ipacialsection

joined 1 year ago
[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If you haven't set up this laptop yet, then I'd suggest installing a server-oriented distro like Debian, AlmaLinux, or Ubuntu Server. Those have minimal install options that come without a desktop environment installed, as most servers do not need one. If you'd like to make the install harder for yourself, this might be a good excuse to give Arch Linux or Gentoo a try, as those have the option of a fully manual install. If you'd like, you can install a desktop environment afterwards using the package manager.

If you already have a Linux with a graphical desktop installed, you can configure the system not to automatically start it with sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target. (Do not do this on your main device!) You can re-enable it with sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target.

Regardless, you can then start a graphical session using startx, or whatever command is more appropriate for your desktop environment (gnome-session to start GNOME on Wayland, startplasma-wayland to start KDE Plasma), or by sudo systemctl starting your login screen manager (sddm, gdm, lightdm, etc).

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No modern AAA games have been released this way, but there is at least one game made specifically for libretro (Dinothawr) and a few other games that have been converted into "contentless" libretro cores (Cave Story, Mr. Boom, Rick Dangerous).

The games (or their engines/emulators) would have to be modified to use the libretro API for things like input, rendering, and sound. Though it doesn't look terribly hard to program for, it does tie the game to RetroArch (or another libretro frontend) and possibly limit what the program can do.

I thought I'd also bring up Lutris, which is not only a libretro frontend but also a frontend for numerous other game platforms. It may not have the game console-like UI of RetroArch, but I think if you must have all games under one launcher, it's the best you could hope for.

I'm not averse to trying new foods, but I have strong aversions to certain foods that I have tried. If I have a bad experience with one food, I will not be willing to try it again for a very long time, possibly ever. And if I have a good experience with one food, and it is easily available to me, it will remain in regular rotation for a very long time.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm currently on the RHCSA path myself, and I can tell you that the courses are not worth the thousands that Red Hat charges. There are plenty of unofficial video courses on YouTube and Udemy and study guides and practice tests on GitHub that are free or cheap, and other resources for every individual study topic, which will be good enough.

However, though I can't speak from experience, it seems like the cert itself will look good enough on a resume to justify the investment of $500 and a month of studying.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Assuming you mean the Beelink S12 (which is the first thing that comes up in a search for "n100 mini pc"), that's quite similar to my own computer specs, which can run just about any distro, with enough resources to spare for a VM or two. I don't think it's necessary to go really lightweight or pick something special. If there's a distro you're already familiar with and know you can do all of those things on, install that.

If you like Garuda, you could always try a different Arch spin which is lighter out of the box, like CachyOS or EndeavourOS.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I've switched to FreeTube for now, it still works using the Invidious API. This is happening because YouTube is testing forced login to watch videos or use the API. There is a workaround it seems, but we'll have to wait for all the major clients to roll it out.

Windows 8.1 was my last version before I made the switch. Windows 8 was horrible. The Metro UI broke all my habits from Windows XP from 7 while also making it harder to tweak my system. By the time 8.1 came out, I'd found enough ways around the main annoyances that its improvements were moot, but many issues remained, such as the bloatware bundled with my PC, and frequent slowness and instability.

As for why I switched, I was attracted by the free software ideal, and trying to get away from Windows, and I had watched and read several things that further convinced me it was superior, but I think the ultimate reason was that I had become hyperfixated on Linux. Thankfully, in this case, autism did not steer me wrong. My level of obsession with Linux has declined, but I still enjoy using my computer much more than I ever did or would on Windows.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have the same problem at my school, but thankfully, the school library has laptops I can borrow with the lockdown browser installed. It isn't ideal, but is there a similar arrangement you could make?

Unlikely. While in theory someone could create a compatibility layer, it would be quite a challenge, as obviously, kernel modules are very closely tied to the specific kernel. I did some web searches, and only found the same few dead projects (that didn't completely solve this issue anyway) that you found, and other forum posts that offer little encouragement.

Make sure you have the latest version of Windows 10 or 11, and the latest drivers for your network hardware. If you do, then there's probably not much you can do about this.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Actually, I wonder if this show was greenlit in some way because of Prodigy's cancellation. They're trying to draw in a younger audience for the sake of the franchise's long term prospects, but Prodigy didn't get as many views on Paramount+ as they hoped (and is now on a different service), so they wanted to make a version of that which is better suited to streaming, without the awkward concessions to Nickelodeon's release schedule.

Though, I think the problem is really Paramount+. A streaming service that is best known for Star Trek and a bunch of dramas that old people watch, is unlikely to get anyone under 30 to subscribe to it for Star Trek.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Personally, I've had no problems whatsoever running the Office 365 apps needed by my school on Debian's version of Firefox ESR. Aside from Outlook and Teams, I'm not asked to use them very often, as most assignments are turned in as PDFs, but when I have been required to use Word and Excel, I have had no problems.

Apparently GNOME 46 introduced support for Microsoft 365 accounts including OneDrive support in the file manager, so a distro that runs a recent GNOME version, such as Fedora or Ubuntu, may be your best option. But without that, you can still use a third-party project like onedriver or abraunegg's OneDrive client.

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