Sorry it took so long for me to get back to this comment. You put in a lot of useful info for me. I’ve been doing different things and I only got back to my machine yesterday. I’m thinking of just giving Ubuntu a try since Mint is based on Ubuntu anyway and I’m thinking there may be better repositories for it. Since I haven’t really done much with Mint other than doing some basic exploring of what comes with the install and looking at some of the tools/controls, it’s really easy to start again.
What do you think would be the main difference between something like Debian and Ubuntu? For a person who’s worked with PCs for many years and have always done my own builds, including setting up the OS and configuring the software to have it be the way I want it, would either be about the same as far as being able to set the system up, or having a large repository?
the main difference from debian vs ubuntu is user friendlyness. debian is alot less user-friendly, but much easier to micromanage your system with. Ubuntu tend to “just work” but you cant make it your own as much as easily.
debian also has 32bit application support.
debian uses apt, where ubuntu uses some other package manager.
Additionally Ubuntu has a boatload of proprietary software installed by default, whereas Debian is more like Fedora and sticks to FOSS more.
I regard to the original question, openSUSE probably has the most hardware control built in by default, but if your install it yourself Arch/Manjaro would be roughly as good.
I’ve done a little bit of reading, and this is something where I want to start banging my head into a wall with figuring out where best to start with a distribution.
I start reading about Ubuntu, and that gets me to the Gnome Desktop. So I read about Gnome and I find out that Gnome 3 gets you to the same point I really disliked about the changes in Windows, to where the application interface functions the same on a small device as it would a PC, so no right-click, and other changes that I don’t care for. I really like the old Windows style of right-click context menus, minimizing/maximizing windows, having a MENU BAR, so the controls don’t take up the VIEWING SPACE for whatever it is I’m working with.
So now I have to read more in depth about the distros, and what kind of desktops they can possibly have, then read about the desktop environments, and that brings me to a new realm of questions about application compatibility.
So, with Ubuntu I read that I can use Cinnamon via a PPA, whatever that means, and I believe Cinnamon gives me the desktop functionality I like. I also read that Debian supports Cinnamon and so does Manjaro, along with a few other distros, but I’m sure there are other desktop environments that will give the same thing Cinnamon does, since Cinnamon is a reaction to Gnome 3 anyway.
Where I’m getting with this is, if I install something like Debian and use a desktop environment of a certain type, does that affect the apps that can be installed? Are apps geared at a variant of Linux, or at a desktop environment?
I’m throwing this back out, but please ignore the specific distros I list, because I think this question would apply to most any distribution:
I’ve done a little bit of reading, and this is something where I want to start banging my head into a wall with figuring out where best to start with a distribution.
I start reading about Ubuntu, and that gets me to the Gnome Desktop. So I read about Gnome and I find out that Gnome 3 gets you to the same point I really disliked about the changes in Windows, to where the application interface functions the same on a small device as it would a PC, so no right-click, and other changes that I don’t care for. I really like the old Windows style of right-click context menus, minimizing/maximizing windows, having a MENU BAR, so the controls don’t take up the VIEWING SPACE for whatever it is I’m working with.
So now I have to read more in depth about the distros, and what kind of desktops they can possibly have, then read about the desktop environments, and that brings me to a new realm of questions about application compatibility.
So, with Ubuntu I read that I can use Cinnamon via a PPA, whatever that means, and I believe Cinnamon gives me the desktop functionality I like. I also read that Debian supports Cinnamon and so does Manjaro, along with a few other distros, but I’m sure there are other desktop environments that will give the same thing Cinnamon does, since Cinnamon is a reaction to Gnome 3 anyway.
Where I’m getting with this is, if I install something like Debian and use a desktop environment of a certain type, does that affect the apps that can be installed? Are apps geared at a variant of Linux, or at a desktop environment?
An answer to the last part of the question would be incredibly helpful, as it may even fill in some info for what you just said.
In the case of repositories, are the apps geared toward the distro, or toward the desktop interface, or a combination of both, so for the case of Kubuntu, would I be able to pretty much use the entire repository for Ubuntu or is this always a situation to where you install apps and have to always test them out, making no assumptions it would work?
In the case where you have Debian, the same kind of question. If I am using a repository specifically for Debian, does the desktop environment play a role in what apps will install and work correctly? Or does the desktop environment provide the controls for the most part for the app windows to give the look and feel, and the main interface for the program will work, whether there’s something like a menu bar or not, no matter what type of desktop environment you have set up for your distro? That’s really my main question. What affect does a desktop environment have on the apps you could load from the repository for that distro, if it has any.
The answer is yes there is software specific to some distros and desktop environments. The reality is most of it can be used with any distro with varying degrees of dependency on other applications to make the software work.
Really you’re focusing in on something that’s mainly insignificant. Flatpak and snap can serve to supplement software not available in your default repos. The reality is theres very little that you’re limited by when choosing a desktop environment and distro.
Thanks. I haven’t had the time to get back to much testing, but did do some reading and video watching. It’s hard to understand what’s significant and what isn’t I’m guessing until you have some experience, but I did start to debate putting either Ubuntu or Debian on the machine, since loading a new OS would take about 5 minutes since I haven’t really done anything with the Mint install. I’ve had other issues that took up my time.
The only reason I suggested mint is because it has a great cinnamon experience and it’s built on Ubuntu so software and tutorials should mostly work the same. At the end of the day it’s just not that big of a deal. Print out their logos and put them on a dart board. Whichever one you hit is a good place to start.
IDK where you got this, you can right click on GNOME. What other changes don’t you care for? The GNOME DE is actually quite good and is powerful when used with a keyboard. You also don’t need to use Gnome on Ubuntu, there are flavors like Kubuntu that have KDE instead.
Some apps are gears towards one environment or another, but that doesnt mean they wont run on the other environment, they just might look a bit out of place.
Kubuntu doesn’t use a special repo, it is the same Ubuntu repos but with different packages installed by default. All of the normal ubuntu software can be installed if you so desire.
You can install any package in your repo, no matter what DE you are using. In the case of 3rd party repos you have no guarantee that the software works, but everything that comes out of the box has the expectation of working. If you wish to install the gnome-calculator from Ubuntu on Kubuntu, there is nothing stopping you from doing so.
I simply haven’t had the time yet to get back to messing with the system, but I will this week, and since I haven’t done anything with Mint yet, and looking at vids for different distros, I’m debating on installing another to see if that gets rid of a couple issues I had after the install or having to start messing with Mint right off the bat to get it to work the way it should with the graphics. It seems like a few of the distros are pretty user friendly, so spending 5 minutes to do a re-install when I haven’t configured a system yet seems pretty trivial.
I wouldn’t fret the small stuff while you’re still getting settled in. If you want to reinstall something else, that’s fine; just don’t make a habit out of it otherwise you’ll never actually pick something and get to use the system. There are many good choices out there, so many in fact that I find it can be better to just pick something without worrying about it too much, you eventually get to the point where distros don’t matter. As it stands, the “linux community” (to the extent a horde of confrontational cellar dwellers can form a community) over exaggerates the actual differences between distros and it really just comes down to small details.
One thing that Mint gives off the bat is Cinnamon. I like the UI. If I do a couple of installs with, say 2 different distros to see what the out of the box experience is like, I want to at least make sure they’re going to give me what I want as far as UI. If I can do an install and pretty easily change the desktop environment with no hassle, and it gives me the controls that I like using, and from what I’ve read, GNOME 3 doesn’t, then if all my hardware works the way it should, I’m good to get going, no hassles involved.
If on the other hand I install a distro, and the first thing I have to do is reading and asking questions about how to fix some issue when the distro is in fact supposed to work with that hardware, well, what you get is exactly what I’ve done, which is join a forum to get some ideas.
If I test out 3 distros, and I have the video issues with all 3, then I think the GPU could possibly be an issue, and I have 2 different ones I can put in. They’re both Nvidia so I have to install drivers after the OS install. With each distro I might install for testing though, I want to have some notion that if it works correctly after the install, it will be one I’d be content using.
If you like Cinnamon, you may also like MATE and KDE.
It has some configuration through extensions, but it’s not as simple as dragging a panel where you like it. However the experience in GNOME is more cohesive. Take a look at https://extensions.gnome.org/ to see what kind of extensions there are. That said, it’s worth keeping in mind that extensions are 3rd party and may not perform well or with stability (but they also might). My DE of choice is KDE, I say this not because I want you to use KDE, but rather to assure you that I’m not pushing GNOME or any other DE due to my own preferences.
I’m curious what video problems your having, unless this is just a hypothetical statement. Many distributions will not come with the codecs required to playback video by default. I think Ubuntu (and maybe Mint) have a checkbox in the installer to do so. If that is the issue you are running into, it’s as simple as installing the required software from your repository.
If you’ve got anything else, we’re willing to help out. :)
The video problem was mentioned in the opening statement I believe, but I get tearing, with a new RX580, when watching 1080p video, for which a 580 can easily handle. I could test the GPU in a Windows computer, if I wanted to uninstall drivers for an Nvidia GPU, install drivers for the AMD card, then uninstall the drivers for the AMD card, then reinstall drivers for the Nvidia card to get it back to the way it’s supposed to be.
However, it may be easier to simply do 2 installs of Linux, then I don’t have to worry about remnants of drivers hanging around on my Windows machine.
This was part of my post yesterday, where I mention hardware not working right out of the box. So to continue with Mint, I have to go into troubleshooting procedures, that could be resolved by simply installing a different distro. I have a very fast NVMe for the OS, so installing a couple different distros is probably the fastest way to test. Already tried both X16 slots.
