Right, so don’t let him.
OK so I kind of want to a little bit. I’m sick of having an i5 laptop since 2014.
i5 should be plenty for normal use. Stick a lightweight Linux distro on it, and it’ll be as good as new. Just don’t spill coffee on the laptop! Not even Linux can save it from that.
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Maybe if I also had a GPU. But I just got a 4K/60Hz monitor, and Intel’s like “aight we’re going to have to limit this to 30Hz” re: i5. Windows 10 is crazy with the spiffy graphics; 7 was no problem. Maybe the Linux distro would help that, but I haven’t tried Ubuntu since 2009.
Lots has changed in 12 years. You could try e.g. Mint (https://linuxmint.com) with the lightweight Xfce desktop environment, although I like the heavier Cinnamon myself. You’ll be surprised. Windows is crazy when it comes to a lot of things. It’s more of an advertising platform and money making scheme than an operating system.
We’re getting off topic here, but you can start a new Linux Help topic if you like. I’m sure many here would love to help if you have any questions.
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It really is. I don’t want an advert for Minecraft and candy crush every time I use the machine, even the pro version.
For my next install I will be following the YouTube debloating image creation tutorials.
If I’m paying for a licence I don’t want to also be a product.
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Ubuntu is great, I use it. Its much better than it wa in 2009.
I mostly use it as a remote server on digital ocean.
Since the availability of visual studio code on raspian I’m starting to us my pi4 more often… and you can connect it to two screens!!!
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Another vote for Mint - very easy to use coming from Windows, stable, and not too heavy on resources. I still have to use Windows for work but otherwise I’d shift completely.
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I run Kubuntu on a old i5.
Runs perfectly.
I also have regular Ubuntu and Mint on others.
But Kubuntu is my favorite.
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I haven’t tried KDE in some time, but I never really liked or got used to it when I did. It felt, I don’t know, fiddly and pretentious. It’s also pretty heavy on the resources, isn’t it? Maybe it’s more for people coming from the Mac world. I never used a Mac in my life. I have used Windows, but not this millennium.
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I am XFCE guy. Don’t like KDE either, but in it’s defense it’s just as lightweight as XFCE these days.
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Me too. It just works. Reliably. Well supported these days too.
Never had a Mac so cant compare there.
I have used a mac on and off for the last few years and it feels more like Ubuntu/Gnome Shell to me. I actually prefer Ubuntu/Gnome to the Mac. I find the shell more integrated, as the package manager is integrated right from the guts. The same is true for configuration, imo. Ubuntu feels more cohesive top to bottom.
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Ubuntu/Gnome for usability and configurability (I hate some of the Gnome defaults but most I’ve been able to disable/customise).
Unfortunately I think they’re changing the desktop again for next release but don’t know the details.
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If you are a technical person, you could try out Qubes. It’s a lot of fun, and very secure. Everything runs in VMs, so it would be an interesting setup for vaults.
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I really like Qubes too. It’s great that you can run one VM with a VPN, one over Tor and one airgapped from the Internet all at the same time. It’s a shame it won’t install on a lot of systems. I also find sn_auth doesn’t work on it - not sure if you’ve tried?
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I haven’t tried, yet, but I’ll see if I can find some time to try it out. Did you try both Fedora and Debian VMs?
No, just Debian as far as I remember. Some things work but when you try to authorise the CLI it hangs.
I think it was KDE 4 that was released way too early and broke Kubuntu for me completely.
That’s one of the troubles with Ubuntu - they keep changing stuff around. I gave up completely when they moved the window buttons over to the left.
I’m a conservative guy and dislike unnecessary change. Windows 95 was a big improvement over Windows 3.1. But it’s been pretty much downhill after that, if you ask me.
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My Gnome customisations are essentially and enhanced version of the Windows 95 desktop.
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