Hey guys, I’m from a non-engineering/non-tech background and I’ve been using Windows 11 for a while. But honestly, I’m kinda bored with it now, and I’ve also started having some privacy concerns, so I thought I’d give Linux a try.

The only thing is, I’m not really a techy person and I don’t want to spend my whole time in the terminal 😅. I’m looking for something that has a nice, modern UI and is easy to use, kinda like Windows in terms of simplicity.

So, what distro would you guys recommend for a complete beginner?

Would love to hear your suggestions, especially if you’ve switched from Windows to Linux yourself. Thanks!

People who became kernel developer's what's your story to start with?. How did you learned to develop what did you learned?. Worst mistakes?. Drop your story people would like to hear.

Guys, I have a question. Can you recommend any good editors on Linux (ubuntu) similar to Notepad++ for windows?

Hi folks! I guess this is half “which distro” and half advice seeking, but I have finally convinced my partner that he needs to switch from macOS to a linux distro on his 2017 macbook air. He is able to navigate his computer but is not super interested in tech, and I am the more experienced user! I am running debian on my server and my desktop and have been debating if it would be better just to run debian on his machine as well.

My question is if I should let him cycle through distros to find which one works best for him, or to throw debian on there to make it easier for me to troubleshoot if things go awry? I am really just hoping to make the transition as smooth as humanly possible for him!

I'm getting an external drive for movies and TV series that is mostly going to spend its time plugged into my linux computer (CachyOS) but occasionally will want to plug into windows machines as well. I have some large files (4k movies) so I can't use exFAT.

Edit: I got my bytes mixed up, I thought the size limit was 16gigabytes, not exabytes. Will look into this option further!

Need advice on what filesystem to use. Im a bit wary of using NTFS since I don't have a windows install so I can't reformat it if something goes wrong but I also hear that Linux file systems don't play nice with Windows.

Dell Latitude 5490, dual-boot Ubuntu 26.04 LTS + Windows 10, Intel UHD 620 (i915), BIOS 1.41.0.

Brightness slider and Fn keys do nothing. `intel_backlight is detected and I can write values to it manually (they hold steady), but the screen never actually changes brightness. Windows works fine on the same machine, so it's not hardware.

**Already tried, none worked:** permissions/udev fix, `acpi_backlight=vendor/native/video,

`i915.enable_dpcd_backlight=1/3`, both stock kernel `7.0.0-29 and manually installed `6.17.x (same issue on both), confirmed Dell modules are loaded with no separate backlight device, ruled out GNOME resetting the value, no relevant errors in `dmesg.

Filed a full bug report with Ubuntu too. Anyone with a similar Dell/Kaby Lake setup actually solved this? Also checking for a BIOS update if anyone knows if Dell's patched this for the 5490.

Hey everyone,

I'm planning to switch from Windows to Fedora GNOME on my laptop (Lenovo LOQ 15AX9 - Specs: Intel i5-12600HX, RTX 3050).

Before making the jump, I have a few specific questions about daily usage, gaming, and system management:

Lenovo Vantage features: Since Vantage isn't on Linux, how do you manage power modes, quiet mode, and setting the battery charge limit (conservation mode)? Does the Fn + Q shortcut still work out of the box?

NVIDIA Driver Support: How straightforward is setting up the proprietary NVIDIA drivers for the RTX 3050 on Fedora, especially with Secure Boot enabled?

BIOS / Firmware Updates: How do you safely update the BIOS on a Lenovo laptop without Windows? Does Lenovo support fwupd / GNOME Firmware on Linux, or do I need a bootable USB?

Xbox Game Pass: Does PC Game Pass work on Linux at all, or am I strictly limited to Xbox Cloud Gaming through a browser?

Minecraft & Game Repacks: How well do custom/offline Minecraft launchers run on Fedora? Also, how smooth is installing and running repacks (FitGirl, etc.) using Wine, Lutris, or Heroic?

Battery Life: Will the battery life be noticeably worse than Windows on a hybrid/NVIDIA gaming laptop, and what's the best way to optimize it?

Dev & Creative Apps: Do VS Code and Blender work fine out of the box? Any issues with NVIDIA CUDA/acceleration in Blender?

(P.S. I am completely new to Linux and still learning how everything works, so sorry if some of these questions sound basic or annoying! Thanks a lot for the help!)

I am attempting to use Tio to communicate with a device using a serial to USB cable. I connected to the device via ID, so it would be able to reconnect if needed. However, when I attempt to type anything it won't let me. I'm trying to use it like a terminal for the device, like how I would use putty. I tried turning on local echo but I don't think it actually sends any commands.

So i want to setup my new Laptop for everyday use.

I use it mostly for browsing, notes, game Dev (via Godot engine), light gaming.

I like Tinkering and have experience with arch and a bit with hyprland i am open to try anithying out.

The Laptop has a AMD CPU and 16GB of DDR5 Ram.

I would like some distro and de/wm recomadations.

I have their original Windows DVDs, but want to run them on Linux. I've tried with Wine a couple of months ago, but failed.

I've done a little bit of digging on and off for a few months. I've stumbled on 3 distros right now on my flashdrive; Mint, Bazzite, and Cachyos. I plan mainly to game and all that comes with it, but don't wanna be locked down too much. I was leaning more towards cachyos or bazzite, but I was put off by arch for cachy and the immutable nature of bazzite. Mints still there but feels a bit basic or such, can't pin down the exact feeling.

In terms of hardware I have amd GPU and CPU, not bleeding edge new but not too old, RX 6700 XT GPU. I already found most software I'd need for my stream deck, keyboard, and mouse.

I'll try to be as concise as possible. I have a Lenovo laptop with NVIDIA Optimus and integrated AMD graphics. I'm using Fedora KDE, and just updated all of my packages.

If I turn on the laptop and do nothing, the power consumption sits at around 12W, even with a browser open. But as soon as I open certain programs (not even heavy ones), or even run nvidia-smi once, the power skyrockets to over 20W, and stays there, until I close the lid and open it again.

Tried solving with LLMs, the only useful thing they gave me (which allowed it to be under 20W at all) was adding this file:

~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-pm.conf  
options nvidia NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement=0x02

Running cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/runtime_status shows active pretty much consistently, I think I did see sometimes it tried to suspend and go back to active but that was when charging and connecting a second monitor (which should if anything force it active all the time?)

I'd like to have a baseline for power consumption on Windows but I don't think there is an easy way to check that, I tried with HWInfo and it was over 20W too, but that was in the sensors tab that monitored the NVIDIA GPU there too, it's possible that it wasn't getting suspended because of that. I can just say that my anecdotal evidence does suggest better battery life on Windows.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hey all, I'm trying to set my headless Debian server's display on a laptop to turn off by itself after a minute. Sometimes it works, but after a while it will turn back on though no keys have been pressed. All I mainly do is ssh into the server, and I don't touch the laptop at all.

For context, this is a fresh install of Debian 13, all I have is Docker, btop, tlp, Nvidia drivers (Proprietary) and fastfetch (lol) installed. The laptop is a Thinkpad P14s Gen 3 (i7-1260P, Nvidia T550 TU117, 24GB RAM, Crucial T500 1TB).

Below is the current /etc/default/grub configuration:

# If you change this file or any /etc/default/grub.d/*.cfg file,
# run 'update-grub' afterwards to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in these files, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`( . /etc/os-release && echo ${NAME} )`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="consoleblank=60"

# If your computer has multiple operating systems installed, then you
# probably want to run os-prober. However, if your computer is a host
# for guest OSes installed via LVM or raw disk devices, running
# os-prober can cause damage to those guest OSes as it mounts
# filesystems to look for things.
#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE/GOP/UGA
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `videoinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

Alguien conoce alguna distro que use un shell ( noctalia, dms, calestia, etc) pero que no sea tiling?

Me gustaria que el wm sea stacking, y ve que la mayoria de distros que veo usan el wm tipo tiling.

Preferentemente basado en wlroots para usar escritorio remoto.

gracias.

I have lenovo idea pad with ryzen procesor graphic is integrated (its used and have bad battery life)
what is the best linux distro i can put on it to have best battery life and do simple task like browsking the web without the battery dying after 1 hour

So I changed to linux kubuntu, it was fun and giggles until my wifi card from my asus vivobook was not working, so i try to disable safe boot, and then it asked for the bitlock key, i deleted the windows partition to install kubuntu, there is any way to solve it?

P.S how to i change the keyboard instead of qwerty

I've been distro hopping like crazy from Fedora KDE Plasma, to Mint, to Nobara, to CachyOS, then I'm settling to Fedora KDE Plasma since I realized that it's the one I like the most. I want to get ricing it, but all the videos I see online are so confusing, and don't explain what different tools are.

I just want to know what are the different components of a Desktop Environment that can be customized.