Any other Linux users here? And has anyone fully migrated?

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

...why? Using the package manager is one of the great benefits of Linux to me, unless you're struggling with really old packages in your manager I'm not sure why you'd go through the trouble of installing and upgrading it all manually. Even then, I would switch to a rolling release or write some install scripts to they're at least tracked by my manager.

it is my conclusion after years of distro hopping and linux usage that we shouldn't limit ourself with the distro package manager

It is great when my network libraries get automatically patched by Aptitude on my Debian servers, when qemu gets updated on Arch breaking all my VMs because their bios is not supported anymore it is not so great

when I'm unable to download a video because the yt-dlp in pacman is over a month old that's when I learn that I should have installed it through pip instead, when I am on obscure distros that are great but have few packages (or no package manager at all) that's when I learn the immense value of appimages, generic tarballs and flatpak

a rolling release distro is one that will constantly make you work because they will keep dropping support for how you configured it before, it is also one where random softwares will stop working one day because one lib is suddenly too old or too new

a stable distro will just work, software in the package manager will be outdated but you can cut the middleman and get your stuff straight from the source

waterfox got its own built-in updater, if my software doesn't hit the network I don't want it to be constantly updated anyway, unless I am really hyped about a new feature in that case I will think of downloading the newer version (I'm not hyped often)

ever heard of that one time when duckstation's dev crashed out because of the broken unofficial AUR packages ? that was pretty funny

 

[diapered]

unfortunately not every software give a simple tarball or appimage like that

There is a reason for that, it is really annoying the build packages yourself... Yea, if the make script goes through no issue, easy sure, but most likely you are going to need to do some googling and config file editing. The only reason I ever would do this is if I did not have root privileges and had to install software locally. If you have root access to a machine, I don't see a reason for not using the package manager unless the package is not available.

or no package manager at all

I'm not aware of any distro that has no package manager at all O_o I'm really curious. Can you give an example? I mean, even something as base as gentoo has portage...

a rolling release distro is one that will constantly make you work because they will keep dropping support for how you configured it before, it is also one where random softwares will stop working one day because one lib is suddenly too old or too new

Yes, that can possibly happen and it's annoying how often things change. That's what I like about Garuda. The snapshot support makes it so you can easily roll back an update and just wait for a major problem to be fixed. So far (about a year), I haven't had to do that though, but I like having that "just in case". I like the philosophy of rolling release: it keeps everything in sync as often as possible so it limits the possibility of a major conflict during an update. I have more often had debian/ubuntu/mint systems break after an update than something arch based...

when I'm unable to download a video because the yt-dlp in pacman is over a month old that's when I learn that I should have installed it through pip instead

Regardless of distro, you should use pip for packages like that: even arch and fedora repos will not be up to date. That is a case where you always need the absolute most recent build of the package as yt is constantly trying to prevent that use. Also, pip IS a package manager, and is a great example of why package managers are a good idea >_> Yea, you can download the source for yt-dl and build it yourself every week (idk, been awhile since I used yt-dl, forgot how often needed an update), or let pip do it for you...

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

I'm not aware of any distro that has no package manager at all O_o I'm really curious. Can you give an example? I mean, even something as base as gentoo has portage...

Slackware

I mean it kinda have a package manager but that thing is just like a bunch of tarballs and some simple shell scripts to install them, it isn't capable of doing dependency management, usually when you install Slackware you already have every single official packages on the DVD and install everything at once (15GB total decompressed) and the only moment where you touch the official package manager after that is for security fixes

there is an unofficial package manager called slackbuild which works quite well, but if a software got an AppImage or a static binary I might wanna choose that instead

(I haven't tried gentoo since the last time that I failed to compile it but from what i know its package manager is actually quite elaborate)

There is a reason for that, it is really annoying the build packages yourself... Yea, if the make script goes through no issue, easy sure, but most likely you are going to need to do some googling and config file editing. The only reason I ever would do this is if I did not have root privileges and had to install software locally. If you have root access to a machine, I don't see a reason for not using the package manager unless the package is not available.

what I mean by "simple tarball" is one where I don't have to build anything myself, one where I got the executable file as well as every single library that the thing needs, simple decompress and double click like on windows

my point isn't against package managers but against locking yourself in the idea that everything should come from the distro's package manager, it is really convenient but sometimes it's ok to get your stuff straight from the source and not wait for the middle man to update his pkgbuild file

sometimes i discover a new software I am already on the dev's site I can see that there is an appimage file I will not bother to check my package manager i will just download the file, that's the most convenient thing to do in that situation

Post automatically merged: Aug 26, 2025

I just remembered one time when I had my seedbox running armbian and was running quite an old version of Transmission with memory leak that never really got updated from the repo

every few days my server would crash because it ran out of memory

yet another example of the distro package manager slowing me down

 

[SpikeSlania]

Red hat-Common distros under it are fedora, nobara and red hat enterprise, has the least amount of distros:
Fedora updates more often than debian but less than arch, if debian updates every 6 months, fedora updates every 1-3, fedora uses it's own command structure for programs and functionality but like all types can be used to use flatpaks (original linux versions and derivatives can use most file systems, i think arch's AUR might be exclusive but you could probably get it working elsewhere if you wanted, bad idea though), generally speaking the red hat distros are the ones more designed around enterprise and business technologies from my experience, but you also have a few that have extra functions like nobara, which is a gaming distro made by glorious eggroll.

Come on you, forgot about our Fedora Asahi Remix for the current best Linux ARM experience! Nobara is a real outlier in the Red Hat eco system since it is based off Fedora, but GE gut out RPMs in favor of AUR packages. Can't remember if he still uses Yum for a package manager or if he uses a self developed one. Bazzite is the other big gaming distro that is based off Fedora and is probably the gaming distro most non linux users heard about due to it's popularity for ROG Ally support and big tech youtubers using it.

what I mean by "simple tarball" is one where I don't have to build anything myself, one where I got the executable file as well as every single library that the thing needs, simple decompress and double click like on windows

my point isn't against package managers but against locking yourself in the idea that everything should come from the distro's package manager, it is really convenient but sometimes it's ok to get your stuff straight from the source and not wait for the middle man to update his pkgbuild file

sometimes i discover a new software I am already on the dev's site I can see that there is an appimage file I will not bother to check my package manager i will just download the file, that's the most convenient thing to do in that situation

I don't think I heard of tarballs before, or if I did they are barely talked about similar to APP Images but I have used a few APPs so far. Granted even though I hear about SNAPs often, normally it's not good things :P Not being wholly reliant on a system package manager would probably be helpful for Arch users right now with the Arch servers being DDOS for like the past week. I do support the idea that it's the Manjaro devs DDOSing Arch again, sounds like something they would do, again :P Not sure what kind of apps I would want that arent in the RPM or Flathub repos, maybe if there's a repo for FOSS games that can fill in the missing slots that arent hosted on Flathub.

 

[diapered]

what I mean by "simple tarball" is one where I don't have to build anything myself, one where I got the executable file as well as every single library that the thing needs, simple decompress and double click like on windows

oh ok, so you have some sort of utility/program that builds a generic tarball for you on your distro? Again, I am curious, because that is pretty cool. Or are you actually a slackware user that builds everything from scripts? Even more impressive.

I don't think I heard of tarballs before

It's just a term for .tar archives. I don't know where it comes from either. Usually they are encountered compressed using gzip so you usually encounter them as .tar.gz or .tgz And you probably haven't heard/encountered of them because it is a pain in the ass working with raw source code >_< I have only done it as a last resort like when I didn't have root access.

Post automatically merged: Aug 27, 2025

I do support the idea that it's the Manjaro devs DDOSing Arch again, sounds like something they would do, again

Oh dear, I hope those goobers are not at it again

 

[Leon]

Come on you, forgot about our Fedora Asahi Remix for the current best Linux ARM experience! Nobara is a real outlier in the Red Hat eco system since it is based off Fedora, but GE gut out RPMs in favor of AUR packages. Can't remember if he still uses Yum for a package manager or if he uses a self developed one. Bazzite is the other big gaming distro that is based off Fedora and is probably the gaming distro most non linux users heard about due to it's popularity for ROG Ally support and big tech youtubers using it.

Bazzite sucks, no one will convince me otherwise, thought bazzite was debian based though.
i mentioned the 3 most known distros of fedora, at least the most known ones i knew, hence why i mentioned the 3 i did remember.

Bazzite get's so much support i think because it checks the right boxes, it's easy to use and install, fairly windows-like and will work on gaming handhelds, i still think it sucks though for anyone who knows what they are doing.

I also left pika os out of the debian stack btw, which is another gaming distro.

 

[SpikeSlania]

Bazzite sucks, no one will convince me otherwise, thought bazzite was debian based though.
i mentioned the 3 most known distros of fedora, at least the most known ones i knew, hence why i mentioned the 3 i did remember.

Bazzite get's so much support i think because it checks the right boxes, it's easy to use and install, fairly windows-like and will work on gaming handhelds, i still think it sucks though for anyone who knows what they are doing.

Yeah, Bazzite is part of the Fedora Silverblue family, so that whole Immutable Fedora side branch stuff that I rather not use. I have Bazzite on my couch media rig for now until Valve does a proper SteamOS for media center desktop pcs. Chimaera OS and Nobara are also options for that.

I also left pika os out of the debian stack btw, which is another gaming distro.

Used PikaOS for about a month or two. Enjoyed my time with it but eventually just wanted to have a base distro and do my own thing. It's really nice how the devs of Nobara, Pika, Cachy, and Bazzite all work together and help each other sharing various programs they developed.

Oh dear, I hope those goobers are not at it again
View attachment 104280

Most likely it was probably the guy who was releasing malware into the Arch repos and his programs got caught but I can't just rule out Manjaro with their track record!

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

oh ok, so you have some sort of utility/program that builds a generic tarball for you on your distro? Again, I am curious, because that is pretty cool. Or are you actually a slackware user that builds everything from scripts? Even more impressive.

no you keep understanding the exact opposite of what I am trying to say

I am speaking about this kind of tarball https://cdn1.waterfox.net/waterfox/releases/6.6.1/Linux_x86_64/waterfox-6.6.1.tar.bz2

 

[Jdan-S]

I was reluctant to move from XP to Vista, so I tried out Linux Mint in the 2010s and have used it ever since. It's my daily driver on my work laptop. However, I still have a couple of mini PCs pre-installed with Windows for gaming (and in case I need to do something that's Windows only). Only recently have I been trying out what PC gaming is like on Linux when I purchased a Steam Deck a couple of months ago.

This also meant that I gave up tools like Photoshop 7 and learn alternatives like GIMP, MyPaint, and Krita. It took time and effort, but now that Adobe products are subscription-based, learning how not to be reliant on them paid off.

 

[PepThePerson]

no you keep understanding the exact opposite of what I am trying to say

I am speaking about this kind of tarball https://cdn1.waterfox.net/waterfox/releases/6.6.1/Linux_x86_64/waterfox-6.6.1.tar.bz2

Not every piece of software has tarballed binaries though. Sometimes you gotta build or mess around with packages for other package managers :/
Steam's got a Debian package, but I don't know about tarballs for it for example. On one hand I get the appeal, on another package managers are just really easy to use and updating isn't the Windows mess of "every program has an updater" or "you gotta check for updates and update yourself".

...tbf though, I never installed Slackware anywhere. Maybe it's not as bad as I make it out to be, I just think package managers are comfy :)

 

[diapered]

no you keep understanding the exact opposite of what I am trying to say

I am speaking about this kind of tarball https://cdn1.waterfox.net/waterfox/releases/6.6.1/Linux_x86_64/waterfox-6.6.1.tar.bz2

Oh ok, sorry for misunderstanding. Was curious.

I was reluctant to move from XP to Vista, so I tried out Linux Mint in the 2010s and have used it ever since. It's my daily driver on my work laptop. However, I still have a couple of mini PCs pre-installed with Windows for gaming (and in case I need to do something that's Windows only). Only recently have I been trying out what PC gaming is like on Linux when I purchased a Steam Deck a couple of months ago.

This also meant that I gave up tools like Photoshop 7 and learn alternatives like GIMP, MyPaint, and Krita. It took time and effort, but now that Adobe products are subscription-based, learning how not to be reliant on them paid off.

Mint is also the first distro for me that made linux "enjoyable". I had used Mandriva and Debian before to much frustration. Probably not those distro's fault, as I was also new to linux at the time. But switching to mint made things much easier. I don't use mint anymore, but it was pretty good times.

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

actually I do compile stuff myself as well sometimes, it can be as straightforward as it could ever be or be a complete hassle lowkey impossible really depends on the software

usually the worst thing about compiling is tracking down all the libraries, the best tip I can give: if the software is present in your package manager you can usually get all the build dependencies that way, on DNF-based distros i think it is something like `dnf builddep` (or maybe its builddeps i don't remember) most package managers got a similar command

(why would you compile yourself if it's already in the package manager ? if the package is outdated, if it is broken, if you want to use a fork that's not in the package manager, if you got your own modifications to do to the software, probably other reasons (like i like to compile Minetest myself cause it allow me to have the whole game in a single folder and not scattered all around my system, and it allow me to keep multiple versions of the game))

(I'm not a slackware user at least not yet, I only have my thinkpad on slackware everything else is too recent to run on the latest stable release of slackware, my gaming computers are running openmandriva, my web browsing machine is on Artix which I'm only keeping because it is too much of a hassle to change the OS)

Not every piece of software has tarballed binaries though. Sometimes you gotta build or mess around with packages for other package managers :/
Steam's got a Debian package, but I don't know about tarballs for it for example. On one hand I get the appeal, on another package managers are just really easy to use and updating isn't the Windows mess of "every program has an updater" or "you gotta check for updates and update yourself".

yea not all software give a tarball and that's a big problem, life could be so much easier

it's probably no problem to just use the deb package just gotta be careful about dependencies

 

[petran79]

I don't want this to become political drama so i will say only this much and never speak of this part of xlibre again as it's a political minefield but MUST be mentioned when talking about Xlibre, openmandriva and devuan at this point as all 3 have similar political stances, again i won't comment on this again but it MUST be said and kept in mind when getting deep into linux going forward.

The arguments against Xlibre, devuan and Open Mandriva are heavily based on the creator of the group and the group in general being against far-left politics or politics in general in coding (this does NOT mean you can't have those views, they just want politics out of coding, period), which has become a problem in the linux community as some linux distros and even the linux foundation (though the foundation can generally be ignored at this point) are becoming more about far-left political stances than improving and fixing code, this is a brewing firestorm that if not put out could cause linux to crash, as someone who just wants to use linux hearing about how the gnome foundation hates me for being a straight white male conservative doesn't exactly make me happy personally, so this was bound to happen eventually, xlibre for it's part just takes a "we are staying out of politics" policy and now is getting attacked for it.

Everyone is welcome to dislike Xlibre for their stances on anything irl political but the code itself is fine as far as i've seen, so i must defend it as the code is fine (at least last i checked).

As for the arch issue, that's in general a problem with the AUR with alot of packages, the duckstation issue for example, i believe the distro i use, garuda, supports a garuda version of Xlibre, either that or the chaotic AUR uses a specific "official" version.

Oh and i suppose since i'm making 1 political post, i should explain the opensuse situation, opensuse used to be mostly politically uninvolved, but a few years ago some politically VERY far left members got on the board of directors and started banning anyone, including other board members, for the slightest infraction to their "political mandates" for all members, it has gotten so bad that they had trouble filling their empty board seats recently as even those who agree with the policies were afraid of stepping out of line and getting banned, opensuse isn't the only one to pull this but it's definitely the one most obvious, i expect opensuse to be absorbed by SUSE eventually because of this as the current trajectory is not sustainable, pretty sad as opensuse used to be one of the greats.

Alright, done, not touching politics again, don't quote me on them as i won't answer political stuff as to abide by the rules.

Linux mint is the go-to for a new user, if you have trouble with that there are other options but mint is generally the first distro i suggest to new users dipping their toe into the linux waters, other good options are fedora, debian/devuan and manjaro, i have problems with manjaro as a more advanced user but as a newbie it's good for getting into arch, avoid gentoo like the plague, it's more or less the "i know what i'm doing" branch.

If you want to be a bit adventurous, any arch distro is great as arch as it's the best branch for gaming, but generally i'd avoid arch as your first try.

Yes, there was also the issue with current world events and Linus' stance.

But regardless of their views, they are just technocrats

 

[RuckusMcGuckus]

Windows 11 does not support my laptops processor and, as I'm sure a lot of you know, as of October 14th this year Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. I've always wanted to try Linux and now I was basically forced to.

I installed Linux Mint two nights ago. It's just like people say, no bloatware, just an OS and its nice in that regard. Couple of hiccups here and there but so far its just me getting familiar with a new OS no real problems at all so far. Its been a blast and i'm excited to learn more, but also little nervous.

Any beginner tips or things you wish you knew sooner as a Linux user? Any good sources?

So far, I haven't done too much. I've messed around with system settings, OS updates, updated drivers, set up snapshots.
I've also used software manager to download Bottles and gave it a quick test because i use a good bit of Windows programs (.exe)

Currently trying to find if there is an equivalent to Windows' "Graphic settings", where you can add applications and set them to high performance.

 

[aquova]

Any beginner tips or things you wish you knew sooner as a Linux user? Any good sources?

Probably nothing you haven't heard before. Looking through all your settings is a good start, I think Mint starts up with some suggestions of what you should take a look at -- drivers and such.

One thing I see a lot of migrating Windows users do is they still feel the need to go to random website in order to install programs. I heavily encourage you to use your software manager at all times if possible, it makes things like upgrading way easier. It's Linux's killer feature in many ways. Other than that, I would try to encourage taking a look at the native Linux alternatives for programs (LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, etc). Running things via Wine/Bottles is easier than ever, but in many ways it's not quite perfect, and you'll have a better time running a native app instead. Granted, there are many programs where that isn't possible, but I think you'd be surprised how many alternatives end up being nicer to use than their Windows counterparts.

 

[RuckusMcGuckus]

I have been using software manager and so far its been as easy as a click. I downloaded Brave (browser) off their site and it had me use terminal but in that instance it was easy. I could see how it could get confusing as I'm not really used to using commands.

And yeah there some small programs like OPL manager and many other rom programs i have to check and see for alternatives, linux versions, or just Bottles.

I gotta read this thread more too, I saw something called proton ill probably have to check out. All in good time i guess, so far though im enjoying it a lot

 

[petran79]

I too ordered some parts for hardware upgrade. Currently have Win10 installed on an SATA SSD but instead of upgrading to 11, I'll add an nvm ssd pci 5.0 disk and install Linux Mint for turbo speed. Have no interest in any demanding future 3d Windows game, as my gpu is a gtx 1080 whose support will end soon.Hope that Windows 10 will not mess anything this time like partitions or bootloader

 

[Deleted member 881671]

I never used Linux.

 

[Leon]

Windows 11 does not support my laptops processor and, as I'm sure a lot of you know, as of October 14th this year Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. I've always wanted to try Linux and now I was basically forced to.

I installed Linux Mint two nights ago. It's just like people say, no bloatware, just an OS and its nice in that regard. Couple of hiccups here and there but so far its just me getting familiar with a new OS no real problems at all so far. Its been a blast and i'm excited to learn more, but also little nervous.

Any beginner tips or things you wish you knew sooner as a Linux user? Any good sources?

So far, I haven't done too much. I've messed around with system settings, OS updates, updated drivers, set up snapshots.
I've also used software manager to download Bottles and gave it a quick test because i use a good bit of Windows programs (.exe)

Currently trying to find if there is an equivalent to Windows' "Graphic settings", where you can add applications and set them to high performance.

My main suggestion is to learn how the terminal works, i'm not saying to use it for software installs and the like, but learn how it works at the basic level so that if you ever need to use it for something you won't get caught with your pants down just because you didn't use sudo or something, as a few programs on linux still rely on terminal commands to function, the most important imo would be ntfs-fix, as while i generally suggest against using ntfs on linux, if something goes wrong with it you will need to use it and it's terminal only.

Let me be clear, 99% of the time linux does not require terminal for most user friendly distros, but that 1% of the time is the one time you don't want to get caught with your pants down.

I'd also suggest learning how wine works, especially if you use your computer for modern-ish windows gaming (last decade or so), a workaround is lutris, which can act as a type of frontend for wine but isn't required.
I say this specifically because melon ds for some reason doesn't entirely work right in it's linux client, but ironically melon ds's windows version ran through wine works flawlessly.

EDIT:forgot to mention, applimage isn't as common as it used to be, but basically works like windows .exe program files, you might run into a few emulators or fan-games that use it.

 

[SpikeSlania]

Any beginner tips or things you wish you knew sooner as a Linux user? Any good sources?

One source I hear people often bring up being the Arch Wiki for information even if you're not on Arch it can often have the answers you're looking for. I normally use Lutris over Bottles but found Bottles to be better for running private WoW servers like Ascension and Turtle. LinuxNext would be the YouTuber I would recommend for set up for gaming tutorials.

EDIT:forgot to mention, applimage isn't as common as it used to be, but basically works like windows .exe program files, you might run into a few emulators or fan-games that use it.

One tip I would really want to throw in for APP images. For me at least every time I get one I first have to right click on it, go-to properties, and toggle on executable as program option for them to run.

 

[Gabrinius]

i'm using mint but sincerely i'm not liking it very much.

does anyone use kubuntu? can you tell me if this one is good?

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

i'm using mint but sincerely i'm not liking it very much.

does anyone use kubuntu? can you tell me if this one is good?

what is it about mint that you don't like

used to use kubuntu a long long time ago was fine back then

 

[Gabrinius]

what is it about mint that you don't like

used to use kubuntu a long long time ago was fine back then

i don't like the programs that come with it, like nemo. and when i install better ones like dolphin, i didn't manage to have them integrated with the system. (dolphin lose the "open with" context menu, as example - using the system package instead of the flatpack solves this, but them i have an archaic version which i can't even turn to dark mode).

other software like the one who manage zip and rar file don't work good for me sometimes, maybe because they are very old versions.

the best software i found in linux (i've started using linux recently, sorry) are from KDE team, i really liked dolphin, haruna and kdenlive. so i was thinking a KDE distro maybe will be better for me, and found about kubuntu (fedora looks to be harder to learn and neon they say has many bug).

sorry my lack of knowledge and thanks for the answer.

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

i don't like the programs that come with it, like nemo. and when i install better ones like dolphin, i didn't manage to have them integrated with the system. (dolphin lose the "open with" context menu, as example - using the system package instead of the flatpack solves this, but them i have an archaic version which i can't even turn to dark mode).

other software like the one who manage zip and rar file don't work good for me sometimes, maybe because they are very old versions.

the best software i found in linux (i've started using linux recently, sorry) are from KDE team, i really liked dolphin, haruna and kdenlive. so i was thinking a KDE distro maybe will be better for me, and found about kubuntu (fedora looks to be harder to learn and neon they say has many bug).

sorry my lack of knowledge and thanks for the answer.

so basically your worse problem right now is that the dolphin version from your package manager is awfully outdated (and it's the kind of software that don't mix well with flatpak's sandboxing)

that seems like a good reason to switch distro althou I wouldn't trust Ubuntu right now they're doing some pretty weird stuff (apparently they're gonna replace gnu coreutils with some unstable alternative in the next release), I would probably go with Debian 13

 

[Gabrinius]

i understand, thanks again for the answer.

i was thinking about kubuntu to "test" the kde because ubuntu versions looks like to be more "friendly"? And most of the problems i had with mint and was able to solve maybe will work there too, as they share they same base, silly things but i wanted to change, like having the numlock enabled in login and reducing the waiting time of grub before automatic selecting the first option (it was 30 seconds when i installed)
Never managed to solve others, like using my BT gamepad (this one i don't have any hope)
Neon looks to be a good option too, but i read it is full of bugs.

maybe in the future if it goes bad i will already have a bit more knowledge and be able to try things like fedora (and maybe even arch ones?).

but again, thank for the answers