New Linux user seeks distro with as much hardware control options as possible

just google your use case tbh.

not really but something new to the linux scene is flathub.org. if its not in your distros repos then you can probably get it there too.

theres also snapcraft.io but these dont necessarily pertain to what you’re asking about specifically.

no but you can use the software center to search through whats available for your distro of choice.

We do have a small linux problem thread where you could go to ask simpler questions. otherwise helpdesk is great.

typically you dont edit driver configs.

this is a big problem with linux desktops, and has more to do with desktop environment settings. we can get into this later though.

you shouldnt need the driver from AMDs site. they are built into the linux kernel.

Thanks for this reminder. It’s something that I understand, and I know when it comes to building too much into a GUI or kernel, it adds complexity and more chance for failure, and in cases slows things down. I basically listed out about all the concerns I have with the switch to Linux. I may run into something later, but for the most part I’m pretty much good to go once I get through this initial phase and with experience will be comfortable operating within the confines of the OS/software that exists.

The first computer I worked with was designed in the 60s, and have 64K of memory spread out over 4 cabinet drawers. It was magnetic memory. VERY TINY donuts with wires running through them. A 16K drawer cost about $3000 to swap out. There was no such thing as an OS for computers like that, and loading a program was a matter of pressing a few buttons and switches, manually setting values into one or two registers, making sure the load was good, then starting it, following written instructions for that particular program. To have enough power, these computers were connected to each other with large cabling for parallel transfers. For our system 3 were tied together to be able to run the problem. Programs and data were stored on magnetic tape.

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I actually have the same motherboard and CPU as you. I’ve found that Arch Linux has the largest wiki and package repo ecosystem out of everything. Pretty much if you can do it on Linux, there’s an Arch Wiki article for it. I had a tearing issue as well and I resolved it by turning off compositing in xfce. Also, AMD GPU drivers are built in to the kernel nowadays, so you probably won’t fair well getting downloading externally. Here are some links you may find helpful towards your goals:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AMDGPU

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ryzen

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Professional_audio

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lm_sensors

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zenpower-dkms-git/

While Arch may not be the easiest to install (it’s not hard if you follow a guide like the youtube link I provided), I find that is the easiest to pretty much do anything else you would want to do on Linux given its unmatched wiki, wonderful community, and repository of packages.

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Thanks for all the links! I’ll think what I’ll do is take the info I have and give Mint a try, not bothering much to customize but simply to run software that I need while also evaluating the multimedia experience, since that’s important to me, and if I get everything working fine I’ll run that for a while on the one machine, but on my next I think I’ll go with Arch. They both have the same MB/CPU/Mem config and the main difference being the brand of the RX580, which to the driver should be zero difference. Or, I may be putting a 1070 into that second one. I’ll be doing my next machine next month so that will give me some time working with Linux to get more comfortable.

That would give me a little understanding of two different distros and I could then get into customizing and see which I end up liking the best. I need the ease of working with a GUI for media files, along with a good experience in general working with files and navigating a system, so an excellent file manager and an excellent search tool. As long as there’s good documentation for hardware configuration, that becomes less important being either command line driven or GUI.

Once both computers are doing what they’re supposed to, then I can take a deeper dive into Linux in general, and I could use one of those two machines or one of the older ones I’m retiring.

Just a little food for thought.

@dlb123 you should for sure listen to @Adubs and @SesameStreetThug . Also welcome to Free Software yay! fireworks… celebration… glad youve decided… Onto other things! For a distribution recommendation I am going to keep it short sweet and simple.

If you really want to hop onto a quality distro thats a bit more advanced a little less friendly but the software and coding taste behind it is gorgeous… Fedora and CentOS are your game.

If your particularly freetarded I would recommend Debian. Its a great distribution with amongst the widest hardware support of any distribution despite being dated. A lot of freenuts will tell you that stable software is a joke or that you need to be on the latest kernel. You dont. Choose a distribution and stop worrying about it!


Personal Exp:

As for me I am an engineer I work with so many pieces of hardware both personal and professional. My distribution of choice is Fedora. My desktop of choice is MATE

  • Its bleeding edge (I like new support more than older hw support)
  • One of the best communities out there I have ever been around
  • The spins are very good quality and keep to the packaging standards
  • Security first mindset is employed everywhere including packaging.
  • RPM software and RHEL quality stuff. Easy to port software over.
  • Stupidly large hardware support
  • Emphasis on Free and Open Source Software.
  • Obviously most importantly it gets out of my way and lets me work

If debian is more your taste.
I made a post on it

If your still looking. One of our wonderful aboosers @SgtAwesomesauce (admin) made a great post too that takes a quantization approach

If you want to TLDR yourself (its a great resource)

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Why havent I made a fedora post. Im a freetard :roll_eyes:

Thanks for the info!

THANKS! Frankly a lot of the links you listed are already topics in my mind that I know I need to read about to get a much better understanding of the OS and what people are TALKING ABOUT! :slight_smile:

I think as noob I get to ignore the distro hopping bit for now as I wanted to try 2 or 3 that are basically different lines so I get the feel. But, I won’t be distro hopping simply because of the look and feel of the GUI. And, I do different things away from the computer so my distro testing will be at a slow pace, as all the other things I do in my life away from a computer are just as important. My age slows me down a little too but it’s all good, and as I’ve read a few times, patience is important.

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Youll find quickly that distro hopping becomes annoying. Its interesting thats how I settled on fedora… I wanted something to do what I ask and get out of my way. DNF is slow af but thats fine.

I wish you luck. Tell ya what… Dont get to radically deep into it. Try to keep an open mind to all the approaches you make. Theres gonna be quite a few toxic people on each distros community who are best to ignore.

one last link for you (from the same guy who did the distro hopping video):

^^ He made this a year after the distro hopping video

I really do sincerely believe Arch is the unchallenged champion of the desktop/workstation linux distros. Not necessarily the best for servers, though.

That’s it! That’s all I have to say. I’m an arch fanatic, but I’m gonna shut up now :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I definitely am going to get around to it, but it seems like the easier path right now, which in all fairness is most likely to keep me on a growing path with Linux is starting with Ubuntu or something based on that. I’m certainly not in a position to debate distros, but there does seem to be a consensus (for whatever that could possibly mean in the world of Linux) that those are, at least, good for beginners. Good, being a relative term. :slight_smile:

There I think I said that about as good as I can. No really, thanks for the info because it puts a challenge to me that I may not have considered before, and it re-enforces my notion that I need to try out the main flavors of Linux, and really test them out, and, even after forming an opinion, giving time to really test out these flavors, understanding that things change over time. So even after 10 - 12 months I say, “I like Debian”, I remember that it’s only a snapshot in time, and in 1.333333333333333 years there can be enough change that maybe I want to revisit the other main flavors.

I have one advantage in that I have machines kicking around where I can test, as I’ve always built my computers going back to the mid 90s, the first time I bought the parts for my first computer, so I have hardware kicking around that is always within the realm of what people are still using.

My first move though is to get 2 machines moved over to Linux doing what I need in the least painful way possible. I’ll know within a month if Mint is going to get me there with machine 1. I’d know faster but I do other things in life other than being in front of a computer.

Peace dude.

I want to make it clear that I am by no means criticizing your choice to use some of the more popular beginner distros. I totally understand where you’re coming from with that. I just wanted to impart my thoughts/feelings about Arch that I wish people had articulated to me years ago as I would have avoided a lot of pain as I got more advanced as a user. Good luck on your journey and if you need any more advice or assistance with anything, don’t be afraid to ask!

Its definitely a good distro that being said for things that are say proprietary or programs that have support…arch is rarely on the list. I can think of a few… Keysight ADS… mmm MATLAB … etc

Not that im suggesting it makes it a bad distro or that the OP uses these

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MATLAB Looks like there’s a pretty extensive wiki page on Matlab. I don’t have any experience with it, though. I do have some proprietary things that I do use and I have gotten all the support I ever needed from the Arch wiki

I read it a while ago basically its a conglomerate of fixing what is a very broken install haha :slight_smile:

I guess the over arching point (LOL) is that if you need support stay on the other distros if you dont feel free to explore

shilling arch to a new linux user

1300044776986

IDK, I would rather have my distro get out of the way and let me fix crappy programs that I need to use than rely on support that is probably only good for certain versions of said program, and anything new as far as support is at the behest of the company. The arch wiki is public in that anyone can edit it, but there are stringent guidelines to keep it clean. So any time there’s an issue it can by covered by any user who first discovers it, and it can trigger discussion between other users where the solutions are further refined.

Ive never seen arch as the get out of the way distro but rather the one I have to nurse to proper operation but I also dont see proprietary as crappy either so I guess we have different opinions of software haha

I don’t think it’s that outrageous. Everyone is different. And anyone who has actually used Arch will tell you that the difficulty of the installation process is WAY overstated, and that once the installation process is complete, everything else is pretty dang smooth sailing.