Making the move (would love some pointers)

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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Afternoon peoples.

So as it stand’s I’m not in the frame of mind for windows anymore and I think it’s time for a change.

I’m looking to gain some advice and pointers from you lovely people.

As it stands I have a Intel nuc (BOXNUC7I5BNH) with 8gb dual channel ram and a 525gb m.2 ssd. I have been running windows 10 for the last few months (since may) and i have found it to be a total pain.

Anyway, playing about with Ubuntu for the longest time (mainly on vm’s) i think its time to make a move.

Now to the concerns i have.

I am torn between Mint and Ubuntu. Any advice on these 2?

I’m now wanting to keep myself a little more private on the interwebs, I have nore vpn at the moment and bit defender for anything incoming to the pc. What are the os’s like for privacy?

I only play 2 games on my pc, both run well on the nuc i have. one has a linux client and the other hasen’t. just wondered how easy it would be to set up wine and dxvk?

and last thing, is there anything that i should be looking out for as a new user?

Thanks for any replies peoples

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if your heart’s set on those two, use ubuntu.

for privacy, Ubuntu integrates some amazon/cloud stuff iirc but that’s not the norm for most distros

install /home on a separate partition so when the first install inevitably breaks or you get tired of your distro you can switch without losing your data

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In my opinion, if its between those two, id go with Ubuntu. Its generally better supported and maintained.

Theres no huge difference between the two privacy wise, Ubuntu had an amazon thing installed… I dont know if its still there. If it is it can be uninstalled anyway.

I wont comment on dxvk as i dont know.

Linux isnt windows, be prepared for frustration and pain going full time with it. Be prepared to change the way you do some things. Remember its a computer.

Also remember you bought it to run windows, so you may get some niggles with Linux (or not for most things these days), next time you get a new system, you can get it for Linux in mind.

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Thank’s for the replies guys.

all taken on bored.

out of sheer curiosity what would you guy’s suggest on a disto given the option?

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Solus. By a mile.

then transition to antergos once you’re comfortable.

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I think you can tell what distro i would suggest

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Fedora i what I use. Its the only true Linux OS. But if you’re comfortable with Ubuntu use that for now.

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Respose will be any and all including the esoteric ones. Can’t use it for much. Except maybe, as you mention, satisfy a curiosity.

In most use cases distro choice doesn’t matter, except as a beginner, where community support and guides are essential, which is why I would choose Ubuntu.

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I just put 18.04 on a new miniserver yesterday, the Amazon icon is still there. Takes 2 seconds to remove it though.

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Thanks for the input guys, really is appreciated

Only thing i have concerned now is installing guild wars and making sure the drivers are all working properly.

I’m sure everything else I can cross when i come to it

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Definitely gonna suggest solus as the best OOTB experience, but gonna stray away from @tkoham suggestion in that antergos, along with arch are going to be a lot of maintenance. If you don’t mind that, go for it, but if you want something that just works, you’re best off with solus or fedora.

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Debian with custom kernel and bootloader on top of Gentoo running Arch inside of Linux Mint.

Or Fedora, which is basically those things.

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Why does nobody ever mention Solaris in these threads? On SPARC of course, not x86.

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That’s where wine, playonlinux, dxvk and lutrix come in. We can help you with that once you’ve chosen your distro and are up and running.

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Ubuntu will take you far. My distrohopping has (generally) always brought me back to it. It’s a great OS. Top companies use it and have used it for years like Google, IBM, NASA (I think?), and, of course, Linus Torvalds.

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I find that Ubuntu on the desktop starts to encounter a lot of minor bugs and errors when you start doing things past installing Libre office.

On the server, however, it’s a totally fine option.

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aremis just hasn’t seen it yet

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I think we’d find someone to say that about all the distros listed in this thread :grin:

While that’s likely true, I think searching for a problem you’re having while you’re on Ubuntu versus Solus, Arch, Antergos, Fedora, etc. will yield more “SOLVED” results.

18.04.1 has solved many issues that have plagued me for years on the desktop using Ubuntu.

Seriously, I’ve had some weird plymouth.d crash since 14.04 and every iteration since then. It stopped on 18.04.1 – I could duplicate it too. Just login and launch terminal immediately.

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Agree, 18.04 is their best release in many years. No more Unity (imagine me spitting here), and they stabilized their gnome-desktop.

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Pointer: Install a drop-down terminal