Linux, should I?

[Salacious B Crum]

Hey guys new here just completed my first build (posted in the build forum) but now I have a pre built HP with a i7 6700 locked CPU and was thinking of finally playing around with a Linux distro, anyone care to shed some light on how they like it and what distro is a good starting point? I did create a VM on my MacBook and ran Linux mint 18.1 it was neat but too buggy on the VM software and on a mac.

[SCHISCHKA]

get ubuntu 16.04 LTS & steam

[Shura]

1 hour ago, mrbilky said:

Hey guys new here just completed my first build (posted in the build forum) but now I have a pre built HP with a i7 6700 locked CPU and was thinking of finally playing around with a Linux distro, anyone care to shed some light on how they like it and what distro is a good starting point? I did create a VM on my MacBook and ran Linux mint 18.1 it was neat but too buggy on the VM software and on a mac.

I would say try Manjaro Cinnamon or Mint Cinnamon if you like the windows experience. Elementary OS if you like Mac, Gnome 3 or Ubuntu if you like Android(or something different from Windows/Mac). If you don't mind setting up your own setup from the ground up, then I would say challenge yourself with a clean Arch Linux install.

[noahdvs]

Just curious, what was buggy about Linux Mint?

 

As for the topic:

If you want something that "just works" and has tons of support specific to your distro and desktop environment, use Ubuntu.

 

If you want a desktop environment that can be similar to Windows, try something with Cinnamon (Linux Mint Cinnamon) or KDE (Linux Mint KDE, Kubuntu). KDE is very customizable and Cinnamon is like KDE. GTK applications don't work with every possible KDE customization though. KDE's software store app is called Discover and it can be pretty buggy. I use `apt` in the terminal or the Synaptic package manager on KDE. I think Linux Mint KDE uses the Linux Mint software store app which is pretty good.

 

If you need a lightweight desktop environment, you can use MATE (Linux Mint MATE, Ubuntu MATE), XFCE (Linux Mint XFCE, Xubuntu) or LXDE (Lubuntu). MATE is light by modern standards, XFCE is light and LXDE is light enough to make an IBM Thinkpad from 2001 with a Celeron M usable enough with the modern web.

 

I personally use KDE neon, which is like Kubuntu, except it's based on Long Term Support Ubuntu versions, but has the latest KDE software. I like it, but it doesn't come with much when you install it and it's still pretty new. You should probably use a distro that comes with a decent amount of programs by default.

 

GTK is a toolkit for making GUIs with C. Qt is another for C++ that is generally more compatible with different desktop environments than GTK.

 

If you're a new Linux user, I advise against challenging yourself. If you don't know what to do or what to search for...

There's a reason why "Install Gentoo" is a meme.

[Salacious B Crum]

7 hours ago, noahdvs said:

Just curious, what was buggy about Linux Mint?

I think It was more Virtual box than Linux mint video was choppy in youtube few other minor issues

[David89]

18 minutes ago, mrbilky said:

I think It was more Virtual box than Linux mint video was choppy in youtube few other minor issues

That's Virtual Box. Sometimes you can get away with using one core. Virtual Box doesn't use more than one Thread, so using more than one core splits that one thread and Windows/Linux tries to put them on the real cores of your CPU and will break realtime performance. So sound and other things will become choppy.

 

Just make yourself a USB-Stick, boot the live version and try it. However, i personally would advise against Ubuntu (or Linux Mint or anything else derived from Ubuntu). If you run into problems, the Wiki is pretty crappy and you'll have to scour information for a long time.

 

Try Antergos: It's basically the "Ubuntu of Arch Linux" in terms of how easy it is. You can choose if you want Mate, Cinnamon or Gnome (i personally use Gnome, but i'd recommend Cinnamon - just don't install all Plugins and Themes at once ) and if you run in to problems, the Arch Linux Wiki is absolutely freaking amazing. Also: You will get a lot better performance while gaming, since Arch uses the latest drivers.

 

Another recommendation is: Get a spare SSD. Just a small, used one, 32 or 60 GB and just play around with it. Keep your Data safe, and if you are confident enough, switch and use it for a while. 

 

Oh and for Gaming, I recommend "wine-gaming-nine". It has extremely good DirectX 9 support, DirectX 10 support is also good and DX11 support is in the works, and works okay-ish. "PlayOnLinux" works also quite good, however it will install it's own Wine libraries every time, so you need enough space.

If you are willing to pay some money: CrossOver is absolutely amazing and even runs Office 2013, which is a nightmare on it's own with Wine. The good thing is: The DirectX 10 support in WIne comes partly from CrossOver.

[Luis Duarte]

20 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

get ubuntu 16.04 LTS & steam

Ubuntu uses unity and its heavy so no, maybe lxde will gain some fps.

[noahdvs]

2 hours ago, Luis Duarte said:

Ubuntu uses unity and its heavy so no, maybe lxde will gain some fps.

Unity isn't that heavy and it won't really affect your FPS unless you have low RAM. Same with KDE and Gnome.

 

10 hours ago, David89 said:

Just make yourself a USB-Stick, boot the live version and try it. However, i personally would advise against Ubuntu (or Linux Mint or anything else derived from Ubuntu). If you run into problems, the Wiki is pretty crappy and you'll have to scour information for a long time.

I haven't found that to be the case. If I need an answer, it's usually in the top few search results because Ubuntu is the most popular. If it's not in the top few search results, what I'm trying to do isn't simple and would be equally difficult if I was using another distro. Also, you can get the latest drivers for Ubuntu pretty easily too. I'm not saying don't use Antergos, but Ubuntu is the easiest to start with.

[SCHISCHKA]

4 hours ago, Luis Duarte said:

Ubuntu uses unity and its heavy so no, maybe lxde will gain some fps.

you're talking shit. Unity uses a bit more ram than LXDE but it does not affect FPS. Try it. benchmark it. You will find no difference. Im looking at my system monitor now and all unity related processes are using 0% CPU.

[David89]

12 hours ago, noahdvs said:

I haven't found that to be the case. If I need an answer, it's usually in the top few search results because Ubuntu is the most popular. If it's not in the top few search results, what I'm trying to do isn't simple and would be equally difficult if I was using another distro. Also, you can get the latest drivers for Ubuntu pretty easily too. I'm not saying don't use Antergos, but Ubuntu is the easiest to start with.

Yes, if you want to know how to install a package or something else. And no, some things are not equally difficult. Changing the running Kernel is as easy as installing it on Antergos (or Manjaro), because they have hooks build in, that just reconfigure your mkinitcpio without you having to do anything. Pacman does a lot of other things for you, that aptitude doesn't. The Arch Wiki is the most comprehensive there is, Period. If you can't find it in there, it probably won't work or will require some serious digging, deep inside the code. And getting the latest AMDGPU-Pro driver on Arch/Antergos/Manjaro is as easy as it can be. "yaourt -S amdgpu-pro-dkms". That's it. For Ubuntu you either need to add a ppa first, and most of the times they don't really work that well or do it like AMD intended it: Compile it yourself.

 

Of course, if you start with an Arch from scratch, it's a lot more work than Ubuntu and you can do a lot of things wrong - but i'm talking about Antergos, Manjaro or even Chakra (however, they changed to much IMHO). It's a good way to start out with an Arch based distro and get into installing Arch "the right way" later if you know what you want.

 

Ubuntu and it's derivates is only easy as long as you don't try something else than a bit of surfing the net, watching some videos or there like. It's okay for a start, but everything else is just overcomplicated - IMHO.

[noahdvs]

7 hours ago, David89 said:

Yes, if you want to know how to install a package or something else. And no, some things are not equally difficult. Changing the running Kernel is as easy as installing it on Antergos (or Manjaro), because they have hooks build in, that just reconfigure your mkinitcpio without you having to do anything. Pacman does a lot of other things for you, that aptitude doesn't. The Arch Wiki is the most comprehensive there is, Period. If you can't find it in there, it probably won't work or will require some serious digging, deep inside the code. And getting the latest AMDGPU-Pro driver on Arch/Antergos/Manjaro is as easy as it can be. "yaourt -S amdgpu-pro-dkms". That's it. For Ubuntu you either need to add a ppa first, and most of the times they don't really work that well or do it like AMD intended it: Compile it yourself.

 

Of course, if you start with an Arch from scratch, it's a lot more work than Ubuntu and you can do a lot of things wrong - but i'm talking about Antergos, Manjaro or even Chakra (however, they changed to much IMHO). It's a good way to start out with an Arch based distro and get into installing Arch "the right way" later if you know what you want.

 

Ubuntu and it's derivates is only easy as long as you don't try something else than a bit of surfing the net, watching some videos or there like. It's okay for a start, but everything else is just overcomplicated - IMHO.

Most PPAs that people would want to install work fine. But why would a beginner fool around with the kernel? If you're a power user of Linux and need bleeding edge software, there's few or no better choice than Arch based distros for sure. I've been thinking of moving to an Arch based distro myself. But what if you just want a stable experience that lets you install software without using the terminal? To someone with no Linux experience, `yaourt -S amdgpu-pro-dkms` looks like gibberish. There's no need to jump into the deep end on the first try. It might not seem that deep to you, just like 8 feet doesn't seem that deep to people that know how to swim, but people that don't will be afraid, struggle and end up making it worse than it really is. You've got to get used to things first and then move on when you feel like you need more.

[VicBar]

4 hours ago, noahdvs said:

Most PPAs that people would want to install work fine. But why would a beginner fool around with the kernel? If you're a power user of Linux and need bleeding edge software, there's few or no better choice than Arch based distros for sure. I've been thinking of moving to an Arch based distro myself. But what if you just want a stable experience that lets you install software without using the terminal? To someone with no Linux experience, `yaourt -S amdgpu-pro-dkms` looks like gibberish. There's no need to jump into the deep end on the first try. It might not seem that deep to you, just like 8 feet doesn't seem that deep to people that know how to swim, but people that don't will be afraid, struggle and end up making it worse than it really is. You've got to get used to things first and then move on when you feel like you need more.

Manjaro has two package managers with GUI, Octopi is pretty nice and straight forward, not unlike OpenSUSE's Yast.

Manjaro is slick and pretty right off the bat, and has all the greatness to find in Arch, with it.

Spoiler

XFCE flavour for me though..

 

 

[noahdvs]

34 minutes ago, VicBar said:

Manjaro has two package managers with GUI, Octopi is pretty nice and straight forward, not unlike OpenSUSE's Yast.

Manjaro is slick and pretty right off the bat, and has all the greatness to find in Arch, with it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

XFCE flavour for me though..

 

 

Fair enough. Manjaro was actually the Arch distro I was thinking of trying, but I'd have to set up my development environment all over again.

[VicBar]

6 hours ago, noahdvs said:

Fair enough. Manjaro was actually the Arch distro I was thinking of trying, but I'd have to set up my development environment all over again.

What does your development environment consist of?

[noahdvs]

40 minutes ago, VicBar said:

What does your development environment consist of?

It's not just that, it's the settings, widgets and other programs I use too. I didn't really just mean my development environment, but the whole thing is already put together real nice. Installing and preparing Manjaro would just eat up a day or two without me gaining much. I'll probably try Manjaro whenever I get a new laptop or desktop.

I use Qt Creator, Android Studio, PyCharm, Intellij IDEA, VS Code, Git-Cola and Z Shell is what I use for my terminal.

[VicBar]

2 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

It's not just that, it's the settings, widgets and other programs I use too. I didn't really just mean my development environment, but the whole thing is already put together real nice. Installing and preparing Manjaro would just eat up a day or two without me gaining much. I'll probably try Manjaro whenever I get a new laptop or desktop.

I use Qt Creator, Android Studio, PyCharm, Intellij IDEA, VS Code and Z Shell is what I use for my terminal.

Yeah.. but that's normal.. getting your install just the way you like it :-)

[David89]

On 29.3.2017 at 8:53 PM, noahdvs said:

Most PPAs that people would want to install work fine. But why would a beginner fool around with the kernel? If you're a power user of Linux and need bleeding edge software, there's few or no better choice than Arch based distros for sure. I've been thinking of moving to an Arch based distro myself. But what if you just want a stable experience that lets you install software without using the terminal? To someone with no Linux experience, `yaourt -S amdgpu-pro-dkms` looks like gibberish. There's no need to jump into the deep end on the first try. It might not seem that deep to you, just like 8 feet doesn't seem that deep to people that know how to swim, but people that don't will be afraid, struggle and end up making it worse than it really is. You've got to get used to things first and then move on when you feel like you need more.

The thing with that is: You don't have to do anything. Manjaro, Antergos, even Charka (which i don't like very much) follow the KISS Principle. "Keep it simple, stupid". Which works extremely well, because you can just install those and just use them. I just yesterday tried Ubuntu, because i thought it will be easier to get VDR running with DVB-T2 which has been put in to place at the 29th here in Germany - and since Easy-VDR is based off of Ubuntu...

 

Not a chance. Yes, VDR Installing isn't a problem, but the packages are so old, that DVB-T2 is out of the question. Compiling them is horrible with Ubuntu, because you need to install every package standalone. With Arch, you have "package groups". Base-Devel will install (and configure!) everything you need to start building packages. If you choose to install Yaourt on Manjaro and Antergos during the installation, you don't need to do anything, because you just need to type in the AUR-Name. It fetches the most recent binary for you and builds it. Of course that's only as good as the PKGBUILD Maintainer...but it's A LOT easier as it is with Ubuntu. So i just used a fresh LXDE Antergos install. Now i can watch TV in glorious Full-HD over the Air ^^

 

Oh and if you want a stable experience that lets you install software without using the Terminal? Antergos has Pamac btw - i find it easier and prettier than Octopi (Octopi looks very similar to Synaptic). I'm not sure if Octopi can do that, but with Pamac you can just install anything from the AUR via a GUI. For example: Drivers for the Roccat Mouse and Logitech G410. A simple "roccat xtd" is sufficient for the mouse and a simple "logitech", a bit of scrolling and reading the few bits of text below the package name is enough.

[DnFx91]

after years of fiddling with Linux distros, i finally settled on Mint Cinnamon 18. I installed it on my little brother's old laptop about a year ago and he still hasn't realised its not windows

[Salacious B Crum]

Wow you guys are hard core HaHa I'm more confused now then before I asked the question I think I'll start with Mint 18.1 get accustomed to the whole idea and see where it leads me as I did have Mint on VirtualBox for a little I just want it as my startup OS and not as a VM thanks for all the input folks!

[noahdvs]

5 hours ago, mrbilky said:

Wow you guys are hard core HaHa I'm more confused now then before I asked the question I think I'll start with Mint 18.1 get accustomed to the whole idea and see where it leads me as I did have Mint on VirtualBox for a little I just want it as my startup OS and not as a VM thanks for all the input folks!

Sounds like a good move. To be honest, what you pick isn't that important. Just pick something with a UI you like and get used to it.