megane_kun

joined 1 year ago
[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

For whatever it's worth, I use (up until fairly recently) KDE Plasma on Arch, and it's pretty much fine. There's some hiccups especially after a big update such as KDE Plasma 6, but it's a smooth ride so far.

If the KDE Plasma developers support an Arch-based distro of their own, and package stuff for this distro with care, I think it'd be a better experience, but I am guessing not by much compared to KDE Plasma on base Arch.

 

I've recently updated to Plasma 6.1 and I've loved it so far. However, there's one thing that has made things difficult for me—I can't get to ‘Panel Configuration’ and make changes to my panels.

This screen recording shows me failing to get to the ‘Panel Configuration’ in my top panel (though the same problem exists for all of my panels).

For further context, I use Plasma 6.1 with Wayland on Arch Linux. Some other details from the Plasma Info Center are provided below:

If there's any more information I need to gather in order to resolve this problem or make a bug report, I'd love to know.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

I'm using KCalc version 24.05.0 but I suppose it's similar enough to your version.

I typed in the following in simple mode:

 * 10^-8

I even got results with the following:

e-8

With pushing buttons in science mode I managed to replicate what you've observed, so I guess it's indeed a bug? However, typing something like either of the two sequences above would give you the desired result.

As an aside, it seems like typing things directly into the input text box like sin(30) can be done in any mode. I don't know if it can be generalized though, and I don't know if all of the buttons in Science and Stat modes have a plaintext equivalent you can just type in.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

Using Arch with KDE Plasma too. My only problem with KDE‌ Plasma is that I just can't stop customizing it. I find a couple of things that "I can do something to improve upon" and the next thing I know I'm tweaking things again!

Other than the odd problem with Wayland/XWayland or something, that I usually just make a mental note to investigate further, I'm pretty happy. Now if I‌ can only stop myself from "making just one more little change..."

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

I actually have some plans (no timeline though, it's basically just a wishlist item as of now) of making my own NAS, so there's that opportunity. And of course, yeah, getting an old machine is also an option. Who knows, maybe I'd get my hands on another old laptop that could very well be my way to testing Linux distros.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

That sounds amazing, to be honest. One major concern I've got is the initial setting up. That same friend of mine (the one who exorcised my system) already has a NixOS system for their NAS, and seeing the config files kinda scared me. However, as far as I've understood their explanation, it's basically a "set-up once and forget about it" affair. It's still quite a departure from the way I've learned to do things though, so it's still intimidating.

To be honest, maybe I'm just waiting for that friend to be somewhat of an expert in NixOS, so that they can push me into using it, lol!

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Initially, I chose Linux for it being gratis, but as I've used it more and more, I started to appreciate its freedom. It's really kinda moot though since I first gotten exposed to Linux because I had to. Our uni adopted Linux (some faculties used Linux Mint, others used Ubuntu) for their school computer laboratories after they couldn't pay for their Windows licenses. In a way, I indeed got into Linux because it is gratis.

I started daily-driving Linux when my Win7 desktop broke, and had to use an ancient, hand-me-down, laptop. It can barely run Win7, and so I tried installing Ubuntu on it (funny in hindsight though, I should have used a lightweight Linux distro). Then a friend of mine introduced me to Manjaro. It worked well for quite a while, until the HDD finally croaked (it's had a long life of nearly a decade). I stuck with Manjaro when I got my present desktop, but that same friend of mine who introduced me to Manjaro pushed me to using Arch despite my protests. I would have wanted to switch to Endeavour instead since I was intimidated by pure Arch. But since they offered to do the "installation and set-up process" with me, I relented. (The scare quotes are there because it was not an ordinary installation process: my friend basically exorcised the Manjaro out of my system.)

I have a few distros I would like to try, off the top of my head: EndeavourOS, Fedora Silverblue, and NixOS. However, I don't think I'm a distro hopper. I would prefer that I stay with a distro unless I get pushed off it for one reason or another. Perhaps, if I've got an extra computer to test things out, I might be a bit more adventurous and go distro-hopping using that extra machine.

To date, I've only had a bit of experience with Linux Mint and Ubuntu, and a bit more experience with Manjaro and Arch Linux. I don't think fairly limited experience with those allows me to pick a favorite, but I suppose despite its reputation for being hard to use, I quite like Arch Linux. Its package manager as well its repositories really does it for me. It's changed the way I think about installing programs, as well as updating them.

Currently, I use Arch and Win10 in a dual-boot system. After I've gotten myself an AMD graphics card, I spend my time on my Arch system almost exclusively.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is just based on my personal experience, so please take it with a grain of salt.

Rather than gaining ground from the wider population, I see the recent rise in Linux usage as coming from a pool of "interested users" who have in one way or the other, had some prior exposure and thus interest in Linux. These people have already been interested in making the jump, but have been held back in one way or the other.

This shouldn't be taken as discounting the recent advances amongst Linux distributions, however. Personally, the reason why I've made the jump is two-fold: dissatisfaction with Windows, and the advances in Linux itself that have made the jump far less intimidating than ever before. Not being a gamer, however, advances in Proton was only seen as a bonus, though a very welcome one.

Only one other person in my current friend group daily-drive Linux, and like me, they already have had experience with it beforehand. There are some other people I know of who have used Linux, but still, they all have had prior experience from school or work. For everyone else I‌ know of, if they've even heard of Linux, they think of it as "for advanced users" and as one contact put it "way above my pay grade". Unfortunately, in so far as personal experience goes, I don't have confidence Linux will be shedding that image anytime soon.

As for the Steam Deck, I am guessing it'd be similar (with a lot of caveats) to how people see Android. It'd be seen as a separate thing, and not occupy the same mental space as "desktop Linux". For one, it being a hand-held system will reinforce that difference, and people aren't as willing to tinker about with their handhelds as people are with their desktop systems. Steam Deck's OS might as well be BSD or even Temple OS as far as the ordinary user is concerned. I am hoping I am wrong here, however, as interoperability might make a difference here: if people can install and use their desktop programs to their Steam Decks in as much the same ease as installing an Android app in their phones, then perhaps the choice of OS here will make an impression on the users and not just the tinkerers.

Despite saying all that, however, I still think Linux is undergoing a renaissance. There's quite a lot of improvements going on even as we speak. Usability, in a very general sense, like being able to daily-drive Linux without being hampered by a lot of issues, is way better than it was when I first used a Linux machine in a school computer laboratory close to twenty years ago. Advances like this is starting to pull people who are curious, interested, and already leaning towards making the jump—and if this trend continues, will lead more people into using Linux, leading to more people contributing towards advances, and so on.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

My first computer was a hand-me-down Toshiba T3100. I was around ten years old at the time, in the late 90's. The portable computer, was way far different from any computer I've seen thus far. It also came with a printer, but I don't think I managed to make it work. The portable computer only had a 20MiB hard drive, and memory that can be measured in kibibytes. Its hard drive has already been reformatted, and had MS-DOS 6.21, Windows 3.11, as well as some DOS‌ games installed in it.

I didn't really bother with the DOS‌ games, but I've had a lot of fun playing Chips Challenge on Windows. However, a huge chunk of time went into me just messing around with QBasic. Later on, when I had programming classes, I installed Turbo Basic, Turbo Pascal, and Turbo C in there for homework and projects.

It could have lasted far longer but I couldn't resist myself opening it up. I didn't have a lot of trouble opening it up, but had a bit of trouble putting it back together. It didn't survive my prying though, and it got shoved into the storage.

Just recently, a few years ago, I found out that it's a bit of a collector's item, and was even expensive back when it was new. I couldn't have known it at that time, nor would I have cared, but I still regret not taking care of it a bit more.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can only speak from experience but from my understanding most people’s knowledge of Linux is derived solely from wanting to do something and then figuring out how to do it, instead of studying a list of “things you must know to use Linux”.

I second this. While I've been exposed to Linux quite a while back (Linux Mint, circa mid-2000's if memory serves me right) and was given a "Linux basics" rundown, I only started daily-driving Linux around late 2019, and by then, my knowledge of Linux pretty much have faded. It still hasn't prevented me from getting re-familiarized with Linux (Manjaro, then Arch). Of course, some bit of knowledge would help, but a lot of the Linux basics you'd need are already out there if you need it. Just look things up if the need arises.

Also, I find having to learn something I don't immediately would need to use not very productive, even counterproductive at times since it leads me to having a mindset of "I should already know this, why am I‌ being so stupid?"

So yeah!‌ I second this sentiment of "just use your computer, look things up if you have to, it's not going to hurt."

And oh, don't be afraid to mess with your computer from time to time. If you're concerned about breaking things, you can install the distro of your choice into an old laptop or something, and use that as a place to "mess things up."

Edit: I forgot that OP already is using Linux in a virtual box. OP can use that as a laboratory to "mess things up."

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! I'm glad to have inspired you.

While KDE Plasma offers a whole lot of options for customization, it's really daunting especially if you're just new to it. What really helped me is to just go with a little bit of customization and tweaking at a time. As I got more experience, I started to want more and more which lead to a lot more customization and tweaking.

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

I'm weaning myself away from it. However, it's still unavoidable in my case because my work uses it. Thus, my work-related appointments and such are on there, which is one of the reasons why I had that widget in the first place (to monitor work-related appointments, deadlines, etc).

[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've been working on it on and off since I've started using this system. It started with just the basics, tweaking the defaults, wanting more, and so on and so forth.

I usually can spend an entire (weekend's) afternoon just tweaking things, making a change here and then, and observing if I like the changes I've made. Rinse and repeat that over a period of several months.

 

As the title said, I customized my system according to what I liked. It's probably a mess of features and design elements cobbled together from the OS's I've used (or would like to use).

There's also some features I've customized that is hard to show via screenshots, like mouse gestures to move windows around different screens and virtual desktops.

I don't think I've achieved everything I want here, but it has gone way further than I've imagined it'd go.

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