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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2929 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 5, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So I'm boycotting Microsoft, due to user-hostility in the newer versions of Windows, and due to bankrolling the apocalypse OpenAI. The former reason means I'm basically looking at Linux. Recommendations for a noob-friendly distro and "Linux noob manual"? Particular needs include ability to run Wine well and high stability (i.e. few OS crashes), although those sound pretty basic. Low power use would also be nice, although my needs in that regard are quite modest (like, if the OS's hogging over 10% of a current-gen processor, that's bad).

For the most part, modern Linux problems with power management, regardless of distro, tend to revolve around putting the computer into the right sleep states, or powering down newer CPUs to just their e-Cores, rather than high idle utilization. Fancy systems like hypr will have more idle cpu utilization than minimalist ones like DSLinux, but on a mainstream processor from the last ten years it's going to be a wash.

As in the post KingOfTheBailey linked, I'll usually point to Linux Mint to most newer users. It's not hyperoptimized at any one thing, but it'll give you the most reliable on-boarding experience. Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, and just plain Debian are all other good options for most cases, and for people attached to the Windows/Mac UI paradigms, Elementary or Zorin will work.

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