I’ve been using Linux as my main OS for a couple of years now, first on a slightly older Dell Inspiron 15. Last year I upgraded to an Inspiron 15 7510 with i7-11800H and RTX3050. Since purchasing this laptop I’ve used Manjaro, Debian 11, Pop OS, Void Linux, Fedora Silverblue (37 & 38) and now Debian 12. I need to reinstall soon since I’ve stuffed up my NVIDIA drivers trying to install CUDA and didn’t realise that they changed the default swap size to 1GB.

I use this laptop for everything - development in C/C++, dart/flutter, nodejs and sometimes PHP. I occasionally play games on it through Proton and sometimes need to re-encode videos using Handbrake. I need some amount of reliability since I also use this for University.

I’ve previously been against trying Arch due to instability issues such as the recent GRUB thing. But I have been reading about BTRFS and snapshots which make me think I can have an up to date system and reliability (by rebooting into a snapshot). What’s everyone’s perspective on this, is there anything major I should keep an eye on?

Should also note I use GNOME, vscode, Firefox and will need MATLAB to be installed, if there is anything to do with those that is problematic on Arch?

Edit: I went with Arch thanks everyone for the advice

  • BOMBS@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    on the other end of the spectrum, if you really don’t want to learn shit about linux, use Linux Mint. it’s easier to install than Windows, and I only use the terminal for updates using lolcat so I can feel like a rainbow hacker.

    frequent questions and thoughts I have as a Linux Mint user:

    • why tf is everyone arguing about over whatever systemd is?

    • wow, that guy uses Arch, btw 😮

    • I don’t understand this Linux meme

    • where is this program installed??

    • wtf are Vulcan Shaders?

    • should I use apt or apt-get to install? eh, it depends on how lazy I’m feeling

    • check out my screenfetch. I’m such a hacker.

    • i wonder if the people on Linux Mint forums are sick of me asking for help without helping anyone else.

    • all these Linux privacy benefits don’t mean shit since I use Chrome

    • how come no one ever brags about Cinnamon?

    • Kühe sind toll@feddit.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      Systemd is a Programm starter which is used for starting your system programms. It made a lot of things much easier, but since there’s no competitor people are arguing about it for ethical reasons since it can do literally anything it wants to do. Vulkan is the Linux equivalent do directX on Windows. Also, Cinnamon is bloat and actually a kinda bad design. KDE and gnome have a lot of things that are much better than in Cinnamon. Cinnamon is good for new users who need the “Windows like System” but I personally don’t like it at all.

      • BOMBS@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I appreciate the info. If you don’t mind, what’s directX?

        I went with Cinnamon because I assumed that LM was streamlined for it, but I have used both Gnome and KDE, and I really liked KDE. I can install it and give it a shot again. Thank you for the info!!