The other comments here are far more detailed than mine, and the posters are undoubtedly more experienced than I.

But my two cents: bazzite is the way to go.

It’s unbreakable, gaming-focused, and easy to install and work with. I used to run ubuntu, then arch, and I have been using bazzite for over two years now. Arch was amazing for tinkering any learning about how Linux works, but bazzite just works, and runs smooth.

The only issue I’ve had are small ones with non-standard hardware drivers. I rencently bought a gigabyte gaming laptop, and some of the hotkeys don’t work (like screen brightness +/-) out of the box. Also openRGB didn’t find the drivers it needs/expects to control the RGB keyboard.

Since bazzite is atomic, installing additional drivers for such stuff is more complicated, I haven’t even had time to look into it yet. On other distros this would be easier, for example I bet that on arch it would be simple. But arch can break if you don’t know what sou are doing, bazzite can’t really get into an unbootable state unless you try really hard to do so. So it is a tradeoff. Again, others here are much note knowledgeable than I, just wanted to share my experience.

NordVPN works very well for me. I’m coincidentally working on setting up an openVPN with their guide, and so far it has been clear and easy.

This looks great! I’m not into self-hosting, I just don’t have much use for it right now. But this’d is exactly the kind of tool I’d be looking for if I did.

Oh really? I had no idea that fusion360 did toolpath stuff. Oops.

OpenSCAD is a great program, but it’s not like blender or fusion 360. the input is a text file, and you need to describe the object you want to model as geometrical shapes in text. It also only renders when you tell it to, not constantly.

But if you are willing to dive into it, you can get great results. There are libraries available for threads and gears and curbed shapes and such.

It does take some getting used to, even more so if you have never done any programing, but it’s FOSS and can create the same output as the graphical-menu counterparts.

Edit: I had originally posted a link to some stl files I made, but my read name is on there so I removed it.

I currently use bazzite, but I learned more about Linux by installing arch from scratch than anything else I’ve ever done with my PC. It was a beautiful experience and I will never forget it.

I recently got a new laptop, and I’m considering installing arch again on the old one again to have a system available that is less restrictive. I’d probably use an installer this time around…but maybe not.

I’m never going to buy/make something like this myself, but I am nonetheless very happy to see this in my feed and read about it. Super interesting, thanks for sharing!

I’d bet that arch is a good choice. It’s really lightweight, and great for learning about the console, managing packages, etc.

I’m extremely happy with bazzite, it’s basically impossible to break, and great for gaming.

Just be aware that it is very focused on flatpaks, so installing anything that doesn’t have a flatpak version does require some extra steps.

I get it, it’s frustrating and it doesn’t feel like your needs are being met.

It’s just important to see the larger picture. Windows and iOS suck more every day. Linux gains more and more traction, more and more users as the competition becomes less and less attractive.

I hope that the next time you try, that it just works.

Sounds like it is working pretty well to me.

I understand the frustration, but Linux only works because the community works on it together. You sound like someone who has some technical knowledge, maybe you can help the kubuntu team make the calibration a feature?

I hope this holds. There have been several such migrations in the past, and they didn’t last. Seeing as it is just email and not the entire OS/software landscape, it will probably hold.

That depends on what that other stuff is. Bazzite is a desktop OS first, gaming second. But it us atomic, so installing apps that aren’t available as a flatpak is somewhat more complicated.

Mint is a great start though, I seriously doubt that you will have problems. Just don’t be afraid to experiment.

The horror stories often come from years ago, when Linux wasn’t as under-friendly as it is now. You shouldn’t have any problems with this.

And if Mint does give you problems (which I doubt), consider trying a plug-and-play gaming distro like bazzite. It supports nvidia GPUs right away.

https://bazzite.gg/

I think you are mixing up several issues here. I too am worried about the increasing surveillance of various governments, and the rise of authoritarianism. But UBI doesn’t have anything to do with that. There was no pilot program that I’m aware of where participants didn’t get to keep the money. There was also no restrictions on internet usage or other restrictions put on them.

Of course UBI could be used by a government as a tool of oppression. But that doesn’t make it inherently evil. I can use a hammer to kill someone, but I can also use it to help them. It is not the tool, but the use, that makes something good or evil.

I encourage you to read more about the various programs that have been done, many of them show great benefit for the people and the economy. The only ones that don’t benefit from it are the billionaires and oligarchs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_basic_income_pilots

Great idea. I’m going to consider the same.

Postmarket OS isn’t? Oh whoa, I just checked for myself, I had no idea, thought it was aosp too!

Cool, thanks for the correction.

eOS works great for me on my fairphone 5, I suspect the model 6 is similar. Just be VERY careful about the anti-rollback protection, read the install instructions carefully and follow them exactly. And don’t use the easy installer, it can brick your phone.

https://doc.e.foundation/devices/FP6/install

For everyone else, here are the supported devices:

https://doc.e.foundation/devices

I have a Fairphone 5 with eOS, and I’m happy. Their service is painfully slow, but otherwise professional and reliable. You can run into headaches when flashing eOS if you are not super-cautious (dm mefor details if you like), but the instructions are good, and you can also buy various phones direct from Murena with eOS already installed.

Bazzite rocks, especially for gaming. I started with Ubuntu, did arch for a while (which was a great learning experience), and have been on bazzite for years now.

Pop and mint seem like great choices too if plug-and-play gaming isn’t your main focus.