You’re correct, if that’s true. I wasn’t following them since almost twenty years ago. They were great at the time, all these free CDs you could get, I’ve ordered some as a kid and they really arrived, that was magic. I have some gratitude for that.

What I don’t like is quite a number of very questionable decisions they made over these years after. That’s why I am surprised someone thinks they are a great distro. You want Deb, why not go with Debian? Especially on a server. I truly have no idea who are the people who install Ubuntu on a server.

In my experience, Fedora just works. And hence, I recommend it to everyone. Ubuntu, not. Snap alone made me not considering it ever again.

I’m surprised this shite is the most popular distro, let’s start with that.

I’m not old enough to appreciate its obsolescence. It broke on me so many times, basically every single major update on various machines. Arch Linux never broke on me, and I still run my very first installation. Basically on every single machine. Had no need to reinstall anything. I wasn’t deliberately breaking Debian even, never introduced any unusual repositories, used the default flavour of the desktop environment I chose from the installer. Didn’t change defaults too much. Yet every upgrade I did, something was wrong, it simply broke, and the easiest was to simply reinstall than attempting to fix anything. Arch, broke just a few times, most of which was either me doing something, and I knew that was me, or it was on the main page of the distro, in their news, the breaking changes announcement, plus the steps to mitigate them.

I see no point in using Debian, at least for me personally. I use its flavours, DietPi and Armbian on the SBCs, as there’s no Arch, and I don’t really like Arch ARM. Also, Debian’s website yells unprofessionalism, and it’s a bit difficult to tolerate. And the cherry on top, each time I’m about to download it, I have to hunt that BitTorrent link. I know it’s less than a gigabyte, and I could just download it as is from the website. But it’s a matter of principle, if I can download via BitTorrent protocol, I’d do that. Less pressure on the servers, easier and faster for me. Arch, you don’t have to hunt that link. Debian isn’t simple enough for me, I don’t understand its ideas and approach. Having obsolete everything because of stability … how do you know the updated versions are worse, huh? I don’t know, perhaps Sid is stable too, but my bet it’s less stable than Arch.

And the names, I personally dislike them. You choose a random Pixar movie and stick to that. Why? Even Ubuntu’s animals are just so much better. To me that’s as weird as naming your software as Gimp, or having fun with these GNU is not UNIX and other recursive abbreviations. It may be fun when you’re a teenager, or a part of some community, but I just don’t like it either.

I just don’t feel like I’m the part of this community. I’ve been around Debian for like two decades, and never grew liking it. Not my cup of tea.

Yeah, cool, thanks for the feedback! I guess I’m interested in both, postmarket and nix, but NixOS is just more interesting to explore.

I’ve got a Surface RT 3 a week ago, and I’m playing with mobile Linux on it. Not all shiny, but I’m very happy with what I’ve got for $30 / €25. It mostly works, and the battery life is amazing. It cannot sleep, but apart from that, it’s a nice typewriter.

I think getting 1+6 at a nice price would be great and educational.

Same, with one exception I don’t really like Debian. Ubuntu, I’m surprised it’s still around. I wonder who uses it, especially on a server.

I’m eyeballing NixOS. And Gentoo too. And I’m looking for excuse to try FreeBSD.

Does it work well? Do you have more to say, maybe a blog? It looks like I can get one as used on a local market, I might want to give it a try.

The last computer I bought (a couple of years back) was a decade old PC, the price was €10 or so. I needed to add RAM, SSD, and used it for a couple of years as a Fedora Workstation desktop. It was plenty powerful for most of my needs. I’m not too worried about it. I think I can survive on a machine like that.

Oh, I have just written a comment about that. I forced a friend to install Fedora, as I couldn’t help him with Windows.

Well said, sir. Gonna steal it, when an appropriate conversation arises.

Why not? Windows is an utter shit. Migrating masses isn’t that complicated as it seems. I forced a friend to install Fedora, basically refusing to help him with Windows. I wasn’t even lying to him, I have no idea how to deal with Windows, haven’t used it for like fifteen years or more. He did a lot of unnecessary things, like selling his laptop, buying a new one, selling it, buying another one, facing some similar issues. I kept telling him ‘just fucking just Fedora and see if it’ll work better with your issue’ (he had some weird sleep issues). Turned out Fedora was flawless for him. And his favourite game — Dota 2 — works even better.

Now, he said he would probably just use Linux, if he’d manage to understand some basics. I think he will. He’s not in tech, a handyman, or like that. He can do basic computer stuff, but no more than that. He says it’s like operating a tablet. (I suggested him Atomic Fedora Silverblue.)

I can see Apple getting huge market share, thanks to its new MacBook Neo. Linux is similar, as I keep telling people that it’s very similar to macOS, but cheaper. That very friend said he’d probably buy a Neo to himself, as he doesn’t need more compute power for his needs. But I don’t see him buying anything more powerful than Mac mini. I keep selling him Linux, telling that for his needs (basically light browsing and very light Steam gaming), any similar mini computer with Fedora is plenty.

I see him proposing Linux to his close ones. At least his close circle of computer illiterate people, like mom, wife, brother, and so on. So, one relatively skilled person can help convert many others. He’s capable of installing (but not maintaining) Linux, but if it’s good enough out of the box, he can install it for others too. When he needs help, I happily help him. A GPT makes it trivial for me to combine a quick simple tutorial for him. He could ask a GPT himself, but it’s not as safe as with me, since I understand very well whether the bot is hallucinating or not. So, me alone, I can help migrate many people. Me, I migrated from macOS, I think that adds to the story either.

Yeah, indeed! I’d be monitoring prices, I’m in no hurry for this. So, I guess time works in my favour here. And Microslop too :)

I’d ping you again some time later, if you don’t mind! Have a great day.

Thanks for the conversation. I’m a bit hurrying, so I’d try to squeeze my entire point into the message, in order to not forget to reply later, if I’d to postpone. I think I’d link a blog post at some later point, if you’d ever be interested in a more detailed story.

What I’m looking for is some kind of laptop/tablet mix for very light computing. Basically, I’d like to use some text editing for my blog (it’s not deployed yet, because there are a number of posts that I’d like to finish writing, they’re mostly in the draft state at the moment). I have very little time for it (work, kids, family, exhaustion), so I thought if I’d have some light laptop on me at some times, I’d use it instead of mindless iPhone scrolling. I don’t need Waydroid, since I have an Android smartphone lying around, unused. I’m quite good at Linux, so technically, even a 1 GB device would be useful for me. I think writing/editing texts (markdown files) and reading some epubs/pdfs would be 99% of my use cases for such a device. Hence, I don’t really care about cameras, speakers, even the sensor for rotating the screen (however, that would be handy for some reading-mode). Reading is possible from an iPad though (I have iPad 3 lying around at home, and I think I charged it about 3 times over 6 months, its battery life is insane!). A couple of hours of battery life is good, if I can charge that thing from a lying somewhere charger. Say, USB-C is ideal, microUSB is tolerable too, if I’d have some cable on me. That way, I’d just carry the thing in my backpack, and if I’m free somewhere (not at home), I could power it on, and do some light text editing.

Surface looks overpowered and too good for this, but since they’re quite cheap, and getting cheap over time, I think I’d buy one. Perhaps not very soon, I’ll see. I found some cheapo Chinese no-name brand locally, for $20, I think I’d go with it, just to play with the concept of such a device. I considered Chromebooks, they seem very good at what I’m looking for, but I think I’d just not take it with me all the time. While a 500…600 g device is not much heavier than a smartphone, so I could have it with me all the time. A couple of hours of Linux time with it sounds very good, if from a single charge.

Then, it depends. Theoretically, such a device with Linux… you know, I think I’d prefer it over iPad even for watching videos, but I’m not very sure. I’m having just the very first generation of iPad Pro, and it looks like even the next model (not to say about the next-next models) is very good for media consumption, the screen is just very good. But apart from consumption, I think I’d like such a device. My research today returned me the results that most of the things are supported quite good, and you confirmed it that the mainline kernel just works. I thought it’s quite ironic the device from Microsoft no less is such a good Linux tablet! I didn’t know Linux tablets were even a thing! It’s all about Android vs iOS these days, you know. On the software department, I find Linux mostly good, by the way. It covers most of my basic needs well, frankly, I realised it covers most of my needs. I haven’t used Windows for like 15 years now, but it’s not fair to say that since I am was an Apple guy. Last time I used macOS was in 2019, I think. I use SwayWM, it’s very lightweight, so I expect it would work quite good with any cheap and underpowered laptop. I cannot do much work-related tasks with such a device, and there’s no point. My main machine has 32 GB of RAM, however I don’t think I use more than 16, I just bought +16 a year or two ago, and it was a right decision, as I’ve got them for like $30 or something. But I think a device like that (a Surface with Linux) can do quite a lot, and not in an irritating way (looking at both Windows and iOS). Apple’s Desktop system, macOS, was very good last time I used it. But I still like Linux more, due to its do-it-yourself nature. (I use mostly Arch on my computers, and Fedora on shared computers, where less nerdy people might use them.)

Have to go now, thanks for your input again, have a nice rest of the day!

Thanks for your feedback! The model I’ve found is named Surface 3, and it looks like it’s very similar to Go, just the names are different. However, that particular item was sold, so I need to hunt another item. I decided to explore all three models, the one I was considering, yours, and the next one too (Go 2). I’m looking for a keyboard only option, however I realised I may not really need any. Having a decently built tablet with Gnome looks good enough for me! I don’t care about the camera, it’s still worse than my iPhone, and I’m not going to have any video calls, that’s for sure. I thought of reading some books, plus writing a blog. It’s really challenging to write, as when I’m with my computer, I do work. When I’m on a phone, it’s not really comfortable to write long texts, and do any serious work. A Surface tablet with Linux, looks very good.

Seriously, a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t aware you can get a Linux tablet at all! Thanks to M$ for building such a shitty OS, most people selling this tablet as garbage. I thought of buying a used iPad Pro 12.9 (2015), I have a couple at home, and it’s fabulous (especially given the price, you can get one used for about $100). And iPad Pro is just miles ahead of this garbage. But! The real OS (Linux) makes it better than iOS. Windows is real OS too, but since it’s garbage, iOS is still a much better experience in most tablet scenarios.

As of today, I think I’d get a cheap used Chinese Windows tablet with a crappy keyboard, just to test waters. Assuming a Surface is a better device in every department (support, built quality, keyboard quality), and the Linux on the go is something I’d find useful, I’d surely go with monitoring local used market for a decent item.

So, yeah, thanks for drawing my attention towards this. I’m long dreaming of having a cheap and light Linux laptop with me. And a used Surface looks decent for that.

Did I ask you about the battery life and whether it sleeps well? Theoretically, I could turn it on when I need it, not a big deal. The portability is my main issue, otherwise it’d stay at home most times. But if it sleeps good and is usable in a real tablet mode (meaning you forget about a battery, it’s just always charged when you pick it up), it’s just an ideal iPad replacement for me.

Hey, I’ve found the model previous to yours! For money, but it has a keyboard cover, which I need. It’s not too expensive, about $30 / €25 / £22. I’m thinking of getting one. Do you have something to add about yours? I’m mostly interested in how it runs Linux. My research has shown it’s decent for its price.

Thanks for letting us know. I was thinking of getting a used Galaxy S9 or S10 for a degoogled Lineage OS phone. Now, it looks like the Pixels are the only modern phones that are compatible with this. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, I’d say.

I was able to run Apple AirPort Utility for managing my Apple AirPort Extreme router. It has no web interface, but an app for all Apple platforms, and Windows too. The Utility for Windows is slightly better than macOS or iOS (in my opinion). It works well, and I’m happy that by migrating to Linux I’m still able to manage my router. There’s no more routers from Apple, and there’s no more updates to the app either, so I’m happy it’d stay that way. Perhaps I needed some tiny tuning to run the app, I won’t recall now.

I have the article about it in my not deployed yet blog, so I’d link it, but I need to deploy it first. (Would take me some time.) I have more details there. But overall, it was good.

Also, I was able to run Pro100 software for 3D modelling of furniture for my friend. It was working well, I did that with Bottles since his Fedora installation was atomic (Silverblue). It was okay, almost as good as on Windows, with some tiny nuances.

I’m happy to see others telling about their apps they were successfully launching and working with. Personally, I’m very interested in the graphical stack (like Adobe or Affinity apps), but I haven’t tried them yet. I’ve seen someone has success of installing modern Photoshop, but no more than that.

And yeah, Hong Kong is cool! I was there before the protests, so I’m not aware how different it is now. I guess it’s still the same for an average tourist though.

Well, it’s just a very small and narrow rice cooker you can have in your backpack while travelling. It’s a fat thermos size, and you can cook a portion for two with it. A regular rice cooker is just big and isn’t comfortable to carry while travelling.

Mostly in Thailand, but also Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where I travelled to. I’ve bought a portable tiny rice cooker in Hong Kong, to be able to keep it in my backpack. Never used! So, I actually brought two rice cookers back home! I really forgot about the tiny one.

These days I do rice or other similar dishes in a regular pot, and it’s the same to me, more or so. Perhaps that’s just skill, I don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something and not noticing.

I’m on Arch, but I’ve been improving my system for years, and only recently I felt I’m settled more or so. I’m so sad I haven’t been keeping a blog about my journeys, I started one, and now trying to write things in retrospect is challenging and takes too much effort, I’m thinking of giving up. Do you guys have places where you share what you do and why? I’d love to read. Not many things are obvious, even for me. That’s why normies aren’t doing it. They are not aware there’s Colemak or Dvorak.