I installed Linux Mint for the first time on my personal Laptop just a few months ago, and it ran so well that I didn’t want to mess with it to try out different distros.

But today, my company’s IT department announced that they have some spare old Laptops to give away (technically because they didn’t meet the specs for Windows 11, didn’t stop the IT department from giving them out with Windows 11 pre installed though)

So now I got a few devices to play around with!! They’re a Precision 7530 and a Latitude 7390 2-in-1!

I already got ZorinOS running on the little guy because apparently Zorin is nice for Touchscreen support. For the big guy I was initially thinking that I could try Bazzite, but the installer was like “Intel UHD Graphics aren’t really recommended” so I might try something else first. Any recommendations? I mainly just want to try as many different flavors of Linux as I can haha

  • UNY0N@lemmy.wtf
    5·
    3 days ago

    I ran bazzite on a Lenovo flexpad with Intel und 630 graphics and it ran perfectly. I even ran mechwarrior 5 on it, albeit with the graphics details turned down so low that it looked like a mechwarrior game from the 1990s.

    I’d give bazzite a go. Learning about how to install and use distroboxes is also lots of Linux fun.

    Edit: also, you literally cannot break any of the immutable fedora distros. Very newbie friendly.

    • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca
      61·
      3 days ago

      warning for bazzite: It’s very restrictive and doesn’t let you actually manipulate it like most distros. if you’re even remotely tech savvy and want to explore/play around in Linux, do NOT install bazzite.

      if you don’t care, and want their team to ‘protect you’ from doing pc damage, the. use bazzite.

      (backstory; I went to modify my fstab, it allowed me to with no issues. I broke the file… fine, went to edit it to revert back… root access was revoked and I was told to f myself by bazzite. I had to enter grub? (can’t fully remember) to modify it back which worked but was a pain in the ass I should have had to do. promptly uninstalled and never looked back.)

      • Mereo@piefed.caEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        if you don’t care, and want their team to ‘protect you’ from doing pc damage, the. use bazzite.

        I would say that most people fall into this category. They just want to install the operating system and start working or gaming.

      • PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca
        31·
        3 days ago

        You do a massive disservice to the overwhelming majority of computer users.

        To everyone else: if you want a computer that just works and don’t want to fuck around with the command line, Bazzite is perfect. It should be recommended over Linux Mint.

        • Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca
          21·
          2 days ago

          it was a ‘warning’ for current Linux users or tech savvy/computer literate people like I stated… it’s still good, just restrictive in that it protects you from yourself, hut actually can be a hindrance to power users. nothing wrong with what I said.

        • Ooops@feddit.org
          11·
          2 days ago

          You do a massive disservice to the overwhelming majority of computer users.

          By explicitly telling the rest why Bazzite probably isn’t for them?