Outside of Gnome I think you may need to install an additional package like evolution-on

Already mentioned, but Strawberry is worth checking out. If Quod Libet works, stick with that. I liked it when I used it.

mpd has a number of frontends.

No longer developed I think, but I’ll mention gmusicbrowser as it used to be my go-to.

cmus is what I use now.

I also have a very large library and use Debian 12.5 so I’ll bookmark this thread for later.

Sometimes yt-dlp drops fragments leading to corrupt files, maybe that’s what’s going on.

I went through something similar with my Brother printer, but stuck with USB. I’ll have to give your tips a try later.

I haven’t been able to get 2-sided to work except with LibreOffice for some reason, but maybe that DuplexNoTumble thing is the key…or value.

Debian

I’ve tried different distros and liked them, but tend to come back to Debian.

My scepticism is through the roof reading this. First, I find it hard to believe that he has two working units unless they are programmed to sit in front of a terminal and tap Y…

The rest speaks for itself: Musk likes to BS.

The convo on HN about this article is worth a quick scroll.

The first comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39570137) launches a discussion about freedom filled with anecdotes. There are even more anecdotes (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39570364). And even some praise (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39570484).

I am not a dev. I don’t rice, I don’t game. I’m a FOSS user and have been for years. If I run into a problem, there is no way I will be creating an account on Discord to get help. It might not be worth the time and effort. A searchable forum is good enough. IRC logs are good enough. Email lists are good enough. But, also, some open source software makes onboarding seem more cumbersome than it actually is. Getting on Matrix is easy, but in he eyes of a new user it comes off as Herculean. And when a dev decides to use Discord we shake our fists instead of proposing a solution like operating the bridge for them.

Relevant info about the username/accountid implementation: https://fosstodon.org/@link2xt/111965597727225353

Step in the right direction, which is appreciated…

But: https://fosstodon.org/@link2xt/111965597727225353

Server can look up account identifier (username) and also phone number by username.

An animated series is also in the works, so there is also that to look forward to.

My current personal laptop is a ThinkPad 13 2nd Gen. I believe it was released in 2017. It was my work laptop for 4 years and was gifted to me by the employer. During those 4 years as a work laptop it proved its worth—9 hours of teaching per day plugged into a projector. Once it was mine I slapped Linux on it. Today, the battery still lasts 10 hours.

So, definitely look into getting something used. You probably don’t need the best of the best. If I had to choose right now I would rank my needs and try to get something close enough.

An i3 or equivalent might be fine, and i7 might be overkill. Something with an i5, perhaps? Lots of people say 8GB is the minimum for RAM, my computer has 6GB and works. But, if I were going to buy today I might take 16GB just as future-proofing. I would also need that USB-C.

Browse around sites like https://linux-hardware.org/ before purchasing to make sure you don’t get any surprises.

Speaking of surprises, I would take anything with Nvidia just in case, and whatever model I take would need to be reparable or upgradable.

If you decide on buying new, you might as well take a look at the vendors mentioned by other users. System76, Slimbook, Framework, StarBook, and so on will hurt your wallet a bit, but at least you know the hardware won’t result in time lost troubleshooting.

Oh it certainly can! I haven’t done it like this in a long time. My hopping days are all but over and the main things I need to backup are music, photos, and books. As long as I have them on some external drive I just wipe it all and start over. Still, though, the option is there.

Partitions.

Many distros will partition your disk as /, /home, and swap.

If you want to, when installing a different distro, you can manually format and install the system to / and not format /home but flag it to be mounted as home.

I use MuPDF but there is also the GrapheneOS PDF viewer available on their GitHub

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer

You can install it using Obtainium or jus grab it from the GitHub page.

The distro I came here to mention has been hated on already. My dislike goes to the distros that start off fine, and somehow screw it up.

Honestly, I remember using Manjaro ages ago. It had an official Openbox spin (not a community thing). I had already used Arch but I didn’t even check to see what it was based on when I tried. I thought, “green is nice” and it was. It very quickly became less nice. I didn’t use it after that, but I’ve heard plenty of hate since then.

I’m going to put another one out there just for fun.

Distrowatch’s n°1… MX Linux

Nothing wrong with it, but the fact that it is number 1 (I know their ranking is just for fun and based on page hits) and doesn’t deserve it is the issue. It works great, when I used it I didn’t like how there was a second application for installating certain software. I think I used the Xfce setup. Again, it’s fine, but if a first-time Linux desktop user sat down and installed that, it might not be the best initiation.

Popular and highly ranked distros give Desktop Linux a bad name sometimes is what I’m saying.

It’s easy. After running setup-alpine and rebooting with a bar install there is built-in script setup-desktop that lets you install Gnome, Plasma or Xfce.

You can find install scripts like Alpine Suck around the web https://git.sr.ht/~bt/alpine-suck

Or check out the wiki for other inspiration https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Category:Desktop

If you use Edge, I would recommend subscribing to the user mailing list though, just in case.

Don’t know if it is a must-try, but LXQt has come a long way. The file browser is excellent. Everything is fast and snappy and very traditional (start button, system tray, etc.). Runner up I guess.

You can run Alpine as a desktop. The Edge branch. New software, got what you need, installs and updates fast.

This sounds like a privacy concern. Maybe one of the privacy communities will have a better answer.

You’re worried that the bios will ping hp and hand over info, is this something that you have info on?

Somehow it might be possible the adwaita-icon-theme package was removed and not reinstalled.

You could also try running dconf reset -f /org/gnome/ and rebooting to see if that helps.

I only just picked one up a week or two ago. I was always a Nintendo person… Then an ex wanted to get an Xbox 360 to play Rock Band or something so I was stuck with that for a bit, then my partner wanted a PS4 to play Crash Bandicoot when it was only on PS4 so I’ve had that for years. I was completely ignorant to the ease of the Switch. Underpowered? Whatever! It is quiet, it is small, and that OLED screen is gorgeous.

The sun is setting for the Switch, but at least I’ll get to experience it before it is fully retired.