Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?

Only they can truly answer for themselves, but from a business standpoint, yes. It might. Being able to get support direct from the people who made/sold the laptop, whether it be in the form of a warranty or tech support, could save you from having down time when you need to be working.

I see that, now that you explain it that way. That does seem ethically questionable.

I’ll have to take some time to learn more about the details, so I can make my own informed decision.

I have Bazzite on a laptop for the ease of use and general resistance to breakage, and Spiral Linux in a VM. The latter works flawlessly that way, like it was always meant to be in a VM.

Ah, I see. It doesn’t particularly bother me, but I can appreciate why it might bother somebody else with different values.

Thanks!

Agreed. I would recommend it for reproducibility, and it’s mostly stable, but it’s like Arch Linux for people who think Arch is too easy. Plus, the documentation still sucks. The basic packaging tutorial for something new that’s not in the repos is essentially, “Here’s how to make a ‘Hello World’ package… And now that those five steps are complete, you are a NixOS master who can package anything.”

I hope it comes into its own, sincerely, but it’s definitely not for the average user just yet.

Since you’re a Linux old-timer, what’s your beef with Fedora, if you don’t mind sharing?

I do want to add Bazzite’s team seems to have only one person who can sign releases, and they did misplace a key at least once leading to nobody receiving updates until they replaced the key in their installation.

Not to be “that guy,” but I would like some sources on this. As far as I understand it, the signing happens automatically in GitHub via the private keys during the automated build process.

Additionally, they didn’t misplace a key; they didn’t yet have a process in place for pushing a new key to end-users (they had/have a plan to rotate their signing keys from time to time). Details about what happened can be found here. In my year of using Bazzite, I haven’t seen this issue reoccur, so I am writing under the assumption that they’ve indeed fixed the internal process that caused the problem.

Tried the KDE version (KRDC, I think?), and it had trouble maintaining a connection. Furthermore, Remmina doesn’t care if the endpoint doesn’t want you to save username and password; it will do it anyway based on your preferences.

It’s simply superior.

The only thing that is a genuine problem with Linux as a whole is that a lot of apps and games just aren’t compatible, be they a less popular app who’s users rely on it or a really popular game that refuses to enable Linux compatibility in EAC.

To that I say: then pick a different program or way of doing things. I used to use a Mac over 15 years ago, and part of that experience is not being able to use certain programs that you can use on Windows and finding alternatives. Many companies have multiple versions, nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case, and it’s not uncommon to find programs that only work on one OS.

If your favorite game doesn’t work on Linux, there’s ways to solve that problem (e.g. dual boot, GPU passthrough to a VM), but 80% of games in ProtonDB are currently gold-rated or better without those measures. Many people miss the functionality of certain programs, so people create ones that do similar or even better things (Remmina is so much better than Remote Desktop Connection), or they can utilize web versions.

I get that there are occasions where you just can’t make something work, but I would say that for the majority of users, their “unsolvable needs” stem from credulity where they can’t imagine any other way than using “Program.exe.”

It’s up to us to help new users find those new ways to do things.

I would do further research, as this is based on my experience with VMs, but some ISOs refuse to boot when the VM is set to Secure Boot.

I wonder if that’s why you’re having trouble. I believe drive encryption and Secure Boot are separate protections (one being disk encryption and one being a way to assert system integrity). Trying to boot from a USB might be causing Secure Boot to freak out, since it’s not the system your BIOS expects.

My initial thought is that you should be able to use LUKS without Secure Boot, but please don’t take my word for it. Do further research. I am not an expert in this, just a passing enthusiast trying to help point you in a direction.

You seem to be under the impression that I’m obligated to take every claim and see if it’s backed up by evidence.

I’m not, and I don’t feel any compulsion to find out if Vaxry has made rational claims or not. That’s the beauty of using subjective reasoning; it’s not reasonable for anyone but the subject (me).

Be my guest and see if he’s justified. Tell other people. I stopped caring what he has to say here the minute I read that paragraph, and I choose not to hear him out any further either way.

I knew that’s where you were going. I knew it.

I said nothing of the sort about the validity of his statements. I did not engage in an ad hominem (i.e. Vaxry is an asshole, therefore he’s wrong). I did not imply that it was easy to make a compositor. You were the one that read all those things into my statement and took umbrage on his behalf.

I implied it sounded like complaining, specifically about other people simply existing and having hobbies that intersect with his own. If his opening salvo is “almost all the other compositors suck beyond opening terminal windows,” on a blog post titled, “We don’t need more Wayland compositors,” I’m not required to be interested in what sounds like hyperbolic criticism.

And since that choice is based on my entirely subjective assessment, I’m not required to justify shit.

Nope. Have you?

The reality is that, although there are quite a few standalone Wayland compositors, you don’t hear about most of them, because almost all of them suck in one way or another if you go beyond opening terminals.

Ah, classic Vaxry. I’m sure he would love it if his compositor was the only one.

I lost interest after that.

Ew, you went through my post history from almost a year ago? Gross and creepy. No wonder y’all can’t win converts to your cause if that’s how you behave.

Alright. Well, gotta deal with the pain of having a criminal conman for a president on our individual ways, I suppose.

I’m not really interested in criticizing people, myself. You can do what you like and convince people to join you in whatever way you deem fit, but in my experience, they tend to shut down and stop listening (maybe it’s my delivery). I’d much rather show them there’s hope elsewhere, especially because right now, that’s what a lot of people want. Honey vs. vinegar, and all that.

I appreciate your answers, but I still don’t follow the logic. Thanks anyway.

For my part, I’m not sure it is, though lack of votes didn’t help. The meme is perhaps meanspirited so soon after the painful news, but here’s my question, and this is genuine: now what?

Trump will get to pick a bunch of lower federal judges and probably two more SCOTUS judges. What’s the way out when it seems to me that he and his jackals control the military, the police, and the judiciary? Seems like a hopeless setup to me.

Harris lost, so what’s Step 2?

I don’t get it. Are you happy Trump won, or…?