People who expect an effortless transition from Windows to Linux, are better off sticking to Windows. You are expected to be able to read stuff, and make some effort to understand it. It shouldn’t be any less than what you’d expect if going from Linux to Windows.
Many things will be different. You’ll get a long way with learning some fundamentals. If you make the effort, it’ll be well rewarded. If it’s not worth the effort, stick to windows.
This was news to me as well, but I assume that the Arch Linux logo in question suggests that it might be strange to use an Arch Linux specific illustration, for something that isn’t mentioning Arch Linux.
Did that clear it up, or were you just being rude?
Use arch with AUR, and cross your fingers that at least someone checks the changes. I sure don’t.
Last I used Ubuntu, removing snap was a one time thing that took 5 minutes, of which 4 of them was looking for my notes from the time before.
I ditched Ubuntu, but it wasn’t because of snap. Maybe this has changed in the last 3 years?
In the EU, it sort of isn’t.
Takes a long time to write a proper response for all the GDPR stuff. The responses surprisingly don’t change all that much whether or not I do, so I might as well save me the trouble.
It saddens me that the best to have compatibility is to never touch MS Office. They are the largest player by far. Subtly fucking up or deviating from open document standards will always be seen as “well, the issue is non MS office”.
Don’t know why you were downvoted. In any case, all terminals can be configured to start with a specific command and arguments. So, depending on your terminal, you might need to read the documentation, and/or search the web.
In alacritty config, this is:
shell:
program: <CMD>
args:
- <ARGS>
Then one of these:
<CMD> is the path to tmux, and you have configured tmux to run the shell of your choice. Search the web for how.<CMD> is the path to your shell, and it supports launching in tmux. Search the web for how.For me, it’s the second one. I use fish, and I launch it with fish --command=tmux. So the above config looks like this:
shell:
program: /usr/bin/fish
args:
- --command=tmux
Alacritty, launching tmux with fish shell. The latter shell could easily have been zsh. But a good and fast terminal w/tmux is such a nice thing to have.
Any time to wish you had bothered with tmux, is when it’s already too late. If you go for this, you’ll never look back.
First thing you mention is such a fun and useful exercise. But as you point out, way overkill. Might even be dangerous to expose it. I got mine to 20kb on top of busybox.
There is something that tickles the right spots when a complete container image significantly smaller than the average js payload in “modern” websites.
I think the 8a, if it’s similar to the 8, might be a better size. But, I’m also fairly sure be fine with any of them.
Been using pixel phones for that reason, since… Pixel XL, and six pixel phones since then. Used several different AOSP based OS-es, most recently CalyxOS on Pixel 4a, and then GrapheneOS on Pixel 6a and now the 8 Pro.
Everything works, and you can choose how much of Google you invite back in. The best part is that the Google stuff doesn’t get any special treatment. Which means that the Pixel Camera app and Google Photos isn’t allowed access to Internet, because why should it?
The only thing that is still fundamentally flawed, are remote push notifications. And I don’t mean that it’s flawed for GeapheneOS, they work fine. It’s flawed in the sense that information goes through Google or Apple. The privacy concerns there are significant. It’s not end-to-end encrypted. You cannot avoid the problem either by disabling them on your phone. Each application, be that a Ring Camera, or backend messaging system, etc, that sends the stuff to Google through notification apis, will do so regardless of how much you sandbox or disable those services on the phone-receiving end. Conveniently, there is no effort by Apple or Google to make this core functionality any less tied to Apple or Google. The “asynchronous” nature makes it a problem that needs to be solved for each and every backend service system, for remote notifications. Some privacy conscious apps/services might let you limit what is sent to Google so you only get “New message from Hubbie” instead of also “Hubbie: remember to buy the paint for the baby-room! I’m so excited”.
Anyways… Not sure why I went on such a long tangent. I was done pooping a while ago.
CalyxOS on a Pixel is as great as it currently gets. But stuff can get better.
I suppose. If your criticism is that it could have been more specific as to what you are a supposed “beginner” in, then I agree.
Makes as much sense as saying “I’ll definitely avoid Windows now. I had heard that Windows was supposed to be easy to use”, since most of this also applies to WSL2.
A good answer to “Where to start”, is not likely to be “determine your Linux distro of choice”.
Which isn’t to say that what you’re doing is not a good way help with getting a quick idea of what to expect from the different distros.
But the original question, might be better answered by explaining some concepts instead:
These concepts, IMHO, are much more important, than what distro. Because it gives them the tools to understand how easy it is to just try stuff out, without having to commit to anything. Picking the wrong distros then isn’t a big of a deal.
If I were to make a comment on the chart itself. I think there is some value in describing what some distros are tailored for. But I find it curious how little that would matter to me. Things that matter to me are:
Many distros are different by only having a different list of software installed by default. That… Is nice if you want to try it out with a live USB. But, it doesn’t matter all that much. For example, Arch is considered one of the least advisable for beginners, but, it also has the AUR that covers a lot more than most other package systems. Some things are easier to get ahold of than say Ubuntu.
Isn’t that trope getting a little bit boring?
Do you know if flatpak leverages the memory side of this? With shared libs, you only keep one copy in memory, regardless of how many applications use it. Makes application launch faster, and memory usage lower.
For flatpak, it of course will load whatever it needs to load, but does it manage to avoid loading stuff across other flatpaks?
Gnome is weird. A dusted off a laptop that has Gnome 40, and it felt better. Nautilus didn’t have broken folder trees that don’t refresh, and workspaces were vertical so that movement travel is shorter (much more so on ultrawide monitors).
I miss the days with Opera. Not only could it group tabs, but it had previews too. Mouse gestures. Keyword searches. Page link filters and batch operations. RSS-reader. Chrome didn’t even exist back then, and IE and Firefox are still playing catch up. Kinda amazing to think about it.
Vivaldi is the spiritual successor, but having to use chromium rendering engine, it’s so many concessions and steps back. Has the mouse gestures, tho.
Only reason why that is weird to me, is just how much better Linux is. I’m too old to give a shit about a fanboy mentality. Linux used to be something you suffered through in order to get a tradeoff only available to power users. Now, my 90 year old grandmother has an easier time with Linux. It’s more consistent, and doesn’t break stuff nearly as often.
A more controversial take, is that I feel the same about MacOS. It was a lot of work in order to reduce how often it is annoying.
I think that’s a bit unfair here. What I’m saying is that expectations often seems to be that “Linux should be effortless, but it isn’t, so Linux sucks”, and then we quickly talk past each other on which aspects we are referring to. Let me make up three categories:
For users transitioning to Linux from Windows, and …
So, I assume people who just thought I was calling people lazy and dumb thought I meant categories 1. and 2. I just mean category 3. If you expect everything to be the same as Windows, and the effort required to understand the differences is too much, then only Windows will fit your needs. The impression I get is a general unwillingness to “figure stuff out”. Not knowing shit is fine, complaining and not wanting to put in the effort to know stuff… how is that not being lazy?
It was intended as kind advice without any the implied judgement of calling people dumb or lazy. If you don’t want to have to figure stuff out related to the third category, Linux will likely not be a good experience, or even a productive or good change. If you move to another country, you should make the effort to learn the culture. It’s not a good look to complain that things are different.
If I were to try to suggest “a point” with all of this: Don’t suggest to people that Linux is effortless for Windows users. Linux is immensely better, in almost every way (though mind examples in first category). But, it requires learning the basics of how shit works. It’s not hard… the information is well put together and available.