#Random Linux

Massive thanks to Microsoft for forcing my hand into replacing windows 10 with Linux.... installed mint a couple of days ago completely erasing all trace of Windows... wish I'd done it years ago. All the games I play on Steam work perfectly (aside from vulcan shader annoyances), general PC feels snappier than ever and I dont have some bullsheet AI nonsense rammed down my throat. Good riddance MS!
 
Tiny and fast if you have Intel or AMD graphics, but the deal-breaker for me at the moment is that there are no musl Nvidia drivers, only nouveau.

If you need the glibc version of applications, you can get around musl by installing Flatpaks, but then things can start to get bloated.
 
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Ice Tea said:
Tiny and fast if you have Intel or AMD graphics but the deal breaker for me at the moment is there are no musl Nvidia drivers, only nouveau.

If you need the glibc version of applications you can get around musl by installing flatpaks but then things can start to get bloated.
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Ah, I'm on Apple Silicon. Will be interesting to see what the support is like.
 
My MacBook seems to be the only one that there are issues installing Linux on! The WiFi chip doesn't have support and I can't see broadcom putting the resources into it for such a small userbase.
 
exhashdotdot said:
Which distro are you trying? I'm very surprised your macbook isn't supported.
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It's not a distro issue as much as it's kernel/driver/hardware support issue.

The macbook in question is a Macbook Pro 2016 with Touch bar aka "macbookpro 13,3". The main issues are bad to almost non functional wifi, audio input/output regressions on newer kernels, dodgy suspend/hibernate and there's more smaller stuff too. The wifi is the biggest issue as it's not fixable without the wifi chip designer's support, which is not forthcoming. Without proper wifi the laptop becomes a bit redundant as a portable device. Even then, other fixes need to be patched into the kernel and I don't want to be patching a bunch of things that will inevitably break when there's updates as has happend in the past.

https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux gives a bit of an overview but there's more out info there. Support has acutally got worse over time rather than beter!

I've used opencore and installed Ventura which has breathed a bit of life into it. However, as another kick in the side, anything newer than Ventura has really bad battery life! It's a shame because it's a really good laptop that has been reduced to chromebook levels of functionality by lack of support.
 
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Mr_Orange said:
It's not a distro issue as much as it's kernel/driver/hardware support issue.
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Yeah of course, and the kernel version is typically tied to what distro you're using no? I guess I naively assumed that by now, a more recent kernel would support a 2016 Macbook but I guess I was wrong.

Shame your macbook is on the verge of being relegated to e-waste though.
 
exhashdotdot said:
Yeah of course, and the kernel version is typically tied to what distro you're using no? I guess I naively assumed that by now, a more recent kernel would support a 2016 Macbook but I guess I was wrong.
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2016 was when Apple really started baking in their custom stuff - and the Linux support went downhill until all the focus has been on Apple Sillicon now. Apple is too much of a closed ecosystem, zero data sheets available for their hardware to work with. <2016 support was alright - >2016 is shocking until Asahi came about for ARM.
 
Going from a Surface Laptop and Windows PC......for the last month or so I've been switching between a Mac Air, and Linux desktop.

Have to say I find the sheer volume of updates on Linux a pain in the arse. Windows Update doesn't seem so bad in comparison.

I like how snappy the linux desktop is, and KDE is nice. But I think I will end up replacing the desktop with a Mac.
 
How anyone can come from Windows to Linux and say that the updates are a pain is beyond me.

At least with Linux you have full control over what and when you update. Also Linux very rarely needs to reboot following an update.
 
Buffalo2102 said:
How anyone can come from Windows to Linux and say that the updates are a pain is beyond me.

At least with Linux you have full control over what and when you update.
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I've never had a problem with choosing when and what Windows Updates happen, not rocket science.
Buffalo2102 said:
Also Linux very rarely needs to reboot following an update.
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KDE Neon has updates that want a reboot literally every day. Sure I can just update when I want to (same as windows), but it objectively is not any less faff than Windows, at least that only want a reboot every week or so.
 
mid_gen said:
I've never had a problem with choosing when and what Windows Updates happen, not rocket science.

KDE Neon has updates that want a reboot literally every day. Sure I can just update when I want to (same as windows), but it objectively is not any less faff than Windows, at least that only want a reboot every week or so.
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Not rocket science on the face of it, no. But the number of complaints about (and my experiences of) Windows update would suggest otherwise.

KDE Neon is not a typical Linux distribution and it's not surprising that it gets more frequent updates. The developers themselves admit that "There is no thorough review of the complete software stack to guarantee a rock solid day-to-day experience." so what you are seeing is not the typical Linux update experience.

I run KDE Plasma on my desktop which I use for at least 8 hours every day and very rarely experience any updates that require a reboot.
 
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