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bsergay

@ bsergay @discuss.online

Posts
8
Comments
130
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • From your description it sounds like I can change Cinnamon to something else

    You definitely can.

    is this fairly straightforward to do?

    It ain't bad. However, I would opt for a distro that defaults to the preferred DE. In this case, similarly to Linux Mint, the distro would have to be beginner-friendly, popular, polished and stable[2]. So, IMO, that would be:

    • GNOME[3]; Pop!_OS or Zorin OS
    • KDE Plasma; Tuxedo OS
    • Xfce; MX Linux

    Note that there are many other DEs. However, the above mentioned DEs (together with Cinnamon) are the most polished and popular. And while there are many other distros through which you might 'consume' said DEs, the distros mentioned above are the ones I (personally) like to recommend.

    1. At least relatively speaking.
    2. Stable is used here in the context of meant to be used without updating for 'extended' time; except for security updates.
    3. While both default to GNOME, they differ pretty significantly in how they're setup and the associated envisioned workflow.
  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • Wonderfully laid out. Couldn't agree more.

    I'm also curious to find out how effective welcome screens are.

    I suppose the most effective would be if the user is told how to act whenever they're about to commit a 'mistake'; after which they're friendly reminded what they should do instead 😅. But I believe that's a gargantuan effort to effectively gameify the distro 😂. Cool idea though; hopefully some iteration is already in the works.

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • Perhaps that makes him the perfect candidate 😂.

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • Hehe, consider to keep us updated 😜.

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • Thank you for the clarifications!

    Regarding what you mentioned on Debian; ultimately, you're a lot more experienced than I am with it. But, IIUC, Debian 12 should have done a great job at easing (new) users into its ecosystem. Not sure if it's sufficient though.

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • I think immutable distros could be great for newbies, but I’m just thinking they’re still so new that if you go online to look for Linux advice or help, most things you’ll find are very much not for immutables and I doubt a true newbie understands what’s what.

    I definitely agree. But, I think it's sufficient to communicate to new uBlue users that they should check uBlue's own documentation first. And, if they didn't find the answer there, that they should ask on discourse or on Discord.

    I only addressed this for new uBlue users as I don't think other immutable distros are sufficiently newbie-friendly yet.

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • I'm well aware that both elementaryOS and its Pantheon DE were innovative and made major strides for user-friendliness a couple of years back. Hence, they rightfully earned a spot among the newbie-friendly distros. However, I might be wrong, but it feels as if they haven't been able to keep momentum. And therefore lost their significance.

    If you think I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me; I would love to be educated on how elementaryOS has kept relevance (if they actually have).

  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • but I don’t think immutable distro are a good place to start.

    FWIW, the first distro I used and subsequently daily-drove[1] was Fedora Silverblue over two years ago. The try-hard in me immediately started off (or at least tried) applying the hardening outlined in Madaidan's article. After banging my head for a week, I started actually using the system and it has been a very smooth ride ever since. The uBlue images are straight up better when it comes to the OOTB-experience without even mentioning the associated 'managed'[2] aspect that comes with it. Therefore, I believe that they're perfectly suitable. They're not for everyone, but no distro is anyways.

    1. I forgot to mention how simultaneously I quit Windows cold turkey as well.
    2. The uBlue images are able to 'prevent' breakages that would otherwise affect everyone.
  • Featured

    Understanding Linux and choosing your first Linux distro, v2.0

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  • First of all, thank you for this! This effort is very much appreciated and will definitely make it easier to parse through Linux; especially for beginners.

    Having said that, some personal nitpicks of mine:

    • I absolutely love Fedora. But if it's named first on your list of beginner distros (presumably due to alphabetical ordering), then it better be easy as hell and work as expected OOTB. Unfortunately, that ain't the case. Hence, at least mentioning the Howto page of RPM Fusion would have been sensible to combat issues users might experience otherwise.
    • I'm fine with the inclusion of openSUSE Aeon, but openSUSE Kalpa is literally in Alpha. Therefore, it's too early to be recommended.
    • I'm personally not very bothered with Fedora Workstation on the list of distros geared towards beginners, while Debian is found on the list of power-user distros that beginners should avoid instead. (I'm a die hard Fedora fanboy anyways.) However, I am curious to your reasoning/justification.
    • Alpine Linux was originally envisioned as an embedded-first distribution. Therefore, most of its design choices revolve around that; small, secure, simple et cetera. The way that you describe/depict Alpine Linux, is more in line with how I would for (what I'd refer to as) demonstrative distros like Artix and Devuan.

  • Before your change to Linux

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  • What was the last version of Windows you used before hopping on over?

    Windows 10

    So what’s your reasoning for the change to the reliable and funni penguin OS?

    Freedom and privacy

  • OpenMandriva ROME 24.07 Released – OpenMandriva

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  • How do the 'offspring' of Mandrake/Mandriva compare to one another? IIRC, there's ALT, Mageia, OpenMandriva, PCLinuxOS and ROSA.

    I've also come to the understanding that what set Mandrake apart from its peers was its polish and user-friendliness. Which, harbored a great community back in the days. Currently, however, this role is fulfilled by distros like Linux Mint. Furthermore, most distros are relatively straightforward anyways. So, my other questions would be:

    • Could the argument be made that Linux Mint is the actual spiritual successor to Mandrake?
    • Are the Mandrake-offspring's most compelling raison d'être that they're Mandrake's offspring?

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Not the person you asked, but they might have referred to the fact that (technically) Qubes OS is not a Linux distro because it's based on Xen instead. Though, even then, we might refer to it as a Xen distro (if anything).

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Got anything to back that up?

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Compartmentalization buys you disposable VMs.

    And more.

    TAILS is amnesic, which is an improvement to this.

    How? Please focus on the security merits.

    Everything is lost between sessions

    If this is your reasoning to justify your earlier statement, please explain how this outdoes Qubes OS when it comes to security.

    Btw, it seems you're conflating protection against forensics with a proper security model. In terms of security, TAILS does not provide anything remotely comparable to Qubes OS. Qubes OS is literally built differently. In case you enjoy tables.

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Unfortunately my 8gb RAM (for which 2gb is dedicated for the iGPU) isn't enough. FWIW, this system could technically run Windows (11) without any troubles.

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't compartmentalization through virtualization the best solution we currently have?

  • Sell us on your favorite exotic/niche distro

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  • May as well contribute my own 😜.

    I'm an absolute sucker for exquisitely hardened distros. Hence, distros like Qubes OS and Kicksecure have rightfully caught my interest. However, the former's hardware requirements are too harsh on the devices I currently own. While the latter relies on backports for security updates; which I'm not a fan of. Thankfully, there is also secureblue.

    Contrary to the others, secureblue is built on top of an 'immutable' and/or atomic base distro; namely Fedora Atomic. By which:

    • It's protected against certain attacks.
    • Enables it to benefit from more recent advancements and developments that benefit security without foregoing robustness.

    If security is your top priority, Qubes OS is the gold standard. However, secureblue is a decent (albeit inferior) alternative if you prefer current and/or 'immutable'/atomic distros.

  • Leaked Docs Show What Phones Cellebrite Can (and Can’t) Unlock

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