this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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Any advice for a long-time Linux user, first-time Linux desktop user? (feddit.uk)
submitted 5 months ago by smeg@feddit.uk to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I'm a regular user of Linux systems but apart from a couple of test Ubuntu installs many years ago they've always been containers or VMs with no DE which I can throw away when I break them. The Steam Deck showcasing how far Wine/Proton has come combined with Windows being Windows has given me the push; I've made a Mint live USB and it's running beautifully on my desktop. I come to you, the masters, with questions before I hit install:

  1. What do you recommend I do about disk partitions? I'm keeping a Windows install for the few things that demand it, does Windows still occasionally destroy Linux partitions? Do I need separate partitions for data and OS? Is it straightforward to add additional distros as new partitions or is that asking for trouble?
  2. Is disk encryption straightforward? And is that likely to upset the Windows partition?
  3. Is cloud storage sync straightforward? It's my off-site backup solution on Android and Windows (using Cryptomator with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc) but I don't think that many providers have Linux clients. Is something like rclone recommended?
  4. Should I just use apt to install software? I know there's some kind of graphical package manager (synaptic?), does that use apt under the covers or is it separate? Is it recommended to install something like Flathub too?
  5. Any other pearls of wisdom? How do I keep everything tidy? Any warnings about what not to do? Should I use a particular terminal emulator or Firefox fork?
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[–] boredsquirrel 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)
  1. Just shrink windows and install Linux.

Use either BTRFS (no idea if Mint supports that) or LVM with EXT4 or F2FS. F2FS is used in Android, stable, fast, simple, flash optimized. Ext4 is also based.

Dont separate / from /home if you dont use the above setup. If you do, partitions can resize dynamically so no problems here.

Installing multiple OSses is messy, avoid it.

Windows Updates may remove GRUB and eat the partition. If the partition is still there, you could reflash GRUB with dd.

  1. Disk encryption is a single checkbox in every installer I tried. It doesnt use the TPM so it works everywhere, while not as fancy as Android on a Google Pixel.

Absolutely do it.

Most often you only encrypt the / partition and not the boot. And no you dont touch Windows so no issues.

  1. Tons of people use GDrive and Dropbox. It supposedly works.

  2. On a traditional Distro I would leave the system as it is and install everything from Flathub. It is preinstalled and configured on Linux.

Traditional Distros are extremely messy and build up Entropy, i.e. randomness. You just do random shit everywhere and after a few months or years you have issues that nobody can reproduce and you need to reinstall.

That is why I am happily on Fedora Atomic Desktops (Kinoite, KDE). OSTree is heaven.

If you stick to Flatpaks you will not change the system at all, the apps are separated. So it will likely not break at all.

Ironically, while the "immutable" (managed) systems are used with Flatpak a lot, it is the traditional ones that should use it, as they dont have mechanisms like rpm-ostree reset.

So yes, absolutely.

Have a look at my list of recommended apps (which I planned on updating today and a damn browser crash destroyed 2 hours of work...)

  1. Use an atomic system. Use Flatpaks. Change as little crazy stuff as possible (if you are on KDE, lol).

I recommend Librewolf, great project with good usability.

Meanwhile I will some day fix up my arkenfox automation which makes any Firefox version as secure and private.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Don't recommend btrfs 💀 especially to newcomers

[–] yala@discuss.online 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If it is the default on the distro they intend to use, then, by all means, they should definitely go with it. Btrfs has been really stable for a pretty long time anyways. Just don't use it for RAID 5/6 and you'd be absolutely fine.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

You don't even need raid for everything to shit the bed https://rsc.vet/board/viewtopic.php?t=133

[–] boredsquirrel 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

BTRFS is simpler to setup than LVM and does the same. On Fedora it just works.

But I want to do speed comparisons and may switch to LVM with F2FS

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

See above link

[–] boredsquirrel 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

That site is down

Okay not anymore. Interesting and for sure problematic. I never had this issue and it may already be resolved.

This seems like a very specific bug and they were using Debian 12, which to be fair was okay-ish new back then.