this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago
[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 78 points 1 week ago

Brag about being an Arch user (BTW.)

[–] superkret@feddit.org 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nothing, at all.
Some things you can't do easily in Mint, like create snapshots automatically and boot into them when something breaks.
But it's all Linux and freely available software under the hood, and the lines between configuration, customization and forking your distro are blurry.

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 5 points 1 week ago

ship of theseus

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You can't have your entire system configuration in a repository of plain text files, which has lots of advantages, but it's not worth caring about unless you feel excited to get into it.

[–] thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago

Found the other NixOS user. ;)

[–] oxomoxo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why not? Isn’t this the whole concept of Bash Script, Ansible, Terraform, etc… I mean it can be as simple as a git repo that pulls down an install script then syncs your dot files. What am I missing? If you’re referencing Nix, you can also have that on Mint.

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm talking about not just Nix, but NixOS. Nix (the package manager) can do a lot, but NixOS + disko + home-manager can literally be all of the configuration for your machine from drive partitioning through to dot files. Throw in nixos-anywhere and impermanence and you can have an insane amount of control over all of your computers.

Ansible, Terraform, Chef, etc. do have some overlap, but the main difference is that those tools iterate through the system modifying it piece by piece and NixOS is declarative.

If something fails in some of my bigger Ansible playbooks, it could mean 30 minutes of just running through all the steps again. I could probably break it into sections, but then I have to worry about making sure they all get run when things get updated. In my NixOS install, it's way faster, I can roll back to a previous state, and troubleshooting is way easier in my opinion.

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[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 1 week ago

Nothing, it's all Linux

[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You can't easilyy switch between different inages like on an atomic fedora system.

Do you have to switch now? No.

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[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (9 children)

Serious answer? XFCE doesn't support multiple monitors with different refresh rates. So that.

Some of the other answers (like Meta (aka Windows Key) not working for shortcuts) can be hacked around, but unless you switch to a DE that supports Wayland, you will never have stable multi refresh rate differences on multiple monitors.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago

I'm not a fan of the xfce UX at all, and multi-monitor support still has a lot of issues (under Debian 12), but I am pretty sure having different refresh rates is possible

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago

Serious answer? XFCE doesn’t support multiple monitors with different refresh rates. So that.

That's more of a limiation because of X11. KDE and Gnome do not support different refreshrates on multiple monitors as far as I know. Its the main reason why I never used multiple monitors. But on Wayland, this issue is solved. So if XFCE is ported to Wayland, they should also get this support for free I guess.

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[–] Nonbinary_Sahrah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Acces to the AUR I guess? But not much really. If you like what you have just stick with it

Also I use Arch btw

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 9 points 1 week ago

Technically he or she has access to the AUR, but through website.^^ On a more serious note, one could install https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox and manager multiple package managers. Because each package manager is in a container, they do not interfere. I never used it, but imagine it like Flatpak, but actually using the package manager from the distribution (including access to AUR). And specific applications and programs can be "exported" to install them like a normal application, so you can access it with a single appname.

[–] exu@feditown.com 6 points 1 week ago

One could compile pacman and all the build tools if they really wanted to.

[–] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Use Pacman as your package manager, or something. Linux is Linux. If you use a mainstream distro it should be 90% similar to all other distros. You don't really have to worry about FOMO when it comes to Linux.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Everybody giving a version of this answer makes me feel better about maybe switching to Linux.

[–] LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Waste time configuring things and troubleshooting things when your ultra custom system breaks.

[–] notprogrammer@programming.dev 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Y-you're not supposed to ask that!

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[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Compared to Arch(-based): Accesing the latest packages. It's not impossible, especially if you go for Debian testing repos, but it's definitely extra work.

Compared to special-purpose distros (i.e. gaming, portable, high security/privacy, pen-testing): Whatever their special purpose is will usually be harder to achieve.

Compared to huge corpo distros (SUSE/Fedora and derivatives): Ease of more intricate setups and maybe some security testing.

Compared to Ubuntu: Paying a corporation to not withhold security patches from you.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Running alternatives to Systemd.

[–] poo_22@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

With NixOS you can upgrade your entire OS and if you don't like it roll it back like nothing ever happened. You can also replicate your entire machine by copying your configs over to another computer, running the install, and then copying over any files you have in your home folder and you will have reproduced your desktop.

You can also very easily use a different version of a packaged app by adding an override in your config. This is useful if you want bleeding-edge features or if something is broken. Also every package is also a development environment, so you don't have to worry about setting up a dev environment to hack on stuff.

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[–] Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

waydroid (if you don't install a wayland based de)

[–] Sentau@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you are speaking about stock Linux mint Xfce, with the default kernal, mesa version etc., your support for very new hardware - Arrow lake, battlemage and RDNA 4 will be imperfect. In general, very new hardware (launched within the last 6 months) will not be supported properly because the lts kernel being used was written before these products were launched

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Arrow Lake

Why would anyone curse themselves with that though?

[–] Sentau@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago

The ultra 7 is actually a good all rounder. Decent performance (well balanced between gaming and production workloads), good efficiency and good pricing with respect to the AMD options. AMD is of course better for pure productivity (9950x), pure gaming (7800x3d and the upcoming 9800x3d) and is better at the low end (7600, 7600x)

[–] 0x0@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

Technically speaking: nothing really, provided you have time and skills.

Except maybe not having access to NDA-ed binary blobs or something...

[–] confusedwiseman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In my experience, not much, but I’m a marginally functional newbie. Mint manages things for you fairly nicely and has been the best, it just works with out messing with much/anything. (At least for my hardware)

I managed to get gnome working smoothly on mint and have been happy with it. I started and returned here since I last ditched windows as a native OS.

The only thing that has made me consider distro hopping from mint is AUR on arch and gnome, though I’ve been successful so far.

Part of trying the distros that are more advanced and give you more explicit control and configuration is the sense of accomplishment and it makes you figure out how and why things work the way they do. It holistically builds your velocity in your understanding of Linux. (Or gnu whatever that nuance is).

If your machine has enough resources it is super easy to host VMs of anything you want to try. You can try them all, and it won’t cost you anything but time!

[–] Nilz@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If you feel like you need/want software from AUR you should check out Distrobox. It can run any distro on top of your installation using Docker under the hood, but it tightly integrates into your system so with little effort you can run AUR programs from your launcher as if they were natively installed on your Mint.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

My advice as well!

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[–] solidgrue@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I mean....

Steam? Maybe? I dunno, I don't game but the Steam kids seem to prefer Arch. I'm sure they have their reasons.

Practically? Probably nothing terribly significant.

[–] phanto@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago

Steam and Lutris work well! I can game on XFCE Mint just fine. I actually have an easier time of it than on a number of distros, thanks to the combination of flatpaks and the Ubuntu base. But, I am not "the kids".

SteamOS is arch, so some of the derivatives are too.

Steam shouldn't really care though.

[–] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 6 points 1 week ago

I think “they prefer” Arch because a lot of them just bought a Steam Deck and that comes with Arch and it just works.

[–] myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website 4 points 1 week ago

Reasons are usually just newest kernel/mesa/etc. Most of the time the difference is very small, and often inconsequential. However, every now and again there is a major development that might make it worth it (IE: The graphics pipeline that all but made dxvk-async obsolete)

[–] VITecNet@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm a complete noob in the games department. Btw, I see that you don't use Arch.

[–] solidgrue@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Man, I got stuff to do. Lol.

[–] user@lemmy.one 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I love xfce. But ive tried gnome w tiling shell extension and wow. But i still miss xfce , once they come over to Wayland i think I will go back 🤷

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 week ago

Natively install RPM packages? Really, there's not much. Find a setup that you like.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

File-by-file integrity check against signed checksums upstream to trivially confirm validity of deployment.

But that's probably not interesting.

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