Semi-New to Linux

[Rhedux]

Hey everyone! This is my first time interacting with anyone on a Linux forum. I've heard the Linux community is great!

I'm using a Chromebook at the moment, and I've been able to boot Linux on this device- it was too weak to work with any of the software like GIMP though and ran fairly slow. That caused me to uninstall Linux and reset the Chromebook. I've been using this Chromebook for work and it gets the job done so I haven't had any reason to upgrade.

Recently I've been entertaining the idea of building a computer from the bottom up. I'd like to use this computer for music production, graphics editing, video editing, animation, data analysis, machine learning, managing servers etc. so it would have to be fairly powerful. I've been reading a bit about hardware and have found that compatibility issues may cause problems when dealing with Linux. I think that's just hardware in general though right? haha

I haven't decided on which distro to use. The distro I used on this Chromebook was Ubuntu bionic beaver, but I'm open to exploring others.

Given that I want to do a number of things on the computer would it make sense to have partitions with different distros that focus on a different niche?

I'm writing this posts in the hope that someone more knowledgeable about these topics might be able to help guide me through the process rather than finding my self in the woods with no way out. I wouldn't mind making some new friends throughout this process either I look forward to getting to know everyone on this forum considering anyone responds haha

See you around!

 

[wizardfromoz]

I look forward to getting to know everyone on this forum...

40,000 members - big ask, hope you're young

Mate you are off to a good start, how did you find "The Beaver"? Apart from the speed issues?

With building the computer, you could start a Thread in Linux Hardware

https://linux.org/forums/linux-hardware.150/

and ask away

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Rhedux]

40,000 members - big ask, hope you're young

Mate you are off to a good start, how did you find "The Beaver"? Apart from the speed issues?

With building the computer, you could start a Thread in Linux Hardware

https://linux.org/forums/linux-hardware.150/

and ask away

Cheers

Wizard

Thanks for the quick response Wizard!

The beaver was pretty good from what I remember. The interface was easy to follow, and it wasn't that hard finding packages and downloading/updating things. I was able to learn how to use pip and the basic commands like ls and cd.

I think it's a great for people who just want something clean and simple to get basic things done- browse the internet or code. I think the only reason it was slow for me was because I was trying to use it on something running a phone processor haha- Chromebooks...

Other than that, the software they had to download programs made downloading things a lot more intuitive- without having to rely on a command window. It's been a while so things are a bit fuzzy, but those are the things that I remember standing out. That being said, I don't have anything else to compare it to other than MacOS and Windows- which I remember being a lot slower.

Thanks for the redirect Wizard I'll check in there.

What about you? What are you running, and what do you recommend?

 

[wizardfromoz]

On hardware, I keep coming back to Dell. It is ever so Linux-friendly.

If you are talking Distros, I cannot tell you a fave, as I can be running 100 at a time - currently 62 I think.

Linux Mints I find very good for both newcomers and experienced users, but one of our Members, @KGIII has a good article on his site here

https://linuxtips.gq/2021/01/11/what-is-the-best-linux-distro/

from a Thread here

https://linux.org/threads/feedback-...stion-of-what-is-the-best-linux-distro.32479/

and distrowatch.com is always a good spot to have a wander.

Later, Friday here so

Avagudweegend

 

[SeanK]

Hey everyone! This is my first time interacting with anyone on a Linux forum. I've heard the Linux community is great!

I'm using a Chromebook at the moment, and I've been able to boot Linux on this device- it was too weak to work with any of the software like GIMP though and ran fairly slow. That caused me to uninstall Linux and reset the Chromebook. I've been using this Chromebook for work and it gets the job done so I haven't had any reason to upgrade.

Recently I've been entertaining the idea of building a computer from the bottom up. I'd like to use this computer for music production, graphics editing, video editing, animation, data analysis, machine learning, managing servers etc. so it would have to be fairly powerful. I've been reading a bit about hardware and have found that compatibility issues may cause problems when dealing with Linux. I think that's just hardware in general though right? haha

I haven't decided on which distro to use. The distro I used on this Chromebook was Ubuntu bionic beaver, but I'm open to exploring others.

Given that I want to do a number of things on the computer would it make sense to have partitions with different distros that focus on a different niche?

I'm writing this posts in the hope that someone more knowledgeable about these topics might be able to help guide me through the process rather than finding my self in the woods with no way out. I wouldn't mind making some new friends throughout this process either I look forward to getting to know everyone on this forum considering anyone responds haha

See you around!

I have heard for graphics work Manjaro KDE is a good choice. I have been using it one of my laptops for about 18 months and its pretty solid. If you want absolute stability I'd recommend Linux Mint Debian edition.

Personally I don't think you need different distros on different partitions but that is an option if you so desire it.

Lenovo and as Wiz says Dell offer support for lInux in some of their systems. I built a desktop for my daughter using off the shelf components....Gigabyte, Asus, etc and it works wonderfully with Mint. That said I'd check with the computer hardware retailer to ensure compatibility.

 

[Alexzee]

Hi: & Welcome to Linux.org!

I'm running Manjaro Gnome, Debian, and Linux Mint on my custom built rig and they all run great!

Since you're new to Linux I recommend Linux Mint.
It's easy to install and the package manager is friendly so updates are easily handled for you.

 

[Rhedux]

Wow that's a lot of distros Wizard- are you running that many for a cloud/remote desktops? I've heard good things about Linux mint as well.

Going through the articles right now, it's interesting that one of the users Nelson Muntz mentions hardware compatibility being something that needs to be taken into consideration. It's one of the things that's constantly on my mind. I'm reading on other threads that people are having issues with AMD's new processors?

Something I found interesting in the linuxtips.gq page was the redirect to LFS from what I'm reading that sounds like what my end goal is. Linux from Scratch would allow me to create something that I want, with my own hands. Artisan OS lol I've downloaded Linux From Scratch by Gerard Beekmans and I'm starting to read through it right now. 374 pages is going to be a pretty thick read. In terms of processors, I'm looking at the Ryzen Threadrippers, which is why the compatibility issues have me a bit nervous. That's about as far as I've thought in that direction.

Besides that, I've found it interesting that MX Linux is at the top of the popularity page, but people have mentioned Mint and Manjaro. Does anyone have experience with MX Linux? If so, what stands out about that distro compared to others?

Thank you for participating everyone! I really appreciate the help! On a quick note, has anyone every attempted Linux from Scratch themselves?

 

[Rhedux]

Hi: & Welcome to Linux.org!

I'm running Manjaro Gnome, Debian, and Linux Mint on my custom built rig and they all run great!

Since you're new to Linux I recommend Linux Mint.
It's easy to install and the package manager is friendly so updates are easily handled for you.

Hey Alex, thanks for responding! I see that you mentioned having a custom built rig, did you build it with a use case in mind- or just for fun? What type of issues did you bump into when trying to get everything together? Or did you just throw everything together and hope for the best?

 

[wizardfromoz]

are you running that many for a cloud/remote desktops?

Nope and nope.

Glib answer would be "Because I can" - I have about 19 TB of space kicking around the house.

True answer is that I love Linux, in all its shapes and features, and by having so many, chances are I am running what people need help on.

Hang on to that LFS book (he updates it from time to time, maybe yearly, I have not used it yet), but you might want to get some grounding in Linux first for a year or two so it is easier to follow.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Rhedux]

Nope and nope.

Glib answer would be "Because I can" - I have about 19 TB of space kicking around the house.

True answer is that I love Linux, in all its shapes and features, and by having so many, chances are I am running what people need help on.

Hang on to that LFS book (he updates it from time to time, maybe yearly, I have not used it yet), but you might want to get some grounding in Linux first for a year or two so it is easier to follow.

Cheers

Wizard

Yeah that's the plan. I like the way Linux Mint looks, combined with everyone speaking highly of it: I'm more than likely going to be going in that direction. I have a few servers at my house so the amount of storage... I have quite a bit of storage. I have the idea of using them to train convolutional neural networks, and Recurrent Neural Networks. Or scrape information from RSS feeds to create sentiment analysis reports... Or analyze and screen stock charts based on characteristics I look for. So I would be ecstatic to meet someone who has experience in that field on here, or in general- physics and science. I also have a bit of an interest in decentralized applications.

Has anyone every had fun with OpenAi's GPT-3? https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/ check out what's currently possible combining technologies Next step is going to be combining that technology with what Neuralink has been working on... It's pretty scary where technology is going, and what it is, and is going to be able to be capable of.

Sorry for ranting a bit haha

 

[Alexzee]

Hey Alex, thanks for responding! I see that you mentioned having a custom built rig, did you build it with a use case in mind- or just for fun? What type of issues did you bump into when trying to get everything together? Or did you just throw everything together and hope for the best?

I had to build a new rig out of necessity. My old desktop had reached the 10 year old mark and was starting to move slow.
The only real issue I had during the build was the cooling fan that came with my AMD Ryzen 5 was really difficult to line up the screws on the mobo. Every time I lined them up and get one corner anchored the other end would move out of place. With the help of a friend holding the corners down I was finally able to secure the cooler.

This was my 3rd desktop build and learned from the others-

For the first boot I went into the BIOS right away and disabled the secure boot.
I also had to call Asus because I didn't know I had to delete the keys in order to install Linux.
In fact, when I spoke to a live Asus rep he asked me why I wanted to delete the keys.
I explained I won't be installing Windows but Linux. He than understood.

 

[Alexzee]

Wow that's a lot of distros Wizard- are you running that many for a cloud/remote desktops? I've heard good things about Linux mint as well.

Going through the articles right now, it's interesting that one of the users Nelson Muntz mentions hardware compatibility being something that needs to be taken into consideration. It's one of the things that's constantly on my mind. I'm reading on other threads that people are having issues with AMD's new processors?

Something I found interesting in the linuxtips.gq page was the redirect to LFS from what I'm reading that sounds like what my end goal is. Linux from Scratch would allow me to create something that I want, with my own hands. Artisan OS lol I've downloaded Linux From Scratch by Gerard Beekmans and I'm starting to read through it right now. 374 pages is going to be a pretty thick read. In terms of processors, I'm looking at the Ryzen Threadrippers, which is why the compatibility issues have me a bit nervous. That's about as far as I've thought in that direction.

Besides that, I've found it interesting that MX Linux is at the top of the popularity page, but people have mentioned Mint and Manjaro. Does anyone have experience with MX Linux? If so, what stands out about that distro compared to others?

Thank you for participating everyone! I really appreciate the help! On a quick note, has anyone every attempted Linux from Scratch themselves?

When I was running MX Linux is was incredibly light and fast!
You can expect that with the XFCE desktop-

Compared to other distro's the updates didn't take up as much disk space.

 

[Alexzee]

When you make your thread to build your new pc be sure you include the links to the spec's of your new hardware and your mobo.

Good luck Rhedux and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Rhedux]

When you make your thread to build your new pc be sure you include the links to the spec's of your new hardware and your mobo.

Good luck Rhedux and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Cheers,
Alex

Thanks for the tip and words of encouragement! I made a Bootable USB for a couple distros, but had issues with trying to install both of them on the laptop I currently have. (I have a feeling it's due to the drivers being different on a touch screen laptop compared to a regular monitor.) Trying to get around this, my brother helped me set up a remote desktop that I was able to stream from my Chromebook. After a bit of tinkering it worked.

After a while though, it became annoying due to the response speed. I'm switching over to working on the Windows laptop for now.

Next to reading Linux from Scratch, I also found an interesting page about OS development called wiki.osdev.org It looks like a good place to get grounded in terms of understanding assembly language. I have all my parts picked out, but it will still be quite a while before I get to building it so I'll hold off on making the thread. At the moment I'm trying to get pip to install on a windows laptop that I have and it's being a pain sigh haha I've downloaded python already but the terminal doesn't know the commands. Resetting the computer so hopefully it works.

See ya around!