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What Linux Operating Systems do you like?

ic1male said:
Do you guys not bother with secure boot at all?
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Personally running with it off on both the gaming PCs. If Linux does get more games with anti-cheat that require it, or it the reasons to run it increase in terms of security then maybe I'll switch it back on (as I run Fedora 44 KDE on the main PC).

I think one of the things that put me off was when Chris Titus on YouTube was explaining how it worked including essentially communicating with a Microsoft server.
 
Timber said:
I think one of the things that put me off was when Chris Titus on YouTube was explaining how it worked including essentially communicating with a Microsoft server.
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This is why you don't take advice from moronic Youtubers. All Microsoft do is act as a CA for Secure Boot signings. Just like every other Certificate Authority in existence. Someone has to sign things.

Manufacturers simply use the Microsoft third-party CA to sign their devices, much like we use say LetsEncrypt to sign something, or at work you will run either a Microsoft or Linux CA to generate certificates.
 
Throrik said:
This is why you don't take advice from moronic Youtubers. All Microsoft do is act as a CA for Secure Boot signings. Just like every other Certificate Authority in existence. Someone has to sign things.

Manufacturers simply use the Microsoft third-party CA to sign their devices, much like we use say LetsEncrypt to sign something, or at work you will run either a Microsoft or Linux CA to generate certificates.
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Tbf I think his wider point is more about disagreeing with the implementation and what secure boot became and then looking at what secure boot is, i.e. part of a security process. As mentioned it is 'one of the reasons' not the sole reason. On my other PC Steam OS doesn't support secure boot anyway.

EDIT: Worth mentioning I do run secure boot on the Debian Server and Laptop (or at least it got left on) so maybe I should have been clearer in that
 
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Secure boot has it's place in the corporate world definitely, but it is isn't panacea for the ordinary user (if they even understand what it is) . Personally, I''m not a fan of seeking permission from elsewhere to what runs on my own computer.
 
Mercurial said:
Personally, I''m not a fan of seeking permission from elsewhere to what runs on my own computer.
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Yet you do so every single time, you agree to EULAs, you seek permissions from Root/int CAs on almost every website you browse etc.

I'm not pro or con on Secure Boot - I think it makes sense, I wish it was managed at the UEFI foundation level rather than Microsoft, but I think for a pre-boot security it's not the worst they could come up with. Their initial plan was absolutely awful.

Ironically despite all my previous typings, I also use an Operating System which does not use Secure Boot (OpenBSD) - and I like to run Coreboot etc. I just dislike misinformation.
 
I did actually do some further reading up about Secure Boot tonight. Starting with the Arch Wiki and went from there. I'm still not entirely clear enough on pros/cons and some of it is above my technical capability. Although I thought one of the best reasoned comments was from this fedora maintainer. That said I think I started to touch upon some of the concerns some have with it, including some historic reasons. And clearly a lot of that is a distrust of Microsoft.
 
lewism said:
I am tempted to delve in to Linux for my Plex server but unsure as to where to start really!
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Personally, I would use Jellyfin over Plex these days. Wundertech does a great break down and has used both.

www.wundertech.net

Jellyfin vs Plex: Which Should You Actually Use?

Jellyfin vs Plex in 2026 after running both: features, hardware transcoding, the latest Plex price increases, and why I'd pick Jellyfin for most people.
www.wundertech.net www.wundertech.net
 
Nails said:
Personally, I would use Jellyfin over Plex these days. Wundertech does a great break down and has used both.

www.wundertech.net

Jellyfin vs Plex: Which Should You Actually Use?

Jellyfin vs Plex in 2026 after running both: features, hardware transcoding, the latest Plex price increases, and why I'd pick Jellyfin for most people.
www.wundertech.net www.wundertech.net
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I would have considered it if I didn’t already own a lifetime pass but at the moment I’ll stick with Plex since I’ve paid for it.
 
Installed Ubuntu LTS as a VM on a few machines just because I'd heard of it being a good beginners option and installed Linux Mint on two old laptops because I couldn't install Ubuntu using the same DVD I used to install it on the VMs.

Both do what I need so I have not tried any other distros. Next thing I'll do is attempt to install version 22 of Linux Mint on one of the laptops, as I tried to install it prior to installing version 21 but I gave up, perhaps too easily.

I managed to install Linux Mint 21 on both laptops so was satisfied with that, however Mint 21 support ends in April 2027 so I want to try and install Mint 22 before then, but there is no rush.
 
Linux Mint is always a good choice, recommended by Associate Professor Stephen Barnatt (Explaining Computers on YouTube) who is a great fella.
 
ic1male said:
Yes, that's what I plan on changing to when Fedora 45 comes out of beta, more specifically Kinoite.
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Cromulent said:
I've pretty much settled on my two Linux distros. Ubuntu LTS for servers and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for desktops.
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Funny enough I've considered distro hopping to Tumbleweed and Kinoite for various reasons, but I do enjoy using basic fedora KDE

Speaking of it, I hadn't realised but I've been on Fedora 44 KDE for past 5 weeks now (not on same install, I did end up reinstalling once) and it's been really solid, gaming for most part has been great, played Armored Core 6 and did NG+++ (3 runs in total + some extra stuff), and played the new Onimusha from start to end with RenoDX (HDR mod/fix), plus I've installed countless games just to test and only game I've had issue with has been Dead Space Remake, every time you go into a new area it stutters like hell until it caches them, and then it's fine in those areas

The 9070XT just got FSR4 for Vulkan too so that's no longer a issue when I finally get round to playing Indiana Jones and Doom TDA (plus RDR2 replay)

I've also had some issues with Firefox flatpak and YouTube, it deffo happened most with 4K playback but it would sorta constantly reset, and then after a few resets a error would pop up, problem at time was I wasn't sure if it was Firefox, Linux or flatpak cause Firefox had a big update like same time I moved over to Linux, I haven't had it happen on this install tho so touch wood it was maybe a broken/buggy extension or something

I think it's still sometimes hard breaking away from the FOMO/comfort of Windows and Nvidia (I went AMD just to make my Linux experience best it could be right now) just because you've used them for so many years (20'ish for myself) and you know typically stuff will work from a pure gaming perspective but I have to admit outside of odd tweaking stuff has just worked on Linux anyway and the actual desktop experience has been great (outside of YouTube issue)

Sorry for long winded post ha
 
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will13 said:
and Kinoite for various reasons, but I do enjoy using basic fedora KDE
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will13 said:
I've also had some issues with Firefox flatpak and YouTube, it deffo happened most with 4K playback but it would sorta constantly reset, and then after a few resets a error would pop up, problem at time was I wasn't sure if it was Firefox, Linux or flatpak cause Firefox had a big update like same time I moved over to Linux, I haven't had it happen on this install tho so touch wood it was maybe a broken/buggy extension or something
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will13 said:
and the actual desktop experience has been great (outside of YouTube issue)
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Are you using the Firefox flatpak from Fedora, or the Firefox flatpak from Flathub?

I'm on Fedora Silverblue. Kinoite operates exactly the same way as Silverblue, it just uses KDE as the DE.

One of the first things I do on a clean install is remove the Fedora Flatpak repositories and add only the Flathub repository. Fedora Flatpaks are under the same legal constraints regarding codecs as their ordinary rpm based software (which is why RPM Fusion exists). So they're packaged with codecs missing that are legally questionable. If you're installing Firefox via a Flatpak, get it from Flathub and not the Fedora repositories. You'll have a much easier time with playback. I have the following commands in my post-install docfile.

Code: 
# SHOW FLATPAK REPOSITORIES.
flatpak remotes --show-details --show-disabled

# DELETE FLATPAK REPOSITORIES.
flatpak remote-delete fedora && flatpak remote-delete fedora-testing

# ADD FLATPAK REPOSITORIES.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

# REMOVE LAYERED FIREFOX SOFTWARE.
rpm-ostree override remove firefox firefox-langpacks

The above in order shows what Flatpak repos are installed, I then delete the Fedora and Fedora Testing flatpak repos (it will also uninstall a whole bunch of flatpak software that is bundled with Silverblue/Kinoite and linked to those repos, but I just re-download it from Flathub since they're all "full fat" versions on there and not obligated to adhere to Fedoras lawyers), I then add the Flathub repo, then I remove the layered Firefox packages (which are Fedora base system rpm packages and would require the installation and layering of all the additionally required codecs from RPM Fusion to function and playback properly).

If you don't want to remove the Fedora flatpak repositories, you can leave them and just add the Flathub repository. Then when you install you specify the repository you want it to download from with;

Code: 
flatpak install flathub firefox

or you would use;

Code: 
flatpak install fedora firefox

One issue with leaving the layered Firefox package and installing the Flatpak is it will launch one instead of the other, usually the layered package and you need to launch the flatpak from the terminal. Hence why I also remove the layered Firefox package. I have no reason to use layered packages for the most part and anything that I do that needs rpm based software goes into a toolbox. That way I know the only instance of Firefox on my system is the one from Flathub. You could probably edit the layered versions desktop file to read something like Firefox (Layered) and editing the flatpak version to say Firefox (Flatpak). You'd just need to pull the original desktop files from their respective locations in /var/ and copy them to .local/share/applications where you can make local changes that would be applied only to your instance.
 
@Nails I'm using flathub for all my flatpaks purely because of the codec issues and fact I've seen some reports of fedora ones being old/broken for no good reason
 
@Nails I should have expanded on what I said, if I keep having the issues I think I might just try the rpm/native version especially now that Firefox offers a repo for it, I already have the rpm fusion codec setup installed, and if it still continues doing it then I know something odd is going on, and well I'd decide then on what to do
 
ic1male said:
Professor Stephen Barnatt (Explaining Computers on YouTube) who is a great fella.
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I like Stephen, only uses technobabble when it's necessary and none of this current trend of rage baiting!

Even if it is simplistic, it reminds you that computer should be for everyone and not just for elitists.
 
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