Would start off with linux mint cinnamon edition, imo it is the easiest way to transition to linux, and dont be afraid to play around with linux. Go make mistakes, it is the best way to learn from
Linux needs better multi-monitor support. It’s better than it’s ever been, but it’s still janky and giving black screens on tertiary screens at times.
EDIT: It’s funny how the comments are all over the place. “works for me”, “it’s broken on KDE but works on XFCE”, “it’s broken on XFCE but works on KDE”, etc. I think that’s a good sign there are problems with multi-monitor support.
Xfce have a hard time recognize recently plugged in monitors. I have to restart the PC with the monitors plugged in to have a 50/50 chance to make it work. Or just switch to Cinnamon and make it wok right away.
I haven’t had any multiple monitor problems since switching to KDE that weren’t actually Nvidia driver issues. My “TV” is a third monitor on a long ass HDMI cable.
My only remaining issue is that wayland has slightly more input latency when playing games, enough that it’s noticeable (or a very convincing placebo effect).
This makes it so that I have to use X11 and that I have to disable compositioning when playing games as my displays have different refresh rates. All in all, not a big problem but looking forward to be on wayland for good soon.
Plasma is probably the worst out of the few bigger DEs. If you don’t replug the monitors the same way to the video card, the toolbars you have configured disappear and you cannot copy it from a different display or even make all toolbars identical on all monitors…
How many people total do you think use more than display? How many Linux users or users that would be willing to use Linux would want more than one display? I’m betting it’s a lot if not most. So while it may not be a big factor it probably is a factor that applies to most. Then you add up all the other stuff that just doesn’t quite work right and you lost the incentive or motivation to switch.
Funny because Plasma was the only desktop I tried which game me weird monitor issues Even Windowmaker worked flawless for me, and my XFCE(Desktop) / i3wm(Laptop) never failed with 3+ monitors
Yeah, KDE was also my first DE but immediately switched to Gnome for 3 Years. Till now after having an AMD card. I guess a lot has changed, i also got way too much issues years back then with Nvidia.
I also saw a difference shortly before switching to AMD with animations on KDE (Gnome went nice with Nvidia). They were either loading, caching or just lagging or smth when hitting the Overview feature (Similar to Gnome super button). This small uncomfy issue instantly went away with AMD for unknown reason.
I’ve been messing with this on and off for a few years now and I still haven’t seen support for multiple monitors running at different scaling levels (like running a 4K monitor at 125% alongside a 1080p monitor at 100%). This is a feature I use in Windows on one of my setups. I hope this gets some attention soon. I run Linux on most of my machines but this problem still gets in my way on others.
Plasma on Wayland can do that I’m pretty sure, and if you don’t have an Nvidia GPU Wayland is fine nowadays. Hell, even if you have an Nvidia GPU it’s mostly fine nowadays.
I had the reverse experience. I have had no issues with multi-monitor (OpenSUSE, nVidia driver direct from nVideas own maintained Opensuse rpms) but on Windows I’m having Windows open black, or delayed, not recognizing external display, etc. Too many variables to make proper apples to apples comparisons.
If I’d buy a new laptop these days I’d go with a framework. Other than that, buying a refurbished ThinkPad is always a great option and they generally run really good with Linux. As for support I wouldn’t be too afraid, almost all hardware is supported these days as long as it’s not something really obscure. The main thing worth checking is probably the WiFi card, I heard there are some that are a pain to set up, but I never ran into that. That being said most manufacturers won’t officially support Linux and if they do they’ll only support fedora or Ubuntu (speaking about big manufacturers, ofc there’s system76 and stuff), but as I said I don’t think I’ve encountered a laptop that straight up wasn’t able to run Linux.
I’m heavily considering just getting a refurbished Thinkpad just because of the low cost, along with the support. And yeah, I’ve been making a point to avoid Nvdia for that reason, lol. Thanks!
IMO refurbished ThinkPad is the way for almost anything that is not gaming, working on huge code bases (without having a build server) or heavy graphical work like video editing or heavy photo editing. For most other things a decently new and well specced ThinkPad will do the job while still maintaining that feeling of a “new and snappy pc”
For me, this is the main reason why I use micro. And because I don’t like the handling of vim. Funnily enough, I’ve been playing around with Helix for a while now and I really like the editor, even though it’s a modal editor, just like vim. Maybe because of the selection → action model. The question is, do I like Helix better than micro? I still have to answer that question for myself at some point.
I’d drop keepassxc and pick up GNU password store or gopass. Pgp+git and a nice cli to wrap them onto an encrypted password store that’s pretty easy to move around these days.
The tool, unless something has changed in the meantime, has one major drawback for me. The filename of the encrypted files is displayed in plain text. However, I don’t want people to be able to see, for example, which Internet sites I have an account with. Sure you can name the files otherwise. But how should I remember for example that the file dafderewrfsfds.gpg contains the access data for Mastodon?
In addition, I miss with pass some functions. As far as I know, you can’t save file attachments. Or define when a password expires. And so on. Pass is therefore too KISS for me.
Pgp+git and a nice cli to wrap them onto an encrypted password store that’s pretty easy to move around these days.
A matter of opinion, I would say. I prefer my Keepass file which I can access via my Nextcloud instance or which is stored on a USB stick on my keychain.
By the way, the file is secured with a Yubikey in addition to a Diceware password. So saving it in the so-called cloud is no problem. Just as a note, in case someone reading my post wants to make smart remarks about the cloud.
I just tried out mpv and found it weird that it doesn’t offer a menu for settings like vlc does. Is that the same for you too or do I just not know how to use it?
mpv is very barebones. Which is why I love it. You’re supposed to configure it through its configuration file, and mainly use it with keyboard shortcuts.
There are wrappers for mpv that provide a more “full” GUI including settings, but mpv itself is more hotkey and config focused. You can do a lot of cool stuff using profiles and scripts. I get it if having docs open to configure a media player isn’t your cup of tea, tho.
Some of the wrapper built on mpv are mpv.net, iina, and gnome-mpv.
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