unused RAM is wasted RAM. Just idle desktop browsing it can look like Linux is using more than the same task on Windows, but Linux does a better job actually feeling fast.

Just my experience but i’m not the first person to notice this. Could definitely vary by distro or setup, but comparing memory usage between Windows and Linux is very “Apples and Oranges”

i mostly see immutables recommended to beginners on here

Mint is a good suggestion for a new user. An underrated distro, but solid, simple, and works well for any purpose.

Go with an AMD graphics card over Nvidia, even if it costs significantly more. with Nvidia you will need to deal with shitty drivers (similar to Windows) and eventually your GPU will stop being supported. Also niche distros may have extra steps required to get everything working.

With AMD your card just works great no matter the distro, no matter how old the card gets. I never think about my GPU because it works at full performance every time with zero setup

CPU matters less: Intel and AMD are both solid on Linux

Linux can live with less RAM than Windows and work fine, but with more RAM Linux will intelligently cache frequently accessed files to speed up pretty much every program. Linux looks like it’s using more resources but it’s actually using them for something useful, and Linux will still back off if something you are doing actually needs more RAM

Firefox + uBlock Origin + sponsorblock. Set it and forget it.

I haven’t seen an advertisement or a sponsored segment on my desktop in over a decade, and same with my phone for several years. I’m astonished how willing most people are to put up with a constant barrage of ads coming from devices they own

office works fine if you use a translation layer like proton. There are also free/open source office suites that are file compatible and way better.

specific versions of Adobe work with proton, but not all. There are better alternatives on Linux for the most part.

pirated or legit makes no difference

It can be both!

This is being pushed by social media companies that don’t want to be responsible for age verification

I dont think it’s about housing/shielding, just the lack of being powered on over many years.

Many of my drives are also nearly 20 years old

I’ve heard usb flash memory can degrade over time, but refreshing the cells by plugging it in once in a while can mitigate the potential data loss.

I have a few USBs like that and i plug them in once a year for about 5 minutes. I don’t usually even mount the data. Not sure if it makes an actual difference, but nothing lost so far

Grammatically, I like “DDG for X” rather than “DDG X”. It sounds more natural and also more silly to me

It’s stupid but so is using “Google” for “search”

Boxes is very clean and functional. I even use it on Plasma. Great app

Well put

About 2 years for me. It’s a better experience than vanilla Android except that tap to pay doesnt work.

Other than that one downside it’s been nothing but an improvement. so much more control over what apps can access, and what Google services to use (if any). Google services are treated like any other app, and can therefore be easily sandboxed.

If you have a compatible device i highly recommend GrapheneOS. I’m pretty unhappy with the build quality and camera on my Pixel (7 Pro), but that was all the same on Android.

I really wish GrapheneOS supported another brand of device. Pixels are way overpriced for how cheaply put together they are, but i’d rather have a meh phone with real security than a nice one with just security theater

It works great with Linux for me, i expect Debian will have no issues

True, but almost nobody uses Wine by itself when Proton is so much more convenient

Wine is still a thing, but most people prefer Proton for gaming.

The easiest way is to install Steam and play your games through that. Non-steam games can be added with “add a non-steam game”, and then you can choose to launch them with proton though the settings for the shortcut you created.

I can count on one hand the games that havent worked for me using this method, and it applies to any distro. I’ve never even considered doing a full VM for a game, i’m not even aware of a game that would work under a VM but not Proton.

Check out ProtonDB to see if your games work, and if any tweaks are required.

You can use a combination of shift, meta, pgup/pgdown and arrow keys to move between workspaces and to move applications between workspaces, and you can alt-tab to switch window focus within a workspace. window management and manipulation can be entirely keyboard-driven

edit: i just pulled out my laptop to find out how you do it. i only know from muscle memory.

super(windows) + pgup/pgdown to move between workspaces

shift + super + pgup/pgdown to move focused window between workspaces

and of course

super + left/right to tile

super + up to maximize

super + down to un-maximize

super + h to minimize

super + number to launch from the dash

The difference in visual air quality on the mornings of July 3 and July 5 tend to be pretty stark in the Bay Area. I’m not surprised to learn LA is the same.

Fireworks are illegal in most cities but that hardly stops anyone

Fedora has gotten much more stable and reliable in the past decade. 15+ years ago it was generally regarded as nice but unstable. I’d say nowadays for a moderately technical user it offers a better experience overall than Ubuntu or Mint. There are still unfortunately some pitfalls for new users (media codecs come to mind). In fact, the only issues i’ve had in most of those 10 years have been related to GNOME plugins or the Plasma 6 transition, problems that also occured on Ubuntu.

I have 2 computers: one running Ubuntu, one Fedora. This has been my setup for over a decade. I have lately been finding Ubuntu more and more cumbersome to use, with less of the “just works” experience i remember having in the past. Perhaps the focus on cloud computing has caused the desktop to languish a bit.

I would like to try Pop!_OS, but i haven’t had a free evening for a while to do a backup and reinstall on one of my computers. It’s also been a while since i used Mint, so my impression could be out of date.

The nice thing about Linux overall (compared to macOS and Windows) is that each update generally improves on the experience. On commercial platforms the experience gets worse as often as it gets better, usually both at the same time. GNOME and Plasma are both overall much better than they were a decade ago (despite a few regressions) while macOS and Windows are both worse in general.

Any distro will work once you install Nvidia drivers.

For Fedora and Ubuntu you can do it from the software center application.

If you go with Fedora you want to also look up how to install proprietary media codecs. That’s the one other thing you need to do after installation. Ubuntu has them built-in.