this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
563 points (97.5% liked)

Linux

49846 readers
570 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It just works.

I'm kind of shocked how easy it was to set up. I used ventoy to make a bootable iso of Linux Mint Cinnamon on my Mini PC (Ser5 Pro), and I had zero issues with anything. Ventoy even plays nice with secure boot.

Where's the setup?

There really wasn't any. I booted into Mint, synced my keyboard/trackpad combo and my earbuds then was off to the races. It detected all my hardware including my Elgato HD60 X without any steps. The only thing I had to work around was downloading the deb build of Discord Canary to enable audio output in Discord streams since it was only recently added to Discord's dev/beta build (Canary).

Speaking of which Elgato's capture software doesn't support Linux (shocker), so I simply installed OBS, pointed the audio/video to the capture card, and it worked. Easy.

My Use Case

I have the aforementioned mini PC mainly to be jockied by a capture card for streaming Nintendo Switch to Discord. Aside from that I use it as a productivity machine in my living room for internet browsing (omg webtv!) and Kodi. The Ser5 uses an AMD Ryzen 7 5850u with integrated graphics, 16GB DDR4, and a 500gb M.2. All of the ports, HDMI audio out, etc were automatically detected by Mint.

Conclusion

Linux Mint feels premium compared to Windows 11. It's snappier, more modular, and offers a Linux GUI that's familiar/easy to use. Plus now I have the benefit of no preinstalled spyware or bloatware. Feels good to actually own my computer.

Thanks for reading!

(page 2) 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 day ago

really the only annoying thing about linux nowadays is finding out the name of the software

[–] Unreliable@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 days ago

Welcome! Be sure if to reach out to the community if you have any issues or questions. We love to help!

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 10 points 2 days ago

Glad to hear you're on Linux, living a more sovereign life and having an easy time with it. Mint does indeed work very well for me too. I put Mint XFCE on a ~2015 laptop that Windows was bloating down to dysfunctional. Now it works reasonably well.

You'll hear other people say Linux works well until it doesn't. Well so does Windows. It has many issues too that people tend to not mention. Don't get discouraged by those people. Most of the time Linux is totally fine for normal users, it's people trying to do abnormal things that then causes issues.

[–] DharkStare@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've just made the Switch to Linux for my gaming PC. I'm running Bazzite right now and it mostly worked. I had some trouble with my Bluetooth controller and speakers but they started working after I switched over to desktop mode and then restarted.

A lot of the troubles I'm having are mainly because it's an atomic distro instead of a normal one but that's on me. I figured an atomic distro would make it less likely I would accidentally break something.

[–] CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Can you give me a brief idea of gaming on bazzite? I've done so on mint but I'm looking for something maybe better

[–] EarlGrey@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

Bazzite and Chimera are "SteamOS-like" distros that are more focused on providing a game console like experience.

They're immutable operating systems, and the primary UI is Steam. Definitely usable as a desktop PC but that isn't really their target niche.

[–] statler_waldorf@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

It just works for me. I tried it about a year ago when I still had an Nvidia card and Wayland wasn't playing nice. I've since upgraded to an AMD and most things just work out of the box.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gave me some trouble, but that's just typical for MachineGames's engine on Linux.

The most difficult thing about Bazzite is figuring out rpm-ostree and package layering. Luckily there isn't much I need that's not in the package library.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] furrowsofar@beehaw.org 14 points 2 days ago

Linux works great generally. My wife and I have been using for 20 years since we dumped windows.

The deal is that Linux is great for FOSS but limited for commercial apps. One generally needs to deside based on apps they run. Hardware is similar.

[–] 97xBang@feddit.online 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Congrats! I'm excited to see your upcoming posts on distro hopping.

[–] Jayb151@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Some truths cut too deep

[–] northernscrub@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Forewarning, wine appears to be a bit broken on Mint at the moment. I was recently experimenting with it in a VM, and I could not seem to get it installed properly - even after adding the winehq repo. Debian, by contrast, just works. I still use winamp for my music library, and play a few games that are windows based.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] dx1@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Some Elgato hardware is supported by OBS, FYI. IIRC the HD60+ or S+ or something.

[–] AfricanGrey@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Right. I said that I use OBS for my Elgato HD60 X. Works great!

Yeah I have a Ser5 as a living room PC, wiped windows and have Nobara running on it. Linux is great - browse the web, play games, stream videos, and all with interfaces that actually work on a TV. I don't miss Windows at all.

[–] Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

Congrats! There’s probably a few things not perfect that you haven’t noticed yet-but ya, despite what the trolls say, Linux pretty much just works these days. Oftentimes better than windows.

Sometimes you’ll run into a program that is windows only and that’s a pain. The first thing I do is try to find a linux alternative-sometimes you can sometimes you can’t (stuff designed to interface with your hardware can be a pain sometimes - controllers, rgb lights, fan speeds, motherboard stuff). Bottles works great for running windows programs. And if all else fails a windows vm.

[–] propter_hog@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Cinnamon is a dope desktop manager, too, good choices all around.

[–] DefinitelyNotAPhone@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Related to the Discord Canary comment, Vesktop is a third-party Discord client that's properly supported Wayland for quite some time now. I've been using it ever since swapping to Linux full-time to make sure streaming works correctly.

[–] AfricanGrey@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Audio support for streaming was still unavailable when I tried this. Maybe because Mint Cinnamon is still X11?

It might be; I've only ever used in on Wayland to make up for Discord using its ancient version of Electron. If the canary branch Discord works for you though I'd stick to that, I was just offering another option for either yourself or people reading the post!

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago
[–] Tech_Issus@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

Foreign words to me. Happy for you nonetheless

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›