Iβm trying to set up a Linux laptop for a friend who lives in another city. They have only ever used Windows, and likely wonβt have easy access to fix issues (not that Iβm an expert).
First off, is it a good idea to give them a Linux PC at all? Have others had good/bad experiences giving technophobes Linux?
Secondly, if I go ahead with it, whatβs a good, stable, βsafeβ OS for a beginner? Iβm shy of anything thatβs a rolling release (e.g. Arch, Manjaro etc) as βbleeding edgeβ can break things more often than not. Iβm leaning towards Debian or something Debian based. But Iβve also heard good things about Fedora.
If I was the one using the PC, Iβd have installed Fedora, as Iβve heard itβs well-maintained. Then again thereβs been some good buzz about Debian 12. What would your advice be? Thanks!
@Suiseiseki @piezoelectron > (although thatβs usually only really 802.11ac Wi-Fi cards and decent external or internal 802.11n ones are rather cheap)
And any discrete GPU will also give trouble, specially newer AMD and Nvidia ones.
@sallyNULL @piezoelectron Depends really.
I found Trisquel works fine with even a card as new as the gtx 970 thanks to Nouveau, although the card is stuck at idle clocks as the fans refuse to spin without proprietary software that is cryptographically signed to prevent its replacement.
Even newer AMD ones should work with a native resolution, but you wonβt get 3D acceleration nor suspend.
Integrated Intel still works just fine.
@Suiseiseki @piezoelectron > Even newer AMD ones should work with a native resolution, but you wonβt get 3D acceleration nor suspend.
From my personal experience, AMD GPUs from 2017 and newer do not have working 3D rendering support at all without nonfree blobs, only BIOS works, which means youβre stuck on tty at 800x600 resolution, I have no clue if Nvidia newer cards also have the same issue as Iβve not touched an Nvidia card since GTX 10 series nor I have plans on doing so, but I wouldnβt be surprised newer cards have the exact same issue.
