Need reccomendations for distro. Old laptop from like '10 (shipped with windows 8, not even 8.1), touchscreen needed so no Mint unfortunately. No linux experience whatsoever beyond using tails and I know what the terminal is but have NO clue how to use it.

Need a daily driver for light tasks (just gimp, handbrake, internet, qbittorrent, and libreoffice type stuff, no games), would prefer security and privacy, but idk if Whonix can run on my old machine and with my nonexistent linux exp idk if it is a good one for me yet, may need exp with something else first? Idk, y’all tell me!

Was reccomended Fedora, has touch support and supposedly good for the light tasks and will run in my old laptop, but figured I’d ask what y’all think because you guys seem knowledgeable.

It is my only computer besides my phone so I can’t afford the time to fuck around lol.

  • CHEF-KOCH@lemmy.ml
    15·
    3 years ago

    Apparently the issue is not the Distro, the issue here in this case is the touch-pad driver. This is known to be a problematic topic in the Linux Kernel. There exist some alternative touchpad drivers you can manually install. The reason they do not come with several popular Distro is that they are not well maintained and can cause additional problems.

    Laziness and spoon-feeding others is not really an excuse because all of this is nothing new. Just randomly guessing a distro until it works has no learning effect for us as reader or for those who want to help and als not for you. Others who just read … oh hey Fedora works, do not learn why and how they can fix their own distro to make it work.

    • Arcaneslime@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      3 years ago

      See, THAT is useful, thank you.

      Hey, then maybe they should post, with specifics about what they need to run, and see if anyone has advice regarding similar hardware. You suggested I “search” and presumably find a thread and see “oh hey mint works” and not learn why and how I coukd fix my own to make it work, and then you’ve used it here as some sort of “gotcha.” So should I ask for specific advice or should I search and see what worked for others? Which piece of your directly contradicting advice should I follow? And seems so, because nobody asked you to be rude which prompted my rude response. I believe you’ll find I got along fine with everyone BUT you in this thread, so I’m gonna go with my theory of I was abusing you because you were a dick and deserved it. We can be cool if you wanna be cool though but I see the snarky unnecessary bullshit continues so far.

      • CHEF-KOCH@lemmy.ml
        15·
        3 years ago
        • Searching for something on your own, showing interest has a bigger learning curve than random people spoon-feeding you.
        • Answering everything and providing the same solutions over and over again results in society which is not able to think for themselves.
        • At the end of the they you need to be comfortable with the Distro and not the one who suggest something.
        • I was not rude, I just gave legitimate reason not to support spoon-feeding. Please stop calling everything what does not get in your world, as rude just because I gave you no direct answer.
        • There is no contradiction in my logic. You can search for yourself, try several methods, then report back where you exactly stuck with it. Saying, oh shit distro xyz does not work is not helpful at all.
        • I simply have no respect for people abusing community with questions that can be answered 4 minutes googling. Dunno what is there not to get. It annoys power-users like me to help because why should we if it ends-up with discussions like that.
        • Arcaneslime@lemmy.mlOP
          31·
          3 years ago

          You’ve never once asked a question on a forum? Yeah I believe that, sure lol.

          “Oooohhhh society, muh linux sublemmy!” Cry harder lol, is this really worth removed (insert explitive for complaining) about? I’m gonna make sure to ask ALL my questions here just to spite you.

          True, and I appreciate THEIR help in narrowing down the first one I will try.

          You were indeed rude, whether or not you see that is irrelevant. I was ruder, because I am better at it when instigated. You were insanely condescending and dismissive, as well as sardonic, that is rude even if you lack the social skills to tell. Idgaf about your answer, it would have been better had your “blue” ass not posted at all frankly.

          “Report back” to what? The post you are saying I shouldn’t have made? The guy saying “fedora will probably support touch with GNOME especially since you said it works on tails” definitely helped me whether you want that to be true or not, sorry guy. Before the other guy told me what DEs were I didn’t know they existed (though I had heard the word GNOME in the context of linux before) so I learned a lot despite your protests.

          Power use your own butthole, I don’t care about you, and the internet isn’t your personal thing, other people get to use it too, sorry.

          • CHEF-KOCH@lemmy.ml
            16·
            3 years ago
            • When did I said or imply that I never ask anything on the internet, I said you can search on the internet for already existent content. The arch wiki is easy find-able. Most suggestions over there are so common that you can apply them on almost every distro.
            • I did not cry nor do I intent to do that even after I get insulted for other peoples incompetence.
            • There is absolute no help here, suggesting random distros until problem is solved is no help, it is guessing. And mathematically you will hit a win after x tries, that is pure statistics.
            • I was to no point here rude, I expressed my opinion here, which you apparently dislike claiming this is regarding rudeness behavior from me. This is again not the case.
            • Your excuse about your intolerance here to accept opinions is your lack of social skills, not mine.
            • Every Distro supports touch, you can, as said install other drivers if the existent do not work - for you. You did not get that point.

            Power use your own butthole, I don’t care about you, and the internet isn’t your personal thing, other people get to use it too, sorry.

            Claiming I would be rude, insulting me like 2 times already. Hope we are done now with off-topic or you want to continue humiliating yourself with your nonsense.

            Never seen such aggressive discussion because people refuse to do, explore or report their findings back, instead they insist in getting spoon-feeded. Beyond anything.

            Now back to the topic.

            • Arcaneslime@lemmy.mlOP
              1·
              3 years ago

              Thanks, the second useful thing you’ve said so far, I’ll check it out! But to answer your question, with the comments you unnecessarily made to complain about people asking questions.

              Sure bud whatever you have to tell yourself. Need some ointment for your butthurt because “someone made a post you don’t like?” Ask an adult to pop that safety cap on it for ya. Btw it isn’t due to my competence or lack thereof which has you being insulted, it’s the fact that you are a dick and now I’m having fun at your expense.

              Well, helped me more than you have so far, so deal with it. I’m dubious if your claim though being that they all seemed to offer better advice on terms, what DEs are more likely to fit my needs than others, what DEs even are, the fact that you can live boot Fedora (which you can’t easily do with mint though supposedly it can be done), I learned a lot. YOU may not have because you’re a mega 1337 haXXor, Crash Override, but for someone who is figuratively day one (maybe day two) into this shit it was indeed helpful.

              You can express your opinion without being rude, which again, you were, by being condescending, dismissive and sardonic. Do you know what those words mean?

              My intolerance is for condescending pricks dude, your opinion is worthless if it comes at the price of having to deal with your “I’m better than you” attitude, get off your high horse dude, though you’ll probably need a ladder way up there.

              I did get that, but with some it seems to work “out of the box” like tails and supposedly fedora, whereas some require MORE EXPERIENCE which is the exact thing I do not have, so again I fall back to the reccomendations you are mad I got.

              Again, I told you I am better at being rude when instigated, which you did, because again, being a condescending prick IS rude, which you did. Also I’m damn proud of that line lol, you know it was funny. “I’m a power user, look ma, I’m so badass with linux!” Lol.

              Again with this “report back” shit. First of all, to the post you say I shouldn’t have made? You just BURNING to know if touch worked off dick in fedora for me? Well second of all you’ll have to wait until I actually can get around to DOING it before I can report back because I had shit to do today and work for the rest of the week, again not everyone can sit around hacking into Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputers all day, some people have to leave their parent’s house sometimes Cereal Killer.

              • CHEF-KOCH@lemmy.ml
                15·
                3 years ago

                It is not about questions, it is about that we have those questions a million times already answered on the internet.

                Sure bud whatever you have to tell yourself. Need some ointment for your butthurt because “someone made a post you don’t like?” Ask an adult to pop that safety cap on it for ya. Btw it isn’t due to my competence or lack thereof which has you being insulted, it’s the fact that you are a dick and now I’m having fun at your expense.

                Ask an adult how to work with a wrench, he will not tell you use xyz or you guess until it fits. You need to learn the skill to observe, test and research yourself. With is the lesson you refuse to accept. Instead you want others doing the work for you, getting the result or in this case the correct wrench. This is not how a community is supposed to work and if I confront you with that you insult me. Making things up like that I am rude, when its the opposite. Maybe observe what you said here, and what I said, rethink about the statements you did here again.

                You can express your opinion without being rude, which again, you were, by being condescending, dismissive and sardonic. Do you know what those words mean?

                it’s the fact that you are a dick and now I’m having fun at your expense.

                Cry harder lol,

                abusing you because you were a dick and deserved it.

                for condescending pricks dude,

                Again, I told you I am better at being rude when instigated, which you did, because again, being a condescending prick IS rude

                All of your words, not mine, the one who insults others is you, which means you are the one who is intentional rude here because you cannot handle valid input.

                YOU may not have because you’re a mega 1337 haXXor, Crash Override, but for someone who is figuratively day one (maybe day two) into this shit it was indeed helpful.

                I never claimed that, never made this about me. Just said you could use a VM and use it for yourself, instead you now waste my and your own lifetime making things up. Which only humiliates you, not me. You do this all by yourself. And it shows that power-users like me should never help unthankful people like you, if that is what you want. Alrightly.

                I did get that, but with some it seems to work “out of the box” like tails and supposedly fedora, whereas some require MORE EXPERIENCE which is the exact thing I do not have, so again I fall back to the reccomendations you are mad I got.

                First you said you have no time, now you argue constantly about your incompetence and try to even explain that, which makes it even more sad. Instead of just accepting it, using the feedback I and others gave you.

                First of all, to the post you say I shouldn’t have made? You just BURNING to know if touch worked off dick in fedora for me?

                I said you can research yourself, not sure what is there not to understand. I burn nothing here, this is once again you making things up now.

                Hope we are finished now. If you do not like my input on things, there is a block function, feel free to use that.

                • Arcaneslime@lemmy.mlOP
                  2·
                  3 years ago

                  If I look up “how to use a wrench” on youtube I get tutorials, they probably, now, I have not confirmed this, but they probably don’t say “The first step in how to use a wrench is to figure it the fuck out yourself.” I could test that theory but I think we both know I am right. This also is more analagous to needing to do plumbing but not knowing what a crescent wrench is called, I am asking “what tool will do the job I need,” not “how do you use linux.” Nobody is “doing the job for me” they are saying “you’re gonna want a crescent wrench (gnome) probably X size (fedora) but it might be other sizes so measure (live boot and function test).” This IS doing research, asking people who know what their talking about is a viable method of learning, deal with it. That is EXACTLY how a community is supposed to work, people helping people, you don’t want a community, you want a bulletin board you can post articles on, there is enough internet for the both of us man. I insult you, albeit much more harshly, because you did it to me by being condescending (you really should look that word up ya know. And I can do it too!) And I refuse to accept it because you don’t know how to communicate without being condescending and therefore you get my response to condescension. Again, compare my response to you to my response to EVERYONE else here, why are you the only one I treat this way? Is it possibly because they weren’t assholes? Yes. Maybe rethink YOUR gatekeeping, I won’t think about you at all after this lol. Again, yea, I am meaner than you when it is summoned up from the depths by comdescending chants, sorry you started shit you weren’t ready for but that is hardly my fault. Oh wait yes it is of course because I made the post you want to complain about so I’m sure that is why you blame me instead of having scrolled right on by and avoided this whole mess. You did this to yourself.

                  “I was rude first but you are being rude now and I am sad about it.” I do not care. Your “valid input” is that you like a color that is lame anyway. Thanks for that valuable advice.

                  Yes you did power user, I am using that hyperbole to further make fun of you. Oh shit he said it again hahaha. You got your powerglove on my guy? Such cool. But no, “people like you” should absolutely not try to “help” people, leave that to those who can do so without snobbery like everyone else in this thread. You btw have singlehandedly cemented my will to post any inane question I have here going foward BEFORE I google or ask anyone else just because I know it gets your goat. Your VM suggestion was dumb anyway because one of the helpful people already mentioned you can live boot it and I would rather do that.

                  I fail to see how having little time to dick around trying thirty distros precludes me from having limited experience with linux so far, seemingly those two things could even be correlated one might say. I will indeed be using the feedback the OTHERS gave me, as you have given me none besides that arch forum to check out but since that was what a half hour ago, sorry I haven’t gotten around to that your highness. But unfortunately even the rest of the advice was given not even a full 24hr ago, why you rushing me? Why are you so invested in this? Are things going ok at home?

                  Oh no you WISH I’d block you but instead (after a few hours of being offline, forgive me, again, life) I will continue to respond as you do. You can however not respond to this and I won’t hunt you down, you don’t even need to block me.

                  Or you know “hey I’m sorry I was being condescending originally, I am a super cool xXpower userXx and sometimes I forget how it feels to be starting out with linux especially with the toxic community that acts exactly like I do. We got off on the wrong foot, but heres some resources you can use to further your foray into linux.”

                  No? Wishful thinking I guess.