Hi, first post at L1Techs, decided to join because I plan on switching to Linux full time in the next couple of weeks and I have a few questions and this is probably the most knowledgeable place I could think of for Linux.
I plan on going with an Ubuntu based Distro; is there any real difference in the Ubuntu derivatives like Ku/Xu/Etc? I want to stick close to Ubuntu because I’m a big gamer and feel it’s support structure is relatively robust, especially with companies like Valve behind it.
What are the differences or Pros/Cons of different Desktop environments? Just GUI? Just how different are they?
Any major programs you’d suggest for someone after a fresh switch to Linux?
(ADVANCED QUESTION) I’m thinking for atleast some programs I’m going to need to have a windows VM still; and I’d like to do hardware acceleration/pass through for incase I’m doing games or production/workstation work on said VM. My specs currently are i7 [email protected](cooled with a Corsair H105); 16GB ddr4 3200Mhz; and R9 Fury X.
I’m thinking of getting a few more GB of RAM (4-16 unsure) and another graphics card for it: An idea I’ve had is possibly getting like a P104? Mining card and doing the driver mod LTT showed on a video recently to make it work like a GTX 1060 6GB; Would that work or is there any extra issues I’m missing? Or would there be any other suggestions for good and relatively cheap graphics cards?
Welcome to the cave, it’s gonna be all downhill from here
1: The difference in those are the desktop environment and some default apps, like the file managers and such.
2: Xubuntu uses Xfce, it’s lightweight and intended for older machines or minimalists.
Kubuntu is windows-like with sprinkles on top.
Ubuntu by default uses gnome, it’s more like a mac like environment but not nearly the same anyway, can be tweaked with extensions.
You can install any de on a running system and just choose one from the login screen.
3: Learn the TERMINAL! Lol but seriously there’s not much to say other than don’t be put off by it, it’s gonna be your best friend.
Not any meaningful for a beginner, just find the desktop environment that suits you.
They are quite different and it usually falls down to what you prefer.
I personally like cinnamon cause it’s intuitive and easy to configure.
My advice is either try different ones and/or look at YouTube videos for comparisons.
Here’s a quick look
Just worry about getting the tool you need for the job, there’s no must have all purpose program for Linux.
2c. if you’re a windows user KDE may be more familiar to you than Gnome.
They’re (different Windows managers) quite different - you can do pretty much anything with any desktop, but they vary in where window controls are, whether or not they try to hide things from you, how customisable they are, etc.
Install a bunch of them (I’d suggest, Gnome (default in ubuntu), KDE, XFCE), see what you like. You can pick which one to run when you log in. The difference between Kubuntu and Ubuntu is the default window manager, you can basically get Kubuntu out of an Ubuntu install by installing the KDE desktop, and Ubuntu out of Kubuntu by installing the gnome desktop.
Programs I’d install straight up:
VLC Media player
3rd party media codecs
Steam
Most of the other stuff you need will likely be preinstalled.
Unless you plan on running a heap of virtual machines, 16GB should be fine for now.
Welcome Your pretty much on track from what you posted.
Can’t go wrong with Ubuntu out of the gate. Solid pick.
No real scientific answer here. People all have different opinions on work flows, UI and down into the software engineering of a distribution. It is end there all still linux. Nothing wrong with distro hopping.
Chrome, Steam, Gnome MPV are my first picks I guess.
You will be able to check it out with 16G and a Windows VM with 8G. I would avoid using a mining card with no display outputs. What linus did would not work under linux in a windows VM.
Thanks for the welcome; also sorry for the posting in wrong section not used to the L1 Forums yet.
Yeah okay, thank you will do.
And yeah I was just curious if there was any really nice highly suggested programs much like whenever someone installs windows they’re almost always suggested to instantly get Chrome, F.lux, VLC, 7zip, etc.
Been a while since I used Linux regularly so I don’t really know/remember.
Do note which I didn’t make reference to in my original post; I do have a decent chunk of Linux experience from College/old job; but that was a few years ago back when I was like 18ish (currently 23)
Thanks those are the kind of programs I was hoping to see suggested: anything more? Like the kind of stuff I’d see on Ninite? and anything else you’d like I’d like to not have to search for too much down the road and be completely up and running off the get go.
@Marten Thanks, I think so too, I mostly just want LTS and Easy gaming functionality out of it which I expect given Valve’s investment to the Ubuntu community. Thanks for the DE input and the program suggestions. Okay good to know, and wait why wouldn’t it may I ask? Any particular reason the graphics card needs display outputs if it’s just on a VM?
@Baz Thanks mate, I’ll look into those more when I have more time (I’m going to bed shortly as of writing this)
And uh the forum just told me how to @ people so sorry for the previous reply spam versus just using @'s earlier.
Most distributions come with office/media/tools programs by default. I recommend you to install the distribution with the prettiest in your eyes desktop environment, check the software that it comes with and then ask for specific software.
Also there is a thread with Linux software on the forum.
The drivers expect it and looks for the output. What Linus did was use a now patched hole in Windows laptop display code to switch from a CPU internal display out to a GPU’s hardware while still using the the CPU’s display output.
No open source projects are doing this. The closest is Looking glass but the underlining display drivers are still AMD and Nvidia drivers looking for a displays connected to the card. Which is impossible for a mining card unless someone develops that.
AMD and Nvidia have all the technical secret sauce details of how the cards work.
It’s hard to go wrong with Ubuntu. The only difference in derivatives as I am aware is the Desktop environment included. Your reasoning for picking it is solid.
Gnome and KDE are flashier DEs, with modern bells and whistles. Gnome has a specific way of doing things, which is great in that everything is cohesive, but the downside is that it is inflexible. KDE is much less cohesive but is very configurable, as a result it’s interface can vary from the default windows-like UI to an eldrich abomination. There are other DEs like MATE and XFCE, which offer a more lean desktop experience. That’s not to say the aren’t feature rich, they very much are; but they can be much lighter on system resources (depending on your configuration). KDE is fairly lightweight as it is, but XFCE is just a tiny bit lighter. They are also fairly modular, so you can add and remove components of the DE as if they were standalone parts, the window manager and compositor being the biggest examples of this.
It really depends on what you like doing. Many programs from windows are also on linux, but there are some examples where such programs are 1st class citizens on Linux; ie GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, OBS, LibreOffice.
I recommend PulseAudio Volume Control, especially if you have multiple audio inputs/outputs that you want to use simultaneously for different programs, otherwise it’s just an all around good volume control.
MPV is a very nice lightweight media player. Has top notch subtitle support, and is great at playing videos and music. Does absolutely nothing else, which is great.
For better software recommendations I would really need to know what you want to do.
For this the program you are looking for is virt-manager. You’ll want to use KVM for virtual machines, and this provides a nice interface for managing and creating those VMs. As for doing a passthrough, it’s important that you have a motherboard with IOMMU groups that make it possible, and a second GPU. I don’t think a mining GPU would work, (looking glass maybe?). There are plenty of threads on this forum around virtualization topics that would be good to take a look at.
Redshift is the open source equivalent of f.lux. It should be available in most repositories and generally works well out of the box. There is a sample config file about halfway down the page in the link which can be used to customize the color temperature.
Vanilla Ubuntu tends to be experimented on more frequently, especially as far as the Desktop Environment is concerned, more so than the other official Ubuntu derivatives. If you play around with it and don’t like it, then the others are all decent alternatives, and the ones that people recommend the most may not be the one you like the most. You can always dive in to one version as your host system and run some of the others in a VM to get a feel for the different desktops.
As mentioned, there are some typical programs that tend to come default with many distro’s (Firefox, Libre Office) as well as a set of basic programs that are particular to a DE or Distro (KDE and their programs all beginning with ‘K’, Mint and their ‘X’ named programs - text editors, calculators and such). You can usually grab one program from another DE and use it elsewhere. I use xfce4-power-manager, gnome-system-monitor, and gnome-disk-utility on most of my machines regardless of DE. Chrome and Steam are common things people switching from Windows would be familiar using.
As far as recommending programs, you would need to give an example of what type of tasks you are trying to do. It tends to work better if you have a particular need and ask what is out there that can do the work than to ask something too broad. Ubuntu has a list of resources to find Linux equivalent programs to point you in the right direction:
The package for redshift is just ‘redshift’. The additional ‘redshift-gtk’ package might also be helpful if you want a GUI for the options.
Strong suggestion to add it to your startup applications. It’s sometimes wonky out of the box, and it works more smoothly if started at the beginning of a session rather than launched manually when needed.
May i recommend flatpak instead? I always found snaps to be incredibly slow in comparison. Even under Ubuntu, especially Discord, performed noticeably better as flatpak for me.
In the real world not really. some desktop environments are much more efficient in resources. but nothing that should be an issue if you have modern hardware.
it’s matter of taste and opinion. some are complex, some are irritating (though advertise to be friendly) and some give you a lot of functionality. what you feel you need is up to you. though GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE and XFCE are the most popular desktop environments.
LibreOffice
Chrome / Chromium
Wendell has an excellent tutorial on the utensils required to get a working Windows VM working in Ubuntu Linux (Which is convenient in your case since you plan on running Ubuntu)
Allow for some time until you set everything up, dual booting between Windows/Ubuntu will provide a kind of an escape hatch until you get used to doing things in Linux.
The GPU that you’re passing through to the guest os, can not be used by the host os, even when the guest VM is not running. You’ll need a second GPU. (until developers implement needed driver features)
Your pretty much on track from what you posted.