Looking to dip my toes into Linux for the first time. I have a 2016 Intel MacBook Pro with pretty solid specs collecting dust right now that I think I’m going to use. Research so far has indicated to me that the two best options for me are likely Mint or Elementary OS. Does anyone have any insight? Also open to other OS’s. I would consider myself decently tech savvy but I am not a programmer or anything. Comfortable dipping into the terminal when the need arises and all that.

@linux #linux

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
    2·
    9 months ago

    I’ve had numerous issues running Ubuntu and any Ubuntu based distros on my laptop, that’s why I personally dislike it

    The fact that they’re starting to make questionable decisions around snap is just extra reason imo

    Also op didn’t say they were coming from Mac but did say they were planning to put Linux on one they already have, think it’s a safe guess that they might be used to macos

    • mogul@lemmy.world
      1·
      9 months ago

      Laptops are always iffy when running Linux, so many proprietary things in them but I am surprised you had so much trouble with an Ubuntu based distro.

      I’m not used to MacOS myself but I did have a MacBook and I currently have an iMac running Lubuntu. Multiple environments makes things interesting lol.

          • flashgnash@lemm.ee
            2·
            9 months ago

            Out of all the distro hopping I’ve found NixOS is the most solid. That said, my built in microphone sounds atrocious for some reason on nix

            • mogul@lemmy.world
              1·
              9 months ago

              I’ve been wanting to give Nix a try but I can’t find a use case for it’s best feature. The list is long of distros to try (Clear, Garuda, rhino, and so on) but I really do need to give Nix a go.

              • flashgnash@lemm.ee
                2·
                9 months ago

                It’s quite good as an all rounder really, I’m using it on my gaming pc, laptop and raspberry pi for some self hosting stuff currently, all of which use a modular config file so I’ve got the same installed programs, hotkeys, user profile etc whatever machine I’m using

                • mogul@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  9 months ago

                  That’s its best feature I’m talking about. I don’t use the same OS on two different machines so I can’t make use of the config file. I never thought about running it on a Pi so maybe I can just toss it on a SD card and give it a whirl (I like using actual hardware instead of VMs).

                  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
                    2·
                    9 months ago

                    Absolutely same with the actual hardware thing you can’t get a good feel for an os on a VM

                    Nix package manager and home manager runs on any distro and even Mac so you can use a home manager config cross machine

                    There are other benefits though like the fact that you can configure services, system components and other software with like 2 lines of code most the time and it just works