Guys I truly don't mean to spam the community but these are legit questions. Yesterday I posted about linux compatibility and computers and every single person gave me knowledge to use and you're all awesome.

Now my question is, I will undoubtedly be purchasing an older machine, would an older but good running machine still be able to install the latest kernels or versions of distros or are you limited to older versions only, based on the era of your laptop or is it really about the hardware you have? I know ram, disk space, basic stuff like that matters with distros, but I know that will not be a problem. I guess I'm thinking beyond that like processors. are older processors or anything else hold certain machines from being compatible with the newest and greatest kernels? Thanks!

I apologize if this has been asked a ton, still migrating to lemmy. Still stuck on crappy reddit out of habbit, but i've found the lemmy universe to be much more helpful.

Basically I've had a Dell Xps 13 9310 laptop for 4-5 years maybe? and I've put the thing through hell and back. Always (I believe) fixing it though and bringing it back to life. However, it seemed as if any linux distro i ever installed always had some sort of problems. I don't know Linux well enough yet to be able to trouble shoot because it seems there's many different routes to do it in Linux.

I've gone through so many distros and DEs and have tried everything on this thing. Well I think I finally bricked it after tinkering around with it. So I'm trying to plan a new budget setup.

I've always been a laptop guy because I love being able to lay on the couch by the TV and also have my laptop right there in front of me. I suppose im open to a small form or mini form desktop or box and just get a small display and a wireless keyboard/touchpad combo.

I just don't know how to find what's better compatible with linux. I see so much talk about "X" computers being great for Linux and to avoid "Y" computers because they dont work well with Linux (which I found out the newer Dells kinda suck. becoming more locked down and proprietary like Apple). I know there's companys like Tuxedo or Pine or Pop Os that sell their specific Linux friendly devices, but those are all too expensive for me.

I'm looking for a machine that can easily handle Linux but also handle I guess a system or network, basically something strong enough to be a stable link in my entire network; if that makes sense. Because I have many plans for things I want to learn about and add to my network or system down the road. Also something durable and fairly user friendly.

The million dollar question(s)..... how am I supposed to know which machines are better or even "compatible" with Linux? like all linux distros or flavors? I ran into a firmware/driver issue with my Dell and linux.... they provided only a handful of drivers/firmware for ONLY Ubuntu 20.04. super limited and meant as a windows machine. As far as ram and storage, those are probably not pertinent and more of personal preference. But I guess it boils down to things like the cpu, gpu, ram, idk, whatever is important for Linux? any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. I want to finally take this serious and ensure I have the right equipment for what I want to do instead of falling for the newest, shiny things lol. Thanks

These darn icons are pissing me off and there's not a whole lot i can find in the settings. So on the right sys tray, the bluetooth and network icons are perfect; that's how I want ever icon to be; perfectly sized, it's clear and detailed, it looks proper; same with the date and clock. The notification, wifi, and battery look awful. they're huge and bloated and there's no details to them. now the left side, everything is incredibly small and way to far spaced. How can I configure this darn tray to look PROPER??? thanks

I have tried it on several distros before and it always causes problems because you get a million more packages intermingled with your already installed packages and sometimes you get conflicts or whatever. But it usually messes up my system. is there a safe way to have several desktops installed? or do you pretty much install a new one then remove the old one? thanks

the more i am delving into things, the dell documentations are saying that the two really aren't compatible except for like an outdated version of ubuntu.... I never even thought about this, but looking back in time, I've tried many distros and the all have had some sort of internal issues that I couldn't figure out and had to wipe the disk and try a new one....

Considering it was a windows computer to begin with, is this causing problems with my Linux installations or is it more likely user error? Especially the firmware and driver side of things, as outlined in my prior post. Did Dell lock down their XPS laptops to basically only be compatible with Windows???? Im tired of distro hopping because of all the issues I have with other distros on my machine. I'm hoping you kind folks could help clear this up for me and offer insight? perhaps the bios needs some special configuring to help make Linux work as it should? Thanks

edit: whoops, I should clarify the exact model, I have an xps 13 9310 dell laptop

I have been racking my brain about this for a while now and now I just need some help because I can't figure it out.

So I login to my dell account, punch in my service tag number and it brings up info regarding my specific laptop. There are TONS of firmware and drivers that I believe may be missing? But the issue is, all the files are .exe and thats clearly for windows. They have no fedora or rpm supported drivers or firmware that I could find.

Its crucial because I just got a dell wd19tbs docking station and as per the install instructions, there's a set of firmware/drivers that must be installed prior to setting up the dock

I have lvfs repo enabled, I tried the whole fwupdmgr technique a million times though it never does shit. No firmware or drivers show up in yhe gnome store.... So why is this so complicated? How do I install dell drivers and firmware on a fedora system?

I've been searching and searching and haven't found much at all. I'm wondering if there's an AppImage desktop store or manager or whatever you wanna call it? Specifically for Fedora, but I dont think that matters with app images. I downloaded the NX Linux app image store, so I'll tinker with that for a bit. Please let me know if there are options out there

I've ready that is a nice and very advanced OS. I run a dell laptop with Intel processor, so I was thinking of checking it out.I did a live disc and it felt like every other version of gnome.... Though there are probably many¹ features im not aware of. So what and who is this distro for. Me running Intel drivers, processor, CPU, would it me to make the swap?

Hello all, I am brand new to fedora, so Im still learning the ropes. I've been noticing this red number 1 next to the file manager in the dock. Being a debian/ubuntu guy at heart, I don't quite know how to troubleshoot this. Hope you guys can shed some light; pic is below!

I have read many conflicting things, like always. Just wondering if there's a safe way to use several DE's on one distro without messing up my damn computer lol I've tried it several times and it always messed things up. I'm currently brand new to fedora workstation 38 too btw. Thanks alot

Hi all, since ya'll are self hosters, I'm sure you all deal with all sorts of different pieces of hardware, accessories, peripherals, and what not; just wondering if you could please share your favorite, solid, "go to" brands for overall things you need for your setup such as cables (all types), adapters, dongles, power accessories, hubs & docks, flash drives, you name it! I'm sure it varies depending on exactly what type of equipment you're looking for but just looking for overall good brands to stick with for such things. I obviously know the main ones like Anker, Cable Matters, Ugreen, maybe Belkin, Idk. Would love to hear your recommendations! Thank you

Hello all, sorry for such a newbish question, as I should probably know how to properly partition a hard drive, but I really don't know where to start. So what I'm looking to do is install a Debian distro, RHEL, and Arch. Want to go with Mint LMDE, Manjaro, and Fedora. I do not need very much storage, so I don't think space is an issue. I have like a 500+ something GB ssd and the few things that I do need to store are in a cloud. I pretty much use my laptop for browsing, researching, maybe streaming videos, and hopefully more programming and tinkering as I learn more; that's about all... no gaming or no data hoarding.

Do I basically just start off installing one distro on the full hard drive and then when I go to install the others, just choose the "run alongside" option? or would I have to manually partition things out? Any thing to worry about with conflicts between different types of distros, etc.? hoping you kind folks can offer me some simple advice on how to go about this without messing up my system. It SEEMS simple enough and it might be so, but I just don't personally know how to go about it lol. Thanks alot!!