Showroom7561

Their forum is pretty good, and there's a dedicated linux section there, too. They also have extensive support documentation.

I'm sure I can get it working to be more stable, but man, it's an effort for sure.

My laptop is a Framework and has official support for Fedora and Ubuntu. I wouldn't expect these kinds of issue, TBH.

I can probably try a few more distros, but I'm just disappointed that the experience seems to always be the same :(

That is a fair point. I don't expect every feature to match 1:1. But minimize and maximize window seems to be a no-brainer for basic use. At least, how I use floating windows.

But... I'm glad that there are options to bring those features (and more) back if someone chooses.

Is this only when using Linux? The drive's S.M.A.R.T status is all perfect (it's only got like 40 hours of use on it), and tests with no errors).

Maybe I can try another drive.

Well, I think my experiment might have come to an early end.

Yesterday, when I booted up fedora, I lost my wifi (like, it didn't even give me the option to use wifi). Re-booted and it worked again.

Then I decided to get a copy of Fedora with KDE Plasma loaded up. Seemed fine, started setting it up.

Let's try some Windows software through Wine (Bottles, I believe, is what the actual software was called). Program 1, installed, but won't run. Program 2, installed, but wont' run...

Then, out of nowhere: Blank screen.

After waiting several minutes, I hit the power button: FAILED FAILED FAILED messages "Failed to start plymouth-reboot.services" being the last. FFS...

I just don't understand how I can break Linux so quickly without really doing anything. My experience over the last 20 years of trying Linux has always ended the same. Are there no stable distros available? Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Elementary, Damn Small... none of them last more than a few days/weeks before they crash and burn.

And when Linux crashes and burns, I really don't know how to fix it.

It's extremely hard to go from Windows 11, which has been absolutely rock solid. Literally no problems, no crashes, no BSOD, no compatibility issues, etc. to Linux, even though I value Linux more.

I would rather not use Windows, but I feel like I'm forced to at this point.

I may have another external SSD I can use, so it should be easy to just install another copy with KDE or whatever on it.

Or... I may just stick with GNOME, since I'd rather keep things simple anyway. Regardless, I'm glad I have options.

I’m sure by now you know about the troves of compatibility layers that exist in order to make this possible; depending on the software.

Yes, I'll need to do a bunch of experimentation to see if I can get it working. But it's a messy solution to something that isn't even a thing on Windows.

This is more of a DE issue than Linux issue, I’m assuming you went with the default Gnome but you might like KDE or Cinnamon for a more windows like experience. I personally loved both of those DEs until I made the mistake of getting comfortable with a window manager

Fair point, I'm using what Fedora came with, but I can go with something else. Better if I do that sooner, rather than later. LOL

After some encouragement, I've been making an effort to switch much of my computing over to Fedora (at least, on weekends until it's got everything I need on it).

My (Framework) laptop fully supports the OS, and even booting it up on an external SSD has been easy, and it works fast and smooth.

But, it's absolutely not as easy to settle into compared to windows.

With Windows, the only "tweaks" that a user might make is installing a different browser, but everything else will work as it should.

Power Windows users will spend more time removing bloat and ads, I won't deny that!

But on Fedora, I had to scour the internet to find out how to get a minimize and maximize button on a window (had to install another utility, then an extension...). Then I had to do the same to move things down to a dock.

Annoying, but it wasn't a huge deal. These small add-on, tweaks, and personalization options all require that you know where to look and how to actually apply these fixes. Thank god I didn't have to fuss around with device drivers.

Then, as I happily watched the Para Olympics while multitasking, my screen just went black. No warning, no way to recover it. Hitting my laptop's power button throws up a series of errors and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "FAILED TO EXECUTE SHUTDOWN BINARY".

If this is the equivalent to a BSOD on Windows, then it would be my first BSOD in many, many years.

Now I need to figure out how to get some Windows-only software to run, if that's even possible, which adds another layer of time and aggravation.

If I were a novice computer user, I wouldn't even bother with any of this and just stick to Windows. Hell, I wouldn't even know where to begin with any of it!

But I'll see how long I can ride this out, and perhaps I'll be a full-time Linux user some day.

The batteries should not degrade that fast.

For real!

I use several refurbished APC UPS', and also use third-party batteries (from the company that refurbishes the UPS') and it's been trouble-free for like 10 years. I replace batteries, it seems, every 4-5 years and only when the self-test says to replace it.

Never had a problem with data loss due to the UPS failure.

Yes, but it's cleaner not to have another add-on. I think it's perfectly fine for 99% of users, so I'm probably splitting hairs on that point.

Maybe my Windows-brain is overthinking privacy tools when it comes to Linux. LOL

That’s why I said to set it up globally, as system DNS, not just in the browser.

Yes, I can set Adguard DNS system wide, and even self host Adguard home (similar to pi-hole) if I wanted.

But DNS-based adblocking doesn't reformat pages to make it look like an ad was never there. Having blank spaces where an ad used to be just looks bad.

When it comes to Linux always check the game’s compatibility through ProtonDB (unless it’s native).

Thanks for the tip.

You don’t need adguard, just register with nextdns and use it as your system’s DNS.

I did set up Adguard DNS blocking, but it's so unrefined vs. the actual adguard software. Plus, I like to route everything through adguard, not just the browser stuff.

By not supporting Linux you mean that it doesn’t run with Steam’s proton compatibility layer?

In steam, it looks like there's a button that shows only Linux-compatible games. And the game in question isn't on the list. Perhaps it can be run through some emulator or alternate steam version, but I was just testing and didn't explore it deeply.