linux as their first thought.
^ For some examples. Many of these are built with right-to-repair in mind, extending the life of the hardware, and increasing peace of mind.
Or could shop around on ebay or other marketplaces for newer thinkpads. May get a good deal on a refurb or used (at own risk).
I find AMD much more reliable performance CPU than intel. Though you wont encounter any compatibility issues with either (~ don’t sue me if you hit upon an edge case with something very new).
And AMD are more “straight through” effortless for GPU than nvidia (which some people have issues with (I never did), and afaia are still dependent on some proprietary software).
[Edit: PS, While looking for more tarballs to jam in my bedrocklinux, I just encountered this page, showing manjaro are selling hardware now too https://manjaro.org/products … cool. Didn’t know about that.]
& https://distrochooser.de/ may help you choose which to try.
(& https://distrowatch.com/ 's search too, of course.)
1·3 months agoWhich distro do you believe deserves more recognition?
Exherbo
1·3 months agoSo it’s like wanting a rtfm filter?
How much effort went into the OP? “Low”? Gotta love that irony.
Wouldn’t that rule drive more verbose drivel noise to evade appearing low effort?
Sometimes low effort’s all that’s called for. Methinks this is not the correct criteria found yet. Patiently awaiting the search for remedy to apparently continue.
aren’t y’all forced to use Windows at work?
No.
I just don’t work.
(said in jest, but more truth to that than none)
sounds like I can change Cinnamon to something else - is this fairly straightforward to do?
As simple as
sudo apt install <new DE/WM package name>, logout, change the DE/WM (typically) from a dropdown menu on your login screen (which for some weird reason gets called a “display manager”), where you type your name and password to log in and start the desktop environment.If you don’t yet know the names of any other Desktop Environments (or Window Managers) (~ which would be a curious rare scenario to be in), you can websearch for a list of them, and use your package manager (apt, in debian based distributions, and pclinuxos) to search for them (in case just the straight name of it is not the same as the package name, as happens sometimes) with
apt search <new DE/WM name>.Replacing “<new DE/WM package name>” and “<new DE/WM name>” with the name. E.g. xfce, kde, openbox, icewm, i3, lxde, etc etc etc etc etc etc.
Simple as:
- install it,
- log into it.
Simpler than installing a whole new operating system, just for the default DE it offers.
I got into Free Software and GNU+Linux in 2003, on the one hand, fed up with abuse from M$ Windows sending me looking for an alternative, and on the other, the Free Software philosophy, and the GNU GPL (and other Free Software licenses).
Perhaps the OP could have a brief tldr tidbit on the 4 freedoms of Free Software.
Having that spirit, that inspiration, helped carry me through any difficulties, and made them seem utterly trivial difficulties, rather than discouraging, seeing them as part of the course; part of the experience; part of contributing to the community. Good good feels.
Good to start where Richard Matthew Stallman started all this from. It’s the freedom.
That there may be improved quality as a result of that freedom, is secondary.
Oh dang!
I just posted
The Ironclad kernel intrigues
before reading other replies, presuming no one else would have mentioned it.
Well done Jay. :)
[Edit: Oh, I just got down to the PS in the original article. Heh. Ironclad mentioned there too. XD Good to see I’m not the one raising it first.]
The Ironclad kernel intrigues.
nztt.
Made it myself.
Works for my dyslexia, and efficient for vertical space.
It divides opinion, some very enthusiastic, some hate it.
I suspected nosystemd.org had not been kept up to date with the issues… indicated by it proposing some distros that kinda dont exist any more.
Still worth consideration.
Some may realise they do not like that philosophy, and prefer a philosophy that empowers them more deeply with simpler software they could comprehend more easily in its entirety, than mere convenience of going with the popular thick opaque plastic wrap over complexity. Some may prefer a more unix-philosophy of “do one thing, well”, than a gestalt of a pretense of that in a complicated monolith doing all things (arguably if not poorly, precariously, with a single point of failure/usurpation).
It’s been my impression that it has been like that for at least 23 years, when I started using it.
There has just been a lot of misinformation smearing it as somehow hard, or only for technically minded people. Never been hard for me, and I don’t consider myself technically minded, but, others do, in circular reasoning [because I use linux, I must be technically minded, ~] that it’s hard to disabuse them of, until you get them sat in front of some linux systems, and they can see for themselves how cushy the community have made it for them, in any of many ways.
It’s the freedom that matters. Not the kernel. Not the convenience of better software. The licenses. Free to use, study, share, change, as you wish. That’s a lot of wide open innovation potential, from that essential 4 freedoms. We got here because of those freedoms. And we’ve been here a long time. [Decades]. They tried to smear freedom, fearing they’d lose their abuse victims. Bye bye corporate proprietary software developers. The truth’s getting out… Freedom’s here, and it’s nice. No abuse gets to persist, when we’re free to create a version of the thing doing the abuse, with the abuse removed. :)