276
Finally, after some time I made the switch to #Linux ! (furries.club)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by helloyanis@furries.club to c/linux@lemmy.ml
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Finally, after some time I made the switch to #Linux !

🧵1/2

Here is my experience and the hiccups I found :
- It was hell to find how to boot on the USB drive. You needed to disable secure boot and it didn't tell you that anywhere, as far as I can tell
- It was easy enough to set up, connect to wifi etc
- Strangely Firefox has a bigger top app bar, instead of all the icons and tabs being on a single row, there are 2 rows (one with the tab name, and another one with the actual tabs
- The fingerprint reader could be set up, but when trying to log in it always says fingerprint not recognized
- Keyboard shortcuts changed, for example screenshots can't be done using Win Shift S, the clipboard history doesn't work by default etc
- The key to mute my mic doesn't work, and is not recognized as a key. The other keys like disabling the trackpad work fine.
- I like how typing the name of software from windows like paint and notepad gives the linux equivalent
@linux

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] hard_zero1@discuss.tchncs.de 32 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You can remove the bar for Firefox: Right click on the toolbar -> "Customize Toolbar..." (or Burger menu -> "More Tools" -> "Customize Toolbar..."), then in the bottom left uncheck "Title Bar" (This works in KDE, at least)

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

@hard_zero1 Thanks so much! It worked! :blobcatheart:

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 9 points 4 days ago

Welcome!

Mint is an awesome choice to start. It’s got a nice balance between slim and enough features to get you going.

Keep in mind at all times: at some point you’re gonna need that one piece of external hardware to play nice with Linux or maybe that one piece of software ain’t doing it like you’re used to.=> there is a way or an alternative. Always keep calm, research the topic, and follow instructions carefully and thoughtfully when you find a tutorial.

That aside enjoy it, a little slice of freedom away from big tech awaits.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 3 points 4 days ago

@FreddiesLantern Aside from the hiccups I mentionned, it works great! I was surprised my backlit keyboard even works, but I think that's managed by my bios.

I'll keep on using it, but I'm trying to document my struggles because if Linux is aiming to be a good alternative to Windows computers getting to end of life, then some set up wouldn't be done by most people and just assume it's broken and maybe switch back to Windows where it "Just works".

Maybe this can help with the onboarding experience!

[-] Redex68@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago

There isn't unfortunately always an alternative, e.g. you can't control Logitech devices without dual booting (maybe you can do it in a VM as well, but I haven't tried to).

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 1 points 4 days ago

It works great for me. I control a multifx through VM. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on other hardware (perhaps the off chance it’s very peculiar about online connectivity or such but I haven’t encountered it)

Ok maybe “always” is a bit strong but let’s say 9 out of 10.

[-] 33550336@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Congrats, Mint is a great choice if you needs the job to be done.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

@33550336 Thanks! I'm still figuring some things out as I go but it's just some habits I don't have!

[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 5 days ago

You can open "Keyboard Shortcuts" in the menu and change them to whatever you want.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

@cmnybo I figured it out, but I think it's still not very intuitive when you're used to it working by default!

[-] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 5 days ago

Many distros have screenshots bound to a shortcut by default. So it's working by default, just not the default you know. Even Windows only introduced that shortcut a few years ago. The real shortcut (working without any program even in Windows) is the dedicated PrtScr button. If you hold alt, it'll only capture the current window. It won't be saved but put in the clipboard.

On KDE Ctrl+shift+s worked by default for me, but I don't didn't know if that comes from my distro or from KDE.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 2 points 5 days ago

@Creat My laptop is weird, because it has a media key for screenshoting an area (which is basically a key that doed Windows Shift S which isn't recognized by default on Mint), and a print screen key which works fine. And to screenshot an area, on Mint it's ctrl+print screen

[-] mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

i have to recommend flameshot. you can edit the captured shot with arrows, circles, numbers, text, and then copy/save/pin it. make a custom shortcut where command is

flameshot gui

and make it win+shift+s. I can't live without it anymore.

[-] prole 3 points 4 days ago

How do you get more intuitive than literally just typing (anywhere really, because krunner), "shortcuts" and hitting enter lol

[-] rockettaco37@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Welcome!

There’s no escape...

[-] bestelbus22@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Check out the fish shell, it's imo a very user-friendly shell

https://fishshell.com/

[-] Onsotumenh@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah, love fish!

[-] IncogCyberSpaceUser@piefed.social 5 points 4 days ago

What is this terminal display of device information called? I've seen it for other distros too.

[-] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)
[-] Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

I was able to just set the keys how i need them, it is super easy to configure just from the menu.

[-] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Does anyone know a way to get the clipboard history on Linux?

[-] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 days ago

Depends on your Distribution (really your desktop environment). On KDE Plasma for example, there is a little tile for it on the taskbar.

[-] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

On KDE Plasma for example, there is a little tile for it on the taskbar.

Depends on how you configure KDE, typically Super-Key+V is the standard shortcut for clipboard history.

[-] jackr@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago

I use a program called cliphist that stores it for you, but as you can see there are many options

[-] mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago

my favorite is diodon. available at least in ubuntu / mint, couldn't find in fedora

[-] Trent@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

I usually use CopyQ. Has all sorts of stuff.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 0 points 5 days ago

@eatCasserole I have found a software called Diodon, and seems to work fine!
You need to set a custom shortcut in your settings but besides that it does the job

[-] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I see this one got a couple of mentions, I'll have to check it out!

[-] scott@lem.free.as 4 points 5 days ago

Terrible post title.

[-] Vittelius@feddit.org 11 points 5 days ago

Because its not. OP made a post on Mastodon and crossposted it to Lemmy by @ing the community. I'm not sure this wasn't by accident

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 2 points 5 days ago

@scott It's a mastodon post, lemmy federates it and takes the start of the post as a title. Can't do much about that :blobcatcoffee:

[-] scott@lem.free.as 1 points 4 days ago

Fair enough.

[-] EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I am thinking I might try Linux Mint on the laptop but I'm kind of terrified of blowing it up or wiping data. My laptop is getting old and I will likely be building a replacement desktop soon.

But it is a gaming laptop and has strange interactions with heat and fan speed and glowy keyboard lights and I'm afraid I'll disable some safety feature or accidentally break wifi compatibility irreversibily if I tinker too much.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

@EtnaAtsume Mint install or not, you should regularly back up your data in an external drive!

Yes, installing mint on the Windows partition deletes Windows and all your files so make a backup or put them on another partition!

But without deleting your data, you can always boot from an USB stick and try thingd around in this environnement!

[-] prole 5 points 4 days ago

Backup everything you need to keep and do a fresh install

[-] musaoruc@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

You don't have to install anything on your laptop if you just want to try Linux and see if it would work for you. You can just prepare a Linux Mint USB (or any other distribution really) plug it to your laptop and boot from it. This will boot into the live desktop from the USB and will not touch your drives. There you can try Linux and get a feel for it before you commit.

[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago

out of curiousity what's the script in the post image? i always see it and i'm curious how to generate it. :3

i installed linux in march and havent regreted it <3

[-] tomenzgg@midwest.social 2 points 4 days ago

If you'd like the same functionality but using pride flags to color in the distro logo, check out hyfetch.

[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 days ago

this is incredibly relevant to my interests (the only thing more relevant would be nyancat and pride flags) :3

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 2 points 5 days ago

@cupcakezealot It's
neofetch

Try it! :blobcathug:

[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

thanks! i wasn't sure if it was a distro specific thing so I was curious! <3

[-] First_Thunder@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago

The bigger top Firefox bar is due to the fact that it is using server side decorations instead of client side decorations (aka, Cinnamon, thr graphical environment is setting the top bars instead of letting apps do their thing)

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 2 points 5 days ago

@First_Thunder Is there any way to disable that?

[-] Nyadia 3 points 5 days ago

Yeah, in your Firefox settings. Click the menu with the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner, click "More Tools", and then click on "Customize Toolbar...". On the bottom left corner there should be a checkbox that says "Title Bar". Uncheck that and then click "Done" in the bottom right.

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 1 points 5 days ago

@Nyadia Figured it out and it worked! Strange that this isn't the default.

[-] prole 2 points 4 days ago

Seems like a theming choice by Mint

[-] helloyanis@furries.club 1 points 4 days ago

@prole I have actually switched to KDE because there are more themes there (and jelly-like windows when you move them which is kinda fun!) while still on Mint and it ended up making websites load faster. Probably something to configure but I prefer overall kde over cinnamon.

[-] AnonomousWolf@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

Nice welcome to the club

this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
276 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

59372 readers
398 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
nooter692@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz