Need reccomendations for distro. Old laptop from like '10 (shipped with windows 8, not even 8.1), touchscreen needed so no Mint unfortunately. No linux experience whatsoever beyond using tails and I know what the terminal is but have NO clue how to use it.
Need a daily driver for light tasks (just gimp, handbrake, internet, qbittorrent, and libreoffice type stuff, no games), would prefer security and privacy, but idk if Whonix can run on my old machine and with my nonexistent linux exp idk if it is a good one for me yet, may need exp with something else first? Idk, y’all tell me!
Was reccomended Fedora, has touch support and supposedly good for the light tasks and will run in my old laptop, but figured I’d ask what y’all think because you guys seem knowledgeable.
It is my only computer besides my phone so I can’t afford the time to fuck around lol.
Hmm, so a bit of terminology to get you started: On Linux, there’s the concept of “desktop environments”, which is basically each a collection of programs to show you a graphical desktop UI. Basically, you can transform a server OS (which has only a terminal interface) into a desktop OS by installing a DE.
And there’s various DEs available, which provide different user experiences. Among the most popular are:
- GNOME Shell (this is what Fedora and Tails ship with)
- KDE Plasma
- Xfce (this is what Whonix ships with)
- Cinnamon (this is what Linux Mint ships with)
- MATE
- Budgie
- LXQt
Now, GNOME has the best touchscreen support. KDE is in second place. The others don’t really support touch input to my knowledge.
However, GNOME is also among the most heavyweight. KDE is definitely lighter, but also not the lightest.
I still think GNOME is lighter than Windows 8, so migrating will probably improve things, but if you’ve been told that Linux can revive old hardware, then yeah, your touchscreen requirement kind of torpedoes that…
Thanks for the info, I guess I know I can run Gnome since that same laptop will run tails, so that is good. It is less about reviving old hardware (windows still works on whatever version I’m on and I’m getting updates and whatnot), it is more about getting away from windows entirely. I degoogled my phone for the same reasons, it only stands to reason that I need to do it there too, hence my desire to use Whonix if it’ll be a good fit for a new guy. I know I can’t run qubes but might be able to run Whonix if it isn’t too intensive to do so. Also taking other reccomendations for distros I am unaware of that would be secure and private (or have tutorials on how to make them that way) and frankly any “daily driver” os should be able to handle all my other uses with ease I’d imagine.
Fedora would be a good starting point since it has a straighforward version of GNOME as its default DE. It would be a wise to try out the fedora live disk for a while to verify that the touchscreen works well before installing anything. If Tails worked on this laptop then Fedora should as well, but it doesn’t hurt to check before doing anything permanent.
System memory and processor speed may be bottlenecks on a touchscreen laptop that old. My 2014 touchscreen tablet runs linux, but it can’t handle GNOME or anything remotely touchscreen-friendly. Onscreen keyboard+tiling wm=awkward user experience.
OH you can live boot fedora?! With persistent memory? That is the ticket for trials then for sure! I only use the touch minimally so I could conceivably lose it, but it has gotten me out of jams where my mouse was shitting out, though who knows, that may be an issue with windows and I won’t need it! No clue as to RAM without booting up and going to system specs but this here little sticker says “intel inside core i5” so maybe? To give a more accurate picture of time and therefore possibly it’s components, usb 3.0 was still fairly new and it boasted it had one port for it! Haha.
Apparently, yes. I’ve never tried doing that with a live usb, but give it a shot and let me know how it works out for you.
You probably have much better hardware than my old tablet. My tablet was marketed as a $99 dollar Windows tablet and I got what I paid for. 1gb ram soldered to the board, a weak 64-bit atom processor with 32-bit efi. One micro-usb port that doubled as the charging port. It took a powered usb hub, a custom-modified installer, and a lot of patience to get that thing up and running. It still works!
Hell yeah! I’m sure I can run it fine then! And on a hunch I just called my mom to see if she held on to her old laptop from a few years later and she did, so looks like I have a backup instead of fiddling with live boot beyond function checks! She has her work pc she uses so she doesn’t need it! Love it when a plan comes together lol, I will be trying Fedora as soon as my 2 weeks seeding these last few torrents are over!
Excellent. Any time you swap out an operating system, it is very useful to have a backup device in case you need to spend some time troubleshooting. Most of the frustration and stress is removed from the equation.
Tails and Whonix is definitely overkill. And given your description of nonexisten linux experience, it’s not recommended. But it’s not the usual daily-driver distro anyway.
Fedora is nice. Fedora has a leaning on FOSS projects, which if you need to install a proprietary software, you’d have to enable additional repository. It’s not always inherently privacy-respecting, but it has great defaults, then everything else is depends on what users install and configure.
But do expect a changing workflow from Windows, because Linux is simply different. So whatever distro you pick, it definitely require time for you to get used to it.
If you ever have used Photoshop then moved to GIMP, it require you to change how you work with it. For example, in PS you can edit individual RGBA channel independently, while in GIMP you’d have to decompose each channel into layers, edit, then recompose them into single channel. Things are different. You wouldn’t get used in a day.
I’d suggest dualbooting Linux & Windows for several months, so you can explore Linux while you can still use Windows as needed. And by exploring Linux, you can also read/watch online resources to see how people use it or see people’s review.
If you go with Fedora, bear in mind that the installer is different from other popular distros. Confirm/next/back button is at the top, mind you. See the documentation while installing. Just giving you a notice because some people complaining that the installer is hard. But once it’s installed, it typical GNOME experience and best for touch gestures as you need (if you go with the main Fedora Workstation download).
Good to know, I suppose I may start with Fedora (or maybe something else if you or anyone here have a reccomendation), and possibly consider Whonix when I have more experience and/or hardware it’ll run on.
I typically rely on FOSS projects myself as I am poor as hell lol. I do use Veracrypt, that may be my only one. I could switch to LUKS but I don’t know if they support hidden containers like VC and I don’t believe they do. Might keep one VC for windows compatability and switch the other to LUKS. I definitely expect a bit of learning involved, I more meant I don’t want to try 5 different distros before nailing down a good one, maybe 2 max. That and hopefully it won’t shit the bed so hard that I can only use my phone for a time to try and fix it haha.
Might go with the dual booting, that is a good idea.
And thanks for the heads up, in any case whatever I go with I will 100% be looking up “how to install X” and watching a tutorial haha, I know most will be “use etcher or rufus and slap that hoe in” but still I like to be prepared.
I see others have written a large amount of information so I’ll just stick with a short bulletlist of the main go to distros IMHO. (replace Gnome suggestions with XFCE for example if you want more lightweight and classic OS, but not optimized for touch)
- Fedora (with Gnome)
- Manjaro (with Gnome)
- Ubuntu
- Elementary OS
Thanks for the suggestions!
I tried so many things on Lenovo Miix 300 with a touchscreen. Only Ubuntu works. Even Ubuntu works partially. Some apps don’t work with an on-screen keyboard. And, yes, Ubuntu with GNOME is very slow and consumes almost all the RAM in my computer. I can’t work using it. So, in short, as far as I know, a distro, which you are looking for, doesn’t exist.
Thanks for the heads up!
Are you sure Mint doesn’t support touchscreen?
That is what I’m told, at least it doesn’t “easily” that is, I’m sure theres a way to force it to but with tails (and hopefully anything gnome) it works out of the proverbial box.
Oh please not another threat about — what is best … or what should I use xyz. There is no best. Stop spreading Mint is beginner distro, almost every other distro can be beginner distro too. Also some hardware and configuration works better or worse on Distro + Kernel xyz. There is no generalization, just try and see how it acts for your configuration.
- Boot into VM. There are dozens of YouTube channels reviewing Distros, even if you cannot use a VM yourself, you can review and see it there.
- Test yourself, usually does not take long to find out what you like.
- Report back your findings.
- Do not abuse our good will to tell you … what you like.
- Spare us such threads, next time use search we have dozens of it already.
Down-vote for wasting our time because if you need other people to tell you, what you like then Linux is not for you.
I like blue better than red … btw, as useful as this entire thread here.
Boot into VM is probably not the right advice for a newbie like op
Flashing a live-USB is easy and thé same process than thé install.
live usb is barremetal and op wanted touchscreen support, not sure a VM will providd a good expérience to maje this work
Yeah it is up to a debate + how experienced the user actually is. But there are basically VMs that work in Browser like DistroTester. However I agree that you might need to be aware of this + this might be tricky anyway. Touchscreen support is often critical, even for mentioned distros in this thread, at the end you usually need to do some testing yourself so or so.
The problem which I have with such threads here in general is that you end-up to test things for yourself anyway because we do not know the exact configuration and how the chosen Distro, or the tested VM reacts. I do not see why we shall support spoon-feeding, when all of those questions are answered many many many many times already and you anyway end-up with testing it yourself.
It’s worth it to reduce the field of possibility. But I agree nothing beat trying it out yourself and iv’e been distro hopping for several years before understanding what I wanted as a DE and os.
My bad dude, didn’t mean to offend. Got an i5 with 4gb ram, don’t know if can VM, iirc you need ok hardware to reliably run, but again, don’t know. Would like input from people who know shit, for instance I asked a friend and that is how I knew Mint didn’t support touch, instead of “try mint, no touch, try manjaro, no touch, try arch, no touch, hey fedora got it.” Sue me. At least I can cut out “No’s” easier even if I must take up space in your precious eyes with my questions. Fuck “your good will,” you have none, these other people were nice, don’t speak of what you have not exhibited. Spare me your tears, go on hxclinuxforum if you need hxclinuxusers, this is lemmy my guy, cool your jets, restrict posts if you don’t want questions. “Down vote” oh no pwees sir, don’t downvote me owo. Idgaf my guy, thankfully other people helped and you were ununnecessary. “Tell me what I like” fuck off dude, you may have the time and resources to dick around with this shit all day but some of us have jobs and lives, and recognize the benefit of experienced advice. Also it’s all about green or purple you fucking pleb.
4gb ram probably isn’t enough for virtualization, but with those specs you should be fine with Fedora and Gnome desktop.
Fedora you can do all the basics without command line and it should be fairly intuitive. You will want to learn command line eventually - it makes certain tasks much easier and faster
Awesome thanks! Yeah I definitely want to learn to use the CLI (did I use that right? Lol) it seems very handy after you know what you’re doing! The only time I have used it as of yet was to give myself admin permissions to change my password on tails lol.
Apparently the issue is not the Distro, the issue here in this case is the touch-pad driver. This is known to be a problematic topic in the Linux Kernel. There exist some alternative touchpad drivers you can manually install. The reason they do not come with several popular Distro is that they are not well maintained and can cause additional problems.
Laziness and spoon-feeding others is not really an excuse because all of this is nothing new. Just randomly guessing a distro until it works has no learning effect for us as reader or for those who want to help and als not for you. Others who just read … oh hey Fedora works, do not learn why and how they can fix their own distro to make it work.
See, THAT is useful, thank you.
Hey, then maybe they should post, with specifics about what they need to run, and see if anyone has advice regarding similar hardware. You suggested I “search” and presumably find a thread and see “oh hey mint works” and not learn why and how I coukd fix my own to make it work, and then you’ve used it here as some sort of “gotcha.” So should I ask for specific advice or should I search and see what worked for others? Which piece of your directly contradicting advice should I follow? And seems so, because nobody asked you to be rude which prompted my rude response. I believe you’ll find I got along fine with everyone BUT you in this thread, so I’m gonna go with my theory of I was abusing you because you were a dick and deserved it. We can be cool if you wanna be cool though but I see the snarky unnecessary bullshit continues so far.
- Searching for something on your own, showing interest has a bigger learning curve than random people spoon-feeding you.
- Answering everything and providing the same solutions over and over again results in society which is not able to think for themselves.
- At the end of the they you need to be comfortable with the Distro and not the one who suggest something.
- I was not rude, I just gave legitimate reason not to support spoon-feeding. Please stop calling everything what does not get in your world, as rude just because I gave you no direct answer.
- There is no contradiction in my logic. You can search for yourself, try several methods, then report back where you exactly stuck with it. Saying, oh shit distro xyz does not work is not helpful at all.
- I simply have no respect for people abusing community with questions that can be answered 4 minutes googling. Dunno what is there not to get. It annoys power-users like me to help because why should we if it ends-up with discussions like that.
You’ve never once asked a question on a forum? Yeah I believe that, sure lol.
“Oooohhhh society, muh linux sublemmy!” Cry harder lol, is this really worth removed about? I’m gonna make sure to ask ALL my questions here just to spite you.
True, and I appreciate THEIR help in narrowing down the first one I will try.
You were indeed rude, whether or not you see that is irrelevant. I was ruder, because I am better at it when instigated. You were insanely condescending and dismissive, as well as sardonic, that is rude even if you lack the social skills to tell. Idgaf about your answer, it would have been better had your “blue” ass not posted at all frankly.
“Report back” to what? The post you are saying I shouldn’t have made? The guy saying “fedora will probably support touch with GNOME especially since you said it works on tails” definitely helped me whether you want that to be true or not, sorry guy. Before the other guy told me what DEs were I didn’t know they existed (though I had heard the word GNOME in the context of linux before) so I learned a lot despite your protests.
Power use your own butthole, I don’t care about you, and the internet isn’t your personal thing, other people get to use it too, sorry.
- When did I said or imply that I never ask anything on the internet, I said you can search on the internet for already existent content. The arch wiki is easy find-able. Most suggestions over there are so common that you can apply them on almost every distro. One example among many, not to mention Lemmy has several topics regarding this matter already.
- I did not cry nor do I intent to do that even after I get insulted for other peoples incompetence.
- There is absolute no help here, suggesting random distros until problem is solved is no help, it is guessing. And mathematically you will hit a win after x tries, that is pure statistics.
- I was to no point here rude, I expressed my opinion here, which you apparently dislike claiming this is regarding rudeness behavior from me. This is again not the case.
- Your excuse about your intolerance here to accept opinions is your lack of social skills, not mine.
- Every Distro supports touch, you can, as said install other drivers if the existent do not work - for you. You did not get that point.
Power use your own butthole, I don’t care about you, and the internet isn’t your personal thing, other people get to use it too, sorry.
Claiming I would be rude, insulting me like 2 times already. Hope we are done now with off-topic or you want to continue humiliating yourself with your nonsense.
Never seen such aggressive discussion because people refuse to do, explore or report their findings back, instead they insist in getting spoon-feeded. Beyond anything.
Now back to the topic.
Thanks, the second useful thing you’ve said so far, I’ll check it out! But to answer your question, with the comments you unnecessarily made to complain about people asking questions.
Sure bud whatever you have to tell yourself. Need some ointment for your butthurt because “someone made a post you don’t like?” Ask an adult to pop that safety cap on it for ya. Btw it isn’t due to my competence or lack thereof which has you being insulted, it’s the fact that you are a dick and now I’m having fun at your expense.
Well, helped me more than you have so far, so deal with it. I’m dubious if your claim though being that they all seemed to offer better advice on terms, what DEs are more likely to fit my needs than others, what DEs even are, the fact that you can live boot Fedora (which you can’t easily do with mint though supposedly it can be done), I learned a lot. YOU may not have because you’re a mega 1337 haXXor, Crash Override, but for someone who is figuratively day one (maybe day two) into this shit it was indeed helpful.
You can express your opinion without being rude, which again, you were, by being condescending, dismissive and sardonic. Do you know what those words mean?
My intolerance is for condescending pricks dude, your opinion is worthless if it comes at the price of having to deal with your “I’m better than you” attitude, get off your high horse dude, though you’ll probably need a ladder way up there.
I did get that, but with some it seems to work “out of the box” like tails and supposedly fedora, whereas some require MORE EXPERIENCE which is the exact thing I do not have, so again I fall back to the reccomendations you are mad I got.
Again, I told you I am better at being rude when instigated, which you did, because again, being a condescending prick IS rude, which you did. Also I’m damn proud of that line lol, you know it was funny. “I’m a power user, look ma, I’m so badass with linux!” Lol.
Again with this “report back” shit. First of all, to the post you say I shouldn’t have made? You just BURNING to know if touch worked off dick in fedora for me? Well second of all you’ll have to wait until I actually can get around to DOING it before I can report back because I had shit to do today and work for the rest of the week, again not everyone can sit around hacking into Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputers all day, some people have to leave their parent’s house sometimes Cereal Killer.
