this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Gonna be a lot of perfectly good hardware going up on ebay soon.
That's interesting. Have anything that comes to mind as easily searchable that might start showing up? I would have to imagine a lot of corporate stuff that is certain they want to keep up on security.
CPU: intel 7th gen or earlier.
I doubt companies will be flooding markets with anything. 7th gen devices came out almost a decade ago (yes it's almost been that long since 2016) and most companies only keep computers for 3-5 years max.
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Honestly, using Linux Mint lately and it's been far smoother than my previous linux attempts. Granted, there's much better tech today to help, but yeah it's been nice. My only sadness is not getting my singular Xbox App game playable on linux.
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I really need to move my PC over to Mint, but change makes me deeply uncomfortable :(
Take it slow. Install a VM with Mint. Play around with it. Get familiar. Move your regular usage over to it gradually. Make the jump when you are ready. It's perfectly OK to have reservations about a big change like that. But you don't have to do it all in one go.
It's not using it that's the problem, I have Mint installed on my work PC and my laptop, and I like it. But for some reason installing it on my main PC, which I use pretty much every day, has me worried for reasons I don't get myself. It's like a soft phobia, an irrational fear.
Dual boot? Keep like 200GB for windows, and the rest mint. If you need windows for something, boot over. But otherwise, I legit feel more worried when windows has access to my data.
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Ironic, the fact that I hate change is the whole reason I ended up using Linux. I felt that Mint was closer to Windows 7 than 8.0 at the time.
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Recently I was using Ubuntu and needed to recall a terminal command I had used a couple weeks prior. Luckily, my terminal commands are logged in the ~/.bash_history text file. Easy, convenient, customizable, and no AI needed!
Originally I planned to switch in October when support for W10 runs out, but it seems my PC made the push for me.
At the start of ~~July~~ June some issue with windows that caused my system to freeze and then get stuck on boot when restarted finally bricked my system for a 2nd time this year and I was forced to reinstall the OS again. So, instead of wasting another 4 months on dealing with all the crap windows has been throwing my way lately, I just jumped ship to mint.
3 weeks in and, so far so good. Really got around to all the personalization it allows over windows. Learning to run a pc mostly through the terminal has been a step out of the comfort zone, but an enjoyable one tbh
At the start of July
Ah, so I see you switched to Linux and made the time travel. Cheers.
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I screwed up so bad. I bought a laptop to trial different Linux distros and also because my old one is 12yo now and has its own problems. However, the manufacturer ONLY provides Windows support drivers, so the keyboard won't work without a kernel level patch and I am not a kernel-patch level guy yet
wtf how does a laptop need drivers to use the keyboard? i thought they just used usb/ps2, that is truly fucked
Right? It's some firmware level issue, but I haven't looked deeper into it recently because I got frustrated with a couple failed patch attempts. I guess you have to include the laptop model explicitly or it doesn't know to look for it
What laptop model?
Asus Q533M. I found a user patch on stack but it was for older models. Tried to update it myself and run a rebuild, but I might have missed a step since it errored out
If you're using an Arch Based distribution and have access to a USB keyboard so you can use standard HID drivers during setup you should be able to follow along on this wiki to use the software included in the ASUS Linux stack. It appears they have some nonsense going on. Tbh I didn't know about this until looking just now and I'm gonna be going through here and getting the tools I need since I've got an ROG mobo I think would benefit
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What's with all the Mint hype? I've never used it and have little desire to go back to a Ubuntu-based distro. Just curious why everyone loves it so much.
I ran it for a while, and loved it. Cinnamon is sleek and feels polished. The installation is really fast and not bloated with garbage software.
Everything generally works, and the interface feels familiar.
It is Ubuntu/Debian under the hood, so compatibility with most software is good. Bleeding edge drivers may run into issues, but most of them work with a little fiddling.
It's worth a try. If nothing else toss it on a USB drive and give it a test drive.
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Mint is easy. Easy is good.
Even if you can configure your way through Arch to a killer custom system, is that really what you want to do every time on every computer in your life?
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It's rock solid and the desktop is very close to what people coming from Windows would expect. It's just a very good beginner distro, not necessarily something that more advanced users would choose.
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For the most part, it works well without needing too much tinkering by the user. It's the Fisher Price My First Distro.
I tried it out with a 21.3 dualboot with Windows 11 and within 2 or 3 months I hadn't gone back to Windows other than to push files over. Sure, there were a few "learning opportunities" with tweaks or weird driver issues that were because of the particular hardware I'm using, but they were manageable. At this point I'm running 22.1 only on this machine.
The nice part is that being Ubuntu-based, if I run into a problem, I can search for both the more widely-documented Ubuntu version of the issue, or look for a Mint-related version. Claude does a great job with small-to-medium troubleshooting rather than me dig through forums. It's low-risk, low-work, high-reward.
Calling it a "Fischer Price" distro is a little patronizing. I'm a seasoned Linux user and I use Mint for work because I just want something that works when my paycheck is on the line. Mint has never broken on me and always works.
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Great effort and all but until we can get an .exe to run in windows to install the new system, this will not attract anybody but the 0.01%.
Yes, for us in the know it’s no biggie to get an USB stick, play with Rufus or the kind, fiddle with ”BIOS” but for the average user even the first step is just too much.
Windows can install new Windows and modify EFI stuff, and macOS can install new macOS so why can’t Linux use the same mechanisms? Especially as in the history there used to be some projects that could do this…
Best chance in decades to bring Linux to desktop and it looks like we blew it by being too accustomed to difficulty, not being united behind the effort and whatnot :(
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for all Ubuntu haters there is a Debian Version of Mint. And second Linux Mint is the perfekt set and forget Distro. No Tinkering for a basic PC without special Requirements.
And i love it that almost all agree that when a noob ask what Distro to choose that Linux mint is every time in the proposed Distros
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Mint is really good , but a while ago I was having issues with Mint , swapped to Fedora Desktop. No more bad feelings to Linux again
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I put Mint Cinnamon on an older laptop just this past weekend and had a lot of fun with it. Are there any migration tips for my main Windows machine? I was thinking of going with Bazzite since it's my gaming box. What about saved game data and whatnot? I was reading about Putty and SSH ing over to the laptop, but I'm not sure what a good strategy is for my desktop.
Step one: back up your data.
Step two: back up your data again.
This person backs up.
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i'd recommend getting a new SSD and installing Linux on that, then you can read your windows drive from Linux and copy over the files you need
Game files can be copied over the same way (obvs to different directories)
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Is ubuntu still alright? I've only ever used that kernel and it was on machine that was prepped for it, would y'all say it's relatively easy to install yourself?
Ubuntu is good, actually. It has basically the widest out of the box hardware and software support of any distribution, a decent default UI and an easy installer. Its downsides are that it has a reputation as baby’s first Linux so you don’t get any hipster cred and some people don’t like that it uses snap as a package format for some things, including Firefox.
How do I dislike Ubuntu, let me count the ways:
- Desktop whiplash: Gnome, Unity, no Gnome...
- snap pushed into the default distro, long before it's a net-positive (and it's still not a net positive, IMO)
- You want this security update that somebody else published? Yeah, we want your money.
I've used Ubuntu heavily since 14.04 through 24.04... my new system installs are going Debian 12 with XFCE, and yes - I did evaluate Xubuntu, I'm actually typing this from an Xubuntu machine right now that's planned to be getting Debian if it ever needs a re-image.
Ubuntu wasn't a bad choice, still isn't a terrible choice, but if you're going to have to strip out snap by hand and deal with security updates by hand after 4-5 years and install a "niche" desktop version to get out from Gnome's rather inflexible view of things, might as well just go to Debian and be done with whatever "new deals" Canonical comes up with in the future.
I'm seeing a lot of advocacy for Mint on Lemmy but not as much for Fedora it seems?
I've only ever run one Linux distro and that was Fedora KDE Plasma, havent tried Mint yet. Are they not mostly the same or am I missing something?
You're not. If you're happy with what you've got, don't worry about it. Or join the great Linux tradition of distro hopping. But Mint gets a lot of praise for noobs, but much like Ubuntu there are much better distros out there. It just has name recognition at this point.
Mint is the best distro for people who need you to tell them the distro.
I use Mint on my Laptop but once Windows is done for I'm switching to:
- Fedora, OpenSUSE, Secureblue, or something with KDE Plasma (security, stability, and ease of use priority)
- Bazzite (for games, and dual-booted into to protect the security of my daily driver)
- OpenBSD or something (so if something like Crowdstrike or Wannacry happens but for Linux, I have an alt)
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