• 4 Posts
  • 26 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I made a video going over my own experience. But I feel the biggest tip is to understand the difference between the OS and the Desktop Environment, since in Linux these are separate.

    In Windows I found myself identifying the OS based on how the start menu looks and how the file explorer is.

    But in Linux these are separate and are called Desktop Environmenta (DE). Your desktop can look like Windows with DE's like KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, or Mate. It can be Mac like with KDE Plasma, or Gnome. Or it can be unique like Gnome.

    If you noticed I repeated a few names, that's because they can be customized, and some distributions make them look and feel the way they want them too.

    Meanwhile the distro is more focused on what applications are pre-installed and what software will run and are available. I.e. Debain is more stable while arch is more up-to-date.

    There are many guides going over this, but distro hopping is the best for narrowing this down. I found finding applications that need to work and seeing if the distro can do it, can weed out any distro that won't work for you. If you don't like the feel of a distro but like the functionally, then look for a similar distro but with a new GUI.

    For example Ubuntu ships with a mostly unmodified Gnome. I personally am not a fan of Gnome and prefer a more Windows-like feel. So I look around and find Zorin, Kubuntu, and Mint.

    Word of the wise though, while you can install more than one de on install, you are better off either making a new profile or not swapping your de. Something something shared resources, something something breaking your install.




  • Depends on use case. As others have suggested please ensure that she is in the discussions.

    M powered macs are both a blessing and a curse. They are fast, battery efficient, and have the ports you need with the Pro.

    But they force you to be stuck with the storage amount you leave the store with, no ability to upgrade, and a reduced software library thanks to the removal of x86 code. If she plays games on her machine, she’s going to have a bad time.

    Meanwhile, Windows machines haven’t changed much since 2015. Yes they can still do everything that they could, so software isn’t an issue and games play better than they ever did. But the cost is the amount of extra research you need to do to ensure you are getting a good machine.

    My current windows laptop looked good on paper, but the battery life turned out to be worse than I expected and the speakers are so quiet I can’t hear them.

    With that said. If you have the budget, the Macbook is the better work machine in my view. Especially if your are just typing. We are leveling out on storage and RAM requirements, so long as you get more than 256GB of storage (1TB recommended 512GB min) and at least 8GB of RAM anything you get will feel snappy and quick.

    However if she intends to use it for more, I.e. games, video editing, photo shop, connecting other devices to it like a Garmin. Then you should ensure that whatever you get can do it. (Web browsing doesn’t count any more)

    You can’t just fallback on Linux just yet, as there is only a few distros for it and software is still limited.




  • Shhhh you’d ruin my whole plan.

    Though you are absolutely correct. I’ve made a universal base with replaceable arms (since that’s what kept breaking on my wifes). All I need to do is fit the arms to the eReader and figgure out where the sleep magnet goes and bam, new eReader case.

    Currently I’ve made cases for the Onyx Book Nova 3, Kobo Aura One, Kobo Nia, and Kobo Clara 2e. With plans to tackles anything I can easily get my hands on.