Linux and video card support? Questions.

[XiaoDeer]

Yes, while a dual boot setup is relatively easy, a newbie might find it a bit scary if it causes a boot failure due to a simple mistake while setting it up. And there's always someone like Microsoft putting a monkey wrench into things like they did with UEFI and then Secure Boot. Microsoft always wants to be the boss

There is a "safe" way to setup dual boot if you have two separate drives.

Yes, that's what I do, but I'm now using 4 different OS's.

Disconnect or disable (via the BIOS) the Windows drive. Install Linux on the other drive.

Yes, but I now do it with a physical switch installed.

Now you can reenable the Windows drive and select which drive you want to boot using the BIOS boot menu.

That's the perfect solution.

Unfortunately my dual boot machine is a laptop. Not many models these days allow for two drives. Mine does but adding a physical switch would be more of a challenge than I'm willing to take on :-(

My desktop is Windows only but I also have a headless minipc running Linux at my desk. It had very low power consumption and runs 24/7 providing some home web and home automation type services. I can VNC into that from my desktop at any time. Actually, with a Tailscale VPN I can VNC/SSH into it from anywhere.

 

[CAcreeks]

I’m rather thinking of a Linux installation next time that I have a spare computer. OP seems to like Zorin, and there’s plenty of info to help with installation.

I'd like to hear more reports about Zorin. Distrowatch has it in 11th position for most curiosity about it (clicks on their website).

Downside for me: Zorin desktops are GNOME and Xfce, according to the writeup.

In the Linux Mint arena, people say that Xfce has become so full featured (or "bloated") that Cinnamon is just as small and efficient now.

As I sometimes post, Gnome is so horrible that I suspect it was written by Microsoft to make people hate Linux. Possibly Zorin has done something to make Gnome more sensible. You can pay 50€ for extra Zorin applications. Aha, here's a review from a semi-trustworthy guy, who says it's got "the friendliest Gnome desktop out there.'

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/zorin-os-17-3.html

 

[Gesture]

+

I do the same thing.

 

[XiaoDeer]

I’m rather thinking of a Linux installation next time that I have a spare computer. OP seems to like Zorin, and there’s plenty of info to help with installation.

I'd like to hear more reports about Zorin. Distrowatch has it in 11th position for most curiosity about it (clicks on their website).

Downside for me: Zorin desktops are GNOME and Xfce, according to the writeup.

In the Linux Mint arena, people say that Xfce has become so full featured (or "bloated") that Cinnamon is just as small and efficient now.

I played with Zorin briefly and thought it looked quite good.

However, I really like having direct access to the Arch User Repository (AUR) so I stick with Manjaro with Xfce. It gives the best of ArchLinix without the arcane installation hassles.

I don't think Xfce is "bloated" at all. It is certainly "mature".

I do think Cinnamon is clearly "prettier". But that's not important to me and I do find it far easier to setup Xfce just the way I want.

 

[nail33]

I'd like to hear more reports about Zorin. Distrowatch has it in 11th position for most curiosity about it (clicks on their website).

I tried Zorin for a while when I was having issues with distros recognizing my new Intel Arc GPU. Zorin was the first to provide a decent driver through an updated kernal release........soon they all had it. I thought Zorin was very good, but Mint is #1 on the distro list for a reason.

In the Linux Mint arena, people say that Xfce has become so full featured (or "bloated") that Cinnamon is just as small and efficient now.

Cinnamon is my favorite............reminds me of Windows 7..........easy to find things........simple, intuitive layout. Any computer with 4Gigs of ram can easily run Cinnamon.

As I sometimes post, Gnome is so horrible that I suspect it was written by Microsoft to make people hate Linux.

Ha, ha...........I hear that often

Aha, here's a review from a semi-trustworthy guy, who says it's got "the friendliest Gnome desktop out there.'

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/zorin-os-17-3.html

Dedoimedo is my Linux guru. He likes the Plasma desktop the best, and I agree with him as Plasma being the most configurable of them all. I would probably run Plasma, but I'm too hooked on Cinnamon. Plasma should be run on a distro that natively supports it like Kubuntu or most any KDE based distro and many, many others, as it's becoming very popular.

 

[CAcreeks]

I'd like to hear more reports about Zorin. Distrowatch has it in 11th position for most curiosity about it (clicks on their website).

I tried Zorin for a while when I was having issues with distros recognizing my new Intel Arc GPU. Zorin was the first to provide a decent driver through an updated kernal release........soon they all had it. I thought Zorin was very good, but Mint is #1 on the distro list for a reason.

Thanks for that!

Dedoimedo is my Linux guru. He likes the Plasma desktop the best, and I agree with him as Plasma being the most configurable of them all. I would probably run Plasma, but I'm too hooked on Cinnamon.

My problem with KDE might be personal. When the Terminal application in Cinnamon (or MacOS) receives [Alt +] sequence to increase font size, or [Alt -] to decrease it, the Terminal size increases so you still have the same number of lines and columns. With KDE, line and column layout change whilst window size remains the same.

Plasma should be run on a distro that natively supports it like Kubuntu or most any KDE based distro and many, many others, as it's becoming very popular.

I feel Kubuntu is a "meh" release. It can be customized, but not easily. It has all the drawbacks of Ubuntu. I tried KDE Neon too but it seemed bare-bones. MX Linux might be preferable, but had only Xfce when I tried it.

In less than a minute, I can get Mint Cinnamon looking just the way I want it. Set theme color to teal, move panel (taskbar) to right side, focus follows mouse, done. Firefox/Chrome take more time to customize.

 

[nail33]

In less than a minute, I can get Mint Cinnamon looking just the way I want it.

Yes, I couldn't agree more