this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Nixos. For all its complexity and dilemmas and issues it has given me, it's the comfiest for me and gives me really cool features
It still blows my mind that with nixos, setting up and continuously renewing an ssl cert is literally just two lines in the config file. I use nixos on my homeserver, thinking about switching my laptop to it too (currently Void linux).
@amanwithausername got an older laptop celeron processor running xubuntu? Any better ideas?
Hmmm never used xubuntu per se, but XFCE already seems like a good option for a low-spec computer. You could probably chip away at the resource usage some more by building your own desktop environment around a bare window manager, but honestly at this point the gain is negligible. If anything, you might want to look into tiling window managers just because they can offer a much more fluid and customizeable desktop experience as opposed to floating WMs. I'm using BSPWM right now, but considering switching to wayland with hyprland or qtile.
As for choice of distro: Not sure if NixOS would run well on your machine -- my homeserver is also a pretty low-spec computer (dual-core Intel Atom), and
nixos-rebuild switch
takes ages to run. Otherwise, go for Debian Testing if you want stability, Void if you want to not have systemd. There's also Devuan, which is basically Debian without systemd, but iirc it's not as popular as Void. But honestly if xubuntu works for you, then it's fine.Also, some miscellaneous tweaks for improved performance:
lazytime,noatime,autodefrag,compress=zstd:3,discard=async,space_cache=v2,ssd
. Again, not sure how well these translate to a low-end system, you should do your research.@amanwithausername comprehensive and good advice. Thank you. I tuck a look at linux, because other laptop isn't win11 compatible "soon".
Since you mentioned slow build times...
You can do
nixos-rebuild --target-host
to build locally and deploy over ssh. You can also use something likenixops
.No way, that's awesome! I'll give it a try for sure!
Congrats for making it to the treasure! I'm like half way in and not sure if I can fight through...
just keep on going. i cant be happy on any other distro, so i have to use nixos