In traditional distros, apps dependencies are mixed with system files. In atomic distros you use flatpaks which are containerized and don’t see system files.
This is what I mean. I understand you can also install Flatpaks in traditional distros, but most people don’t install only flatpaks.
I followed the path Mint>Fedora>openSUSE.
Wanna know my experience? I had issues daily with screen tearing on mint, even though I had the NVIDIA drivers they were probably too old on Mint for my graphics card. The desktop wouldn’t load, I had errors on starting and on shutting down Mint. I spent more time troubleshooting Mint than working.
I said fuck it and decided to give fedora (actually Universal Blue’s Aurora, which is atomic and fedora-based). It was pure bliss.
Everything just worked out of the box to the point that I was confused as to why everything was working so well. The only thing I had to “learn” was how to use distrobox through BoxBuddy, which took a whopping 30 minutes of research or so.
Now I moved to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and it feels like going back in time. I know my OS is not as secure due to not being atomic, I have to run the command line daily for updates, and the initial setting up would have been intimidating for a beginner. But at least it also hasn’t given me problems yet, unlike what happened with Mint.
So IMO Mint should definitely not be recommended to beginners. The architecture of atomic distros is very familiar to anyone who has a smartphone today, which is practically everyone. You can go to the software store and download Flatpaks as seamlessly as you do on the Google Play or Apple Store. You can even change the apps Permitions using Flatseal. And best of all, you get an OS that is secure, which traditional Linux distros aren’t due to every app having root access by default.
I haven’t done it yet, but when my wife wants to change her laptop, I’ll 100% install a self-maintaining atomic distro for her.
Fair. I think for as long as there is a will to maintain traditional distros (which there is), there will be options.
Hell, people are still keeping Thinkpads T480 alive and relatively secure by making custom libre bootloaders! The F(L)OSS community is awesome.
I think it comes down to priorities.
Whenever someone mentions Arch the pro arguments are always something in the lines of “I get to tinker”, “I learn so much reading the documentation”, “We are first in line to receive packages”, “We have packages that no other distro has”.
As someone who uses a laptop for work, all of those things sound like a nightmare. If I were a student with spare time on my hands, maybe I’d value such a distro more.
But as it stands, stability without compromising modern technology (I wouldn’t use a Debian-based x11 distro) and minimal options to tinker with, is my sweet spot. Because I need my laptop to have it’s security updates on time, and just work.
Flatpaks are better for security though. Containerization is a necessity for any serious device connecting to the internet.
Linux users got way too confortable giving any obscure package they found on AUR root access to their entire device, lol.
No they don’t. OpenSUSE, especially tumbleweed, is way more security-focused than other distros.
It’s a very low-trust default install, and it takes some work to get things through the firewall. Compare that to Fedora where every port above 2025 is open by default.
Fair enough, I just wanted to point that out because i see a lot of people falling for the “it has nothing proprietary” mindset.
But there’s nothing wrong with that device that I can point to, other than it being older hardware with all the limitations that might entail.
I guess because I never even came across people talking about European websites on a general community page such as this one.
I’m positively shocked, is all.
I’d be very careful with setups that promise libre everything.
I don’t know this particular brand, but it is quite common for projects like this to not include security and stability updates with the sole justification that “it’s proprietary”.
Your laptop’s motherboard came with a fatal security issue, or is a time bomb waiting to implode on itself? Too bad, can’t receive updates from HP, Lenovo, Dell or whatever because they are proprietary…
Just something to keep in mind.
If you buy a tuxedo you’ll have local European support, which is a massive plus. Tuxedo OS is totally optional and you can just install whatever you want on their laptops.
Personally, I find thinkpads way too expensive for what they offer. Nearly half the speccs for the same price as a tuxedo with 2 SSDs and 64GB RAM. For me its an easy choice.
Added bonus, Tuxedo makes their laptops to be Linux compatible, while Lenovo’s primary goal is Windows compatibility.
I have nothing to add here. I just want to change express how happy I am to be in a platform where we talk about Euros/Krona/whatever by default, and not USD.
The Earth is healing.
They already force phone numbers in the EU.
Lol. They can’t even get rid of the camera dock and now all of a sudden they’ll jump to no visible camera? I call BS on that.
Something similar happened in Denmark with the new Sundhedsloven, which had provisions allowing the government to forcefully isolate people in concentration camps, along with forcefully vaccinating them. This was during the COVID-19 pandemia.
This was of course alarming for those who were in the know, but very few people protested (and the law was subsequently amended), but the general attitude from the public was “it’s not a problem because something like THAT would ever happen in Denmark.” 🤡
When the US government demands that System76 hands over all info they have on the people who use their products, or decides to ban access to US software from countries Trump has decided in his mind are “playing unfair”, let’s see how far PopOS being FOSS takes us.
It is Linux! Honestly mentioning SUSE was a mistake since most people aren’t gonna use that. That would be for enterprises or government.
OpenSUSE, particularly openSUSE Aeon is the one I would use if I wasn’t too knowledgeable about Linux. It just works out of the box, and it’s an atomic distro so a lot of the guides out there for other atomic distros apply to Aeon.
“Legitimate competition is when other countries impose unwarranted tariffs on us while their companies monopolise our markets.”
PopOS! is built by a US company BTW.
OpenSUSE is German, Mint is Irish and so is ZorinOS.
Excellent, they should. Europe has many services that are already on par with American alternatives (certainly when it comes to Microsoft’s services), many are cheaper or even free, and actually respect our data.
We also have SUSE and OpenSUSE from Germany that work as very serviceable alternatives to Windows. I hope this wake up call that has been the US’s betrayal of all past allies leads EU tech to capitalize on it.
I keep saying this.
If you’re a sysadmin in charge of a bunch of computers, by all teams use NixOS.
But for personal use? Its easier to install everything by hand every time you reset your laptop (which should be maybe once per year at most) than it is to set up a config file on NixOS.