PS. This is not a critique to Debian-based distros. And i'm not suggesting you to skip Ubintu for Arch either. Arch is a bit advanced and not too easy to new users, so that won't do for some people...
... just install Linux Mint instead.
I'm sure the AI will make it run even faster.
91 Comments
festus@lemmy.ca · 103 pts · 142d
As an Arch user I hate these memes. Guys, the only difference between distros is effectively the versions of packages you're getting, and what the default packages and configs are. In Ubuntu you are completely free to have a very minimal i3 setup (I did for several years!) while in Arch you can use some bloated Gnome UI. This "Arch is fast and Ubuntu is slow" really isn't true if you compare Arch-Gnome vs Ubuntu-Gnome, or Arch-i3 vs Ubuntu-i3.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 39 pts · 142d
So what I'm hearing is "Fuck Gnome"?
This shitpost was bought to you by the KDE/XFCE gang collab
DoubleDongle@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 141d
Be cautious about fucking gnomes. Most of them do know a spell that will make it fit, but it doesn't always wear off.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 141d
Trust me, it's worse if it wears off too soon.
jimmux@programming.dev · 10 pts · 142d
Is Gnome even bloated? I've settled on it because it mostly just works and stays out of my way.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 142d
IDK if it's bloated or not, I'm just capitalising on the opportunity to shit on Gnome because I dislike its design choices.
I mean no ill will to the devs or the users of gnome. It's a bit of banter
festus@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 141d
Compared to i3 it is, but I admit that's not a fair comparison as i3 is going for a very specific style that is cheap to implement.
PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 141d
Not horribly. If you have quite old/weak hardware you might notice more memory usage and stuff. If you are on a modern machine with decent specs, it won't matter
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 141d
KDE uses more RAM than Gnome.
This is XFCE/LXQT territory.
M137@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 141d
I have to use Ubuntu (22.04 specifically) because I'm stuck with a 15yo laptop that can't handle much at all so I game via Shadow which only supports that Ubuntu version... it sucks and it's dumb but it's the best option. It's a constant fight against making it not auto update and run things automatically. If I have Shadow running and anything else becomes active the laptop goes into full jet engine mode and I have to pause the game or whatever I'm doing on the Shadow client, and often close it completely, or else it all crawls to a complete stop. It seems no matter what I do it refuses to stop qutomatically checking for updates whenever it feels like it via the several apps used to do so (software updater, snap store etc.). It does this a few times a day, it's so fucking annoying but nothing I've tried fully works. I dream of getting to use Linux Mint, Arch and a few other distros, but so far it doesn't seem like Shadow will expand their Linux support.
FG_3479@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 141d
Have you tried Kubuntu? Shadow should work on all Ubuntu based distros including that, and KDE is lighter than Gnome while still being good for gaming.
OpieSmith1@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 140d
Xubuntu
klankin@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 141d
The only substance I can see to it is when do you draw the line from a modified Debian (or Ubuntu) setup to a "new" distro?
If you start with an Ubuntu image its technically possible to ship of Theseus it right into an Arch image, but you could argue the default config of both is best representative of the actual distro maintainers goal (even if irrelevant to power users).
(Saying this all as a NixOS user with a system that hardly even looks like Linux sometimes so maybe I'm a bit biased on how blurry all the lines are lmao)
solomonschuler@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 111d
Shayeta@feddit.org · 72 pts · 142d
I use Arch with KDE and a bunch of always open applications. At rest it uses 8GB. I paid for the whole 64GB kit, and I'm going to use the whole 64GB.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca · 22 pts · 142d
I’ve got NixOS with KDE and I run several containerized services through podman. System idles at 5.8gb.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 141d
Exactly! Unused RAM is wasted RAM.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 142d
Mint user: I don't care how much RAM my system uses as long as it works.
palordrolap@fedia.io · 17 pts · 142d
I dunno. There are some of us who run Mint not because we don't know what we're doing but because we do* and we don't want to have to deal with any more nonsense than we absolutely have to.
From that small cohort, there are those of us who'll frown when all we have open is a few browser tabs and the system's using 8GB of RAM, twice the "recommended" spec. On startup with nothing running it's over 1GB.
It's hard not to see it as wasteful when you're old enough to remember perfectly good machines running on single-digit megabytes. **
* Or at least, think we do.
** Yes, things are much more complex these days. But are they really a thousand times more complex?
canthangmightstain@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 141d
Hey! I some of us run Mint because we hope to know what we’re doing someday!
cockmushroom@reddthat.com · 0 pts · 142d
Consider trying void. If you can live without system d, it's quite comfy though still low on ram usage. Also, the package repos ship closer-to-latest software. Mostly you'll get all the way there on release day with just a few relatively niche things here or there that you'll have to wait a bit for; ime, go's compiler is a common example; after a very annoying, though admittedly forgotten by me, bug was introduced a couple of years ago we usually only get new versions after the first bug fix has come out. Another is skim, the fzf alternative but that's technically not seen a new version since the auto-selecting-empty-lines bug was fixed.
slemptastrophe@piefed.social · 2 pts · 141d
I want to switch to void so bad. It's just that my machine is a laptop that I carry around with me all the time. I don't feel safe doing that without encrypting it, and all I've gotten out of attempting to manually configure LUKS is hours of wasted time.
edit: typos. Stupid phone keyboard.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 12 pts · 142d
The "free (physical) RAM is wasted RAM" adage rules.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 142d
here you go
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 3 pts · 142d
I was pointing out that swap space, sometimes known as virtual RAM, requires more careful management because of bandwidth and write cycle limitations (for example, it does not make sense to cache files there if they exist on the same physical medium) so full use of space on it is a lower priority.
MrShankles@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 141d
"Hey look, my old af computer works again. Sweet"
That's about how I see it. I've used other distros for niche projects (like un-bricking my OG Xbox with a 20 year old desktop, cause I fucked up the mod). But I use Mint for my daily computer, cause I'm not much of a software tinkerer... and my wife can use it without issues as well. Fuck, I do love Linux for all the hardware it's helped me save, regardless of distro
ekZepp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 142d
A safe bet is the best bet.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 142d
The typical path: Mint -> Arch -> Fedora.
akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone · 22 pts · 142d
Why go past Arch? What's the use case/flavor?
ramasses@social.ozymandias.club · 29 pts · 142d
As someone who uses arch, its just stability. Arch is great for a hobby, if you want to do work, use fedora. Its so much simpler. That being said, I love arch because of the tinkering, and that lack of tinkering is why I switched off fedora.
TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org · 17 pts · 142d
I "do work" just fine on Arch but maybe I've just gotten used to the quirks and the DIY aspect of it. None of it is an obstacle to productivity anymore.
I do realize I'm not the average person and am some kind of freak that likes to take working stuff apart and put it back together for funsies.
alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 142d
Some people just need an OS that works and don't have time to waste on tinkering and fixing it every so often
TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org · 7 pts · 142d
That's what I'm trying to say though, I'm at the point to where it's not a waste of time for me because I know immediately what to do if something goes wrong or I need to make some sort of config change or install/remove software. I'm no longer "tinkering" with it, I'm using it. It's just as fast for me as it is for someone on a more "user friendly" OS.
In other words, I have scaled most of the learning curve cliff.
ThunderQueen@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 141d
rhubarbe@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 7 pts · 142d
I'm always surprised by that kind of statements. I had more to tinker with Fedora than Arch, by a huge margin.
dreamkeeper@literature.cafe · 6 pts · 141d
Fedora is an odd choice if you're looking for stability. It's a rolling distro. Some rolling distros are fairly stable but fedora updates constantly broke my shit.
Debian or opensuse leap are where it's at for pure stability. Or any other LTS distro, really
akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 142d
Ah, got it. Thanks. :)
Janx@piefed.social · 7 pts · 142d
People losing their voice from telling everyone they use Arch?
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
When you want to do work on the OS instead of working on the OS. Arch was a fun learning experience but eventually an nvidia driver or something shit the bed on me and I never went back. Outsource the unit testing to others. Fedora still has very new packages and you can still roll from release to release. Even better if you're using one of the Fedora Atomic flavors.
wltr@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 141d
I was waiting for Syncthing 2 for like half a year. It’s yesterday when I’ve got it. All my other Arch machines have it for a very long time.
timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 141d
Could always just use anything like that in distrobox.
Just saying because I too want stuff to just work and fedora does but still gives you access to new stuff like that in other ways.
wltr@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 141d
Yeah, thanks! I think I’d try something like that some other time, as this time I didn’t know there are options. Here on Lemmy, someone mentioned that Synching self-updates if you just drop it somewhere on your disk. (Pretty cool!)
I do enjoy Fedora a lot, but on shared machines. For my own machines, I prefer to tinker a lot, and build my own, depending on what I need. Since that’s quite easy once you’re past some point, why not, right?
hakase@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 142d
3 years later and I'm still on Mint.
YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub · 12 pts · 142d
Same. No reason to switch as I have no desire to tinker
drcobaltjedi@programming.dev · 11 pts · 142d
Ibwish more linux people had this mentality of "if its not broke don't fix it". After years of floating around different distros, I just want something that works, is stable, and the OOTB is easy and works. So I've just gone back to mint debian edition. Idc, I don't have time to be tinkering with my computer
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 142d
Also a sensible choice tbh.
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 141d
The biggest switch I did was from mint to LMDE mint.
hakase@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 141d
I've been really curious to try LMDE, but I've got everything working exactly like I want it to in regular Mint and don't want to screw it up.
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 141d
Stick with what’s working :-)
I loaded LMDE on a different laptop to see what it was like and there’s not a giant difference so far.
snooggums@piefed.world · 7 pts · 142d
Fresh breath -> curved spine -> m'lady
craftrabbit@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 142d
Yeah that's me, but I started on Ubuntu. Arch is awesome, but Fedora does most of the same things and it's so much easier to maintain an installation of
jimmux@programming.dev · 1 pts · 142d
That's me, if settling on an atomic Fedora (Bluefin DX) counts.
It's the most painless setup I've used, and everything I need to be productive is ready to go. Tweaking everything doesn't have the appeal it used to.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 142d
I'm on Aurora DX, so yeah I would count that.
AresUII@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 134d
Me: Ubuntu -> antiX -> Puppy? NetBSD?
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 142d
I started on Mint, distro hopped for a bit, currently running CachyOS on my gaming laptop and Debian on my other laptop. I haven’t tried Fedora though. I did do Bazzite for a bit but it didn’t click. Maybe one day I’ll give regular Fedora a go.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 142d
That’s probably going to depend on your age. Mint didn’t exist when I was using Caldera.
Jhex@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 142d
I know this is just a meme but has Ubuntu fallen that bad?
Ubuntu did welcomed me to the Linux fam 16 years ago or so, so I am grateful but I have not used it for at least 12 years by now
87Six@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 142d
Been using it at work for LAMP stack dev for like 3 years and it never gave me issues.
The only trouble I have with it, is that my company bought an arrow lake lenovo thinkbook and all the firmware is proprietary or too new... My camera doesn't work well, I get crashrs, graphics glitches... But that is on Lenovo and my company not on Ubuntu afaik.
Jhex@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
Good to know, thanks for taking the time to reply
RedMari@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 142d
Arch, btw
zewm@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 142d
Critique *
ekZepp@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 142d
I think you can use both: https://comparewords.com/critic/critique
zewm@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 142d
The word critic is a noun, the word critique is the verb.
You would have critiques of Debian, not critic.
ekZepp@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
ok
zewm@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 142d
Damn you edited the original comment and now my reply is out of context. RIP
Janx@piefed.social · 4 pts · 142d
Gotteeem!
zewm@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 142d
I got got.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 142d
You literally just used "critique" as a noun.
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 142d
A critic critiques and can have a critique. A critic can't critics nor can have a critic. A critic can criticize and can have a criticism.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
Ergo the statement "critique is a verb" isn't the whole truth.
Siegfried@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 141d
Concordantly
snooggums@piefed.world · 1 pts · 142d
Critical thinking suggests that it is critical that everyone understands this.
zewm@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 142d
My statement was within the context of the thread text. Apologies for the confusion.
MousePotatoDoesStuff@piefed.social · 8 pts · 142d
I was going to stack 4 to 6 Arch VMs inside each other.
Now I'm wondering if I can go further...
drcobaltjedi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 142d
Tell me how deep the rabbit hole can go.
MousePotatoDoesStuff@piefed.social · 2 pts · 142d
I'll try. But if I forget, I'll probably post about it on my Mastodon and an appropriate community here (got any recommendations?)
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 141d
https://youtu.be/9d5EvQiTGxg
sirico@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 142d
Ubuntu bad am I rite guys!
Mwa@thelemmy.club · 6 pts · 142d
Tiny core Linux: i can run on 64 MB of ram. (with GUI)
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 142d
Does it get security updates?
Mwa@thelemmy.club · 6 pts · 142d
probably
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · 5 pts · 142d
Arch is love. Arch is life.
ekZepp@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
Arch is like your psychotic ex. Sex is great, but one day, you wake up because she's burning the sheets of your bed while you're still inside.
Siegfried@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 141d
I just fear what would happend if i just stop the daily updates
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus · 2 pts · 142d
I've had Arch on a laptop for like 4 years now, its also my main gaming rig. The only issue I ever had was my own fault, I didnt put enough memory on the system partition (and just partitioning a terminal use-case device at all). I'm really interested in what's happened to others cause I have yet to experience it lol
wltr@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 141d
Like 7 years with desktop Arch and some more with server Arch, I’m with you. RAID-0 broke once, so I needed to assemble it manually, then update, then everything worked back again. Apart from that, cannot remember a thing.
Strider@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 140d
Are we really talking about 500mb nowadays?
I remember easily running Debian minimal with 128mb
S0UPernova@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 142d
Arch is nice, I noticed slightly higher fps in a few games after switching. Not sure how much overhead there is on it, but I use AwesomeWM which I launch from the commandline since I don't have it run at startup, and I must say I do like the interface for launching programs, I can either do the commandline name or the name of the program will often be fuzzy find away in the launch bar...
If only windows had some kind of menu where you could find programs to launch (and not search the web), and not cram adds down your throat.
Speculater@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 142d
They've done the menu dirty. Used to just list apps. Now it shows you everything but the apps.
Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 142d
I installed 26.04 the other day and it seems like a pretty decent release, I may keep it around for a bit.
boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 141d
Ptyxis is slow and big yes. But it is the only modern terminal on GNOME that is maintained lol
Crt_static@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 142d
Arch gives me flashbacks to compiling kernels on really old salvaged hardware. Mint is good enough these days
muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com · 1 pts · 142d
I use QubesOS with Debian templates so ram is something in high demand. Luckily I have plenty of it to spare. I made minimal arch templates to try optimise but it really didn't help once all the required bs was installed.