My objective is to ditch windows & utilize my triple monitor desktop as a cockpit style dashboard for my homeserver & lan devices along with always open widgets like music, calculator, etc.
There was another post yesterday about this and the community recommended Mint & Pop OS the most. However, I am not looking for windows-like. I want a new & fresh experience like using a smartphone for the first time or switching from ios to android.
Distrochooser.de recommended kubuntu to me.
So I have some questions:
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What are the building blocks of a distro? Things that separate distros from each other. Like I know 2 - Desktop Env & Package Managers. Are there others, what are they or where do I find a list? I would like to compare these blocks and make it a shopping experience and then pick the distro that matches my list. Is this approach even valid?
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How do I find and compare whats missing from which distro? For eg. if I install mint, what would I be potentially missing out that may be a feature on another distro? How do I go about finding these things?
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What are some programs/ widgets/ others that are must haves for you? For eg. some particular task manager
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What are the first steps after installing linux? For eg. In Windows, its drivers, then debloat and then install programs like vlc, rar, etc.
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I read on some post, a user was saying that they want to avoid installing qt libraries. Why would someone potentially want that? I have never thought of my computer in such terms. I have always installed whatever whenever. The comment stuck with me. Is this something I should be concerned about?
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Should I not worry about all of the above and just pick from mint, pop and kubuntu?
- Arch wiki - installation. You’re installing a lot of those components yourself, so it lists out common options.
Is this approach even valid?
Not really. People don’t replace an audio server for example if everything is working, and the default choices are almost universal.
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Go to a social media like this one, and observe nerds arguing about distros.
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Emacs, Firefox, kmonad
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That depends on the distro, but something like (if necessary): enable nonfree repos, install proprietary drivers, install proprietary codecs, install stuff you need for work.
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No, unless you’re a bloat obsessed supermodel.
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You’ve got two main things to worry about at this stage: release cycle and preferred DE.
All three of those are Ubuntu derivatives so they get updates on pretty much the same schedule. But they’ve got different default DEs in cinnamon, gnome, and KDE. That doesn’t mean you can’t install xfce on mint, but their dev time is focused on cinamon so xfce looks like ass in comparison.
Take a flash drive, install ventoy, and try out their live environments. After a few reboots you’ll have a clearer idea of what you’re looking for.
I’d also try something slightly different and include Nobara. It’s also a stable workstation distro, but it’s got a shorter release cycle and it’s based on Fedora instead of Ubuntu. Also, it might be interesting to compare pop gnome, nobara gnome, and classic gnome.
However, I am not looking for windows-like. I want a new & fresh experience like using a smartphone for the first time or switching from ios to android.
Be careful what you wish for or you’ll end up with guix running stumpwm, and you’ll sympathise with your grandparents using a PC for the first time.
But seriously, use gnome in that case, and maybe try out a tiling WM like i3. Gnome is the only big DE to go down a different UI route after being threatened with litigation by Microsoft. Tiling managers are IMO the best, but it takes a while to get them really set up.
