unused RAM is wasted RAM. Just idle desktop browsing it can look like Linux is using more than the same task on Windows, but Linux does a better job actually feeling fast.

Just my experience but i’m not the first person to notice this. Could definitely vary by distro or setup, but comparing memory usage between Windows and Linux is very “Apples and Oranges”

i mostly see immutables recommended to beginners on here

Mint is a good suggestion for a new user. An underrated distro, but solid, simple, and works well for any purpose.

Go with an AMD graphics card over Nvidia, even if it costs significantly more. with Nvidia you will need to deal with shitty drivers (similar to Windows) and eventually your GPU will stop being supported. Also niche distros may have extra steps required to get everything working.

With AMD your card just works great no matter the distro, no matter how old the card gets. I never think about my GPU because it works at full performance every time with zero setup

CPU matters less: Intel and AMD are both solid on Linux

Linux can live with less RAM than Windows and work fine, but with more RAM Linux will intelligently cache frequently accessed files to speed up pretty much every program. Linux looks like it’s using more resources but it’s actually using them for something useful, and Linux will still back off if something you are doing actually needs more RAM

Firefox + uBlock Origin + sponsorblock. Set it and forget it.

I haven’t seen an advertisement or a sponsored segment on my desktop in over a decade, and same with my phone for several years. I’m astonished how willing most people are to put up with a constant barrage of ads coming from devices they own

Brave is a bad product as of now.

Firefox with ublock is at least acceptably performant on desktop and mobile without all the crypto/tracking downsides of Brave or the open unpatched vulnerabilities (as of this posting) of Chrome/chromium (that also affect Brave)

You should switch to Firefox with ublock origin.

Brave is a mess of a browser and a dumpster fire of an organization, even compared to the famously dysfuctional Mozilla.

You can look up your games on ProtonDB and see which will and won’t work. Pirated games are no different from retail compatibility-wise but there might be one or two extra steps

Suspend and hibernate both work 100% of the time for me so far on both of my laptops, and have for as long as i’ve had them.

Thinkpad x270 Fedora (current) KDE spin

Thinkpad x250 Ubuntu 24.04 GNOME

Fully working since 2019 and 2016 respectively. I have not tested opening the lid after just 5 seconds so i can’t say for sure how long it takes.

My previous laptop before these (an x200) would sometimes fail to suspend and get super hot in my bag before running out of battery. I was using Gentoo at the time and i suspect i had something configured incorrectly. It only happened a few times but it was pretty frustrating.

nano but i’m a casual. i can use vi/vim in a pinch, but i’m inefficient. ed and emacs are totally foreign

i tend to use a graphical text editor like Kate unless there is a specific reason to do it in the terminal

If you are asking about “gaming compatibility” you should not switch to a non-systemd distro. You will end up going through extra hoops for zero benefit.

Linux over 15 years

currently Fedora KDE and it’s fine

i’m not seeing that stuff much but i do believe you

RTFM makes more sense in a professional context. I don’t expect anybody to read anything unless 1 they want to or 2 they are being paid to

Saying RTFM in a hobby or recreational space is just being an asshole for no good reason

Point 1 is assumptive, but not necessarily wrong. Social media companies have deep pockets, and these laws help them deflect responsibility for child abuse that occurs on their platforms.

Point 2 is well argued, but i’m not convinced it applies here. California could have the least harmful version of such a law, but it does not follow that those laws would be adopted more generally over something more harmful. Texas, New York, Illinois, and Florida are also very influential in the US as far as lawmaking goes

Point 3 is kind of a red herring fallacy.

Point 4 isn’t really argued at all. I don’t see how this fights fascism or how California’s law is explicitly immune from fascist abuse.

Point 5 is one that i can’t argue with due to lack of information. I acknowledge that abuse is happening every day on platforms like Roblox and Discord, but i’m not convinced that those platforms will actually have less abuse as a result of this law

Point 6 is addressing a fallacy. baseline shifting is a contextual phenomenon, and whether it applies here has little to do with the subject being discussed

It can be both!

This is being pushed by social media companies that don’t want to be responsible for age verification

Thanks for the link! Heartening to know there are others that love this feature like i do

Damn. I guess it’s finally goodbye window shade or goodbye Plasma. I really wish they’d figured out a solution.

I get it though. The edge cases will never be fixed until devs know what they are, and GNOME proved this is an effective way to find out.

https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/s/res/2397-(2017)

I was curious so i looked it up. Doesn’t exactly say that

Yes, though the future of GrapheneOS on Pixels after 10 is currently in question