I bought a DIY Edition Framework Laptop 13 with an i5 1240p for about $1050 after buying my RAM and SSD on their own. This is the best option if you’re into modularity and upgradability and second only to buying used when it comes to environmental friendliness (in my opinion). Battery life isn’t anything to write home about at least on 12th Intel though, supposedly 13th gen Intel CPUs do better
Otherwise, System76, Tuxedo Computers, and Laptop with Linux are probably good options if you want Linux pre-installed. All 3 of those take Clevo laptops and make them their own.
Starlabs also looks like an interesting option, but I believe the Starlite is the only option under $1000 USD. As far as I know, they’re the only company that makes their own laptop chases from scratch for Linux.
Framework has quite a nice selection and the modularity is an amazing feature! Although having Linux preinstalled is a pretty big draw, and Sysytem76 has some VERY nice looking machines. Thank you!
I'm glad you succeeded at installing something lighter to replace Windows.
Have you search for buying more SODIMM RAM? Buying a 4 gig kit will allow for more room for things to run, and a 8 gig kit would allow the processor to run at full speed, assuming the graphics is also using up dedicated RAM space.
I've used Fedora Plasma and it never came close to using 8GB when using multiple problems, it can go a little over 4GB used. Even though it's a Celeron, the 8GB would allow everything to run freely at full capacity and use more of the processor instead of the processor wsiting on RAM and potentially swaping to the drive.
You can also look at GhostBSD if you want a default GUI desktop but want to try what FreeBSD can do.
The SSD will make for a very big difference in loading and operation speed, plus filling out the RAM, everything is going to run so much nicer. If the socket can recognize all 8GB, it will be a nicer experience.
I would suggest you have a look sometime at Devuan for consistant stability, light on system resources, and if you using the testing branch you'll never have to install new releases, you only have to do an update.
I finally changed to Linux this year for good at least on my personal devices. I stayed on Windows just because of MS Office because I was doing work on my personal PCs at times. I needed Excel because I can’t stand LibreOffice Calc and only just recently learned about OnlyOffice. With having my work provide a PC though during COVID to all employees, I don’t need Excel on my personal PC anymore so I made the switch to Linux Mint. Tried a few different distros but just like the simplicity of Mint and Cinnamon is much better than Gnome for me.
I agree with this, and the GUI is simpler on Calc. Pivot Table, Filter indeed great in Calc, and I love how having snapshot for each file portable not depends on the OS file history.
Last I love how now days I can use LibreOffice more than ever than 10 years ago… !libreoffice
I haven’t used it in a while but I remember tab not autocompleting a formula I was typing and I also remember that if you started a formula with a + it wouldn’t handle it. I type a lot of formulas that I start with a + because it’s easy to do on the ten key. But it was more that a lot of small things and keybindings were different from Excel and because I needed to use Excel at work, it was annoying to have two separate workflows.
Online office365 excel is a thing if you need to use for work, etc. I have been almost exclusively using Linux for work since 2017 now. There are some apps for linux like MS Edge, MS Teams, Teamviewer, Webex, Zoom etc. But to fill the excel void I just login via the web browser. It is not 100% identical to using the native Excel App but close enough that I don’t need Windows. LibreOffice was working for casual excel tasks but I found it removed the auto table row shading from excel documents, and when submitting reports it was best to keep the look consistent.
You did good opting for a Linux distribution, but Gnome (Fedora’s desktop environment) is still pretty heavy: they recommend 4GB ram at least.
I would suggest a more lightweight desktop environment like LXQt. The best distributions that ship it are:
Fedora + Lubuntu: if you’re already used to Fedora commands and dnf package manager
Lubuntu: probably the most user friendly for beginners
SparkyLinux: for users that are a little more advanced but that has the lightest and most rock solid base (Debian)
Would a significant portion of steamdeck users browse the Internet from it though? I found browsing too cumbersome on mine and in every case it was easier to just pull my phone out and surf that way.
I’m pretty sure it’s the same as eastern europe, where literally no one bought Windows ever and just pirated, so sanctions do nothing
I’m from Ukraine and I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone buying Windows like… ever, I guess if it’s preinstalled on laptops, but many of them were sold without OS for that reason
Microsoft doesn’t care because that’s exactly how they made a monopoly in eastern europe’s office space before linux became popular enough
As a 40 something who’s used Linux exclusively a few times before but always came back to windows for one reason or another, I now use a MacBook as my primary. I hate the ads served in windows and the poor handling of focus.
MacOS to me has been like a more polished Linux with broader support for applications.
I dislike anything that comes out of the Apple ecosystem. Keep that in mind when I say that I agree here insofar as MacOS being a better user option than Windows at this point.
That being said, I would encourage OP in their pursuit to see if Linux can fit their needs. Anecdotally, I’ve been using Linux (Fedora, KDE) as my daily driver for years now. I find it quite polished and have no issues with finding applications that fit my needs.
Realistically though, application support can be problematic. If a specific proprietary piece of software is required or important to you and it’s not available in Linux, that could certainly be a non-starter. You could fuss about with wine and try getting that stuff working, but no guarantee it’ll stay working so I wouldn’t rely on that. I know OP is interested in A/V stuff. That’s not an ecosystem I’m very familiar with. I know it exists, but I don’t know how good it is. No harm in trying though, all it costs is time.
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