Linux Prepper podcast

Going grand. Running Bazzite.

Some squirreliness around installing app, getting permissions and push to talk on Discord.

Before I upgraded my system, cpu from a 3700 to a 9800x3d (along with ram and motherboard), I was getting weird issues. Sometimes when I’d log into the system, it would work for a minute or so and then kick me back out to the login screen. If I’d log in again I would get stuck on a black screen. I’d need to restart to log into successfully (though it would occasionally happen again)

I built a new desktop PC with an AMD CPU and GPU, then installed Fedora on it. I use the KDE plasma desktop. I did mess up at first. I downloaded the workstation version which had gnome by default and had to switch so some defaults are a bit wonky.

Overall it has been great. In contrast, my laptop is still on Windows. I upgraded that to 11 and immediately saw a performance drop at the very next reboot. It's a joke.

The only surprise so far was when a bad kernel update made my network flaky for about a week. The price of living with a semi stable distro.

Of problems, my only one is that only one of my screens will sleep properly. I'm hoping that gets resolved when they replace ssdm.

I tried Fedora at first but had an issue (with Steam, I think). I didn't follow instructions correctly to fix issue and ~~bricked~~ unbootable the system (totally my fault).

Then I tried Mint. I didn't run into any issues and when I do want to do something that isn't just a GUI click, I make sure to follow the instructions correctly.

I've moved everyone else in my family over to Mint now. I'm very happy with Mint. One day, I may change to a arch distro to compare, but I don't have a major need/want to at this point.

Edit: Changed out wording for clarity.

The best thing is that I can make it look, feel, and used as I want. It's my decision. This, and it's easy to fix something if I break it with appropriate documentation. In windows, fixing something on my own feel like a huge pain. Now I work in IT and the workplace use win11 mostly, each day, I hate windows and Microsoft app more. It's like a maze to find something. My Linux desktop is a relief, everything is available

I’m using Linux Mint with an AMD CPU and Nvidia gfx card. For the most part, all very easy to use and happy with how it’s going. Hardest part for me is remembering all the console commands when I want to use them. My brain remembers it’s done it before but doesn’t remember exactly how, so off to the internet I go

Came from Windows 10. I wish gaming was supported more on Linux Mint. But ComfyUI runs like a dream compared to Windows.

Windows 10 refugee also. Had some initial difficulties with nvidia driver binaries. Turns out my older GPU driver is unsupported on newer Linux kernels which left me with 2 choices:

1. Run open source nvidia drivers (nouveau)
2. Replace my old GPU (GTX760)

I went with option 2 and bought AMD because their drivers are open source. Apart from that I've been very happy on CachyOS, other than the repeated crisis of confidence because I don't know the best - or 'right' - way to do things like installing applications given the multitude of different ways to do so.

It's different, but I'm enjoying the learning experience and there's no way I'm going back. Everything else off so much better, it's like how computers are supposed to be - and used to be before enshittification.

It's probably been more than a year for me now, but I distro hopped a little bit at first due to little things causing issues here and there - but I finally settled down with plain old standard Debian - and I haven't been happier.

I feel like so much hype goes into this distro or that distro, but I've found that Debian just works - while all the others have always required tinkering here and there.

People say Debian is going to be a bit behind on updates, but I haven't had any issues with "older" packages - but ymmv. Granted, I've pretty much quit gaming, and gaming on Linux can obviously cause some headaches, depending on the games you play. Overall, I've been super satisfied ever since I downloaded Debian, especially with the new Trixie launch (Debian 13).

Also, I know AI is a hot topic, but with LLMs these days, it's pretty easy to fix any issues you run into by just pasting any terminal error codes into an LLM. It's far easier than back when you had to search substack and keep troubleshooting issues from people's suggestions online.

Discussed this topic on A Great Year for Linux episode.

Last year around April I started dual booting pop OS (24.04 alpha 7 with cosmic DE) just to see how it is, and it became my daily driver. So far it plays all games I want to play (granted, I don't play "online" multiplayer games) and I only keep windows around for access to the Xbox accessories app to calibrate controllers. Ended up installing it on a shared laptop once it hit beta, and now that it's actually just released, it'll probably become the daily driver for my wife's work computer. I've had no issues with Nvidia GPUs, for what it's worth

Remote desktop access like windows Remote Desktop. No, VNC is not even close.

Talked about these discussions on the podcast. So interesting to hear from so many people across the fediverse. Cheers all.