this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2022
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Need reccomendations for distro. Old laptop from like '10 (shipped with windows 8, not even 8.1), touchscreen needed so no Mint unfortunately. No linux experience whatsoever beyond using tails and I know what the terminal is but have NO clue how to use it.

Need a daily driver for light tasks (just gimp, handbrake, internet, qbittorrent, and libreoffice type stuff, no games), would prefer security and privacy, but idk if Whonix can run on my old machine and with my nonexistent linux exp idk if it is a good one for me yet, may need exp with something else first? Idk, y'all tell me!

Was reccomended Fedora, has touch support and supposedly good for the light tasks and will run in my old laptop, but figured I'd ask what y'all think because you guys seem knowledgeable.

It is my only computer besides my phone so I can't afford the time to fuck around lol.

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[–] Windows97@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

touchscreen needed

Sounds like Gnome is your best bet in that case, no other desktop comes close. Like @LIESGREEDMISERY@lemmy.ml suggested, fedora might be worth a shot. I don't like how it's software repositories work but it shouldn't be that bad if you're ok with using the command line to unlock the expanded repos. Once you got that you got one of the best Gnome experiences you can get on linux and a very solid linux distribution underneath.

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I assume it is easy to look all that up being that Fedora seems to have a large community, so I assume it won't be that hard, and I'd like to learn how to do all that "-sudo install aircrack" shit anyway lol (I know it is wrong, I said learn haha). Sounds like that will be the winner here! I think I'll use it to get familliar and then maybe check out whonix for the overkill privacy/security (hell I use GrapheneOS so overkill seems to be right up my alley). I assume I can set up mac spoofing and anything else I may need on any distro with a bit of research, tails has it so fedora surely can too. Thanks for your help!

[–] Windows97@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah it's all things that'll become second nature pretty quick. Most of my gripes come from being spoiled by the AUR.

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

I don't even know what AUR is so I will be fine! Haha, I'm sure I will pick it up faster than I think myself, these acronyms and terminal and everything are just daunting. But I am into another hobby that I similarly knew nothing about until I commited myself to learning and now am far from an expert but far from a layman as well, with similarly daunting acronyms and varying platforms and such, so I know I can do it! I don't game or do anything crazy, the only game I will be sad to lose is flOw by Jenovah Chen lmao, I still have the old windows version from when it was free! May see if I can use whatever wine is to run it.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hmm, so a bit of terminology to get you started: On Linux, there's the concept of "desktop environments", which is basically each a collection of programs to show you a graphical desktop UI. Basically, you can transform a server OS (which has only a terminal interface) into a desktop OS by installing a DE.

And there's various DEs available, which provide different user experiences. Among the most popular are:

  • GNOME Shell (this is what Fedora and Tails ship with)
  • KDE Plasma
  • Xfce (this is what Whonix ships with)
  • Cinnamon (this is what Linux Mint ships with)
  • MATE
  • Budgie
  • LXQt

Now, GNOME has the best touchscreen support. KDE is in second place. The others don't really support touch input to my knowledge.

However, GNOME is also among the most heavyweight. KDE is definitely lighter, but also not the lightest.

I still think GNOME is lighter than Windows 8, so migrating will probably improve things, but if you've been told that Linux can revive old hardware, then yeah, your touchscreen requirement kind of torpedoes that...

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for the info, I guess I know I can run Gnome since that same laptop will run tails, so that is good. It is less about reviving old hardware (windows still works on whatever version I'm on and I'm getting updates and whatnot), it is more about getting away from windows entirely. I degoogled my phone for the same reasons, it only stands to reason that I need to do it there too, hence my desire to use Whonix if it'll be a good fit for a new guy. I know I can't run qubes but might be able to run Whonix if it isn't too intensive to do so. Also taking other reccomendations for distros I am unaware of that would be secure and private (or have tutorials on how to make them that way) and frankly any "daily driver" os should be able to handle all my other uses with ease I'd imagine.

[–] eyeballkid@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Fedora would be a good starting point since it has a straighforward version of GNOME as its default DE. It would be a wise to try out the fedora live disk for a while to verify that the touchscreen works well before installing anything. If Tails worked on this laptop then Fedora should as well, but it doesn't hurt to check before doing anything permanent.

System memory and processor speed may be bottlenecks on a touchscreen laptop that old. My 2014 touchscreen tablet runs linux, but it can't handle GNOME or anything remotely touchscreen-friendly. Onscreen keyboard+tiling wm=awkward user experience.

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

OH you can live boot fedora?! With persistent memory? That is the ticket for trials then for sure! I only use the touch minimally so I could conceivably lose it, but it has gotten me out of jams where my mouse was shitting out, though who knows, that may be an issue with windows and I won't need it! No clue as to RAM without booting up and going to system specs but this here little sticker says "intel inside core i5" so maybe? To give a more accurate picture of time and therefore possibly it's components, usb 3.0 was still fairly new and it boasted it had one port for it! Haha.

[–] eyeballkid@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Apparently, yes. I've never tried doing that with a live usb, but give it a shot and let me know how it works out for you.

You probably have much better hardware than my old tablet. My tablet was marketed as a $99 dollar Windows tablet and I got what I paid for. 1gb ram soldered to the board, a weak 64-bit atom processor with 32-bit efi. One micro-usb port that doubled as the charging port. It took a powered usb hub, a custom-modified installer, and a lot of patience to get that thing up and running. It still works!

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hell yeah! I'm sure I can run it fine then! And on a hunch I just called my mom to see if she held on to her old laptop from a few years later and she did, so looks like I have a backup instead of fiddling with live boot beyond function checks! She has her work pc she uses so she doesn't need it! Love it when a plan comes together lol, I will be trying Fedora as soon as my 2 weeks seeding these last few torrents are over!

[–] eyeballkid@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

Excellent. Any time you swap out an operating system, it is very useful to have a backup device in case you need to spend some time troubleshooting. Most of the frustration and stress is removed from the equation.

[–] LIESGREEDMISERY@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Tails and Whonix is definitely overkill. And given your description of nonexisten linux experience, it's not recommended. But it's not the usual daily-driver distro anyway.

Fedora is nice. Fedora has a leaning on FOSS projects, which if you need to install a proprietary software, you'd have to enable additional repository. It's not always inherently privacy-respecting, but it has great defaults, then everything else is depends on what users install and configure.

But do expect a changing workflow from Windows, because Linux is simply different. So whatever distro you pick, it definitely require time for you to get used to it.

If you ever have used Photoshop then moved to GIMP, it require you to change how you work with it. For example, in PS you can edit individual RGBA channel independently, while in GIMP you'd have to decompose each channel into layers, edit, then recompose them into single channel. Things are different. You wouldn't get used in a day.

I'd suggest dualbooting Linux & Windows for several months, so you can explore Linux while you can still use Windows as needed. And by exploring Linux, you can also read/watch online resources to see how people use it or see people's review.

If you go with Fedora, bear in mind that the installer is different from other popular distros. Confirm/next/back button is at the top, mind you. See the documentation while installing. Just giving you a notice because some people complaining that the installer is hard. But once it's installed, it typical GNOME experience and best for touch gestures as you need (if you go with the main Fedora Workstation download).

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Good to know, I suppose I may start with Fedora (or maybe something else if you or anyone here have a reccomendation), and possibly consider Whonix when I have more experience and/or hardware it'll run on.

I typically rely on FOSS projects myself as I am poor as hell lol. I do use Veracrypt, that may be my only one. I could switch to LUKS but I don't know if they support hidden containers like VC and I don't believe they do. Might keep one VC for windows compatability and switch the other to LUKS. I definitely expect a bit of learning involved, I more meant I don't want to try 5 different distros before nailing down a good one, maybe 2 max. That and hopefully it won't shit the bed so hard that I can only use my phone for a time to try and fix it haha.

Might go with the dual booting, that is a good idea.

And thanks for the heads up, in any case whatever I go with I will 100% be looking up "how to install X" and watching a tutorial haha, I know most will be "use etcher or rufus and slap that hoe in" but still I like to be prepared.

[–] esi@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

I see others have written a large amount of information so I'll just stick with a short bulletlist of the main go to distros IMHO. (replace Gnome suggestions with XFCE for example if you want more lightweight and classic OS, but not optimized for touch)

  • Fedora (with Gnome)
  • Manjaro (with Gnome)
  • Ubuntu
  • Elementary OS
[–] vi21@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I tried to so many things on Lenovo Miix 300 with a touchscreen. Only Ubuntu works. Even Ubuntu works partially. Some apps don't work with an onscreen keyboard. And, yes, Ubuntu with GNOME is very slow and consume almost all RAM in my computer. I can't work using it. So, in short, as far as I know, a distro, which you are looking for, doesn't exist.

[–] Arcaneslime@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the heads up!

[–] testingthis@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Are you sure Mint doesn't support touchscreen?

[–] hitlerdidnowrong@lotide.fbxl.net -3 points 2 years ago

My favorite Linux flavor is oven baked Jews