Guenther_Amanita @ Guenther_Amanita @feddit.de

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2 yr. ago

I asked the same question a few months ago on a german community.

Most people advised against a SBC (RPI, ...). They're not that much more energy efficient than Mini-PCs (especially with an Intel NUC or Celeron), are more modular + repairable, and use the more common x86-architecture.

You can get an used ThinClient for less than a RPI3, not even to mention a 4. This, and that you don't contribute to more E-waste, is great.

I use a Fujitsu Esprimo Q920 with an Intel i5-4590T processor, 8 gb RAM and only SSDs.
It draws about 11W under normal load, a RPI3 draws about 5-7, including hard drives, the 4 even more with the active cooling and more performant CPU.

The RPI isn't that more energy efficient, even with the enormous german energy prices, the thin client costs only a few bucks a year.
The RPI is also more prone to break, especially the SD-card.

I'm pretty happy with my current setup, would recommend.

Thanks, I will check that out!

I just saw the original project that was abandoned and didn't know there was a fork.

Would you recommend installing the AppImage or shall I use another approach, like AUR in Distrobox, COPR, etc.?

Thanks for the great and detailled report. Here's an upvote for you :)

Maybe you can try another prefix, like using Wine/ Proton 7.x instead of the current 8.x. Or try the GE-versions.

That's what helped me the most so far, but I didn't have many issues by now.

Also, those glitches sound like a faulty GPU or driver. Maybe try a live USB and launch a game from that with another distro like Fedora?

Have you checked out ProtonDB if the games work OOTB or require some tweaks?

NixOS

• "The new Arch"
• Very customizable and minimalist
• Semi-Immutable
• Huge community and very old
• Very different than others
• Config-based
• Not very (new) user friendly, wouldn't use it. Too complicated for me

BlendOS

• Doesn't offer much new stuff for me, nothing they offer is substantial for me.
• Small dev team

VanillaOS

• "The new Linux Mint"
• Huge focus on usability and user friendliness
• Apx is basically only a wrapper for distrobox
• Small dev team (the same one that also develops Bottles)
• Huge potential, but not quite there yet
• Will recommend it to new users when it's updated to 2.0

Silverblue

• My recommendation
• Is one of the oldest immutables and very well thought out
• Biggest dev and userbase
• You can not only install Flatpaks, but also everything else with Distrobox and rpm-ostree
• Best feature: you can easily rebase to it's other spins or the custom ones from uBlue I just rebased this weekend from the SB to the Kinoite-Spin in just one command. I was able to "change distro" without resinstalling, and KDE was installed very cleanly without leftovers.

DB only gives you the dependencies, but is otherwise not sheltered. It still has access to all host OS files, including hard drives and other stuff.

Sadly, I'm not super experienced with it, and I use it on an immutable distro, where can't change that much, at least nothing on the root level.

You would have to read the documentation or google it yourself sadly, I'm out of luck here for you.

I still hope my suggestion was successful :)

While not agreeing, I still upvoted.

Why do you think that way? What's your opinion on FOSS-Androids like GrapheneOS?

With "Android", do you just mean Samsung's spin for example?

What alternatives do you have in mind? Is iOS better in your opinion? Did mobile Linux get better?

Install Distrobox first and work inside that container.

Messing with dependencies of a program not in your package manager can result in bricking your OS (which will take some time to fix and that will be annoying).
In DB, all dependencies will be self contained and your host OS will stay clean. You can imagine it similar to how Flatpaks work.

Then, follow the other's procedures.

Very exited!

I don't plan to use it personally (Silverblue enjoyer here), but I can definitely see it as a more future-oriented alternative to Mint, especially for beginners.

It seems to have a similar philosophy (user friendly and stable), with the difference that it might be more suited for younger users that aren't spoiled by traditional desktop workflows (Windows, KDE, etc.) yet.

My generation (those younger than 25) grew up using phones and tablets and will appreciate a simple, immutable system with Gnome way more than those who are older.

Fedora is community based and "independent" from RedHat.

In the past, they often actively decided against RHs interests and will continue doing that in the future.
Independend in " because RH puts lots of dev power and $ into the Fedora Project, and loosing that would hurt.

It's a symbiotic relationship: RH provides money and developers, while we as users test for new technologies that will get used for RHEL in the future.

The increased ressources provides us with more (also financial) security. Still, if RH somehow decides to abandon Fedora, it will still continue to live on, see Project uBlue as example.

Also, calling everything you dislike "communist" is just dumb, there are way better words for that... Either, you use communism in the terms of "totalitarian government" like Stalin was, which is just... unfitting (Holodomor, etc.); or you don't get that promoting community based distros is more socialist than you realize.

Just say "I don't like stuff forced on me from corporations like Canonical" and don't use Ubuntu and thereof. Nobody hinders you in using what you want, and that's great!

Please tell me more about Spiral Linux. I'm not a huge Debian fan personally(at least for desktop), but I often install Linux on other people's machines. And Mint/ Debian is great for them.

How does it differ from stock?

I would use something Fedora-based. It's just a personal choice from myself, since it's reliable and very up to date. By using a modern distro, you increase the chance your hardware will perform better.

Workstation: uses Gnome, which can utilize the great trackpad
KDE spin: as you wanted KDE
Atomic (preferably uBlue, but Silverblue or Kionite would be great too): my favourite, maybe you could test too. You can install the KDE version first, and if you dislike it, you can rebase easily to the Gnome or whatever version without reinstalling

What maybe won't work is the WiFi and some keyboard things from what I've heart, but you can test it for yourself

+1 here. I wanted to write the same. Silverblue/ uBlue in particular has a huge potential.

It already is extremely user friendly, but if someone could develop an even more "noob"-friendly version with a great welcome-starter that shows you how to install stuff, a good looking KDE rice, and sells it as extra-distro with it's own website and iso, then it could easily replace Mint as the #1 best beginner distro!

Sadly, it is only good from Android to Linux (preferably KDE, but Gnome is almost/ just ad great).

I was super hyped when they released the iOS and Windows versions, but both suck, really.

iOS is super restricted (who had thought...) and Windows is super buggy and only works in one direction (Android to Win), with most of the great features missing and always loosing connection

I don't have a particular DE in my mind that offers this feature out of the box, but if one offers that, then it's KDE. Search for it in their application starter menu section, there's one for sure!

Question is: why do you want that?
It's wrong to judge one for their taste, that's sure. To be fair, I even liked the W8 menu when it came out.

The problem with it is, that it creates a "dive in"-effect, similar to when you enter a room and then forget what you wanted in the first place.

I personally would recommend you Vanilla Gnome. It has a similar, simplistic design language and the overview creates the opposite effect. Instead of the "enter a new room", the activity overview disconnects you from your current task and makes task switching easier while not forgetting what you originally wanted.

Are there any other reasons for why you chose the menu?

Yeah, but it absolutely sucks

Especially Wayland DEs ^((User interfaces, that run on the new rendering engine; the default "look" of Linux Mint can't utilize that yet)) will perform much different on a real install.

On a VM, the screen tears a lot and it will perform sluggish, while on bare metal, it will be suuuper smooth and also give you (on Gnome ^((one of the two most popular desktop environments)) ) access to the best touchpad gestures out there, even better than MacOS.

My advice: install it on a second hard drive. You can also install it besides Windows, but that might break after a Windows update.

Linux feels different on bare metal than in a virtual machine. In a VM, it feels sluggish and is more prone to glitches.

Things to do/ my tips:

• use it just like you would use a PC normally (surfing, file management, etc.)
• If you decide to install it on bare metal, try gaming on it. It is almost as viable as Windows for that, and pretty much all (single player) games work on it, often even better!
• Use the package management system. Linux has the best ever! You don't need to install random stuff from the internet, you just go into the software center, search for it and click "install", just like on Android. System- and app-updates are usually at the same place.
• Stay on Mint for a while. You made the right choice, it is one of the best distros out there, especially for beginners! See, what you dislike and what you like, and only then jump to another distro. Otherwise, you will reinstall your OS every week.
• Don't try to force-install everything you're used on Windows. Some stuff, like MS-Office, isn't just available here. You have to look out for alternatives, in that case, OnlyOffice or LibreOffice for example.

Software recommendations

There isn't that much Linux-exclusive software out there. Most of it is open source, so it usually gets also published on Windows. But here are some I like that are:

• KDE Connect is freaking awesome
• Everything from the "Gnome circle" is also elegant and simple. It's a collection of "do one job"-apps that are very polished.
• Lutris: a game management software, that shows you your library and also offers quick-installations for Windows-games through Proton. A must have for every gamer, it replaces your dozens of launchers.

Don't know why folks are downvoting you, but you aren't wrong.

OP isn't experienced in any way. He/ she probably only used EndeavourOS because it looks cool out of the box.

Arch and arch based distros are fine by itself, but not if you want something reliable and dislike the CLI, like they mentioned. That's just a recipe for desaster!

In my personal opinion, you should either install "real" Arch or no Arch at all. The main pro of it is the extreme customization if you set it up yourself when you know what you're doing, but by using something pre-configured you have all the disadvantages but no advantage.

For the AUR, I just use distrobox, safely from my immutable Fedora Silverblue base. I still get the newest Arch stuff, without having to worry about a broken system tomorrow.

We now almost convinced OP to use Mint or Silverblue, since they're waay easier to maintain and are more robust.

I honestly don't see a reason to recommend a distro like this to a user who wants everything to conveniently just work.

If I want Arch, I install Arch. The main pro of it is the extreme configurability of "building your own OS". What are reasons to use a distro like Xero, Endeavour, Garuda, and so on? They all just provide a cool KDE theme and pretty much not much more outside of that. Everything recreatable by installing one theme, they even tell you how to...

Arch might be fine, but not for this use case.

As I said earlier, there's now a clear distinction between "the OS base" (stuff like your UI and the whole construct that provides a working PC, which you shouldn't touch or worry about) and "your stuff" (programs you installed yourself, cat pictures, and so on).

They are, opposed to traditional distros, decoupled now.

And "rebasing" means just that: you swap out "the OS"-part, while keeping your cat pictures, Spotify and OBS.

On a normal distro, you basically have to reinstall the whole OS, since switching from Gnome to KDE for example messes with many many dependencies, and in the best case, only makes KDE now more unstable and in general messy.

If you are experienced, you can do it relatively easy, but the times I did, it felt really really dirty...

On Silverblue for example, you have a Gnome and a KDE spin. And if you rebase, you now switched to the KDE version, just like you would by reinstalling the whole OS and then copying your files.

The cool thing now is, the KDE base is just one of many potential bases, especially if you look at uBlue.
There are hundreds of community deviations, like a "Vanilla" Silverblue with pre-installed Nvidia-drivers, which are tied to the base OS, so they should be less likely to break because you use the same image as thousands of other people. Or a special "gaming-console"-image, which is a clone of SteamOS with many gaming related tweaks.

P.S.: I don't wanna be rude, but why did you choose EndeavorOS? Was it because of the good looking desktop theme?
You don't seem to be experienced enough to use Arch in my eyes. I wouldn't be too if I'm honest.

You know that you can just theme KDE or other DEs exactly like EOS with one click, right?