eugenia

eugenia, 2 months ago

I don’t like KDE at all. Too busy, terrible-looking right click menu on the desktop (some lines long, some short). It’s that stuff that give me OCD. I like cleanliness in the UI.

eugenia, 2 months ago

I’d go with XFce. I have it installed on many old laptops that I have given away to my cousins, nieces, and mom. Works like old Windows if you modify the panels (remove the bottom dock, bring the main panel down), and then you put some sane defaults, like setting up sleep (NOTE: you will need to edit a file to make xfce go to sleep unattended), enabling natural scrolling, enabling the login manager to show username so they don’t have to type it every time, etc etc). But after all that is setup once, xfce is the best case for an old laptop.

eugenia, 2 months ago

It was probably Red Hat, late '90s.

eugenia, 2 months ago

Linux Mint works perfectly as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never seen or heard of the issue you mention where the menu resizes all by itself. Or do you mean that after you switch to 4k it’s too small to see? (btw, do you know that you can resize its window using the mouse?)

If you want something larger for a 4k display, simply install the Cinnamenu instead (you can find it from the Applets window, and then download it from there). I have it setup to show large icons instead of a list. It looks absolutely great on my 28" 4k screen. And it’s also resizable.

Then, there’s the issue of tailscale. Why download it as a flatpak? Why download 1+ GB of data for something that is just 26 MB even when statically linked, directly from the OFFICIAL website? tailscale.com/download/linux/static Why use third party uploads for something as critical as a server, where security could be an issue? Just get it directly from the official website.

eugenia, 2 months ago

That’s what “ALL Applications” does, it lists all applications. And it’s best to have enough apps to start someone up, than to be bare bones. There are categories to easily find what you need. I personally never use the “All Applications” option. I must say again, download Cinnamenu, it’s better than the default.

eugenia, 2 months ago

Your best bet is Debian, or raspbian. The OSes for it are listed on the website.

eugenia, 2 months ago

Your model has no GPU, so it’s possible that no graphical environment is supported. I suggest you sell it and get a Raspberry Pi if what you’re after is a more desktop experience.

eugenia, 2 months ago

You need another computer, not the r01 to do what you want.

eugenia, 3 months ago

You will need to find out if that’s the B43 or the wl driver and install it from the repos via some method (e.g. usb-to-ethernet). Both Mint and Ubuntu use the same repo, and Ubuntu usually allows some non-free firmwares and drivers in their repos, Fedora doesn’t.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Very nice script! Looks great! Πολυ ωραιο, μπραβο!

eugenia, 3 months ago

The machine is fully supported by Mint, but because it’s a non-free firmware driver, you will need to add either an ethernet cable, or a usb-to-ethernet adapter, or you could tether from your phone. Then you can install either the b43, or the wl driver (depends which chipset you have), and then wifi and bluetooth are going to work like a charm. I had to do the same on my mac mini. Apple uses broadcom chips that don’t have full open source bits, so they’re not part of the live ISO. You’ll first need to find another way to get to the internet, and then fetch the right files.

eugenia, 3 months ago

The closest is photopea. Not gimp, I’m afraid.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I’d go with Mint. They have thought out 99% of the things a user might ask for in a DE, along some basic admin configuration stuff you might need. It’s the best out of the box distro.

eugenia, 3 months ago

My Pixel5a from google store has it, but my other phone where I installed Murena e/OS (which is based on LineageOS) does not have it.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I will tell you my secret. I have two phones. Two identities. One that has a normal google phone with facebook messenger and instagram, to keep in contact with family, and to have bank apps. And one, where the Murena e/OS is totally de-googled. Where you will only find FOSS apps, from Lemmy to Mastodon and Pixelfed. That second identity is my real one.

The mistake people make when they write about “moving to Linux” (or similar), is that they try to fit themselves into a box where the modern life doesn’t affords them to. The wiser option is to play on both sides. You have an unassuming, clean-cut identity on one computer and phone, and you have your real self on the other, where it’s ultra-private and secured, and often IP-spoofed if required. And it’s not some kind of closeting thing, or illegal thing or anything, it’s just private. How I would like things to be by default in a Utopian system.

On top of that, I believe that Murena’s e/OS has a modified g-services app so full fledged Android apps, including bank apps, get fooled so they run. But I don’t personally run them on that phone. That phone is FOSS only.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Actually, both Ubuntu and Mint didn’t have wifi drivers for my late-2014 Mac Mini (Intel based). I had to plugin ethernet so I could actually download the drivers. Also, the version of Windows you might have installed might have been older than your PC, so no drivers would naturally be in it (e.g. Win11 is already 2-3 years old).

eugenia, 3 months ago

No, it’s not the shittiest hardware in existence. The wifi in question was just Broadcomm, not Apple. The Apple-based Macs are just PCs, with a modified UEFI firmware, nothing else. Only the Silicon-based ones are more Apple-based.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Most laptops won’t allow you to update parts, especially at that price. I think you’re better off getting a cheap laptop that has good reviews and you verify that Linux works in it. Personally, I’ve converted a few chromebooks to linux (making sure first that the CoreBoot BIOS/firmware works on these laptops).

eugenia, 3 months ago

There are a lot of help posts on the MS and other windows forums too. Computers and OSes will always have issues because of complexity and incompatibilities between hardware and software. No matter if you install Windows, Linux, or MacOS. The machines that are least buggy because each manufacturer is doing extensive tests, are the mobile OSes, iOS and (most) Android. It’s not as possible to do the same on a desktop OS. So cut your losses, and install Linux Mint, which is I believe it’s the best for newbies.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I think Mint is your best choice. Mint is not Ubuntu, even if the underlying base is based on Ubuntu. It doesn’t have snaps for example, and a lot of the ubuntu fluff and slowness has been cut out. For example, Mint Cinnamon uses 1.2 GB of RAM on a clean boot, but it uses 1.9 GB on Ubuntu-Cinnamon. It’s a cleaner system.

eugenia, 3 months ago

The same in Greece, where it has 11%, it’s because some government agencies use it, and the whole of the Greek military is on Linux Mint!

eugenia, 3 months ago

Very nice looking, but judging from the screenshot, the app window seems to be massive? It doesn’t fit on my Macbook Air, and I’m sure won’t fit on my various 1366x768 Linux laptops. Or maybe the app creates scrollbars automatically? Also, does it have a light theme, or is it only dark? (I have a lot of astigmatism, so dark themes aren’t readable to my eyes). Other than that, it looks great!

eugenia, 3 months ago

I would personally install Linux Mint on it, or any other modern distro. That’s a CPU that has ~3000 points on Passmark, which means that most DEs work fine with it, but I think that Cinnamon would shine the most with it. I personally use XFce/Mate for anything between 500 and 1200 points, Cinnamon from 1200+, KDE 2000+, Gnome 2500+. I use LXQT or a WM on anything below 500. I “save” old computers of friends or cousins by installing Linux on their old machines, and that’s been my experience so far.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I usually install Debian Linux on old Chromebooks that have only 16 GB SSD, and then gift them to my cousins or their kids. Flatpacks are out of the question, since pretty much every app I checked is between 500 and 1 GB of size. I only have 7.5 GB of free space in there after the base XFce Debian installation is done, plus 2 GB of swap. I find flatpacks to be space eaters, and I avoid them even on my normal, higher SSD size laptops.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I installed Linux Mint last night on a 2011 Macbook Air. Unfortunately Debian (which was my first choice) was reproducibly crashing during downloading updates, during the installation. It also was not supporting the touchpad during installation, had to use a mouse (I’m sure it would work after installation though as it would use a newer kernel then). Mint worked without a hitch in all levels.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I’ve tried LMDE in the past, it had the same bugs as Debian, as it’s based on it.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Where exactly is this downloadable? I read the blog post and followed the links and still haven’t figured out what to do.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I think someone had estimated recently that Linux has about 50 mil desktop users. I think that sounds like a lot… I’d personally put that number to about 10 mil tops. I think the higher number we’re seeing these days is related to Steam OS.

eugenia, 3 months ago

You need to make sure first that the MrChromebox.tech uefi firmware works with the chromebook model you are going to buy. Otherwise, you will just end up with an old chromebook.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Some of these apps can’t work as flatpaks at all, because they require more access to the system, e.g. Davinci Resolve. AppImage allows that. I mean, heck, even Ubuntu runs a virtual filesystem in order to allow its Snap Firefox to access the Dictionary that lives “outside” its sandboxing. So, yes, there are cases where AppImages do serve a purpose. Not most cases, but a lot of cases.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I have astigmatism, so I can’t work with dark themes. I can’t read correctly when everything is black around. For me, the perfect theme is the one that has a black window manager, gray variations on specific widgets, and white windows (the background desktop image I prefer it to be blue-ish). Basically, to work properly, I need a mostly light, but mixed environment that provides contrast. Not all white, and definitely not all black. So far, I haven’t found such a theme, because no GUI environment allows for such specificity in theming for the various widgets. Although the default Gnome theme ain’t too bad.

eugenia, 3 months ago

I had a similar problem with a DELL laptop that used to be a Chromebook (and I later installed Debian): no audio out of the speakers, OR if there was audio, it was in slow motion. I installed a gazillion of Debian distros, and nothing worked, except the Ubuntu-based ones, that DID work. Basically, it was a either a bug or missing feature on the older kernels that Debian-based distros used (ubuntu uses newer kernels). I had tried everything, and I mean, everything. Every alsa, pulse or pipewire trick, and nothing had worked, because ultimately, it was a kernel support issue. When Debian upgraded to kernel 6.1 recently, the issue was fixed by itself (well, 90% of the way, not completely). So if you’re not seeing any progress despite all the things you tried, it’s probably a kernel support issue, and you might have to wait for the next few kernels down the line to see fixes for it. Sometimes, it’s how it goes.

eugenia, 3 months ago

If multiple distro families don’t work, might be a case of the hardware not being supported yet.

eugenia, 3 months ago

Linux also surpassed 10% in my country, Greece (10.72%).

I prepared a couple of old laptops I had around recently, to gift to my niece and cousin, and I put Debian with XFce in both of them. Worked great. And I think that’s why Linux is big in Greece. Consider that when someone buys a car here, they use it until the end of its life. Very rarely they sell cars to get something new. The average car is 15 years old in Greece. I think that’s the deal with old laptops and computers too: people try to extend the lives of their machines.

eugenia, 3 months ago

there’s a choice on the bottom of the page somewhere

eugenia, 3 months ago

I use an old copy of Photoshop CS5 via VMWare and Windows 10 installed in it. Unfortunately the Gimp doesn’t have adjustment layers and the Selective Color feature. I can’t live without these two features, I need them on each and every scan of my paintings to fix colors.

eugenia, 3 months ago

The most noob video editor in PiTiVi, but it’s not as stable as kdenlive (which is much, much more complex, but also more powerful).

eugenia, 4 months ago

For me, the best is e/OS, which is based off of LineageOS, but with extra privacy features to de-google. Just get a compatible phone, and run that.

eugenia, 4 months ago

Android is Linux-based, even if it’s not a Gnu/Linux distribution. Besides, eOS is different enough from Android, since it barely works with existing Android apps (you’ll need to use the microG lib to do so, which is optional). Its UI is iPhone-like too,so it’s not comparable to other Android looks either. In other words, I’d say e/OS sits in a place that it’s kinda its own. Not Gnu/Linux and not quite Android either.

And let’s face it, no gnu/linux distro is mature enough to be a daily driver on a phone. Not a single one. I’ve tried them all. The best options are still Android-based: LineageOS if you don’t care to be truly an Android, or e/OS if you want something that it’s kind of its own beast (still based on LineageOS underneath). And that’s why I suggested e/OS.

eugenia, 4 months ago

Debian. I’ve been using Linux since 1999, and I’ve tried everything under the sun. Back then, I was a Red Hat person, then an ubuntu person mostly, but Debian is where there’s stability that doesn’t mess with your mental health. It just works, and that has more value than being pretty or having the latest bells and whistles.

eugenia, 4 months ago

Definitely Debian. Or Mint if you also like the cinnamon desktop (which is similar to KDE’s in terms of default look).

eugenia, 4 months ago

There’s an app on Flatpacks called Thincast remote desktop client. I don’t htink it’s using the free rdp libraries, so it’s possible that the bugs you encountered with the other open source apps (that all use the same underlying libs), might not be there.

eugenia, 4 months ago

10-15 years ago the suggested app listings would be about apps that you create something with them, eg gimp, freecad etc. Most of what you suggest here are just apps to manage yourself, where you control your life down to minute detail. I consider such apps to have the effect of losing freedom and the randomness of life. Basically, we’ve moved from being creator beings, to barely living, and requiring app assistance for it.

eugenia, 4 months ago

The most stable linux video editor is KdenLive, along possibly Shotcut. The distro doesn’t matter much, as long as its underlying video libraries it ships with are stable versions. Most often, it’s these libraries that crash, and not the editor on top. If these two programs don’t work for you, I suggest you stay with Windows and use CapCut.

Olive is very ustable.

eugenia, 4 months ago

People can make their own choices. I have 6-7 Linux machines, and asked my brother to install it too. He hated the experience. He bought a Mac at the end, and he’s very happy with it. Some people just don’t want Linux. They don’t care about its philosophy, or that it’s free. They want an ecosystem, and a status symbol.

eugenia, 6 months ago

Linux will eventually make it seriously to the desktop in the next few years, possibly going as high as 15%-20% of the userbase (in my country Greece it’s already at 9%). But only because MS is going to destroy its Windows base by making it subscription etc.