I installed Linux Mint for the first time on my personal Laptop just a few months ago, and it ran so well that I didn’t want to mess with it to try out different distros.

But today, my company’s IT department announced that they have some spare old Laptops to give away (technically because they didn’t meet the specs for Windows 11, didn’t stop the IT department from giving them out with Windows 11 pre installed though)

So now I got a few devices to play around with!! They’re a Precision 7530 and a Latitude 7390 2-in-1!

I already got ZorinOS running on the little guy because apparently Zorin is nice for Touchscreen support. For the big guy I was initially thinking that I could try Bazzite, but the installer was like “Intel UHD Graphics aren’t really recommended” so I might try something else first. Any recommendations? I mainly just want to try as many different flavors of Linux as I can haha

  • st3ph3n@midwest.socialEnglish
    13·
    28 days ago

    I’ve become quite the fan of Fedora with KDE. Running Fedora 43 on both my couch Thinkpad and my gaming desktop. Only issue I’m having with it is sleep functionality on the desktop, which just sucks (it likes to not wake up from sleep) so I have that set to not go to sleep, just turn the screen off when idle.

    • azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      28 days ago

      Yeah, I’m normally an Arch guy, but gave Fedora with KDE a shot when I bought Framework. It’s pretty sweet, does everything I want and never bothers me

        • azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          28 days ago

          No, not really. If it’s set up right, it pretty much just works. I use it on my work computer and never mess around with anything, just use it and sync packages every month or so.

          Honestly a distro called Nobara was a huge let down for me compared to Arch. It was effortless to install and came out with cool tweaks, but in just 6 months of usage it randomly broke like 4 times, every time I was supposed to check their discord server to get info on what broke and how to fix it. From Plasma not loading and opening crash report window indefinitel, to bootloop with update screen, to experimental drivers being shipped causing hard GPU crashes. And this is recommended for newbies? I’d rather give preconfigured Arch (like CachyOS) to newbie than this.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
            2·
            28 days ago

            Yikes on the Nobara experience. Will avoid. Not that I ever felt the need to explore or hop beyond Arch. Discord as the main communication channel? That screams immature project IMO.

            I have the same experience as you with Arch. In probably a decade of use I’ve only reinstalled when buying new computers. It’s just so solid. I use it both for work and at home. 👌

    • idefix@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      27 days ago

      I’ve had a really poor experience of Fedora and KDE. It really felt like third-class experience as they push so much for GNOME. Once you try a more desktop neutral or pro-KDE distributions you can’t go back to Fedora.

  • The_v@lemmy.world
    10·
    28 days ago

    Umm… With 2 free computers and nothing on them.

    Run down the list and install all the different distros. Test them out for a few weeks then onto the next. Pretty soon you’ll one that you prefer.

      • python@lemmy.worldOP
        1·
        26 days ago

        Installing one distro on one laptop and then only using that laptop to figure out how to install the next distro on the other laptop! That would give me an actual goal in each distro I install too, since I’d have to get the wifi and browser working and figure out how to run that program that burns iso files onto a usb stick :0
        … that would be such an entertaining youtube video concept too, I wish I was into video making haha

  • pr06lefs@lemmy.ml
    6·
    28 days ago

    Snagged a thinkpad today for just over 100$. Guy mentioned it was because of windows 11. Its hippie christmas for linux!

  • silt_haddock@lemmy.world
    5·
    28 days ago

    I just got a new laptop for my work (which I also use for personal stuff, it’s a family business).

    It came with Windows 11 but I’d got a bigger SSD which I’d installed before I’d even turned it on so Windows never even got a chance to boot.

    I installed one of the Fedora atomic distros and it seems to be pretty good, though I’m trying to figure out how to tune battery life. I’ve setup TLP but haven’t noticed any improvement, though, it’s still much better than when I first tried Linux on a laptop.

    I’d never used Fedora before, but the first distro I ever used was Ubuntu Dapper Drake and I’ve dipped my toes occasionally since then, but never fully committed until now

  • fum@lemmy.world
    5·
    28 days ago

    I’d say try fedora. Then give Debian a spin as it will expose you to more technical details.

    • python@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      26 days ago

      Not yet, but I have seen that it is very popular on Distrowatch! :D It’s definitely in my backlog

    • python@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      28 days ago

      That’s actually an awesome project and I’m coincidentally moving close to one of their locations soon :o

  • DIY KARMA KIT@lemmy.ml
    3·
    28 days ago

    If you wanna have fun, i woild recommend bedrock linux, haven’t tried it, but it sounds cool and interesting. Also nixos might be fun to try in my opinion.

  • ColdWater@lemmy.ca
    2·
    27 days ago

    And end with Vanilla Arch, for me atleast I distro hop every week when I got into Linux for the first time and I thought I’m going to use Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, EndeavourOS as my main but ended up using Arch Linux permanently instead. For me it’s the “just work” distro easy to use and troubleshoot