Ryan

I’ve been using wayblue on my own desktop. They have sane defaults & very pleasant theme. They do a good job keeping their image up to date & enable auto-updating from the get-go.

I really like emerge/portage, even w/out the “candy” feature enabled. Great color highlighting, and verbose messages about any config change(s) needed.

“Stable” doesn’t necessarily refer to “reliable,” depending on the context. Stable is often used in reference to how often a distro releases new versions of the applications. Using Audacity as an example, in the current release of the distro, they’ll release security & bug fixes for version 2, but if you want version 3, you’ll have to wait until the next distro release.

Upgrades to a new version of an application can introduce new ways of using the app (i.e. icons in different places, how user-created files are written to disk, etc.), which is disruptive to enterprise op’s, which is why Debian & RHEL take this approach.

Hopefully that helps clarify things.

I definitely prefer it over Snaps or appimages. Straight-forward to update, and Flatseal provides a nice GUI to control permissions (if needed). Themes may not work properly, but whatever, not a big deal for me.

The distro’s repo is always my go-to. If it’s not available there, then flatpak, and I’ll use appimage under duress. If that doesn’t work, I’ll figure out a different solution.

I used to use Joplin, I liked that it integrated with my Nextcloud, and the markdown format. However, the way that it handles the markdown files was too black-boxey to me, with the way it split them up in a weird scheme.

Now I use Ghostwriter with straight markdown files inside my Nextcloud folder. So I still get the syncing functionality, but a more flexible setup that doesn’t require a specific app to access all of my notes.

I say go for it. I’ve been using it for about 2 years, and I no longer feel like distro-hopping (not sure if you fall into that category of Linux user), because it’s not opinionated about how it’s meant to be used. It gives you all the tools (and foot-guns) to do whatever you want with your computer.

You don’t need separate computers for a local mirror and/or build server to run Gentoo, I’ve never done that. I’ve never owned a Mac, so I can’t really offer any tips hardware-wise, but use a live USB of a distro that you’re already familiar with, so you can refer to the handbook as you go. The people on Gentoo’s IRC channel & forums are very helpful if you come against any roadblocks.

It does take a while, not gonna gloss over that. Once you have it installed, there are very few issues that would require a full re-install. Portage is an awesome package manager, the language of its warnings/errors took some time to wrap my brain around, but it’s very verbose in describing what’s going on.

I second raptir’s note about running zypper dup in the terminal to do system updates. Zypper’s a bit slow because it lacks parallel downloads, but it provides good info if there are any issues.

If you plan to use flatpaks, add the flathub repo with the --user option, and use that one to install. If I didn’t go that route, it prompted me to enter my password for every flatpak app with an update. I’m also a deplorable Plasma user 😜, I don’t know if the same behavior happens with Gnome software, it may be a weird Discover thing (shrugs).

Also, if you need the non-free multimedia codecs, run the following commands:

zypper install opi

opi codecs

Automates adding the Packman repo & switching the relevant packages.

Those are the main quirks I learned with Tumbleweed.

I never recommend Manjaro, even for experienced users. Multiple times, they’ve let their ssl certificats expire, and renewing those has been easy to automate for a number of years at this point. There have been a number of cases where they ship work-in-progress versions of software as part of their default install, and there was an open letter posted calling this out: https://dont-ship.it

So in my opinion, Manjaro leaves much to be desired from a project governance standpoint.

Now, using an Arch-based distro that does the install process for you doesn’t absolve you from learning what it takes to maintain an Arch install; at some point, something will crop-up that requires manual intervention to get back up & running again after an update.

If that is what you’re looking for, I suggest EndeavourOS.

If you want a rolling release, I suggest going with openSUSE Tumbleweed. The installer allows you to pick & choose what you do/don’t want/need, and has a great rollback system in case an update causes problems.

Otherwise, I would suggest Fedora. Stays very current, and the in-place upgrade process is very seamless at this point.

Yeah, the average user: 1) doesn’t care what’s running under the hood, and 2) doesn’t want to control what’s running under the hood.

I’m definitely not an “average user.” I like specifying that I don’t want wifi, bluetooth, or dvd functionality on my desktop when I have no need/desire to use them. So use flags are one of the main reasons I use Gentoo. Occasionally, it causes some mild irritation, but it’s a net-positive for me.

Can’t say that I’ve really used any of the features mentioned in this list, so doesn’t really affect my experience negatively. Also, updating some icon sets to fit with the overall theme would provide a more unified experience. So two thumbs-up from me for removing code that, by & large, wasn’t getting used, should help maintaining it in the long run.

I’ve read articles that were clearly created using ChatGPT, there was no extrapolation to add context/details to illustrate their points, and parts of it read like it just pulled from a Wikipedia page. The tone felt more robotic than pieces they published 6~8 months ago.

ChatGPT can be useful when it’s part of a larger writing process, but I have a feeling that sites that create prompts and paste the output as their articles will slowly die-off because the quality isn’t there.

My thinking is, if the normies weren’t motivated enough to move to Mastodon after Musk’s shenanigans, this isn’t going to move the needle very much, either.

To them, they see it as “hey, they’re making something that’s kind of like Twitter, but I don’t have to create a new login, GREAT,” and not look into it any further. I can see a very marginal percentage that could be curious, but not enough to be that noticeable.

If more normies actually cared at all about protecting their data, it’d be a different story.

In my experience, snaps are better for servers, and flatpaks are better for desktops.

I haven’t used snaps for a couple years, so they may have fixed this, but I’ve found flatpaks have less issues interacting with peripherals that aren’t mice/keyboards without fenagling with app permissions. A number of snap apps just wouldn’t work without disabling containment entirely (aka “classic”).

Flatpak permissions can be manipulated from system settings in Plasma, and there’s also Flatseal. I am not aware of an equivalent for snaps; doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, I haven’t kept up with what’s available for snap for some time.

I understand why people are upset, because Red Hat has a communication problem. The way this change was presented was very much “we’re making this change immediately without any warning & nominal explanation.”

If they presented it as “in 60~90 days, we’re going to make these changes to address such-n-such problems, so we can continue to be sustainable & support the Linux ecosystem,” I’m not sure that the outrage would’ve been as loud or widespread.

I don’t think a lot of the people yelling at Red Hat realize that Linux wouldn’t be where it is today without Red Had.

This didn’t come to mind when I wrote my comment, but there’s also a “workflow friction” element. Most VPS providers have 1-click installs for the majority of the apps that I want/need to run, and I’m more of a developer than a sys admin. So I don’t really get anything out of figuring out how to do it, it just becomes another headache-inducing barrier to implement the stuff I need.

Right or wrong, the line I draw is “will I need to use this if I’m away from my home network?” If the answer’s “yes,” then I go with a VPS. I’m sure lots of people are angrily pounding their keyboard telling me to use Tailscale, but I have no interest in hacking/tweaking my home network’s infrastructure.

This doesn’t surprise me. Most people don’t have the time or desire to keep up with tech news, and they just want to feed their addiction. It’ll be interesting to see what happens 1~2 weeks after the new API rules are active, and people realize the app they use no longer works.

I never created a Reddit account, and only visited under duress, so I’m not really affected by this. So I’m just cooking up popcorn & watching the show.

I’ve played with it an a few occasions, and I like what they’re going for. However, I just couldn’t put it onto a production computer.

Right or wrong, I feel like I’d have to over-write a LOT of muscle-memory from using regular distros for the past 8 years to use it regularly. If I’d been working in dev-ops, I may feel differently.

When I’m working on local files: LibreOffice

When I’m collaborating: OnlyOffice