eugenia

eugenia , 15 hours ago

This is my rule of thumb and process to choose DE and distro:

1. Find the CPU model and do a google search with it and the word passmark. The passmark page will tell you how fast the cpu is. If it’s between 500 and 1000, use XFce as your desktop environment. If it’s between 1000 and 2500, you can use Cinnamon (Linux Mint). If it’s more, you can use kde/gnome. If it’s less than 500, use LXQT or LXDE.
2. How much RAM there is in there. These days, you need a minimum of 4GB of browse the internet (the DEs/distros themselves might use less than 1 GB of RAM, but the moment you open a web browser in this day and age, all hell breaks loose with memory usage). For best performance, 8+ GB is better.
3. Ensure that it has over 16 GB of a drive. At 16 GB (as in some old Chromebooks), only Debian fits these days (with 6 GB free space after installation). Mint and the others prefer over 24 GB (both fedora and all the ubuntu-based ones are too big to fit in 16gb without issues – debian fits).

Using these rules, I’ve converted many laptops and computers for my family here in Greece, installing the most appropriate each time. The least powerful computer was my mom’s old laptop, with 16 GB internal, 2 GB of RAM, 600 passmark points. As long as she’s only opening 1 tab on Chrome (Debian/XFce), she fits in the 2 GB RAM without swapping (most of the time). I use Chrome and not Firefox for these older laptops because Chrome uses LESS memory than Firefox (there’s an additional setting for it in the settings to help the matters more), and its youtube playback speed is much better too. I use firefox on more powerful computers, and it’s my default too, just not for underpowered computers.

eugenia , 3 hours ago

I think they’re the same. It’s FF that it’s problematic with ram usage.

eugenia , 3 hours ago

My mom and my family used chrome before, and they’re used to its bells and whistles. I personally use firefox.

eugenia , 1 hour ago

For me, it works just fine as a decision point. And real work usage of the computers I moved to Linux was very similar to what they report, they reflected just fine. So I don’t see any point to not use it, or even more so, to not suggest it to others, when the discussion warrants it.

eugenia , 1 hour ago

Do the calculations yourself, because I have.

eugenia , 3 hours ago

Many times you need to use the terminal with Win and Mac too. Sometimes something goes wrong, or you need to enable something that doesn’t have a UI. So in the last few years, I’ve used the terminal with these OSes too. So I don’t see why you wouldn’t use the terminal with Linux too.

The only time you wouldn’t use the terminal at all, is if someone else is your sysadmin, and you’re just driving a browser or a couple of apps, as a plain user. Then sure, you’ll never need to touch the terminal. My mom only uses a browser for example on her linux laptop. It’s good enough for her. But when there’s an update or anything else such, I’m the one dealing with it.

eugenia , 22 hours ago (edited 14 hours ago)

I’d say that it was the 80s, because most types of art peaked in 1984 (in terms of cultural significance).

eugenia , 1 day ago

Debian is the best for your needs, because that’s what Google uses internally too (they used to use ubuntu, but a few years ago they moved to a slightly modified version of Debian-Testing). All its engineers are using Debian-Testing at their desktops, so it’s the best tested and tried distro for Android. Although all other distros are also expected to work fine.

eugenia , 2 days ago

Get a second ssd, I’m sure your PC has a placeholder for it. Normally, I’d say that you simply resize your main / partition using gparted, however, because it’s encrypted this might be dicey. Hence, get a second SSD.

eugenia , 2 days ago

I actually agree with Linux Mint’s decision. You can not trust any random upload. Either it’s an official/verified upload, or it shouldn’t be there at all (or it should be a separate app for those who want it). That’s why in my system, I only install from the official debian repos and not the community ones. I just don’t trust random anonymous uploaders.

eugenia , 4 days ago

Υou can download the Windows iso, burn it in a usb stick before you nuke it to install linux, and find free legal serial numbers online (there are various serials for all versions of win10/11, all legal – it’s considered semi-activated with these).

eugenia , 7 days ago

I use XSane and TheGimp to scan and edit my paintings, Firefox with privacy extensions to browse, VLC to play videos, Gnome Mahjongg to waste time playing. I used to use Resolve to edit videos, I’ll soon start using Kdenlive. As a visual artist I have a thing for film emulation that Kdenlive can’t do, but it’s something I’ll have to leave behind.

eugenia , 7 days ago

On Resolve there various helper for-film-emulation plugins, and also third parties like Dehancer and Cineprint (which are exceptional), that do near-perfect film emulation. These things don’t exist on Linux video editors. They barely exist for Premiere/FinalCut. It’s a Resolve-first ability.

eugenia , 7 days ago

Film emulation is a whole “sub-genre” of photography and video, where creators are trying to emulate the look and feel of various types of films, like kodachrome, fujifilm, etc. In fact, most movies and music videos have a layer of such emulation during their color grading process. I also treat my videos that way for a more cinematic look.

eugenia , 7 days ago

Plank is quite buggy, it’s not your idea. If you want to use Mint, use its cinnamon panel, not a dock. In fact, I filed a feature request a few weeks ago with Mint, to make the panel auto-resize to look like a dock, and there wasn’t a peep about it by the devs. So if you want a dock that’s less buggy, your best bet is Gnome with the Dash2Dock or “Dash2Dock Animated” extensions (the first one is less buggy).

eugenia , 10 days ago

Gnome Mahjongg

Ltris

Bejeweled

Gnome Tetravex

Frozen Bubble

Xye

eugenia , 10 days ago

I personally prefer Debian or Linux Mint (Edge edition). They’re very, very solid.

But the real question is, why are you building a new PC? If you already have a PC and you want to leave Windows behind, all you have to do is nuke Windows and install Linux (after trying first a live CD to make sure it works for your computer). You see, if your PC is a bit old, as long as you have 8+ GB of RAM, and a CPU of the last decade, you’re ok with Linux. Linux needs ~1/3 the RAM Windows needs. Only 3D games might require a faster cpu and gpu, but Linux won’t.

eugenia , 10 days ago

I like best Gnome with modifications, not vanilla. A permanent dock as per “Dash2Dock Animated”, and the “Hide Top Bar” extension, so when an app gets maximized, both the top bar and the dock get out of the way. Also, disabling tap-and-drag via dconf (I really don’t understand why this is enabled by default on most Linux DEs, it’s extremely bad for usability), and enabling the min/max/close buttons via Gnome Tweaks. Other tweaks I like is the Bibata Modern Ice mouse cursor, and the Faenza icon theme. The rest are ok by default for the most part. It’s better than MacOS for me.

Second best gotta be Cinnamon, using the Cinnamenu menu extension, not the default menu. Overall, they’ve thought of almost everything building this DE and its settings. For those who want the best “Windows” could ever be, Cinnamon it is.

Third is XFce. It’s overall good, but it has some things that trigger me: no user admin app, no ability to turn off tap-and-drag (it just doesn’t turn off no matter what you try), and on Debian at least, the machine doesn’t go to sleep without asking for password (requires a policy-kit manual change). Its biggest advantage is that it’s lightweight and I use it as lot for old machines.

I find the rest under-par. I don’t like KDE, and I have thought long and hard why I don’t. It’s not how KDE is structured or works. KDE in fact is fine as a DE! Very powerful. It’s the Qt toolkit that bothers me. When an app loads, it kind of loads in chunks. It doesn’t blast everything rendered in the screen to feel smooth and modern, it kind of renders it as it reads it. And this just bothers me in a UI more than anything. Another thing I dislike is the long right-click menu on the desktop (same for Cinnamon btw).

MATE is nice but it’s just buggy. You setup your panels one way, you logout, you login back again, and the items have changed position. Fully reproducible for me under many different distros. Very, very annoying.

LXDE/LXQT, Budgie, etc, are not as developed as I liked them to be.

eugenia , 12 days ago

With 8 GB of RAM and 5500 CPU passmark points, that’s a good laptop for Linux Mint. Download their “edge” version of Mint, so you get the latest kernel (so it has more chances of supporting 100% that laptop).

eugenia , 13 days ago

KDEnLive is a good “editor” for simpler projects, but not a good video editing “suite”. It comes nowhere near Resolve’s color grading ability, or even audio editing ability these days. And it has no compositing ability at all. In fact, except Natron on Linux (that gets updated once every 2-3 years with just bug fixes and not many features), there’s nothing about compositing. Blender’s compositing is unusable btw.

eugenia , 13 days ago

When it comes to 2D CAD/CAM, then QCad is the best. They have a GPL version, but their commercial version has a lot more features, like importing/exporting most Autocad files, and CAM functionality. For just $40 bucks, it’s worth every penny. The only disadvantage it has is that it can’t ever have an ARM version, because the plugin they use for Autocad files is licensed, and it only exists for x86 afaik.

eugenia , 13 days ago

You misunderstand the word “editing” in this case. It’s not a matter of adding a few plugins and cutting audio. It’s a matter of having the tools to normalize human voice in a way that it’s expected in a movie, or to have automation about it, or envelopes that tracks the volume and fixes it for you. That’s the stuff that neither audacity nor kdenlive has, because they’re very specific to the movie industry. They have more generic plugins instead.

eugenia , 12 days ago

That’s mostly due to the difference in recording equipment rather than editing.

eugenia , 18 days ago

It depends if you’re using Gnome or KDE. If you prefer KDE, use Qt. If you prefer Gnome’s interface ideas (that looks quite different), use GTK+ with libadwaita. GTK+ has good bindings for Python, and Rust, and a new, rather Gnome-specific language, Vala.

eugenia , 17 days ago

GTK4 is what I meant to say. To me, it’s the same as GTK+, because that was the original name. Just like I spell nvidia as nVidia, because that’s how it was spelt back in the early 2000s. It sticks

eugenia , 18 days ago

Ιt depends on your competence. My mom’s laptop is Debian with XFCE (2 GB RAM old Chromebook converted to run Debian) and of course, she doesn’t use the terminal. But then again, she doesn’t even know how to open a new tab on Chrome. She just uses 1 tab at the time (which is why it’s enough with 2 GB of RAM). So she’s never going to see a terminal in her life, and it’s going to work just fine for her, since the only thing she does on a computer is load 1 tab on Chrome, and mostly use Facebook, or youtube, or news/recipe sites that I have put on her bookmark bar. When the computer needs to be updated, I do it for her once a month or so (using the terminal).

But if you’re trying to do a lot more than that, then maybe, sometimes, you will need to fix or change things using the terminal.

eugenia , 17 days ago

I’d suggest against dual booting not because it’s difficult to setup, but because Windows WILL eventually wipe out your boot manager that Linux would install to boot both OSes. After 1-2 major Win updates, it usually also updates the bootmanager, overwriting your Linux one. So instead, I’d suggest you just buy a PCI nvme card ($12, if your PC doesn’t have space for a 2nd one), add an nvme storage ssd ($35) on it, and then disconnect the Windows drive while you’re installing Linux. Linux will then install the bootmanager on its own nvme only. Then, you re-connect the Windows drive, and then you can press F12 upon booting (well, it’s usually f12 or f10), to tell your UEFI firmware which drive to boot each time (so basically, you’d use your firmware as your bootmanager, per-drive, instead of grub or windows boot manager as per-partition). This way, no one is stepping into the other’s territory at any point.

I’d suggest you start with Linux Mint. You can burn a usb drive to test drive it before you do all that, to make sure it works well with your PC. I suggest you use the Edge version of it, that has a newer kernel (so it has a better chance of supporting your PC).

eugenia , 21 days ago

What I like from Endless is that it always shows the app icons when no app is open. IMHO, that’s the correct UI, not an empty desktop.

At the same time, I can’t quite get that distro very seriously. It’s just one guy working on it.

eugenia , 21 days ago

Torvalds only worked on the kernel, not a whole OS. Also, it isn’t true that he was alone in the first couple of years. He had commits by others almost immediately after release.

eugenia , 21 days ago

I dislike modern pop’s mixing of the human voice, mixed so high compared to the rest, to the point where you can’t hear instruments anymore. The music is often there just for accompanyment, elevetor music. I rather have chillwave, where everything is one big reverb trick pony, than having to hear people screaming.

eugenia , 24 days ago

A wayland screen recorder. Not everyone needs a complex app like obs. Also, a jellyfin/emby front end maybe?

eugenia , 23 days ago

As far as I know, SSR doesn’t work with wayland. Kooha seems nice though, even if I can’t try it (I don’t use flatpaks).

eugenia , 25 days ago

No, that mobile OS is not ready, and probably won’t ever be. I have it installed on an OnePlusOne, it’s just alpha. Postmarket OS is much better and further along, but still not good for day to day usage. I eventually ended up on Murena e/OS, which is based on a more private, totally de-googled version of LineageOS (which is Android).

eugenia , 24 days ago

There are many multimedia solutions for ARM (e.g. libreelec, kodi, plex, jellyfin etc etc), however, these work best for non-big-streaming sites. The moment you’re after a really good youtube experience, or netflix/disney+/etc, then things start break down for various reasons.

Personally, I’d just install the default Raspbian OS (maybe even just DietPi), making sure that their Firefox or Chromium supports drm websites, and then I’d connect the Pi to the TV, and then I’d use a keyboard + touchpad, like this one: www.amazon.com/…/B014EUQOGK/ This allows you to use the machine exactly the way you need it to, without bad surprises and incompatibilities. Not the way you want it to, but more like the way you need it to.

Also, please note that if you’re having a Pi with only 1 GB of RAM, it won’t be enough for what you’re having in mind. I have a 3B+ with 1 GB of RAM, and my Emby server (music only!) constantly needs more than 1 GB of RAM, resulting in the Pi to swap, which means that it wears out the microSD a lot.

Finally, if all else fails get an AppleTV, or a Chromecast with AndroidTV, or a Roku if you’re in the US, but I think the desktop/browser solution can be workable. Not pretty, but most workable for DRM streaming services.

eugenia , 25 days ago

No, it can’t be done that on kde or gnome. Here are two such questions on the “other” site, as some people have offered some workarounds there in the comments: reddit.com/…/is_there_any_way_to_separate_kde/ and reddit.com/…/multi_monitor_independent_desktop_wo…

eugenia , 26 days ago

Ι don’t agree with what they did. They removed browser integration, not just the “favicon” thing. If this was a problem for normal users, well, normal users would just use Firefox’s built-in password manager, not keepassxc. That change made the app useless to me, and going forward it will be a headache for NEW users who won’t know of the -full package. It was a bad decision.

eugenia , 26 days ago

I used to install interesting and cool distros back in the 2000s. Now, I personally just want stability, and not bad surprises. So when I distro-hop, I only do it among well known, largely stable and well supported distros (e.g. mint, debian, fedora, ubuntu). I don’t go for the weird anymore, although I did install Alpine on qemu in order to try it out. And the few times I feel adventurous, I try BSD or Haiku OSes.

eugenia , 27 days ago (edited 27 days ago)

For your desktop, I suggest you install Linux Mint (Edge edition, to make sure the newer kernel included there supports your hardware better). After installing it, right click on the panel, and install the ‘Cinnamenu’ applet (it’s available for download from the window that opens when you click Applets). Then, place it where you want after enabling “panel editing”, and then right click the new menu to customize it as you like. Cinnamenu is a more modern-looking menu than the default Mint, with larger icons. Please note that in June or July, there’s going to be a brand new, major version of Mint. Think of Mint as how Windows should have been, a better version of it. This is my Linux Mint laptop: files.mastodon.social/…/6183bb790dcb8365.jpg

Now, if you want something that is closer to MacOS’ look and feel, then you would need to install Gnome, and use Gnome extensions to enable the dock to stick to the main desktop. For a Gnome distro, there’s Fedora 40, the new Ubuntu, or Debian (IMHO, the most stable of the lot, but slightly older software version). This is my Gnome desktop: files.mastodon.social/…/3c3c5c7e35ac726e.png

And if you have a large hard drive, feel free to install 3 of these (e.g. Mint, Debian or Ubuntu with Gnome, Fedora KDE), to test drive them all. They can all happily live next to each other in separate partitions. Just make sure you create a /boot partition (this holds the bootloader for all OSes), and then 3 large ones to put the / (root) partitions of each distro (these will hold the actual OS for each).

eugenia , 27 days ago

I’m using a 32" 4k monitor without scaling, even if my eyesight is not the best. I have no trouble at all with it. It’s the more common 27" 4k monitors that have tiny fonts and need scaling. But 32", 4k it’s fine at 100%!

As for 1080p, it’s enough for most things. You mentioned the dpi comparing it to a 24" 4k monitor, but why would you need 24" for a 1080p monitor? Anything above 20" is a waste for 1080p.

eugenia , 26 days ago

I personally don’t have a problem with run0 over sudo, however, I don’t want to have to remember to use a different command on the terminal. Just rename it “sudo”, and do the new stuff with it. Just don’t bother me having to remember new commands.

eugenia , 28 days ago

I’ve been putting together a lot of old laptops for friends and family, so here’s my opinion based on my experience:

Your CPU speed is ok (that CPU scores 932 passmark points, which is ok for dekstop usage and youtube at 360p (you should set up his youtube at 360p, and to not autoplay). If this was Chrome, that cpu could do 480p, but firefox is much slower than chrome on youtube. The difference in speed is not visible on fast systems, but it is visible on very old ones (anything less than 1500 passmark points).

Your biggest problem is the RAM. You have only 2.77 GB of RAM, which is NOT enough for normal web browsing in this day and age – if you’re using lots of tabs. The moment you will open more than 2-3 tabs with heavy websites (e.g. facebook, nytimes, and linkedin), you will start swapping like crazy with Cinnamon. So your user will always have to be conscious of what apps they have open (and make sure you configure 4 GB of swap too, just in case).

Mate and XFCE should be using less RAM, indeed (about 600-800 MB instead of 1.3 GB on Cinnamon). I find XFCE more stable personally, and it only uses 100 MB more RAM than Mate on average. The only good thing Mate has over XFCE is that it comes with a user administrative gui app. I usually install that on xfce (“mate-user-admin”).

eugenia , 29 days ago

For graphics stuff you will be using Gimp, Inkscape, and Krita. No adjustment layers, or cmyk, sorry. If that is enough for you, good, if not, you’re out of luck.

For 3D modelling, only Blender.

For video, DaVinci only works sometimes, depending on distro, version of the app, drivers installed etc. It’s a bit of a crapshoot. A good alternative is kdenlive if you don’t need hardware acceleration, proper color grading and film emulation, or compositing.

Google laid off most Dart/Flutter developers just a week ago or so.

Thunar for file manager, not Nautilus. Nautilus crashes in folders that has hundreds of svg files in it (e.g. a theme folder), or when you’re trying to copy a 30 gb folder to a new folder on the same secondary drive (it only copied 9 GB out of the 30, all files were owned by me). Both bugs bit me just the other day.

eugenia , 29 days ago

While the normal Debian has outdated packages as you said, I’m using Debian-testing (rolling release), and it works great for me. It has newer packages, and it’s surprisingly stable. In my experience, more stable than Arch, and it has a larger repo than Tumbleweed.

eugenia , 29 days ago

Woman here. I met my husband on IRC, on a channel about BeOS, 24 years ago. So don’t knock the internet or the bar as potential ways to find someone. If you’re meant to be together, it can happen anywhere.

eugenia , 1 month ago

The replies here are good. Different rendering engines. Also, try another font. Like Roboto, or Inter, by Google.

eugenia , 1 month ago

It’s just a buggy installer. I had a similar crash problem with an HP PC.

eugenia , 1 month ago

4 GB of RAM is enough only if you install something like Debian+XFce (not gnome/kde/cinnamon or ubuntu/fedora), and only if you only use up to 3-4 tabs of web browser at the same time along 1 more app. Basically, you will need to always be conscious about the things you have open. But it is doable if you are the conscious user type like I am. Definitely not enough for things like 4k video editing, or multiple apps open with many tabs open each. Also, always go for the x86 version, it’s better supported.

eugenia , 1 month ago

FreeCAD is what you need for 3D cad/cam or 3d printing. And for 2D cad, or 2D cad/cam, there’s the free GPL version of QCad (recommended to buy the full version for $40 to get cad/cam and more import/export file support from autocad). Anything else (librecad, openscad, Design etc) are not as well rounded imho. And then there’s onshape, but that’s not Free software.