People don't seem to understand what stable means when it comes to Linux. A rolling release distro is inherently unstable. That doesn't mean it crashes all of the time, that means it changes all of the time.
I've been trying to make that point to the Arch community for a LONG time, but they don't seem to understand or they just ignore the point because 'it works".
The instability to some degree is inherent to all Linux distros. One update for example can mess up your audio drivers and you have to restart them. This happened to me a while back and it took a hot minute to figure out was happening and run a few commands in the terminal. It probably took 20 minutes max or so to figure it out and fix it. My perception is that small annoyances like this happen more often in Arch and Arch-based distros. For non-programmers using Linux as a daily driver that is a hard pass.
This is pretty accurate. Any time Linux does a major update/upgrade there is a huge potential for issues (this is true going from say Windows 10 to 11 as well). Something like Ubuntu LTS only has a major upgrade at most every 2 years and you are not forced to do it for 5+. But you never know when a specific Arch update will cause issues on your system. Another issue is they rely on the community for the majority of their packages and not the actual developers of software.
@@brostoevsky22 I do not recall ever having an issue from an update on a Ubuntu LTS. If I have it was years and years ago. But you are correct about Arch, it just gets so many small annoyances that happen all the time and occasionally huge issues. Arch is not good for anyone who wants a computer that you can count on to work when you need it.
I switched to Arch about a year and a half ago, and I love it. There was something about having to do it manually, and failing repeatedly that really made the experience so awesome. Now it's about how the amount of documentation on the applications, and access to the AUR. I've tried Ubuntu, Debian, popos, mint, and many others and really Arch is a winner in my book!
I use arch-based distro and suddenly started using Wayland on KDE. I have NVIDIA videocard and I have a few small issues, but after solving them (thanks to Brodie Robertson btw) it literally works flawless.
@@generationdink my apologies folks, English is not my native language, so I might do some random mistakes here and there. Ofc it's KDE on Wayland. :)
Your answer to the last question was spot on. I always have to explain to people the license is only important when it comes to sharing or selling software.
12:31 Many good points to that question. My Linux journey, not gonna name any distros but the bases: Ubuntu > Arch > Debian < back to Arch, then back to > Debian. I just like the idea of turning on my computer and everything will work just as it did the day before, with that said Arch is fun. If I was that guy (or woman) I'd probably try out Debian before jumping to Arch. If your gonna run Arch, then be prepared to read ALOT and run into problems, sometimes on a daily basis. Right now I'm learning alot about the window manager Openbox, and I think it is perfect on a Debian based system. No more DE for me.
I think fedora is best for someone who want fairly stable system but still want latest stuff not as latest as arch but still way ahead of ubuntu/debian based distros
No. I've been using vanilla arch since approx 5-6 years and it never caused a single issue. By never I mean literally never. Even if it did I have timeshift to rollback changes. For me arch is perfection.
@@abhisek801 i am not saying is unstable or anything. I used endeavour for over a year without any issue. Recently decided to distro hop, used some debian based stuff but that latest software thing kept me away and the I installed Fedora. Its been pretty rock solid without much work.
@@abhisek801 Same 3+ years, just lightdm one time when we switched to python 3.10, a matter of 2 minutes in the tty, I don;t really see any downside to Arch on Desktop, maybe if one have a bad internet connection but that's all
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with Fedora. I switched from Mint to get newer drivers for gaming, and the only downside has been that there's more initial work to do some things that were easier in Mint.
@@ordinaryhuman5645 yeah fedora is pretty solid specially for a new linux user. It does most of the stuff out of the box. You have to do basic stuff like change some dnf settings but it just works
Trying various distros: I bought a second-hand laptop, Lenovo ThinkPad T-440s (maybe 10 years old), to try different distros with it. If a distro cannot run in it, I just mark it as a failure and pick up the next distro.
There should be no problem running any distro on a Thinkpad T440s - the hardware is quite standard in Linux terms, and the machine is new enough to have been designed from the outset with Linux in mind.
Im a Linux-simp/Ubuntu-andy, but I love it and I even pay licenses on multiple machines. I use it for dev and school and I feel like I get a disproportionate amount of value from it against the $25 fee and I'm happy supporting them. Although I'm not sure they need it since Windows Pro just ships with Ubuntu out of the box now lol.
12:32 I did go straight from Windows 10 to Arch without much issues. I still experience package issues occasionally, but a ton of them have been specific issues with attempting to use anything AUR (which, really you should keep to "I'm gonna try that out" or only 2 or 3 packages) or OBS (which has been its own form of break, even with Flatpak). Everything else has been fairly smooth with a Plasma install with it. I don't do enough else crazy to cause system breakages. I just read the manual and I keep up with people talking about major changes with it. You should really do that with any distro you choose.
I have only used linux for 4 months now and was on Arch in less than two weeks. I used ewwbuntu for maybe 6 hours and moved on to Fedora 37 and it was great and I moved on to Arch and haven't looked back. Arch isn't hard to use at all don't be scared of it.
I enjoy Fedora and Mint. I don't use bleeding edge software, so i don't need a rolling release. Ive been there and done that, i now value stability and compatibility, especially in production environments.
Hey DT: Great Video. I wanted to add that making a distro would entail building your own repositories (packages) and possibly your own package management system, however, folks need to remember that Linux is the kernel, everything else is distribution dependent (although that is simplified).
It's worth noting that most distros rely on repos from upstream in some way to some degree (Mint < Ubuntu, LMDE < Debian, etc., with minor changes) and only relatively rarely opt for novel package management systems (Void being the prime example). I'd say there's a good reason for this, and it doesn't mean a new distro ain't just that if it does so. Folks certainly should remind themselves Linux is just the kernel, but it's understandable that the term has come to often refer nebulously to the kernel + the distro, DE and whatever else happens to be on top of it + open-source philosophy to a greater or lesser extent.
I use eww on my desktop and love it! If you pull in the systrayv4 PR before compiling it has all the functionality most people would want from a bar/menu. I have it setup similar to waybar by default and honeslty would never go back to something else unless it stops being supported. Its absolutely wonderful!
Hey DT! I recently switched my laptops over to Linux because I got fed up with Win11 auto updates breaking my system. After watching dozens of your videos I went with Manjaro. I need a very current kernel for one laptop that has a Ryzen 6800H and an Nvidia RTX 3050. The other laptop is Intel with integrated graphics, but I wanted a consistent environment on both systems. So far ~3 months, I'm extremely pleased with the experience. LInux has come a very long way. The last time I tried switching was when Win7 was new... so yeah, it's been a while.
I started linux in 1992 using 5.25 inch floppies. I soon purchased a commercial X server (at work we developed for several Unix systems -- HPUX, SUNOS, MIPS, etc) so I had to have X. By December, my Linux machine had a SCSI cdrom in the box along with the 30GB drive that had a SCSI to RLL (which gave me the extra 10G) and I paid $34.95 plus sales tax for "Yggdrasil Plug-and-Play CD" which included X11R6 Xfree86. Worked using Unix until Aug 2001 (after 11 Sept 2001) I worked contracts for Linux machines. For the last 12 years of work, I worked an Linux-based specialized server where they sold the servers direct to the costumers (and to other companies with there branding). I started programming on an HP 2160c in 1971.
Rolling release works both ways. When a glibc update broke gaming on Manjaro linux, it took ages to that to get fixed, whereas mainline Arch was patched in no time.
Most distros are fine for beginners as long as they are popular (i.e. more q&a in forums) and are financially sustainable (either by corporate backing or user donations)
Beginners can also probably safely use unfunded and obscure distros too as long as they do not have too many expectations and as long as the package manager is well maintained
@@ghost-user559 Nah obscure distros lack enough useful info for beginners and unfunded distros disappear sooner or later. It's like saying "it's ok to buy a poorly made product as long as you have low expectations" - well sure, anything is fine if you have low expectations but I don't think it means it should be recommended to people
@@deersakamoto2167 Yeah to a degree I completely agree. But I also have gotten into Linux through tinkering with eccentric distros that died quickly and were under funded. I think you are right for “normal” people. But for tinkerers and the tech familiar, the taste of freedom and leaving the standard os paradigm is often the gateway to Linux enthusiasm. But I completely agree for older people or people with less tech knowledge probably keeping it simple is a better introduction.
@@deersakamoto2167 Like there was an obscure Lcars Debian distro recently that was so fun to tinker with I think the novelty was a draw despite its complexity and lack of tutorials. Some people learn more about how something is built from tinkering and breaking things and others read manuals. Definitely either personality trait needs a different approach.
About Arch BTW. Honestly, as a non-programmer Linux user using a solid "just works distro" is preferable. I don't have time or the technical capacity to troubleshoot every little thing. Truthfully, there's enough troubleshooting with "just works" distros as it is. The major LTS update last summer messed up the Ubuntu-based world. I did a fair bit of troubleshooting in the wake of that. Now I'm using Pop!_OS and it is running stably for me. I've used Linux exclusively, while studying in my International MBA program. Y'all should be glad people like us are actually using any kind of Linux. Lets just say no one else in my master's program uses Linux. One girl said they had Ubuntu computers at work, but she uses MacOS on her personal computer. All of the MacBooks showing up in my lectures made me roll my eyes.
I made a working eww config a few weeks ago. It is just as functional as the standard bar I was using before. I had to write a python script to track and update the state of my workspaces and the window title on each monitor. It was definitely not worth the effort if I didn't care about the aesthetics
I was wondering about the Wayland compositors, I use Hyprland on Nvidia, but I see what you mean, It was a huge headache to get working, but now that I have it all setup I have basically no issues with Nvidia.
About the Mint to Arch question, I switched to Arch 6 months or something ago, and it broke, a lot, but, the reason it broke is because I didn't really know what I was doing. I had only been using Pop!_OS for like a month or two, but now, It almost never breaks on me. And I'm running Hyprland rn, which is a very new peice of software, but it's gotten a lot more stable the last couple of months. So, yes Arch is much more likely to break then something Debian based, but once you know what you are doing it's at least as stable as Windows, probably more so.
You do creative writing in emacs? I'm a writer on the side as well and I've been considering making a terminal-only little laptop to work on my books (effectively creating a distraction-free device). How is emacs for creative writing? It always struck me as more of a coder's home.
5:00 I think it would make a good video to show you working on your personalized / fully customized tiling window manager + keybindings and then do the exactly same task with default Ubuntu desktop. That would demonstrate why tiling window managers have a point, how much mouse slows you down instead of simply touch typing what you need to do etc. The point wouldn't be to demonstrate that tiling window manager or terminal is superior for everything but to demonstrate that you can optimize linux workflow to exactly match your needs, unlike e.g. Windows or Mac OS where the user is expected to adjust his or her workflow to match the features of the OS. Is it worth the effort to tweak your desktop to make the workflow optimal? It depends how long you're going to use the workflow and how much optimized setup can save time. I would say that for most uses you're not going to save a lot of time but your mental state using the optimized setup is much much better - everything just works as you want it to work.
Hey DT! I lived on Arch Linux for 6 years, and suffered a lot with programs breaking Ive always wanted to try Void so I did and now have been using it for 2 years and nothing has ever broke only 1 time virtualbox broke for a couple of days, but its impresive non the less, tried to go back to Arch but I just couldnt Void is so simple with xpbs-src you can do so many cool things, they even have a scrip called xdeb to install deb files nativeley. Its an incredible distro.
I run Arch all the time -- and have some Ubuntu boxes ... 100% agree about stable vs rolling being a zero-sum trade-off ... If you want stable, get one of those Debian distros with their crusty, ancient packages: Everything's old as hell, but that's what you want if you want stable.
For the person who asked about turning vanilla emacs into DOOM emacs, the channel System Crafters has a great series called "Emacs from Scratch" that does basically exactly that.
How to break something in Linux Mint? I have no idea; I managed to mess up something with LM 18 (or 18.1), but that was the last time I did that. I don't remember what it was that I did, but reinstalling the OS helped. At the time I hadn't customized that system yet, so I guessed reinstalling was the fastest way. Now I would try to fix my mess with other means, since there is so many custom things I like.
Linux Mint can break these days, it started when they started to block snaps and started introducing work arounds in the package manager. This is typically why I don't recommend LM anymore
Recently when trying to install newer amdgpu drivers I think I installed only 64 bit but not 32 bit or something like that, which borked things and screwed up a lot of package dependencies. Had to timeshift it back and tried again after finding a forum post about how to do the 32 bit stuff too.
Hey there! I just wanted to clear up something about the question I asked DT (Yes I am the one who asked him that question). It turns out that the issue with my Linux Mint wasn't actually Linux Mint's fault, but mine (or more specifically, Windows 11's fault). I reset Windows 11 to free up some space for my Linux Mint partition, but it ended up messing up the bootloader and Grub which caused problems for Linux Mint. In the end, I had to repair Grub using a Live bootable USB which unfortunately resulted in some of my Linux Mint files getting corrupted. So, it was really Windows 11 that caused the issue, despite my earlier belief that resetting an OS on one partition wouldn't affect an OS on another partition.
@@VimPoR Sounds familiar. Back in 2016 I tried dual-booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint, and that resulted in Windows hanging up in [update fail]-[reboot]-[update fail]-... loop. That's the little nudge that made me switch completely. I had to reinstall Mint too, probably due to my own mistakes later (I was really new to Linux at the time), but no problems since with it.
I absolutely want to use Arch, but I invested in a Synology NAS and insist on using their (actually really good system image pack up software, Active Backup. The problem is that the client agent is only available for DEB and RPM systems, and isn’t available through the AUR.
You can use debtap to convert a deb to an arch package that can be installed. The only caveat is that any dependencies the deb requires also have to be available(including the specific versions). I used this to convert several deb packages with success.
I do have USBs to live run Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Lubuntu. But as for daily driver, I've been using Kubuntu for 5 years, and Lubuntu for the 10 years before that. However, with the issues I've been dealing with in recent years, where updates break the boot up process, I've been frustrated and avoiding doing updates. With their pushing of snap, I'm leaning towards jumping ship to another distro. I like Linux in part for stability, and being resistant to updating because of possible boot issues is not acceptable as stability. I've already switched my laptop to OpenSuSe. My desktop may be switched soon.
Man I like this channel with tons ofgreat content. I'd hope you'd keep it going, as long as its fun and rewarding to you. I can say I personally get a lot of great knowledge and entertainment from it. I hope it is gratifying to the max. Peace!
Regarding the question on stable KDE distros: I don't think the person asking the question should shy away from something like Manjaro KDE. I've found Manjaro to be the perfect balance between rolling and stable. They tend to hold off on updates a bit longer than mainline Arch, but they still send them through once they've been tested a bit. Rolling release doesn't mean unstable, it means non-static. There are also distros like KDE Neon or Kubuntu that stay fairly up to date.
The BSC Consulting Group recently concluded the direction of Ai would lead to the following conclusions. Ai should be the most benefit whilst operated within a contained environment. This might be a medical database or voice box of a robot . All public acquired data from the internet or search devices should be under opensource license only. This is based upon the conclusion that it is largely assembled information from a wide variety of data much of which could be under copyright, restrictive licenses, open sources licences and private owned data. Is the BSC Consulting Group think tank correct about the future?
The only problem I have with Brave that Brave doesn't have an account that save my settings and bookmarks. If all my sync devices gone or deleted, how am I gonna restore my bookmarks? Workspaces feature and hibernate tabs and workspace for reduce ram usage would be good either.
I have been using Ubuntu for about 4 years now and I have to say I am not satisfied with it. I ran RedHat years ago and I was much happier with it. I would like to find something I can switch to without losing the apps I currently have. My main complaints with Ubuntu would be computer locking up and after updates many require reboot. I might as well be using Windoze
I think we all have distro hopped when we first started its exciting learning something new and trying different environments, I now stick with Ubuntu and Mint, Ubuntu is for my gaming machine so it has got the latest video drivers and chipset drivers and Mint is for my laptop that is used for basic stuff I really like the Cinnamon desktop the most so my Ubuntu does look like mint in the end.
Have you ever take a look on NomadBSD or GhostBSD? In the last year i switched fron Linux to BSD, and this OS are very intersting. Are you interested to thats systems?
I've been running (and coming back to) Mint for yeeeaaars. Mint got me into taking Linux desktop seriously. I've experimented with other distros, but keep coming back to Mint. I've finally caved to the hype and started trialing Void. Right now it's just on one system that's not even a daily driver, but my experience so far has been relatively positive. All I have left is to throw Steam on it and see if it has the same crashing problems as the last time I tried gaming on a non-SystemD distro. You should find a way to put an RS232 port on your workstation, so you can have a real physical terminal from either an antique PC or an actual dumb terminal. :) Now that I'm trialing Void, which has a lot of terminal-only work, I might actually do that with my antique 386 PC and monochrome monitor if it works out.... Also thank you for reminding me, I need to remind myself how to use vi. Was my favorite console based text editor. Soooo much better than edlin in early DOS.... Back in the day I even installed it on said 386, and I'm sure it's still there, but I've since forgotten most of its commands....
I've always carried a multiboot USB stick with me loaded with Debian, Mint, gParted, MemTest64, Hiren's BCD, Kaspersky, Windows 10, and Windows 11 just in case someone has an emergency or gets bit by the curiosity bug. In this regard, Ventoy has made my life easier. 😊
Since using ventoy and some people are scared about the non signed BS I started to create my own Multiboot... Now I am frustrated, because my first stick was terrible slow, my second stick burnt while I was benchmarking it and finally fall into frustration with FreeBSD iso...
@@MaKaNufilms A lot of SanDisk USB 3.0 flash drives get above 60 Celsius and start throttling. I have one that gets that hot sitting idle in the port so I limit it to USB 2.x workloads. My Ventoy stick is a 64GB Patriot Rage 2 XL that's consistent fast at 160MBs a second and consistently cool with a nice long hard rubber housing. But not all ISOs work on it. Most of them do, though, and you can boot them in normal mode or Grub2 mode in case you need to pass specific command line arguments.
@@MaKaNufilms Can you find Lexar 64GB USB 3.0 flash drives in Germany. They get a little warm but not as bad as SanDisk. I specifically ordered my Patriot Rage drive off NewEgg because I couldn't find it locally.
I used arch and personally it wasn't really something I liked. I love what the Mint team is doing and that is my daily. For me it is like this: Workstation: Suse or OpenIndiana (cause reasons) General desktop: Mint Old desktop: Debian Small server: Debian or FreeBSD Scaled server: NetBSD, OpenBSD, RHEL, Suse Server or Ubuntu Server. That is my take in general.
Yea, I use Arcolinu hyprland with nVidia card. There are many things I can't use. However, it works for me since my workflow mostly consists coding, gaming & music. Screen flickers and can't use some packages/applications (e.g. discord screen share doesn't work, screenshot gives me black picture, only office flickers & freezes) but I'm still cool with the animations and the look of it. However, PopOS or Kde arch distros are much more comforting, especially for a software dev debian based distro is so much comfy, all official packages are available. But I love arch linux. Wouldn't even learn anything about linux without arch. Just love it!
I like mint on laptops or nobara for gaming laptops that or fedora(nobara just has things ready to go and saves a Lil time).Desktop I usually use arch for gaming(VM'S JUST RUN SMOOTHER FOR ME FOR WINDOWS GAMES THAT DONT RUN ON LINUX) and or chimera for small pc builds in my living room
Hey DT! You need 3 rows in your postinstall script, to run hyprland with nvidia. Im using Hyprland since it got into the community repo. And it works just fine on tuxedo notebook with 3060. I'm sure there would be less disadvantages with amd, but I have nothing to compare it with. Also the new Fedora works with wayland and nvidia just prefecto. But really I'm already used to Arch.
I'm using Cinnamon Mint 21, and I get updates daily. What are the updates that Arch-based distros are getting that are on a different order of magnitude?
Point release distros like Debian or Ubuntu (and thus Mint) only get security updates and some bugfixes, never feature updates. For you example, Debian 12 comes with Linux kernel 6.2, so it will only ever get 6.2 updates - 6.2.1, 6.2.2, etc, never 6.3. Same with all other software. This is done to ensure a stable (as-in never changing) suite of software that wipl retain the same features, behavior, compatibility, APIs, ABIs etc. How such a system behaves and interacts will never change, only the next release will introduce truly new versions. Ubuntu (and its derivatives like Mint) has a small exception with HWE, which means they backport newer versions of certain components (most notably kernel and GPU drivers) to older LTS releases to ensure compatibility with newer PCs. All other software versions remain the same. Arch on the other hand gives you the latest versions of all software, which means that updates can (and do) change how your system behaves, both in good ways (new features, better performance) AND in bad ways (introducing compatibility issues and changes in expected behavior).
Maybe the last question was meant as if Governments entities develop their in-house software if they should make it available to the public with an open source license. It is all payed by the Tax payer at the end so he should be able to use it like every other thing government "build" for the public
If it's software they use for specific government operations that people like our enemies shouldn't have access too, then I think all of that should be locked up tight.
stable/unstable = software upgrades, not things breaking, its thus impossible to have both in the same time. Arch almost never break, anyone using it and knowing what he's doing would tell you that.
Honestly, after you have used Linux for sometime (You don't have to be a 'geek') as a fully time OS - I honestly doubt if Distros matter at all. Personally, I will struggle with window managers for sure, for a bit as I have never used one, EVER. But as long it is a distro with a DE, I don't think it will take more than a couple of days to feel at home. So, I personally don't see the point of these 'challenges'. P.S. I am talking from the perspective of a normal user, not a tinkerer or 'power user'.
I'd like to try Arch but... I would need a second computer before that happens I tried Manjaro initially and it had password issues then I went with my tried & true Mint Mate tried Endeavour Live DVD and it mucked my grub so I quit exploring other distros until I get another computer not having my own internet complicates things a bit
Arch based really isn't Arch. It's Arch but with a bunch of bling that you probably don't need. When you say 'not having your own internet...' you mean, you're borrowing some one else's connection via WiFi or something? No idea... but yeah, you kinda need internet for all distros. Including Windows now a days. Internet is essential to computers.
Meh, I've transcended Arch and now I do most things out of Debian, once you spend enough time dealing with Arch you realize there's not really much special about it and for most people you're not getting any real advantage out of it. Arch is just like any other SystemD distro, it's just pacman's syntax is a little weird and the packages update really quickly, which means you may or may not run into a situation where your system doesn't boot and you'll have to use another device to read the archwiki to fix the problem. When it happens is never convenient but if you like that, all power to you lol. Most of the time when I needed an up to date version of an application I just install it via Flatpak but usually that's just OBS, Blender and Cura lol
Hey DT - how would one turn their arco linux install into a stable version of Garuda dragonized that actually works with more modern GPUs, unlike Garuda?
This is where I am. I have Arch on two machines, and I have Fedora Server on my router and sever. I could switch my other machines to a Fedora Spin, but what would it really change? 🖖🏻😌
I've got Arch on my 2 main machines. I've got Proxmox (which is a Debian based system) on my VM server. I prefer it that way. Could I put Arch on that VM server and use it that way. Probably but I like simplicity. If it works, then it's fine. I'm going to leave it as is. As soon as it becomes an issue for me, then it's time to build a new VM server platform.
Hey DT, Just started using Pop!OS for a few weeks now after getting my games ready with Heroic and Lutris and found alternatives for my Windows 11 programs. I don't like the tiling on Pop!OS and I miss Powertoys now. Would you please make a video about best tiling managers for Programming and gaming on multiple screens and desktops? Thanks a lot for all your content!
0:24 I really don't understand the interest in distrohopping or distro videos. There's a bigger difference between running Fedora and Fedora's KDE spin than there is between Fedora and Ubuntu. To the average user, the under-the-hood differences are only going to matter to the extent a distro has some unique issues (like the memory problem with Ubuntu not that long ago) and when you're setting up. And even then - if you're using Flatpaks? Virtually identical experience across the same desktop environment regardless of the distro you're running. The only point in distrohopping is when there is a good reason to distohop - IE, needing a newer kernel, your current distro no longer being maintained, major bugs in the current version of the distro you're using, etc. Linux is not that different than Windows. There ARE significant differences between Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora - but by no means would I be able to go in-depth about what they are because my troubleshooting problem is identical no matter what distro I run. Something breaks? I copy the error code or describe what's happening as best as I can in the search bar and follow the instructions to whatever solution I find. Which is the same thing I did with Windows. How you customize your distro of choice has WAY more impact than which distro you use.
I could not agree more. I do think there is a huge difference between linux and windows tho, but as far as linux distros, its really what you are used to. personally for me the only difference is in what shell you use and what package manager. this is WAY over simplification but as far as normal users go, that'd really be the only difference.
@@Texas_Radical When I say they're alike, I mean in the sense that my problem solving strategy has not changed between Windows and Linux. Windows gave me an error - I copied it down, entered it into a search engine, followed a guide on how to fix it. Linux gives me trouble? Same thing. They are fundamentally different but in terms of one's approach and how to do certain things, it's really not as big of a change for most users as people would think - and any user that has ever tinkered with the Windows Registry is perfectly capable of dealing with anything a given distro can throw at them. It's the power users who are really going to notice how different they are. You give someone Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition when they're leaving Windows, load it up with their favorite web browser - depending on the user, they may honestly not know they've switched operating systems.
@@AwakenedPhoenix309 exactly, Im sorta a power user but honestly ive been only linux so long i get lost on windows sometimes. I like to play on geeked out stuff like Rpi's on kali and arch and whatnot, but as far as my game box its on mint and my daily laptop runs MX. Simple and gets the job done. I do like that i can pimp out my DE in linux that is just not possible in windows. but at the end of the day its all just a OS.
@@Rekit0 You just read the announcements before updating or roll back to your backup that you made few minutes before, takes 10 minutes at most, 10 minutes once every 2 years ... 10 minutes is what I save with the AUR every time I want to install something, which happens multiple times a day
Hi DT! I am planning to switch my work laptop os from Windows 11 to Linux. Personally i use Fedora 38 with Gnome which I really like but I am interested in using Arch. I do a lot of work with VMs using VMWare Workstation and also screen recording/editing for making educational videos. Is there any Arch distro that you could recommend or should I just stick to what I am used to (Fedora)?
I always come back to windows because of nvidia driver issues. I love Hyprland but it doesn't work with the games I want to play and other distros are same a like. I want to code in linux but game on windows and I do not want to dual boot. It is an ongoing dilemma for me.
Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with dual booting? I know some people have had issues with windows updates messing up their Linux bootloader but you could get around that by installing the two systems on separate drives. You could also have a cheap Linux laptop for programming and only use your current pc for gaming. This has the added benefit of removing distractions when you wanna focus on programming.
Hey, DT! Thanks for your work! You introduced me to tilling WM, they are really cool. But I am frustrated because workspaces work not as I wish. I want to achieve an effect that the WM remembers where I close a program and opens it there. Right now I am using Awesome and guys from forums told me there is no opportunity to do that without manual scripting. I also used I3 and had the same issue. Yeah, I know I can write rules for each program, but it is not convenient at all. BTW I never use tilling in tillingWM (I always open programs in full screen), so maybe there is a minimalistic floating WM with such functionality.
I'd ratther have a root canal. LinuxMint Debian Elsie, with all it's updates for 2 years now. No issues. Runs my life quite well. Nothing I could do in windows is missing here. Nothing!
Quite frankly, I think there is too much emphasis on distrohopping in the Linux community. It's fine to want to try out new things and see other sides of Linux, but if you have a stable system set up exactly as you like it, I don't see the need to hop to Arco Linux (or anything else) if you don't have to. It's fine to be comfortable with your OS. Pushing people to distrohop just creates stress for people new to Linux that doesn't need to exist.
In my 5 years of linux journey fedora and opensuse tumbleweed byfar is the most stable for me. and hasn't broken for me for ages. am I the only one who loves to use containers for virtual machines.
Love your videos.. I am a new users and listen to them on my way to work. So down to earth explanations, thank you so much.. I quick question .... do you use the terminal most of the time or it is a combination of the GUi and terminal? thank youy
speaking of distributions you could try nix, i think if you utilized nix to it's fullest your workflow would be a little different and easier to operate long term.
DT probably is the wrong person to ask to make DT OS, that should be a collaborative effort from many people including DT, but if DT was to do it, you already got the script, there isn't much more that lol.
People don't seem to understand what stable means when it comes to Linux. A rolling release distro is inherently unstable. That doesn't mean it crashes all of the time, that means it changes all of the time.
I've been trying to make that point to the Arch community for a LONG time, but they don't seem to understand or they just ignore the point because 'it works".
Yeah but if you used Arch last year there were a few times your system wouldn't even boot...so...
The instability to some degree is inherent to all Linux distros. One update for example can mess up your audio drivers and you have to restart them. This happened to me a while back and it took a hot minute to figure out was happening and run a few commands in the terminal. It probably took 20 minutes max or so to figure it out and fix it. My perception is that small annoyances like this happen more often in Arch and Arch-based distros. For non-programmers using Linux as a daily driver that is a hard pass.
This is pretty accurate. Any time Linux does a major update/upgrade there is a huge potential for issues (this is true going from say Windows 10 to 11 as well). Something like Ubuntu LTS only has a major upgrade at most every 2 years and you are not forced to do it for 5+. But you never know when a specific Arch update will cause issues on your system.
Another issue is they rely on the community for the majority of their packages and not the actual developers of software.
@@brostoevsky22 I do not recall ever having an issue from an update on a Ubuntu LTS. If I have it was years and years ago.
But you are correct about Arch, it just gets so many small annoyances that happen all the time and occasionally huge issues. Arch is not good for anyone who wants a computer that you can count on to work when you need it.
I switched to Arch about a year and a half ago, and I love it. There was something about having to do it manually, and failing repeatedly that really made the experience so awesome. Now it's about how the amount of documentation on the applications, and access to the AUR. I've tried Ubuntu, Debian, popos, mint, and many others and really Arch is a winner in my book!
This guy earns my respect for carrying Ubuntu bootable stick in bag pack to help people in need lol
my keychain has got a usb stick full of ubuntu for fun sake. 😁
I carry a Linux Mint stick in my bag. :)
@@marsdrums6298 Me too! I carry it in my a**.
It's just what respectable wizards do.
Has none heard of Ventoy?
I use arch-based distro and suddenly started using Wayland on KDE. I have NVIDIA videocard and I have a few small issues, but after solving them (thanks to Brodie Robertson btw) it literally works flawless.
This sounds weird to me. Wayland on KDE. Is not KDE on Wayland?
Came here to say the same, but yeah I think you mean KDE on Wayland!
@@generationdink my apologies folks, English is not my native language, so I might do some random mistakes here and there. Ofc it's KDE on Wayland. :)
@@MaKaNufilms my apologies folks, English is not my native language, so I might do some random mistakes here and there. Ofc it's KDE on Wayland. :)
The title is so accurate for me lol. I used Debian based distros for 6 months and then switched to EndeavourOS 2 months ago. Never looked back
EndeavourOS rocks!
EndeavourOS somehow just works on my laptop! it’s amazing.
3:41 What about Alpine Linux? It's a lot different than other distros
Your answer to the last question was spot on. I always have to explain to people the license is only important when it comes to sharing or selling software.
12:31 Many good points to that question. My Linux journey, not gonna name any distros but the bases: Ubuntu > Arch > Debian < back to Arch, then back to > Debian. I just like the idea of turning on my computer and everything will work just as it did the day before, with that said Arch is fun. If I was that guy (or woman) I'd probably try out Debian before jumping to Arch. If your gonna run Arch, then be prepared to read ALOT and run into problems, sometimes on a daily basis.
Right now I'm learning alot about the window manager Openbox, and I think it is perfect on a Debian based system. No more DE for me.
I think fedora is best for someone who want fairly stable system but still want latest stuff not as latest as arch but still way ahead of ubuntu/debian based distros
No. I've been using vanilla arch since approx 5-6 years and it never caused a single issue. By never I mean literally never. Even if it did I have timeshift to rollback changes. For me arch is perfection.
@@abhisek801 i am not saying is unstable or anything. I used endeavour for over a year without any issue. Recently decided to distro hop, used some debian based stuff but that latest software thing kept me away and the I installed Fedora. Its been pretty rock solid without much work.
@@abhisek801 Same 3+ years, just lightdm one time when we switched to python 3.10, a matter of 2 minutes in the tty, I don;t really see any downside to Arch on Desktop, maybe if one have a bad internet connection but that's all
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with Fedora. I switched from Mint to get newer drivers for gaming, and the only downside has been that there's more initial work to do some things that were easier in Mint.
@@ordinaryhuman5645 yeah fedora is pretty solid specially for a new linux user. It does most of the stuff out of the box. You have to do basic stuff like change some dnf settings but it just works
Hey your speaking pace is really gd here . I like listeing to your presentations, cant always keep up but this pace is 👍 perfect
Oh my god, you answered my question! (I'm the person who asked the wayland compositor question).Thank you for that. It makes sense in your case.
Trying various distros: I bought a second-hand laptop, Lenovo ThinkPad T-440s (maybe 10 years old), to try different distros with it. If a distro cannot run in it, I just mark it as a failure and pick up the next distro.
There should be no problem running any distro on a Thinkpad T440s - the hardware is quite standard in Linux terms, and the machine is new enough to have been designed from the outset with Linux in mind.
Tumbleweed ♥️
Edit: Mutahar and DT would be a *based* conversation about Linux
Im a Linux-simp/Ubuntu-andy, but I love it and I even pay licenses on multiple machines. I use it for dev and school and I feel like I get a disproportionate amount of value from it against the $25 fee and I'm happy supporting them. Although I'm not sure they need it since Windows Pro just ships with Ubuntu out of the box now lol.
Great video sir! You covered a lot of great stuff in this one! I enjoyed this one immensely. Nice work!
12:32 I did go straight from Windows 10 to Arch without much issues. I still experience package issues occasionally, but a ton of them have been specific issues with attempting to use anything AUR (which, really you should keep to "I'm gonna try that out" or only 2 or 3 packages) or OBS (which has been its own form of break, even with Flatpak).
Everything else has been fairly smooth with a Plasma install with it. I don't do enough else crazy to cause system breakages.
I just read the manual and I keep up with people talking about major changes with it. You should really do that with any distro you choose.
Hey DT. Didn't know you lived that close. I'm also in north Louisiana
I really did use Mint for about 6 months before switching to Arch with KDE, lol. Thanks DT.
I have only used linux for 4 months now and was on Arch in less than two weeks. I used ewwbuntu for maybe 6 hours and moved on to Fedora 37 and it was great and I moved on to Arch and haven't looked back. Arch isn't hard to use at all don't be scared of it.
Haha, just wait until you discover artix or the BSD rabbit hole.
What a snowflake
@@himabimdimwim BSD is the best. You use Openbsd?
I enjoy Fedora and Mint. I don't use bleeding edge software, so i don't need a rolling release. Ive been there and done that, i now value stability and compatibility, especially in production environments.
Hey DT: Great Video. I wanted to add that making a distro would entail building your own repositories (packages) and possibly your own package management system, however, folks need to remember that Linux is the kernel, everything else is distribution dependent (although that is simplified).
It's worth noting that most distros rely on repos from upstream in some way to some degree (Mint < Ubuntu, LMDE < Debian, etc., with minor changes) and only relatively rarely opt for novel package management systems (Void being the prime example). I'd say there's a good reason for this, and it doesn't mean a new distro ain't just that if it does so.
Folks certainly should remind themselves Linux is just the kernel, but it's understandable that the term has come to often refer nebulously to the kernel + the distro, DE and whatever else happens to be on top of it + open-source philosophy to a greater or lesser extent.
I use eww on my desktop and love it! If you pull in the systrayv4 PR before compiling it has all the functionality most people would want from a bar/menu. I have it setup similar to waybar by default and honeslty would never go back to something else unless it stops being supported. Its absolutely wonderful!
Hey DT! I recently switched my laptops over to Linux because I got fed up with Win11 auto updates breaking my system. After watching dozens of your videos I went with Manjaro. I need a very current kernel for one laptop that has a Ryzen 6800H and an Nvidia RTX 3050. The other laptop is Intel with integrated graphics, but I wanted a consistent environment on both systems. So far ~3 months, I'm extremely pleased with the experience. LInux has come a very long way. The last time I tried switching was when Win7 was new... so yeah, it's been a while.
I started linux in 1992 using 5.25 inch floppies. I soon purchased a commercial X server (at work we developed for several Unix systems -- HPUX, SUNOS, MIPS, etc) so I had to have X.
By December, my Linux machine had a SCSI cdrom in the box along with the 30GB drive that had a SCSI to RLL (which gave me the extra 10G) and I paid $34.95 plus sales tax for "Yggdrasil Plug-and-Play CD" which included X11R6 Xfree86. Worked using Unix until Aug 2001 (after 11 Sept 2001) I worked contracts for Linux machines. For the last 12 years of work, I worked an Linux-based specialized server where they sold the servers direct to the costumers (and to other companies with there branding). I started programming on an HP 2160c in 1971.
Rolling release works both ways. When a glibc update broke gaming on Manjaro linux, it took ages to that to get fixed, whereas mainline Arch was patched in no time.
18:19 Hey DT! Call it Arch + DT-Jam!
Most distros are fine for beginners as long as they are popular (i.e. more q&a in forums) and are financially sustainable (either by corporate backing or user donations)
Beginners can also probably safely use unfunded and obscure distros too as long as they do not have too many expectations and as long as the package manager is well maintained
@@ghost-user559 Nah obscure distros lack enough useful info for beginners and unfunded distros disappear sooner or later. It's like saying "it's ok to buy a poorly made product as long as you have low expectations" - well sure, anything is fine if you have low expectations but I don't think it means it should be recommended to people
@@deersakamoto2167 Yeah to a degree I completely agree. But I also have gotten into Linux through tinkering with eccentric distros that died quickly and were under funded. I think you are right for “normal” people. But for tinkerers and the tech familiar, the taste of freedom and leaving the standard os paradigm is often the gateway to Linux enthusiasm.
But I completely agree for older people or people with less tech knowledge probably keeping it simple is a better introduction.
@@deersakamoto2167 Like there was an obscure Lcars Debian distro recently that was so fun to tinker with I think the novelty was a draw despite its complexity and lack of tutorials.
Some people learn more about how something is built from tinkering and breaking things and others read manuals. Definitely either personality trait needs a different approach.
About Arch BTW. Honestly, as a non-programmer Linux user using a solid "just works distro" is preferable. I don't have time or the technical capacity to troubleshoot every little thing. Truthfully, there's enough troubleshooting with "just works" distros as it is. The major LTS update last summer messed up the Ubuntu-based world. I did a fair bit of troubleshooting in the wake of that. Now I'm using Pop!_OS and it is running stably for me. I've used Linux exclusively, while studying in my International MBA program. Y'all should be glad people like us are actually using any kind of Linux. Lets just say no one else in my master's program uses Linux. One girl said they had Ubuntu computers at work, but she uses MacOS on her personal computer. All of the MacBooks showing up in my lectures made me roll my eyes.
I made a working eww config a few weeks ago. It is just as functional as the standard bar I was using before. I had to write a python script to track and update the state of my workspaces and the window title on each monitor. It was definitely not worth the effort if I didn't care about the aesthetics
I was wondering about the Wayland compositors, I use Hyprland on Nvidia, but I see what you mean, It was a huge headache to get working, but now that I have it all setup I have basically no issues with Nvidia.
Until you play a modern game, Wayland is not the way(right now)
About the Mint to Arch question, I switched to Arch 6 months or something ago, and it broke, a lot, but, the reason it broke is because I didn't really know what I was doing. I had only been using Pop!_OS for like a month or two, but now, It almost never breaks on me. And I'm running Hyprland rn, which is a very new peice of software, but it's gotten a lot more stable the last couple of months. So, yes Arch is much more likely to break then something Debian based, but once you know what you are doing it's at least as stable as Windows, probably more so.
You do creative writing in emacs? I'm a writer on the side as well and I've been considering making a terminal-only little laptop to work on my books (effectively creating a distraction-free device). How is emacs for creative writing? It always struck me as more of a coder's home.
5:00 I think it would make a good video to show you working on your personalized / fully customized tiling window manager + keybindings and then do the exactly same task with default Ubuntu desktop. That would demonstrate why tiling window managers have a point, how much mouse slows you down instead of simply touch typing what you need to do etc.
The point wouldn't be to demonstrate that tiling window manager or terminal is superior for everything but to demonstrate that you can optimize linux workflow to exactly match your needs, unlike e.g. Windows or Mac OS where the user is expected to adjust his or her workflow to match the features of the OS.
Is it worth the effort to tweak your desktop to make the workflow optimal? It depends how long you're going to use the workflow and how much optimized setup can save time. I would say that for most uses you're not going to save a lot of time but your mental state using the optimized setup is much much better - everything just works as you want it to work.
I'd like to see some GNU Emacs stuff, some NixOS would be heaven, I think NixOS is worthy the time and effort
Hey DT, have you tried daily driving a 100% free software distro like Guix, Parabola, or Trisquel?
He tried to install a few Gnu compliant Distros but he had so much trouble that he made a video about it.
Hey DT! I lived on Arch Linux for 6 years, and suffered a lot with programs breaking Ive always wanted to try Void so I did and now have been using it for 2 years and nothing has ever broke only 1 time virtualbox broke for a couple of days, but its impresive non the less, tried to go back to Arch but I just couldnt Void is so simple with xpbs-src you can do so many cool things, they even have a scrip called xdeb to install deb files nativeley. Its an incredible distro.
I run Arch all the time -- and have some Ubuntu boxes ... 100% agree about stable vs rolling being a zero-sum trade-off ... If you want stable, get one of those Debian distros with their crusty, ancient packages: Everything's old as hell, but that's what you want if you want stable.
For the person who asked about turning vanilla emacs into DOOM emacs, the channel System Crafters has a great series called "Emacs from Scratch" that does basically exactly that.
How to break something in Linux Mint? I have no idea; I managed to mess up something with LM 18 (or 18.1), but that was the last time I did that. I don't remember what it was that I did, but reinstalling the OS helped. At the time I hadn't customized that system yet, so I guessed reinstalling was the fastest way. Now I would try to fix my mess with other means, since there is so many custom things I like.
Linux Mint can break these days, it started when they started to block snaps and started introducing work arounds in the package manager. This is typically why I don't recommend LM anymore
Recently when trying to install newer amdgpu drivers I think I installed only 64 bit but not 32 bit or something like that, which borked things and screwed up a lot of package dependencies. Had to timeshift it back and tried again after finding a forum post about how to do the 32 bit stuff too.
Hey there! I just wanted to clear up something about the question I asked DT (Yes I am the one who asked him that question). It turns out that the issue with my Linux Mint wasn't actually Linux Mint's fault, but mine (or more specifically, Windows 11's fault). I reset Windows 11 to free up some space for my Linux Mint partition, but it ended up messing up the bootloader and Grub which caused problems for Linux Mint. In the end, I had to repair Grub using a Live bootable USB which unfortunately resulted in some of my Linux Mint files getting corrupted. So, it was really Windows 11 that caused the issue, despite my earlier belief that resetting an OS on one partition wouldn't affect an OS on another partition.
@@VimPoR Sounds familiar. Back in 2016 I tried dual-booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint, and that resulted in Windows hanging up in [update fail]-[reboot]-[update fail]-... loop. That's the little nudge that made me switch completely. I had to reinstall Mint too, probably due to my own mistakes later (I was really new to Linux at the time), but no problems since with it.
I absolutely want to use Arch, but I invested in a Synology NAS and insist on using their (actually really good system image pack up software, Active Backup. The problem is that the client agent is only available for DEB and RPM systems, and isn’t available through the AUR.
You can use debtap to convert a deb to an arch package that can be installed. The only caveat is that any dependencies the deb requires also have to be available(including the specific versions). I used this to convert several deb packages with success.
You could always run it in distro box or another container
I do have USBs to live run Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Lubuntu. But as for daily driver, I've been using Kubuntu for 5 years, and Lubuntu for the 10 years before that. However, with the issues I've been dealing with in recent years, where updates break the boot up process, I've been frustrated and avoiding doing updates. With their pushing of snap, I'm leaning towards jumping ship to another distro. I like Linux in part for stability, and being resistant to updating because of possible boot issues is not acceptable as stability. I've already switched my laptop to OpenSuSe. My desktop may be switched soon.
Man I like this channel with tons ofgreat content. I'd hope you'd keep it going, as long as its fun and rewarding to you. I can say I personally get a lot of great knowledge and entertainment from it. I hope it is gratifying to the max. Peace!
Regarding the question on stable KDE distros: I don't think the person asking the question should shy away from something like Manjaro KDE. I've found Manjaro to be the perfect balance between rolling and stable. They tend to hold off on updates a bit longer than mainline Arch, but they still send them through once they've been tested a bit. Rolling release doesn't mean unstable, it means non-static. There are also distros like KDE Neon or Kubuntu that stay fairly up to date.
Manjaro is notorious now for being problematic.
Subscribed! I love watching your videos man!
The BSC Consulting Group recently concluded the direction of Ai would lead to the following conclusions.
Ai should be the most benefit whilst operated within a contained environment. This might be a medical database or voice box of a robot .
All public acquired data from the internet or search devices should be under opensource license only.
This is based upon the conclusion that it is largely assembled information from a wide variety of data much of which could be under copyright, restrictive licenses, open sources licences and private owned data.
Is the BSC Consulting Group think tank correct about the future?
The only problem I have with Brave that Brave doesn't have an account that save my settings and bookmarks.
If all my sync devices gone or deleted, how am I gonna restore my bookmarks?
Workspaces feature and hibernate tabs and workspace for reduce ram usage would be good either.
Hey DT, you talk about your creative writing. Do you have a column somewhere? Can you refer us to some of your works?
I have been using Ubuntu for about 4 years now and I have to say I am not satisfied with it. I ran RedHat years ago and I was much happier with it. I would like to find something I can switch to without losing the apps I currently have. My main complaints with Ubuntu would be computer locking up and after updates many require reboot. I might as well be using Windoze
OpenMandriva has a rolling release, PCLinuxOS is rolling, Solus is rolling, there's Ubuntu Rhino... Lots of options.
What do you do in the terminal so much? Is it work-related programming?
His normal everyday workflow is terminal based. Copying files, deleting, moving, using CLI and TUI programs. A lot of Linux users end up there
you can pretty much do everything out of the terminal and only use graphics when you absolutely need it
@@bologna3048 Not most things, but a lot of things.
Hey DT, Please do a video on Docker.
I think we all have distro hopped when we first started its exciting learning something new and trying different environments, I now stick with Ubuntu and Mint, Ubuntu is for my gaming machine so it has got the latest video drivers and chipset drivers and Mint is for my laptop that is used for basic stuff I really like the Cinnamon desktop the most so my Ubuntu does look like mint in the end.
About the distro hopping, it would be cool seeing DT playing with that Windows-clone Linux distro.
Have you ever take a look on NomadBSD or GhostBSD? In the last year i switched fron Linux to BSD, and this OS are very intersting. Are you interested to thats systems?
He already told that he can't really use BSDs since he's doing video work and support for such softwares isn't as fine as in linux
@@heroe1486 you have linux layer with bsd.you can run linux stuff.
DT is correct. An OS is just a bootloader to run Emacs full screen. 😉
I've been running (and coming back to) Mint for yeeeaaars. Mint got me into taking Linux desktop seriously.
I've experimented with other distros, but keep coming back to Mint.
I've finally caved to the hype and started trialing Void. Right now it's just on one system that's not even a daily driver, but my experience so far has been relatively positive.
All I have left is to throw Steam on it and see if it has the same crashing problems as the last time I tried gaming on a non-SystemD distro.
You should find a way to put an RS232 port on your workstation, so you can have a real physical terminal from either an antique PC or an actual dumb terminal. :)
Now that I'm trialing Void, which has a lot of terminal-only work, I might actually do that with my antique 386 PC and monochrome monitor if it works out....
Also thank you for reminding me, I need to remind myself how to use vi. Was my favorite console based text editor. Soooo much better than edlin in early DOS....
Back in the day I even installed it on said 386, and I'm sure it's still there, but I've since forgotten most of its commands....
I need a gateway distro to hold my hand on the way to arch
as per DTs suggestion, MX is a really good distro. I run it on my laptop, and you can make it look very nice as well with little effort.
I've always carried a multiboot USB stick with me loaded with Debian, Mint, gParted, MemTest64, Hiren's BCD, Kaspersky, Windows 10, and Windows 11 just in case someone has an emergency or gets bit by the curiosity bug. In this regard, Ventoy has made my life easier. 😊
Since using ventoy and some people are scared about the non signed BS I started to create my own Multiboot... Now I am frustrated, because my first stick was terrible slow, my second stick burnt while I was benchmarking it and finally fall into frustration with FreeBSD iso...
@@MaKaNufilms A lot of SanDisk USB 3.0 flash drives get above 60 Celsius and start throttling. I have one that gets that hot sitting idle in the port so I limit it to USB 2.x workloads. My Ventoy stick is a 64GB Patriot Rage 2 XL that's consistent fast at 160MBs a second and consistently cool with a nice long hard rubber housing. But not all ISOs work on it. Most of them do, though, and you can boot them in normal mode or Grub2 mode in case you need to pass specific command line arguments.
@@TogonzoMedia seems hard to get in germany
@@MaKaNufilms Can you find Lexar 64GB USB 3.0 flash drives in Germany. They get a little warm but not as bad as SanDisk. I specifically ordered my Patriot Rage drive off NewEgg because I couldn't find it locally.
I used arch and personally it wasn't really something I liked. I love what the Mint team is doing and that is my daily.
For me it is like this:
Workstation: Suse or OpenIndiana (cause reasons)
General desktop: Mint
Old desktop: Debian
Small server: Debian or FreeBSD
Scaled server: NetBSD, OpenBSD, RHEL, Suse Server or Ubuntu Server.
That is my take in general.
Yea, I use Arcolinu hyprland with nVidia card. There are many things I can't use. However, it works for me since my workflow mostly consists coding, gaming & music. Screen flickers and can't use some packages/applications (e.g. discord screen share doesn't work, screenshot gives me black picture, only office flickers & freezes) but I'm still cool with the animations and the look of it. However, PopOS or Kde arch distros are much more comforting, especially for a software dev debian based distro is so much comfy, all official packages are available. But I love arch linux. Wouldn't even learn anything about linux without arch. Just love it!
Hey DT, looks like we're neighbors. I'm in NW La.
I like mint on laptops or nobara for gaming laptops that or fedora(nobara just has things ready to go and saves a Lil time).Desktop I usually use arch for gaming(VM'S JUST RUN SMOOTHER FOR ME FOR WINDOWS GAMES THAT DONT RUN ON LINUX) and or chimera for small pc builds in my living room
For anyone who wants to see more Emacs videos, System Crafters and Gavin Freeborn are also good sources.
Hey DT! You need 3 rows in your postinstall script, to run hyprland with nvidia. Im using Hyprland since it got into the community repo. And it works just fine on tuxedo notebook with 3060. I'm sure there would be less disadvantages with amd, but I have nothing to compare it with. Also the new Fedora works with wayland and nvidia just prefecto. But really I'm already used to Arch.
Hey DT! Would you consider reviewing Tiny Core Linux on low-end hardware? Some people don't have a lot of cash to buy a computer with.
One distro worth looking at is called gobo Linux. Very unique setup, different from all others.
Hey Dt do you perhaps have a discord or Q & A forum?
I'm using Cinnamon Mint 21, and I get updates daily. What are the updates that Arch-based distros are getting that are on a different order of magnitude?
Point release distros like Debian or Ubuntu (and thus Mint) only get security updates and some bugfixes, never feature updates.
For you example, Debian 12 comes with Linux kernel 6.2, so it will only ever get 6.2 updates - 6.2.1, 6.2.2, etc, never 6.3. Same with all other software.
This is done to ensure a stable (as-in never changing) suite of software that wipl retain the same features, behavior, compatibility, APIs, ABIs etc. How such a system behaves and interacts will never change, only the next release will introduce truly new versions.
Ubuntu (and its derivatives like Mint) has a small exception with HWE, which means they backport newer versions of certain components (most notably kernel and GPU drivers) to older LTS releases to ensure compatibility with newer PCs. All other software versions remain the same.
Arch on the other hand gives you the latest versions of all software, which means that updates can (and do) change how your system behaves, both in good ways (new features, better performance) AND in bad ways (introducing compatibility issues and changes in expected behavior).
Maybe the last question was meant as if Governments entities develop their in-house software if they should make it available to the public with an open source license. It is all payed by the Tax payer at the end so he should be able to use it like every other thing government "build" for the public
If it's software they use for specific government operations that people like our enemies shouldn't have access too, then I think all of that should be locked up tight.
@@marsdrums6298 Our Enemies? There are no Enemies. Mosquitoes maybe but they can't operate Computers
I would say you can have rolling and stable at the same time with openSUSE
That has been my experience as well.
stable/unstable = software upgrades, not things breaking, its thus impossible to have both in the same time. Arch almost never break, anyone using it and knowing what he's doing would tell you that.
Honestly, after you have used Linux for sometime (You don't have to be a 'geek') as a fully time OS - I honestly doubt if Distros matter at all. Personally, I will struggle with window managers for sure, for a bit as I have never used one, EVER. But as long it is a distro with a DE, I don't think it will take more than a couple of days to feel at home. So, I personally don't see the point of these 'challenges'.
P.S. I am talking from the perspective of a normal user, not a tinkerer or 'power user'.
Hi, I was wondering why Androids doesn't break, even though google play is basically a rolling release system?
Manjaro KDE for the Linux Mint user is my suggestion. Arch based, but curated to be more stable.
I'd like to try Arch but...
I would need a second computer before that happens
I tried Manjaro initially and it had password issues
then I went with my tried & true Mint Mate
tried Endeavour Live DVD and it mucked my grub
so I quit exploring other distros
until I get another computer
not having my own internet complicates things a bit
Arch based really isn't Arch. It's Arch but with a bunch of bling that you probably don't need. When you say 'not having your own internet...' you mean, you're borrowing some one else's connection via WiFi or something? No idea... but yeah, you kinda need internet for all distros. Including Windows now a days. Internet is essential to computers.
Meh, I've transcended Arch and now I do most things out of Debian, once you spend enough time dealing with Arch you realize there's not really much special about it and for most people you're not getting any real advantage out of it. Arch is just like any other SystemD distro, it's just pacman's syntax is a little weird and the packages update really quickly, which means you may or may not run into a situation where your system doesn't boot and you'll have to use another device to read the archwiki to fix the problem. When it happens is never convenient but if you like that, all power to you lol.
Most of the time when I needed an up to date version of an application I just install it via Flatpak but usually that's just OBS, Blender and Cura lol
Hey DT - how would one turn their arco linux install into a stable version of Garuda dragonized that actually works with more modern GPUs, unlike Garuda?
Tried mint for a little bit. Moving back to Fedora now. Had way too many issues with mint.
you are the first and only who have that with mint and you prefer fedora lol. a guinnes record.
@@sixdroid I generally prefer fedora over mint but my current laptop doesn't play well with it.
I use gentoo by the way.
This is where I am. I have Arch on two machines, and I have Fedora Server on my router and sever. I could switch my other machines to a Fedora Spin, but what would it really change? 🖖🏻😌
I've got Arch on my 2 main machines. I've got Proxmox (which is a Debian based system) on my VM server. I prefer it that way. Could I put Arch on that VM server and use it that way. Probably but I like simplicity. If it works, then it's fine. I'm going to leave it as is. As soon as it becomes an issue for me, then it's time to build a new VM server platform.
Tomorrow i will try installing arch in gnome boxes, i will see how it goes.
Hey DT,
Just started using Pop!OS for a few weeks now after getting my games ready with Heroic and Lutris and found alternatives for my Windows 11 programs. I don't like the tiling on Pop!OS and I miss Powertoys now. Would you please make a video about best tiling managers for Programming and gaming on multiple screens and desktops?
Thanks a lot for all your content!
Pop! Comes with Gnome and I dislike gnome a lot. I don't know how pop handles different DEs but my favorites are xfce and kde.
I actually am currently using POP OS, basically, it is pretty stable when programming AI and have Nvidia GPUs.
Arch and arch-based distros will break sooner and later and you have to reinstall. I moved to MX Linux from Garuda because of this.
0:24 I really don't understand the interest in distrohopping or distro videos.
There's a bigger difference between running Fedora and Fedora's KDE spin than there is between Fedora and Ubuntu. To the average user, the under-the-hood differences are only going to matter to the extent a distro has some unique issues (like the memory problem with Ubuntu not that long ago) and when you're setting up.
And even then - if you're using Flatpaks? Virtually identical experience across the same desktop environment regardless of the distro you're running. The only point in distrohopping is when there is a good reason to distohop - IE, needing a newer kernel, your current distro no longer being maintained, major bugs in the current version of the distro you're using, etc.
Linux is not that different than Windows. There ARE significant differences between Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora - but by no means would I be able to go in-depth about what they are because my troubleshooting problem is identical no matter what distro I run. Something breaks? I copy the error code or describe what's happening as best as I can in the search bar and follow the instructions to whatever solution I find. Which is the same thing I did with Windows.
How you customize your distro of choice has WAY more impact than which distro you use.
I could not agree more. I do think there is a huge difference between linux and windows tho, but as far as linux distros, its really what you are used to. personally for me the only difference is in what shell you use and what package manager. this is WAY over simplification but as far as normal users go, that'd really be the only difference.
@@Texas_Radical When I say they're alike, I mean in the sense that my problem solving strategy has not changed between Windows and Linux.
Windows gave me an error - I copied it down, entered it into a search engine, followed a guide on how to fix it.
Linux gives me trouble? Same thing.
They are fundamentally different but in terms of one's approach and how to do certain things, it's really not as big of a change for most users as people would think - and any user that has ever tinkered with the Windows Registry is perfectly capable of dealing with anything a given distro can throw at them.
It's the power users who are really going to notice how different they are. You give someone Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition when they're leaving Windows, load it up with their favorite web browser - depending on the user, they may honestly not know they've switched operating systems.
@@AwakenedPhoenix309 exactly, Im sorta a power user but honestly ive been only linux so long i get lost on windows sometimes. I like to play on geeked out stuff like Rpi's on kali and arch and whatnot, but as far as my game box its on mint and my daily laptop runs MX. Simple and gets the job done. I do like that i can pimp out my DE in linux that is just not possible in windows. but at the end of the day its all just a OS.
Arch is always the best for advanced linux users and advanced developpers😊🎉
That would be Gentoo
i like void :)
Yes, Until it decides it's time to break Wi-Fi or grub. Have fun solving that XD
@@gksudolol not everyone has the patience for waiting for 10 hours to install chrome tho.
@@Rekit0 You just read the announcements before updating or roll back to your backup that you made few minutes before, takes 10 minutes at most, 10 minutes once every 2 years ... 10 minutes is what I save with the AUR every time I want to install something, which happens multiple times a day
hey dt why dont u use netbsd
Hi DT! I am planning to switch my work laptop os from Windows 11 to Linux. Personally i use Fedora 38 with Gnome which I really like but I am interested in using Arch. I do a lot of work with VMs using VMWare Workstation and also screen recording/editing for making educational videos. Is there any Arch distro that you could recommend or should I just stick to what I am used to (Fedora)?
I always come back to windows because of nvidia driver issues. I love Hyprland but it doesn't work with the games I want to play and other distros are same a like. I want to code in linux but game on windows and I do not want to dual boot. It is an ongoing dilemma for me.
Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with dual booting? I know some people have had issues with windows updates messing up their Linux bootloader but you could get around that by installing the two systems on separate drives. You could also have a cheap Linux laptop for programming and only use your current pc for gaming. This has the added benefit of removing distractions when you wanna focus on programming.
@@wojteksowinski248 Dualbooting is kind of a pain. I did that for months and it was not very practical.
Canonical is the Microsoft of the Linux world, which is to say they're useful for commercial projects but you'll never see it on any hardware I own.
What if you make a really minimal DTOS? Something like puppy linux.
Hey, DT!
Thanks for your work! You introduced me to tilling WM, they are really cool. But I am frustrated because workspaces work not as I wish. I want to achieve an effect that the WM remembers where I close a program and opens it there. Right now I am using Awesome and guys from forums told me there is no opportunity to do that without manual scripting. I also used I3 and had the same issue. Yeah, I know I can write rules for each program, but it is not convenient at all. BTW I never use tilling in tillingWM (I always open programs in full screen), so maybe there is a minimalistic floating WM with such functionality.
It's _TILING._
@@exnihilonihilfit6316 thanks!
English is not my default language, as you could notice :)
maybe the sparky linux kde plasma semi rolling is good for u :)
12:30 another good option might be something like fedora.
Jump cut? Why?
I'd ratther have a root canal. LinuxMint Debian Elsie, with all it's updates for 2 years now. No issues. Runs my life quite well. Nothing I could do in windows is missing here. Nothing!
LMDE is really good.
Quite frankly, I think there is too much emphasis on distrohopping in the Linux community. It's fine to want to try out new things and see other sides of Linux, but if you have a stable system set up exactly as you like it, I don't see the need to hop to Arco Linux (or anything else) if you don't have to. It's fine to be comfortable with your OS. Pushing people to distrohop just creates stress for people new to Linux that doesn't need to exist.
In my 5 years of linux journey fedora and opensuse tumbleweed byfar is the most stable for me.
and hasn't broken for me for ages.
am I the only one who loves to use containers for virtual machines.
Love your videos.. I am a new users and listen to them on my way to work. So down to earth explanations, thank you so much.. I quick question .... do you use the terminal most of the time or it is a combination of the GUi and terminal? thank youy
speaking of distributions you could try nix, i think if you utilized nix to it's fullest your workflow would be a little different and easier to operate long term.
DT probably is the wrong person to ask to make DT OS, that should be a collaborative effort from many people including DT, but if DT was to do it, you already got the script, there isn't much more that lol.