Linux Discussion

[Steve Adams]

I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Dell's acumen as a service company sets a large hurdle. I am compelledget to use one at work.

The nine (used ones) I personally own work, but are incredibly difficult to modify. They were created for temporal use-cases, and their use-by dates are long gone. I'm planning to donate them to individuals who don't have comp. resources.

I would keep mine, I love the thing. It's been with me during alot of travels and stuff. The motherboard is slowly dying in it. I am keeping it going until we sell our house. Then I am going to order a new Tuxedo 14 inch system built the way I want. My current dell can upgrade the ram, ssd, battery, wireless card and has all the ports I want. Nobody in the mainstream pc space makes one now. Tux does.

 

[Steve Adams]

I am looking for some resources for Linux software. Note taking, photo/video/graphic software, property management software etc. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[lowendlinux]

Had the dude at the local dive give my Linux box a paint job. It looks pretty great so I'll hit it with some matte clear tomorrow

 

[Steve Adams]

What laptop is that?

 

[Steve Adams]

I am completely going to jinx this machine now. It's been working great since it's been on Zorin. The graphics driver screwed up once since running it. A quick reboot and all is good again. I can't wait to get the Tuxedobook 14.

 

[throAU]

Kali Linux 2026.2 Released with GNOME 50, KDE Plasma 6.6, and New Tools

I haven't tried or used Kali, but they released a new update. I will say they have one of the cooler logos out there

Kali is for penetration testing and security auditing, it's not for general use. You COULD try and make it work but really it's like trying to say, daily drive a removal van because you might move house once a decade, instead of just having a daily driver and hiring the van the day you need it.

It doesn't get regularly updated (including security updates) and for the typical end user will be full of tools they have no idea what to do with.

If you want to read up on and learn security, sure - but for general purpose use run something else.

Kali is the platform you load up when working on a security audit.

 

[maflynn]

Had the dude at the local dive give my Linux box a paint job. It looks pretty great so I'll hit it with some mat clear tomorrow

Wow that artist is quite talented.

I can't wait to get the Tuxedobook 14.

I've heard good things about tuxedo laptops. I'm partial to thinkpads myself, though at this stage of my life and career my mobility needs have decreased sharply.

First Look at COSMIC Desktop Environment’s Frosted Glass Effect
System 76 released 1.3 of Cosmic,

Cosmic 1.4 is out COSMIC 1.4 Desktop Environment Introduces New Default Sound Theme

I've played with the Cosmic DE, but I still prefer Gnome, though I will say that Cosmic is extremely close to Gnome (given that it was originally built on top of Gnome).

I've played with a number of different distros, DEs, and Windows Managers. My Linux journey is largely settled down to CachyOS, and Gnome. The distro hopping itch has long been scratched

 

[Steve Adams]

Wow that artist is quite talented.


I've heard good things about tuxedo laptops. I'm partial to thinkpads myself, though at this stage of my life and career my mobility needs have decreased sharply.


Cosmic 1.4 is out COSMIC 1.4 Desktop Environment Introduces New Default Sound Theme

I've played with the Cosmic DE, but I still prefer Gnome, though I will say that Cosmic is extremely close to Gnome (given that it was originally built on top of Gnome).

I've played with a number of different distros, DEs, and Windows Managers. My Linux journey is largely settled down to CachyOS, and Gnome. The distro hopping itch has long been scratched

Ours are increasing since we are close to opening our inspection and management business. We will be on the road more. The tux 14 has all the ports and with the HX370 processor, graphics performance should be decent for our other creative stuff. Still can't get freakin affinity to reliably work on my pc however.

 

[lowendlinux]

What laptop is that?

The Dell in my signature

 

[Steve Adams]

That's cool. Not something I would do, I would use a skin, but where it was hand painted it's awesome.

 

[dmr727]

Love that art - really friggin' cool.

Tuxedo has been on my radar for awhile. Good looking laptops, and the pricing doesn't seem ridiculous either.

 

[Steve Adams]

Love that art - really friggin' cool.

Tuxedo has been on my radar for awhile. Good looking laptops, and the pricing doesn't seem ridiculous either.

Once you start going nuts with the options it adds up quick, but it's going to be better than my current dell and more than likely last longer. The other good thing is that if something breaks, I can repair it myself.

 

[sgtaylor5]

Early-adopter (Fedora 44).

Only weirdness I have noticed is that Discover is stuck on fetching updates. Have to drop-down to terminal, and run:

$ sudo dnf update

Actually, I've found that the terminal is way faster than Discover, and you get the added benefit of seeing what's going on. I was liking Fedora 44 KDE for the two weeks I was working with it. Haven't quit it yet, working towards a production laptop.

I do have a trouble, and it's that while Octarine works great installed via rpm, the syncing with the iOS app (iCloud or Dropbox) is a real trouble. iCloud works great if you're on a Mac, and Dropbox is so, so lazy syncing on the phone it causes conflicted copies all the time.

Part of this is that the culture of cloud storage and Linux (trending towards on-device and private) are mostly opposed to each other.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/so-i-moved-to-linux.2486024/post-34700129

This post above is interesting; I'm going to investigate LocalSend.

 

[MacBH928]

I would keep mine, I love the thing. It's been with me during alot of travels and stuff. The motherboard is slowly dying in it. I am keeping it going until we sell our house. Then I am going to order a new Tuxedo 14 inch system built the way I want. My current dell can upgrade the ram, ssd, battery, wireless card and has all the ports I want. Nobody in the mainstream pc space makes one now. Tux does.

I am looking for some resources for Linux software. Note taking, photo/video/graphic software, property management software etc. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

For software i would check the local app store installed on the linux distro, flathub , or ask AI.

for laptops checkout framework. its built with the idea you can configure every single piece and replace it in the future.

 

[splifingate]

Actually, I've found that the terminal is way faster than Discover, and you get the added benefit of seeing what's going on.

Aye, I agree with you. This is the stance I have successfully held across multiple linuxii installs over the years. Remember how liberating it was to just be able to do an apt [whatever] after having used apt-get [whatever]? 😉

What I wanted to do was immerse myself in the KDE 'experience'. I (somehow) bork'd my sources-list in my first installation of Fedora (case-in-point), and unfortunately neutered Discover. After a new (fresh) install, Discover works like it did, originally.

I'm doing lots of testing . . . probably more than necessary. And yes: it's very educational!

 

[MacBH928]

I checked a lot of linux. Whatever distro you hear about is just a modification or a tweak. Do not bother. here is the break down tl;dr for new comers:

1-Stick to Ubuntu. most others are variances that are not really worth engaging in if you are a mainstream user.

2-The real differentiator is the desktop environment.

• KDE: If you want Windows like experience (Kubuntu)
• Gnome: its weird but closer to a macos environment
• Xfce: if want something light weight and a different expereince (Xubuntu)
• Cosmic: most mac like (PopOS, again Ubuntu tweak)

3- Easiest Linux to use is Linux Mint and ZorinOS (both based on ubuntu again). ZorinOS being very mac like.

I'd say outside of this, just do not bother searching if you do not have specific needs and looking for mac or windows alternative.

One thing I was really looking for is when minimizing a window it would minimize in thumbnail view in the dock. I do not know if it exists but I think I only found it in Cosmic DE and can't recall on ZorinOS.

 

[Steve Adams]

For software i would check the local app store installed on the linux distro, flathub , or ask AI.

for laptops checkout framework. its built with the idea you can configure every single piece and replace it in the future.

The software I need is not available on Linux. Affinity suite, Polarr, videoproc, and many home inspection equipement software. Gotta stay windows. I know all about framework, they are now Apple charging 2200 dollars for 64 gb of ram. Their idea is awesome, but upgrades are bonkers expensive.

 

[maflynn]

Stick to Ubuntu

Canonical's focus has been more on enterprise, prioritizing updates, and changes that are more enterprise friendly, and not as useful for the consumer, so much so, folks have been complaining and/or unhappy with Ubuntu

Easiest Linux to use is Linux Mint and ZorinOS (both based on ubuntu again). ZorinOS being very mac like.

I think most distros are very friendly at this point, and in all honesty CachyOS (Yes I'm biased) is one of the friendliest and has been rock solid. It seems many Windows switchers are choosing CachyOS over othe others because of superior hardware support.

The issues with ubuntu based distros is that they are relatively old. PopOS LTS is based off of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, while its non-lts is based off of 24.04, Mint and Zorin are also based off of ubuntu 24.04 lts. Do I want download the latest version of PopOS that is effectively 2 years old? If I selected the LTS version then its currently 4 years old. Most folks wanting to use Linux will want to install an OS using the current kernel and tools, improvements and security features.

There's also the fact that using old code (and calling it current) opens up a support headache where the distro and Upstream developers are blaming each other.

Some drama in the Linux world, not surprising

Linux Mint and GNOME Calendar Clash Resurfaces Months Later


I think this boils down to the fact that Mint is based on an older version of Ubuntu, but they've been sending support tickets to Gnome on bugs on their older version even though the software was already update - if I understand the gist of the argument.

 

[imacker2011]

The issues with ubuntu based distros is that they are relatively old. PopOS LTS is based off of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, while its non-lts is based off of 24.04, Mint and Zorin are also based off of ubuntu 24.04 lts. Do I want download the latest version of PopOS that is effectively 2 years old? If I selected the LTS version then its currently 4 years old. Most folks wanting to use Linux will want to install an OS using the current kernel and tools, improvements and security features.

I am not sure if "old" is an argument against an OS in itself. For something that should "just work", such as most office-ish PCs I'd say most people just care about being secure, not so much about being bleeding edge. MS' Windows update policy made a lot of people angry (permanently breaking sth, taking hours to update etc.). Those users will be very happy with a Linux OS which abstains from this, while still maintaining security.

I am also not sure if your statements about Ubuntu versions are true. I am on Pop!OS 24.04 LTS and the current kernel is 7.0.9-76070009-generic, which seems recent. I have been updating just through system settings and there are new system packages available every few days.

 

[josehill]

I am not sure if "old" is an argument against an OS in itself.

Strongly agree. "Time tested" and "lengthy track record" are other ways of saying "old."

My guess is that the majority of people on MacRumors who are exploring Linux are interested in running it on older hardware, where having the most recent kernel is less important than on the most recent hardware. As long as a distribution is getting current, regular security updates, it's fine for most people.

The beauty of Linux is that if you have different requirements, there likely is a different distribution that is right for you.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

My problem is at this stage of my life, I am whiny. I have a 2025 Lenovo Legion 7 Pro, so very new, and I want everything to just work. It can work with linux, I found out, but you have to do special stuff for the sound to work and I have already been there, done that back in the Fedora Red hat days—when you had to specify everything. (This was 20 years ago or more.)

I also would want to pair it with a Surface Pro 9, and the Linux info on that is not great. Like it works, except for the touchscreen and pen. Like that is the whole point of a Surface Pro.

Like I said, whiny. 🙂

 

[lowendlinux]

I think what gets lost in all these conversations is Linux runs best on a certain subset of hardware (especially if modern) so you need to be deliberate with your HW purchases if you want to run Linux seamlessly.

Unlike many I'm not really to into derivative distros unless there's something special about them like being immutable. The Curmudgeon in me wants people to install things like Arch and Gentoo the manual way not use their derivatives or install scripts since most will learn something every time they do it .

 

[throAU]

I think what gets lost in all these conversations is Linux runs best on a certain subset of hardware (especially if modern) so you need to be deliberate with your HW purchases if you want to run Linux seamlessly.

Unlike many I'm not really to into derivative distros unless there's something special about them like being immutable. The Curmudgeon in me wants people to install things like Arch and Gentoo the manual way not use their derivatives or install scripts since most will learn something every time they do it .

Its not too bad.

If you're not a gamer:
buy hardware that has been available for 3 months
prefer to buy AMD graphics

and you'll generally be pretty safe.

If you want Nvidia, be prepared to jump through some minor hoops but really, it's less painful installing linux now than windows.

 

[maflynn]

I think what gets lost in all these conversations is Linux runs best on a certain subset of hardware (especially if modern) so you need to be deliberate with your HW purchases if you want to run Linux seamlessly.

Certain hardware configurations definitely give people more headaches than others, but you can also make the case that Linux’s low overhead means it can run well on significantly slower processors and with much less RAM.

I kind of backed into an ideal configuration - an amd based system, and I was lucky with the Wi-Fi and audio as well

 

[dmr727]

I kind of backed into an ideal configuration - an amd based system, and I was lucky with the Wi-Fi and audio as well

Same here. I don't have wifi on my desktop, but everything else Just Worked. I was simply lucky - the build is a 5800X3D on a ASUS Prime X570 Pro. Your suggestion awhile back of CachyOS was a good one too, as it worked seamlessly with my 4070. No configuration needed.

All I do is game on it so I'm not asking much as far as tinkering, but it's been rock solid.