Linux for Leftists

Heyo comrades, I just bought a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3060 (don't call me a capitalist, Italy discounts VAT on tech stuff if you're disabled) and was looking for a noob-friendly distro with a good Nvidia support (fuck those proprietary pigs)

I looked at Mint since I use it on my desktop, but it has an out of date kernel (I heard that you need 5.8 or above to game with Nvidia, once again fuck them. Never had an issue with my trusty rx580) would just updating the kernel be an option or should I be looking for a different distro?

My only 2 requirements are that:

It's noob friendly (something Debian-based maybe, with a .deb and APT based package management)

And that doesn't use a gnome DE, maybe something more like cinnamon, KDE of XFCE would be nice.

Thanks.

(sorry for long post, had to insult Nvidia)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3776409

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Israel, is in fact, USA/Israel, or as I've recently taken to calling it, USA plus Israel. Israel is not a country unto itself, but rather another illegal occupaton of a fully functioning USA empire made useful by the US Armed Forces, the Central Intelligence Agency and vital imperial components comprising a full empire as defined by any competent dictionary.

Many Palestinians get murdered by the USA empire every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the illegal occupation which is widely used for murdering Palestinians today is often called Israel, and many of its victims are not aware that it is basically the USA empire, developed by the colonizers who genocided almost all of the Native Americans a few centuries ago.

There really is an Israel, and these people are getting murdered by it, but it is just a part of the empire they are victims of. Israel is the illegal occupation: a part of the empire which resides on land that belongs to someone else who did not consent to getting murdered or having their land taken away. The illegal occupation is an essential part of the empire, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete empire. Israel is normally used in combination with the USA empire: the whole empire is basically USA with Israel added, or USA/Israel. All the so-called Israel distributions are really distributions of USA/Israel!

My Predator Helios from 2018 is working just fine with win10, but I really want to move over to linux.

Probably I will start to have problems but I would like to hear comrades opinions.

This Laptop is mostly for gaming.

A sad day, but also a moment to be grateful for all his work. Ever since I've learned how to use Vim I have never looked back, electron-based editors be damned.

I'm liking it a lot, it's very barebones which is something I was looking for, and the package manager's command to install stuff is kinda hard to remember but does its job well. This might be my new daily driver now.

Only issue is that since it's not as popular as other distros finding information specific to Void Linux might be inconvenient.

Did any of you look into Void Linux? Do you like it?

Hello Comrades,

Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I’m now I’m intrigued and I’d like to play around a bit more.

I’m thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I’ll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won’t be installing anything that I can’t get to work on Linux.

Do I need a dedicated graphics card? I'd like to run an HD display as a minimum. (I don't have a 4k monitor at but I wouldn't mind upgrading later if I can save up for one.) Mostly, I'll be streaming or playing videos.

I wouldn't mind playing some games but is a dedicated GPU needed?

If I should look into a GPU (I can always add it in later), what should I look for? (I'm not really interested in the latest AAA games). I wouldn't mind playing HOI4 or Victoria 3 as I hear so much about them.

What are your thoughts on second-hand GPUs? This will obviously cut costs but is there anything to watch out for?

Hello Comrades,

Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I’m now I’m intrigued and I’d like to play around a bit more.

I’m thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I’ll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won’t be installing anything that I can’t get to work on Linux.

Should I prioritise RAM or the processor? My budget is limited so I will have to make a choice between RAM and the processor. Would it be better to go for e.g. 32GB RAM and a slower processor, or 8GB RAM and a faster processor? Or is balance better? Say, 16GB RAM and a 'medium' processor (that's 'medium' between the 'slower' and the 'faster' option within my budget, not 'medium' for the market).

Intel or AMD?

Hello Comrades,

Thanks for all your advice about setting up Linux. It was a success. The problem is that I'm now I'm intrigued and I'd like to play around a bit more.

I'm thinking of building a cheap-ish computer but I have a few questions. I'll split them into separate posts to make things easier. Note: I won't be installing anything that I can't get to work on Linux.

Question about storage and swap memory.

I plan to install an SSD of maybe 128–256GB for the system files and a larger HDD for storage. I would partition the SSD so that I could install a few different distros without losing any installation. This way I can commit to some longer experiments before deciding which distro to use.

The question is: should I have the swap partition on the SSD (with the OS partition) or (separately) on the HDD?

And if I install multiple distros, do I need a different swap partition for each one? For example, if I install 16GB RAM, do I need a 16GB partition for, say, Mint, Debian, and Ubuntu? Or can I let them 'share' the swap partition?

Are there any additional security/privacy risks of installing more than one distro on the same SSD card?

xijinping

Hey there,

I've been doing a lot of typing lately on my shitty old Compaq keyboard (it has a good build quality, but keys require relatively much force to be pressed) and I experience some discomfort in my fingers.

Would anybody suggest any specific keyboard or keyboard type that would help me ease the strain? I know absolutely nothing about keyboards lol!

Hey,

I am unhappy with my current job and I seek the strategy to improve my life situation. It took me a long time to sort out my personal problems, so I am rather late to the party, but I finally feel ready and capable to try and learn something new.

I have basic knowledge of how GNU/Linux works and very limited knowledge in C++ programming. I enjoy spending my time on learning new things in that subject and I would like to use it as an advantage to earn money doing it. Yes, hobbies turned into work sometimes ruin it, but I have no better ideas at the moment.

I already figured out that costly professional courses may be a waste of time and money or at least that's what I've read online. The only truly good thing is that they sometimes offer help with finding job at the end of the training, which might make things easier. I am not sure what to think about it.

Is the perspective of choosing a job in the IT field and changing a job realistic at my age and without any formal education? If so, do you have any advice for me on how to even begin the journey?

I know that I did not specify anything, but I'm trying to get an advice before I make any decisions and I will be happy to receive any suggestions.

Cheers!

Website: https://www.openkylin.top/index-en.html

Git repositories: https://gitee.com/openkylin

I haven't tried it myself yet but I might give it a spin since it has a unique Desktop environment.

Hello comrades!

I'd just like to inform you that I've finished a guide about securing your communications. It's in no way comprehensive, but I hope it will help you start out!

So you want to secure your communications?

Cheers!

EDIT: I hate the feeling of tiredness, I improved the guide according to community feedback but I can barely even consider this and improvement. More work is necessary.

Thank you to @Pili@lemmygrad.ml, @Kovpak@lemmygrad.ml and @ColonelRevolution@lemmygrad.ml.

So I have now been planing for several months to reinstall my OS that I have run for a year or so. I have few reasons for this: Firstly there are some bugs that occur randomly, like file explorers taking a long time to open a directory (it has happened on every DE and file explorer that I have tried). There are also other minor bugs that are in the DE or deep in the system. Secondly I don't particularly like Pop! OS and Debian just sounds very appealing.

So is there easy way to switch or do I have to download my home folder and other config files from /etc and other locations to another disk and then move them back? That sure sounds like a lot to check and remember.

Info that you may need: The whole system is in one partition and it isn't encrypted.

Welcome to the Linux for Leftists community! We are here to spread not only information about Linux, but also about free software in general, privacy, security, free hardware as well as hardware capable of working with almost 100% free software. For this we have prepared guides, as to ease people into these topics, without them having to repeat questions or having them need to spend an afternoon looking for posts.

This list is never finished, however the guides should be helpful enough.

So you want to get into Linux?

So you'd like to be a (pragmatic) Free Software extremist?

So you want to secure your communications?

If you find the list lacks a guide the community could use, make one yourself, make a post about the creation of one, or DM an active mod. You can also open an issue on NotABug. We'll figure something out.

Everything just feels way more complicated than it needs to be.

I tried installing Openshot (a video editor) but I couldn't figure out how to fix the error it spits out when I try to emerge it.

I will now try out Arch and hope I don't need a master's degree to install packages.

Edit: Gentoo isn't the first distro I've tried, I've been daily driving Debian for more than a year and just wanted to try it out since I heard good things about it. And also I didn't really need to use Openshot, I just wanted some video editor and arbitrarily chose to install that one.

Also I guess I will just stick with Debian since apparently Arch is also complicated.

Hello,

Is there anyone using tiling window manager (i3 and similar)? I get easily distracted by stacking desktop environments and I found out that the minimalist approach works best for my ability to focus on learning and doing actual work with the computer. The less on the screen, the better and I don't mind memorizing some additional commands to get works done, if it reduces amount of information displayed at one time. It's not even about productivity - this approach just feels better and "cleaner", compared to bloated desktop environments like KDE.

Vimb is pretty good for that purpose (no menus, no tabs, no need for mouse usage most of the time), although it fails to load some websites and it can get buggy sometimes. Can you suggest any alternatives or ways to improve the experience with that browser?

I have become attrached to the idea of using a totally marxist set up for my writing.

The first two guides themes' are:

✅ "So you want to get into (pragmatic) Free Software extremism?"

It's finished! I hope it's good enough... You can find it here! However, there is an issue I'm trying to resolve with not being able to post it. I'm getting an invalid_body_field error, soooo you can access it through NotABug for now.

⏸️ "So you want to get into Linux?"

~~Didn't even start to work on it... However, there is a plan! The guide will introduce a singular Debian based distribution for several reasons. Simplicity, support, stability. Since Debian is one of the best supported Linux distributions it will be, or any other Debian based distribution, to begin explaining what Linux is, it's ecosystems and how to navigate them. There will also be a small introduction to the terminal, why it's useful and why you don't need to be a master at it nor remember everything to use it for what you need! It will be introduced along with the concept of a package manager. Only one distribution will be introduced as to not overwhelm anyone on what they should choose, or what is the best choice (which doesn't exist).~~

Yeah I've written some already, I'll work on finishing it later. I'm tired and hungry, here's the thing if you'd like to read it.

~~They will be posted when both are finished! Stay tuned!~~ I'm posting the first to check for problems. There are problems 💀, I've asked @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml . for help so we'll see how it goes

If you have any suggestions please leave them here! Don't DM me! Let the whole community take part!

I think it could be very convenient. I can make the post if you want, just comment here what you think the post should have and I'll try to put something together.

Edit: It seems that @polskilumalo@lemmygrad.ml is already working on one so this won't be necessary lmao

I've wanted to go over to Linux for a long time but I have no idea how to go about it. I hear about incompatibility problems with hardware and all the different options for different Linux OS's and that's it, I forget about it for a while to avoid the headache.

So where do I start? I don't even know how to choose hardware or what to look for. The number of options with Linux makes things a little confusing.

And although others here have answered the question before, I'm unsure what I have to do to stay 'safe' on Linux. Are there extra steps or is it just the standard, don't open dodgy links and turn off Java script in the PDF viewer kind of thing? Does Linux come with a trustworthy firewall/antivirus/malware detection? Is there a chance of Linux e.g. sending my passwords, etc, to someone or just letting someone into my harddrive? I hear that 'open source' means people can check the code but how do I know if someone has checked the code—I wouldn't know what to look for myself.

I followed the Linux subreddit but the users the can be rather… enthusiastic, which is great, but I need something far more basic to get started lol.

Is there a good step-by-step guide somewhere? Or can anyone give me some pointers/tips/advice?

I mainly browse, type, and read pdfs and other text files. No gaming, although I wouldn't be opposed to it. No need to be mobile; laptops are terrible for my back so I always use an external monitor, anyway, so I won't be using it 'on the go'.

Edit: Thanks for all the advice. I got a machine up and running from a bootable USB.

Any others who read the comments here because they're interested in trying out Linux – if you have Windows installed and want to keep it on your HDD/SSD, partition your drive within Windows. Then boot from the USB. You can partition your drive (and keep Windows) from the bootable USB but it's a bit more complicated and it makes it harder to create a swap partition and a storage partition. I had to go back and forth a few times to figure this out.