Breaking free from Windows

Thank goodness the old laptop doesn't have a dedicated card.

I used to like Nvidia products but these days I feel they dropped the ball.

Oh cor blimey did they ever. ATI just went all in playing ball with open source and they are the only logical choice if building a Linux box.

I wanted an AMD/ATI version of my Nitro but there was none at the store where I went. Intel I can kind of deal with but except with Arch NVIDIA has been the biggest pain in my arse in a long time.

Fuck NVIDIA. Cunts.

The Optimus crap and Geforce nonsense really made me reconsider, comparing GPU prices only convinced me further and the AMD stuff like SAM and FSR look like valid alternatives.

I've decided to go for an RX 6600 because it was the only sane option price wise (the price tag for the RTX was too steep considering it's at most a +120% increase in performance) and the fact that it's pretty efficient energy wise was just the cherry on top.

Reminds me, do you absolutely need a GUI package manager or are you at ease with command lines to install software?

Worst case scenario I can always ask my partner but I've got the feeling that she's partial to GUIs.

Well if you NEED a GUI then that narrows the list down --

Arch/Artix has pamac
Fedora has Dragora (IIRC?)
Manjaro has, err, whatever the fuck Manjaro has
OpenSUSE has YaST Software (which is REALLY good by the way)
Elementary has, err, some store
Redcore has Sisyphus which is REALLY good and takes some of the pain of compiling everything away.

Redcore by the way is Gentoo-based and it's Gentoo for entry--level. Now I passed my master trial so I don't care much for it but Gentoo is pretty much my top 3 favourite distro.

Narrowing the list down sounds good to me.

I have never used pamac because I prefer CLI, but I hear it does the job.

YaST software works really well, and YaST is pretty much the centre piece of OpenSUSE.

Dragora is as good as Fedora

Sisyphus takes the pain out of Portage but it still takes longer because Gentoo is a source distro and everything needs to be compiled (by Sisyphus).

Redcore doesn't get anywhere near much love as it should. I passed my Gentoo master trial a long time ago but anyone who wants to get started with THE best Linux bistro bar none, Redcore is a great entry point. Gentoo is a LOT of work but it's also the best performing distro there is.

So how hardcore is Redcore then?

Bear in mind that as you already know when it comes to computers I'm a self taught bumbling idiot who can't be bothered but loves tinkering and usually ends up powering through thanks to sheer dumb luck half the time (and the rest of the time I rely on the work having been done in advance just like with this forum and its templates).

Well Sisyphus handles package installation and system updates and it is pretty much just Portage with a GUI.

Like I said, Gentoo is a source-based distro so packages and updates take longer than with say Arch or Fedora because because Portage needs to download and compile code.

Redcore comes with Steam and Lutris built in. NVIDIA defaults to the Nouveau driver (which is absolutely terrible), I just need to see for Radeon, but shouldn't be an issue.

Redcore ships with the KDE desktop which I don't like but quite frankly it does the job just fine.

Give me a bit more time to tinker with Redcore from an initiate's point of view and I can tell you for sure.

Awesome! It looks like Redcore could be worth a go but I had a quick look online and it seems there isn't much in the way of documentation available for newcomers. Do you reckon Fedora is a better fit as far as getting information?

EDIT: I've found an interesting link for Redcore.

EDIT 2: btw the old laptop only comes with the integrated card.

For Redcore you can use the excellent Gentoo Wiki. Being that Redcore is Gentoo.

The best Wiki bar none is the Arch Wiki, but yes, Fedora will have a better documentation library than Redcore. It's the same with Void, the little distros get little support... but the Arch Wiki really is unbelievable. OpenSUSE has a great community also

Edit: Redcore now bundles only with KDE. Intel drivers work out of the box also

Good to know. I may give it a try once I'm done backing up all my mother's files. I'm looking forward to giving the old trusty laptop a second Life.

KDE might not like the older laptop, though... KDE and GNOME are very resource-heavy. That said nothing prevents switching to Xfce. I'll try on my Redcore install to get some instructions for you on how-to if you are Redcore inclined. Fedora won't need anything special because it already exists as a spin.

Or, you could go Artix also. Artix with Xfce idles at lower memory than vanilla Arch does.

I've tried downloading Redcore from all three official mirrors and none of them are working on my end... I'm taking it as a sign that I should use another distro.

Try Artix maybe, there's weekly ISOs and the ISOs are fairly light. Let me see on my end if Redcore downloads are working... perhaps they are pushing a new ISO

Edit: Yeah Redcore downloads are working on my end

Right so after a few hours of playing with Gentoo, err, I mean Redcore, I can say this -- Redcore is Gentoo, and that's it. Update procedure is the same, repos are the same, difference is that Redcore has it's own repo also. Same Eselect news, same commonflags and license stuff.

I am installing Xfce to see how easy it is to switch DEs. I am not going to make it a permanant install being I already operate a pure Gentoo but just for my curiosity I will push it as far as I can. One thing is for certain being a canned distro there won't be as much control and performance as a custom Gentoo install but so far, it's pretty close.

If you go the RC way there's gonna be a few commands to learn and stuff to remember but no worse than Arch. (emerge --sync to update the Portage tree is the most important)

A cool thing about Gentoo that RC also has is that if a CVE is discovered it will warn you if your system is affected. Otherwise Eselect news is general release notes, changelogs or anything relevent.

Damn. I've downloaded Artix but now I really want Redcore.

EDIT: turns out my AV was to blame... I'm currently running Rufus to get a bootable USB with Redcore on it. Wish me luck.

Don't forget to use DD mode and not ISO. Redcore live won't boot if you write in ISO mode for some reason.

Godspeed you magnificent bastarrd

Thanks! I've found out the hard way that thing about DD mode but it turned out ok considering I'm using Chromium to type this on the forum.

I don't know much about Linux distros but I think I'm being spoiled here. It's very slick and very intuitive so it's really sweet.

If it wasn't for my Steam library I wouldn't even look back but damn I've had a look at the games that will run on this OS and I would be missing too much if I was running this on my main but for a backup machine (especially one this old) it's more than enough!

Thanks for helping me make up my mind about this BZ!

Here's a resource that will help you. This is a user-maintained list of what runs well with Steam Proton. You might be surprised.

https://www.protondb.com

I can tell you that "Fallout" 4, Skyrim and others run flawlessly and I often forget I am running those on Linux. Plus you have Steam baked in RC so if you have some time to kill you can try.

And, use Sisyphus to add software. At some point when you are more comfortable I can show you how to work Portage in CLI.

In the meanwhile, enjoy Gentoo. RC runs superbly well on my Nitro but I wasn't sure how it would fare with older hardware. Good to hear the answer is "great"!

Any issues, check out the awesome Gentoo Wiki and of course I'll help as best I can. Gentoo is the pinnacle of Linux distros, difficult to master but so worth it. And once you master Redcore you can then take the ultimate master challenge of a pure Gentoo install, who knows?

I tend to give KDE a lot of hate but for Windows user it just feels familiar. To me it's a waste of resources but I can see how someone still new to Linux would appreciate it.

I'm going to be busy setting up my desktop this week so I don't think I'll have time to tinker with Linux stuff but I'm really happy with the old trusty laptop getting a second wind.

I've had a look at Steam with Redcore and there's a bunch of games that can be installed without any fuss. I've picked a list of games that won't stress the system and that I would feel like playing on a rainy day and ended up with 42 titles which is a sound number (but far from the number of games I have in my bloated library). What irks me is that I only have one Solitaire game that will run and looking at Spiderweb games (great for old machines) only Avadon the Black Fortress comes with native support.

I guess Lutris the next step to expand the number of games I could play on this OS.

As far as KDE feeling familiar to a Windows user that's 100% correct and that's definitely the first impression I got from Redcore. The old laptop is running so much better even with KDE that I feel it's not too much of a trade-off.

If your Solitaire games are Steam, you just need to enable Proton for all titles even those not native to Linux.

Look for Steam Play in the first menu on the left of the launcher, I forgot the name.

With this enabled, you can install all Steam games and most likely the odds are it will work fine.

Nice. How well do mods play with Linux? If I could be sure that I could get the most of my games and mods I would totally skip Windows on my desktop and live happily ever after.

That's what I want to try next. Lutris allows you to install Stardew with SMAPI so mods would work... not sure about Vortex. It's on the bucket list though.

Steam Workshop works flawlessly ad natively also. All my Starbound mods and Viscera Cleanup maps worked just fine.