Linux Challenge 2 pre-game

[Lurking]

On 3/3/2026 at 9:42 AM, PacketAuditor said:

It's not ready to replace every Windows install, might not be for another decade, if ever. But it's definitely ready to replace a lot of Windows installations, especially technical users. They need to accept that reality. 

I didn't miss that part... it is just hard to make predictions, especially about the future. Whatever happens in the next decade depends on how worse MS gets for the corporate users, how well Apple and other competitors do, and how Linux develops. and of course, the eco-system around it. Microsoft learned the hard way, having a good phone OS is meaningless if thee are no apps. and of course, desktop/laptop use may decline. 

 

I think we've been through this with Vista, W8 etc. Too early to declare MS dead. 

 

Sure, Linux can replace a few more. When I started I was optimistic and planned to convert more of my PCs to Linux and only have one W11 PC left. But then reality hit (some essential software didn't work well at all, VM/dualboot/wine/winboat turned out to be highly impractical). That in addition to many things being harder to set up. 

 

It took some time to figure out and I'm glad I did. I now can say for my limited use, I could easily set up MX Linux KDE easily (no CLI!) and use it. Or Fedora KDE (with some manual codec adding). And I also could recommend to a noob with similar use case, to try Linux. But getting to that point was hard (and everybody told me I have to use CLI for that, which turned out to be outdated information).

 

But many people who use the PC like i do and want to leave MS, also could go Apple/Chromebook or some other computer that does their stuff. As much as Windows is unpopular, Linux isn't the only option. 

12 hours ago, Mina G said:

it was a metaphor i don't remember exactly the page numbers but the point stil stand 

i see that around me a lot and the only thing i would say most of thw situtions i see  could have been mitigated if somone read the manual 

 

Oh, that is on me then. I wondered if you meant one of those 20-language manuals

[Mina G]

12 hours ago, Lurking said:

Oh, that is on me then. I wondered if you meant one of those 20-language manuals

it's ok

yes i have these manuals in my country a lot maybe because  most of things in my country is imported and it always in multiple language but i don't Rember the exact page number 

[spelican]

On 3/3/2026 at 10:39 PM, PacketAuditor said:

Mint is outdated, especially Cinnamon. Wouldn't recommend it to many people, especially a gamer or power user. 

As long as you don't have the newest hardware, Linux Mint is still a really good option! The majority of people aren't "gamers" or "power users", they just have a computer that they no longer want Microsoft bits spying on them and ruining the user experience through advertisements and forced AI. Mint is really intuitive, and it works quite well actually, Of course, it shouldn't be the only option, particularly if you have new hardware, hence why Fedora and Nobara are highlighted as a good options too!

 

The beauty of Linux is that you have an option that fits anyone's needs rather than only one that only fits the needs of corporate greed.

[Lurking]

32 minutes ago, spelican said:

As long as you don't have the newest hardware, Linux Mint is still a really good option! The majority of people aren't "gamers" or "power users", they just have a computer that they no longer want Microsoft bits spying on them and ruining the user experience through advertisements and forced AI. Mint is really intuitive, and it works quite well actually, Of course, it shouldn't be the only option, particularly if you have new hardware, hence why Fedora and Nobara are highlighted as a good options too!

I don't disagree. but one also should let people know, Mint doesn't do fractional scaling and good multi/mix monitor support. This matters to more and more people. I believe that applies to other Ubuntu LTS clones as well (Pop-OS probably resolved that by using Cosmic?)

 

And this is anecdotal, but on my 6th/7th generation PCs, Mint was the only distro with problems installing, or actually working. Any other distro (inc. "old" Debian" or Ubuntu LTS just worked fine. So, there is something to it that the old Mint packages may be causing. YMMV.

 

I found for beginners (or even experts) MX Linux KDE is much better since it has more hardware support (AHS - Advanced hardware support) and also has better GUI tools (MX Tools) and uses KDE 6.3.6 that has good fractional scaling. You have to understand, new users these days come from W10 and are used to the niceties of life, like fractional scaling. and Linux makes great progress (KDE etc.) and even 6 months show usable progress, new users should even consider all-new DE (like Fedora) to get the best and latest. 

 

Remember, first impressions matter! If a new user has highDPI monitors (or old eyes) and uses Mint, they may not give another distro a chance and go right back to Windows. I saw many posts people complaining "Linux doesn't do fractional scaling". Well, those "beginner distros" don't, but good distros do.