Any fellow Linux users on here?

[Judge]

Honestly, if you just want Win10 to play games that still aren't playable on Linux, just get an unactivated copy, or use the LTSC version.

It's a possibility on my part. I know about the Windows 11 LTSC version. Getting some rave reviews by some, though I also heard as an Enterprise version it will come at a considerably steeper price than $140. Funny though to hear such rave reviews over Microsoft's most pared down version of Windows 11. "Less is more".

Plus I just recently realized that the prices quoted to retain security updates on Windows 10 were for Enterprise versions- not Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. But in just recently going back into my Windows 10 Pro I wanted to puke. So much unnecessary crap in there...and Windows appears unnecessarily complicated compared to the simplicity of Linux distros.

I was also VERY unhappy that they installed Windows Bitlocker which I don't want at all. Luckily though they didn't activate it. So I will keep it off. You activate it without having the necessary key from Microsoft and you could lose your entire hard drive data.

And I don't trust Microsoft when it comes to a version slated for obsolescence next year...so my eyes remain only on Windows 11 or whatever might replace it. In the meantime most everything I hear about Microsoft remains a hot mess. Sad, given all the shareholders equity they rake in each quarter. They could produce so much of a better product if they really put their resources to the test, but they continue to revel in mediocrity because in their minds, they can.

So I'm waiting until September just to see if they've fixed so many things that presently plague Windows 11 before considering running it on a separate removable drive. If not, I think I'll just consider my longtime relationship with Microsoft to be closed permanently.

Seriously, it just sickened me to look at Windows 10 after using Linux for the last two years. Dark mode of any OS interface shouldn't be a matter of only the colors black and white. At least with using removable hard drives and now having Secure Boot, TPM 2.0 and a 12th gen cpu I can weigh such options. Yet my older 12-year old system still runs Mint 21.3 and Pop!OS22.04 just great.

Also looking forward as well to what System76 does with their Pop!OS24.0 using Rust instead of Gnome. They should go Alpha pretty soon.

 

[Judge]

I took the plunge and upgraded to Linux Mint 22.0 using their precise instructions rather than rely on any of the third-party websites with similar information.

https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade-to-mint-22.html
It wasn't a pleasant upgrade.

The upgrade process stalled given repository information regarding WineHQ. I had to delete a repository sources file pertaining to Wine in the "etc" folder before the process would initiate. Once I did that, the process ran automatically, except for the occasional need to click the "fix" box as prompted. When the process correctly initiates, expect to spend around a half hour to complete the process.

Simple point, if you don't have Wine installed on Mint 21.3, you shouldn't encounter such a problem (fingers crossed). More so if you aren't running an Nvidia video card and software.

The upgrade process eventually prompted a successful upgrade, and I rebooted accordingly, only to get a black screen. I ended up pressing the shift button to try to get a menu to get me into recovery mode to see what was happening. So I got it, and selected recovery mode rather than a regular boot, and got back into Linux Mint 22.0. Success! Well, not quite. It was obvious (and kind of expected) that my interface wasn't sized quite right. I knew instantly I had to go into the driver manager and switch to Xorg Nouveau video drivers, then reboot and then upgrade the video driver to the Nvidia 535 driver. Rebooted and things appeared as they should, and that I could access the Nvidia Settings to make sure it correlated to the proper version (535).

I suspected my Photoshop wouldn't work, as I had to reinstall Wine 9.0 which I did without incident. Didn't even have to reinstall Photoshop at that point, so this process finally gave me a break.

At this point things appeared ok, until I realized that some of my panel icons were gone, along with their entire programs. All media programs. But then this didn't surprise me, given this upgrade's primary audio programming is now based on "Pipewire", a much better system, or so I have read. So I had to reinstall my MP3 player (Audacious), Audacity, and I still need to reinstall VLC for my DVD player. In the process I discovered that Mint 22.0 requires updated versions of Audacious and Audacity which are a little different than the earlier versions I was accustomed to. Reinstalled, they both seem to work great. In audio programs if you have the option, definitely choose and default to "Pipewire" settings.

While my version of Gimp appears unchanged, much to my chagrin Mint 22.0 updated to the latest version of Krita, which I don't appreciated given the large advertising banner the earlier version doesn't use. Looks like my only option now is to install the Flatpak version of Krita, but I think it has the same ugly advertising banner crap I hate. Guess that's the next thing for me to check out. Oh boy...then onto reinstalling VLC which is usually unpleasant in itself.

Beyond that so far I haven't encountered any further annoyances- yet. So on that note, rather than say, "good Luck!" it seems more appropriate to say, "Those who are about to die, salute you!"

 

[Outdated]

I took the plunge and upgraded to Linux Mint 22.0 using their precise instructions rather than rely on any of the third-party websites with similar information.

I never do upgrades like that. I always do a fresh clean install. So much easier, so many less problems, and the added advantage that I still have another drive with my old system on it up and running.

 

[Judge]

I never do upgrades like that. I always do a fresh clean install. So much easier, so may less problems, and the added advantage that I still have another drive with my old system on it up and running.

I usually prefer a fresh install, but in this instance I'm kind of fresh installed out, having done so multiple times trying to figure out this freezing problem I'm having. Hopefully with a state-of-the art kernel, it may better interact with my video drivers, which seem the likely culprit.

If it works, I'll keep it. If not, I'll reformat the drive and do the fresh install. But given so much hassle, I have to recommend that fresh install. Mostly I'm just anxious to see if I may have finally fixed this random freezing problem. One I've not encountered before with Linux.

 

[saturnv]

NixOS has a very steep learning curve, but it does have major benefits. One of them is generations. Every time the system is created it makes a new generation. It is easy to roll back to a previous generation if the new one doesn't work.

I haven't used it, but Fedora Silverblue also has an immutable system with OS rollbacks while probably being much easier to use than NixOS.

 

[Outdated]

I usually prefer a fresh install, but in this instance I'm kind of fresh installed out,

I know that feeling. I used to love it but it started to get a bit old. So did I I think.

That's what pushed me to Ubuntu in the end, an LTS version with moderately up to date systems and libraries. I still customise it a fair bit though, their default desktop and software really sucks.

 

[Judge]

Oddly enough installing the later Flatpak version of Krita didn't have the ugly advertising banner...so I win! Still have to tackle VLC though.

To start from scratch usually takes me about a day and a half to get an OS just the way I want it, with all the software I normally use. So this time around I chose the update figuring I have little to lose other than my time and patience.

Just discovered it updated my Libre Office as well, and reloaded countless fonts I'll have to delete all over again. *!$#@&%

Yeah, install the damn thing from scratch. The "upgrade" may prove more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Outdated]

To start from scratch usually takes me about a day and a half to get an OS just the way I want it, with all the software I normally use.

I had a lightning strike take down my system once, the computer itself was still fine but my drive died. At that time I was heavily involved in a programming project and I was needed back in there as quick as possible.

Full fresh install of Fedora with the Cinnamon desktop and all the programs I needed at that time - 45 minutes.

 

[Judge]

Full fresh install of Fedora with the Cinnamon desktop and all the programs I needed at that time - 45 minutes.

Try that again with OCD. It will take you considerably longer.

Though I don't really have any way of truly explaining it to you.

 

[Outdated]

Try that again with OCD. It will take you considerably longer.

Though I don't really have any way of truly explaining it to you.

I think I have some idea, my sister was fairly intense. I can be a little bit fussy with some things but she didn't have much choice. I did throughout the rest of the day keep getting everything back to full normal but in 45 minutes I was back in chat and back in git along with test versions of the game back up and running.

 

[Judge]

I think I have some idea, my sister was fairly intense. I can be a little bit fussy with some things but she didn't have much choice. I did throughout the rest of the day keep getting everything back to full normal but in 45 minutes I was back in chat and back in git along with test versions of the game back up and running.

You'd probably bust out laughing if you see what I go through just to get most each and every application "just so". Right down to an unmaximized window matching the aspect ratio of every other app that should open in a large window. And then so many configuration considerations...like calibrating color properly in various graphics apps.

And the OS itself....so many little things to address. I've written them down on post-it notes. Right down to all the hidden fonts to safely delete. At default Mint 22.0 put back 268 fonts into the OS. When I only really need less than 20 of them.

One nice thing to see is they updated the "Disks" program. When I need to repair a USB drive, I no longer have to click the repair button twice. It truly fixes the USB drive the first time now.

Though if this version doesn't freeze up at some point, it will have been worth it to lose a morning instead of a day and a half putting it all back together. We shall see.

 

[Judge]

That's what pushed me to Ubuntu in the end, an LTS version with moderately up to date systems and libraries. I still customise it a fair bit though, their default desktop and software really sucks.

That may explain why I chose not to keep Ubuntu 22.04 the last time I tested it out. First impressions and all. Though I hear the latest version is considerably better.

Ironically though I've consistently had better luck with Ubuntu-based distros than others. Go figure.

 

[Outdated]

That may explain why I chose not to keep Ubuntu 22.04 the last time I tested it out. First impressions and all. Though I hear the latest version is considerably better.

I didn't even bother to look at it last time around, just instantly opened a terminal and installed Cinnamon.

 

[Outdated]

Ironically though I've consistently had better luck with Ubuntu-based distros than others. Go figure.

If you feel like playing with one of your spare drives one day you should give Fedora a go too. You can download a version of that that's already running Cinamon, as well as many other versions. They call them Spins.

The let down with Fedora is that there's no long term service version, you'll have to upgrade every 18 months or so.

https://fedoraproject.org/spins/

 

[Judge]

If you feel like playing with one of your spare drives one day you should give Fedora a go too. You can download a version of that that's already running Cinamon, as well as many other versions. They call them Spins.

The let down with Fedora is that there's no long term service version, you'll have to upgrade every 18 months or so.

https://fedoraproject.org/spins/

I tried an earlier version of Fedora. Didn't like it.

Mint 22.0 is an LTS version as I recall. Maybe I'll be expired by the time it expires.

 

[Princess Viola]

I'm probably gonna do a clean install for Linux Mint 22 but I'm gonna wait a couple weeks for any major bugs and issues to (hopefully) get ironed out.

Although I do got a question: obviously, I'm going to back up my files in my home directory beforehand so I won't lose any of my data (as well as screenshots of various settings so I can have everything back the way I want it as well as get a list of my installed programs so I know what to I need to reinstall) but my question is: I have two other drives in my laptop but they're both NTFS and not ext4, would there be any issues with storing the backup on either of those drives or would it better to head to the store and grab like a 64 GB USB drive and use that to store the backup?

 

[Outdated]

I have two other drives in my laptop but they're both NTFS and not ext4, would there be any issues with storing the backup on either of those drives or would it better to head to the store and grab like a 64 GB USB drive and use that to store the backup?

The only issue you might come across is with naming conventions, Linux is case sensitive and you can have different files with the same name but spelled out in upper or lower case. There might be issues when recovering those files from an NTFS drive. Not sure if it would be a real issue or not, I know it makes Windows fall over though.

 

[Judge]

I'm probably gonna do a clean install for Linux Mint 22 but I'm gonna wait a couple weeks for any major bugs and issues to (hopefully) get ironed out.

Wise decision. I made the upgrade work today, but it wasn't clean or simple. The main reason I did it was I have the time and nothing to lose if it didn't work. But I honestly expected it to be a smoother transition that it turned out. Mostly I wanted to see if an upgraded kernel might fix this mysterious and random freezing problem I'm having with Mint 21.3.

Afterwards, so far it has behaved...though I had to reinstall a few programs that I concluded were previously downloaded from "unverified" Flatpaks. (The upgrade process eliminated them entirely, and the replacement versions were all later versions.)

And I had to switch the video driver to the Nouveau Open Source, then reinstall the 535 Nvidia driver. So far so good. That was messy having rebooted to a black screen.

Then again if you don't have any unverified Flatpaks installed, don't use Nvidia cards and don't run Wine, it may be a much smoother transition from 21.3 to 22.0.

Although I do got a question: obviously, I'm going to back up my files in my home directory beforehand so I won't lose any of my data (as well as screenshots of various settings so I can have everything back the way I want it as well as get a list of my installed programs so I know what to I need to reinstall) but my question is: I have two other drives in my laptop but they're both NTFS and not ext4, would there be any issues with storing the backup on either of those drives or would it better to head to the store and grab like a 64 GB USB drive and use that to store the backup?

My understanding is that while you technically can store a Linux backup on an NTFS partition, it cannot be read by Timeshift and file properties tend to get lost on an NTFS partition.

Given the inherent importance of any backup, I'd recommend you reformat one of those drives if you have the space, or use a large USB drive in EXT4 to back up any Linux distribution.

 

[saturnv]

If you use tar to create your home directory backup it will all be contained in one file and you could keep it on a ntfs drive, no problem. It can even preserve permissions. Make sure to test extracting the archive before deleting the originals.

Another tip is to make a separate partition for /home. If you do that, you can reinstall the OS and your home directory would still be there unchanged.

 

[Princess Viola]

If you use tar to create your home directory backup it will all be contained in one file and you could keep it on a ntfs drive, no problem. It can even preserve permissions. Make sure to test extracting the archive before deleting the originals.

Another tip is to make a separate partition for /home. If you do that, you can reinstall the OS and your home directory would still be there unchanged.

Archiving my home directory as a tar file is exactly what I was gonna do.