If it’s this easy for me to put myself off writing on my blog, I should really rethink my blog. If I were more skilled and/or determined, I’d have cooked up a theme for this Hugo site that actually looks decent, but I’ve said this for months and have had no drive to change that fact, so here we are.

As of me beginning to write this section, today is August 3rd. It’s two hours past my bedtime, as well as approximately two hours since I decided I was done working with one of the two otherwise unused laptops on my desk for the night. I’m taking on the task of getting a working, somewhat Windows convert friendly setup running on all four of the computers still in my possession that I am capable of doing so on, as I imagine friends and acquaintances in the spaces I’m in might be interested in looking into Linux due to Windows 10 end of life and other factors. I’m also a relatively recent Linux convert myself, having only installed it for the first time two years ago, though I’m quite far off the deep end at this point, so I don’t think I can cite my pre-existing experience when recommending a distro; as such, I want to build my opinions up from scratch.

I feel I’m in a good position to take this task upon myself due to the unfortunate predicament that every computer I have ever owned, save one that has aged so poorly I could barely tell it had one, has had an Nvidia GPU. In major part because of this, I feel like the laptops I have at my disposal correspond pretty well to the setups my friends will have that they want to convert, especially thanks to the most powerful of them being one of the lowest spec builds possible that’s compatible with the open-source Nvidia drivers for Linux.

My goals in this pursuit are threefold:

PROTOCOL 1: Make it user-friendly#

I’m doing this for Windows converts. I want to find something with a low barrier to entry; as such, save a few things that most of the people I’m making this for would never touch, I plan to install and do everything on these machines using exclusively GUI applications. If I can find something that looks similar enough to Windows (see: If I can make KDE or Cinnamon work), I’ll recommend that first and foremost, but I’ll settle for any DE that feels intuitive at the end of the day.

PROTOCOL 2: Maintain a moral standard#

I do not want to endorse a platform that puts genAI right in my face, nor has my beef with Brave Browser worn off, and I’m not going to sell myself short if I don’t have to. That said, if a distro is good for every reason but a few details that can easily be dealt with, I’m willing to conditionally recommend it.

PROTOCOL 3: Get it working#

I can’t predict everything. A computer will be stubborn, a distro unusable, a snafu generally impossible to escape. If it comes to it, I’m willing to use Ubuntu if it’s the only way I can get a setup to work, but I don’t think it’ll get to that. At a point like this, this would probably be a setup I’d work closely with someone to get working on its own, which is something I know I’d be willing to do for a friend.

Once I’ve got a setup that feels good on these laptops, I’ll figure out a proper benchmark and/or flow to test out from there. I’d absolutely like to give Minecraft (through Prism Launcher) and Roblox (through Sober) a shot, though I would hope to get my hands on something like 3DMark in order to get a numerical comparison between all the devices, and I’d absolutely want to test out a piece of creative software, especially something through Wine, as I know many of my friends will be coming onto the OS hoping to continue using FL or Ableton, among other similar pieces of software, and I want to be able to account for that.

That said, here are the sections for each of the computers. Until I have a way to run fastfetch or a similar command on each computer, these sections will be sparse, but I will put the specs down as soon as I reasonably can.

ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3#

• CPU: Intel i7-10850H @ 5.10 GHz
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile
• RAM: 32 GB

Currently running Bazzite with KDE as of 8/4/25

11/2/25#

There’s another reason that I don’t plan to make any sweeping changes to this one like I initially promised I would, and that’s because this has become an incredibly practical device for me.

I think a part of me is glad this isn’t my main computer because of the issues I have with Bazzite beyond its practicality in gaming, but I’ve been getting so much use out of the laptop in its current state as a side computer and it runs so well that I’m hesitant to try another distro on it for the time being. My biggest complaint about the setup at this point is honestly that it’s not my cool Niri setup that I love so much. I think I will have to go back to installing things on this computer, so I’m glad I’m not relying on it as a method of data storage, but I’m getting too much out of this for now.

Because of Lutris existing for Windows-only software and Flathub handling swaths of Linux friendly software, I think Bazzite will probably end up working for a lot of people, especially those who aren’t worried about what I am. In that sense, I know I’m a biased customer. I’ll go back to praying someone who’s not in my position plans on switching in order to test this.

8/5/25#

Unless this thing decides to throw a hissy fit at me, I’m sticking with Bazzite as long as I can on this computer, since I think I can tell what I need to from this one already and this setup feels too golden to touch. I did try getting Secure Boot working on it, though, which hasn’t worked so far. Admittedly, I’m scared of going through that nightmare of an install process again, especially since I’m going through it right now with the ROG laptop, but I can already feel that computer becoming a staple in my life for the time being and I don’t want to mess with it.

8/4/25 (pt. 2: Bazzite)#

After deciding to fail the install three times in different ways, including failing a download for some reason, Bazzite’s open source Nvidia branch installed on the computer in a desperate attempt to save me from the slopventure zone, one which worked quite well. I’m very excited to test out Bazzite in particular, as it seems like it could be a great option for the people I’ll likely be shilling Linux to the hardest.

After a few minutes of using this distro for the first time, I have come to the conclusion that I have installed an angel onto my computer.

This is the smoothest fresh distro install I have ever done on any PC. Things run way better than they did on PikaOS, likely because practically everything is newer. Bazaar is an incredible piece of software that blows KDE Discover out of the water. KDE Wayland seems to run smoothly. Everything opens up fast and works well (so far), even to the point where I can actually install a KDE global theme. I am genuinely blown away by how well this is working; so far, the only drawback I can think of is that Steam and Lutris are uninstallable, which makes sense due to the distro’s design, even if weird.

When I get into qualms with the system, they eventually start to veer heavily into the territory of the power-user. This distro wasn’t made to be my daily drive, and it shows, but that’s mostly because I’m doing Arch Linux shit on CachyOS on the daily, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I would think that the cracks in a practically Flatpak-only system would eventually show, but I’m obviously not at the point where those would pop up yet.

There’s a part of me that wants to try out Pop! OS on this computer if I can somehow get that install working, but at the same time, I don’t think I want to mess with perfection any more than I have to, especially if it means the pain I went through to acutally install this thing. I’m just gonna give this a proper test and most likely make this my reference point when I go into benchmarks. I think my old AFK machine has competition, now.

8/4/25 (pt. 1: PikaOS)#

Well, I got something working. A working PikaOS install using the graphics drivers fit for this machine is installed on the system. In contrast to my efforts from two days ago, I was able to use the installation version with the open-source Nvidia drivers as well.

So far, I’ve just been playing around with the little bit I can get going in the ecosystem, checking out KDE properly for the first time in a while after the initial install. Gaming wise, I tested Roblox with Sober first, which ran as poorly as I expected, then tested Tetris Effect: Connected, which surprised me with its performance for a machine that I never intended to game on, though I don’t have any hard benchmarks there, nor a Windows comparison. I’ve also downloaded a few extra things, though I’m probably not going to end up reviewing them myself.

My complaints with the distro and DE combination are many to the point where I don’t think it’s the right idea for a beginner; at a point, it seems like more work than it’s worth, though that’s not to say it’s bad at what it does by any means.

I think my biggest issue with PikaOS KDE is that I feel like I would need to tell people what to do, even just to navigate the interface with GUI only. I found that after the first boot, the device manager was frozen; beyond that, I found the default application dashboard theming weird, with no clue how to change it to be something I find more comfortable. I think the massive issues are mostly because the system is still in its “infancy” on my machine and believe that if I were to daily drive this, things would be better, but honestly, I don’t know if this first-time experience would convince me to daily drive as a new Linux user. The installation flow is a little bit weird, mandating two restarts, but I appreciate that the automatic partition system explains things.

It’s clear from what I’m seeing that KDE has problems, still. Discover’s interface being inconsistent is something I’ve had to wrestle with on multiple occasions while updating my Steam Deck, so I know the pain; plus, how KDE organizes Flathub on Discover pushes a lot of the most useful applications on the platform to the wayside to the point where you literally just have to search for everything you want. I do appreciate the meta packages PikaOS provides, which offset this concern a bit for specific use cases, but it’s not going to provide everything I know people will want. I should also note that when trying to install a global theme, KDE simply failed to recognize a dependency download, meaning I couldn’t install any theme I wanted, despite the interface technically allowing me to.

I also don’t like that you can’t uninstall Vim, at least as far as I can tell, though that’s bothering no one but me and my self-imposed restrictions; thankfully, the only thing I’ve needed to do on the terminal so far has been installing fastfetch.

I say all this to say that it’s clear to me that I’m already looking forward to trying out another distro. I did set my Tetris Effect Ultra PB out of nowhere on this distro, though, so that’s something. I will also say that rEFInd is incredibly nice about booting arbitrary USBs, which, as I recall, systemd-boot is not.

Initial notes#

This is the “high-end” entry in this list, formerly a computer I used for college that ran EndeavourOS until recently. Trying to install a working Linux system on this laptop is also why I’m aware firsthand of how shit Manjaro is, as well as how I came to love the Arch ecosystem through EndeavourOS. Technically, this setup should work with the open source Nvidia drivers, but this one’s been very un-cooperative with my attempts to install things on it.

Yesterday, I tried installing Bazzite and Pop! OS, both of which failed catastrophically in their own ways. I think I need some time to cool down before I revisit both of those installs, which I hope are possible in some capacity, especially as I do want to see if Bazzite is worth anything.

Currently, this computer has nothing of value to boot into.

ROG Strix GL502VM#

• CPU: Intel i7-6700HQ @ 3.50 GHz
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile 6GB
• RAM: 16 GB

Currently running Fedora KDE Edition as of 8/8/25

8/17/25#

The fact that this computer has been sitting in a weird spot and making it hard to clean the area around it prompted me to start to sunset work on this computer and move onto a new one. I think said change is mostly a distraction at this point, as I’m probably going to need to come back to this computer and exhaust all options anyways, but as it stands, it’s something I should do if I want to keep this going.

From a practicality side, I’m gonna probably end up settling on Fedora unless there’s some obscure use case where I’m converting this into a makeshift server like I used to use it. This means I’ll have to install Fedora after going through a few other distros, which will suck, but all of this is to be done in the name of science. I just have to remind myself that I can do things my way when I finally loop back to Fedora on here.

8/9/25#

I stayed up late tonight. Rest assured, it wasn’t for this computer.

8/8/25#

Earlier today, I had a scare that almost got me working on this computer again, as I thought I needed the 800 GB of storage space it had on its HDD as a backup for my home folder that I wanted to have during a re-install of my main machine’s OS; however, after sorting things out and deleting 800 GB worth of Steam games from my hard drive, I realized I could make it work. While I export my home folder to my hard drive, I’ve decided to work on this computer in the meantime to not slow anything down.

Trying to install Fedora has me trying out GRUB variables just to get the installer to boot, as no GUI applications were booting without me making a few changes in that department and I couldn’t tell you why. At the very least, the actual install went through? I’m in the actual OS right now, but I have no clue how this will go long term. The OS gets points deducted for making me use the terminal to install the Nvidia drivers, though.

As it stands, Fedora is doing some good work on this computer. Despite the initial difficulty, I’m very much appreciating that now that I’ve got everything up to date, it’s, as far as I can tell, working, and it feels alright to use. It’s good to run KDE on a platform like this, though I’m not sure if anyone who has to use this distro will enjoy the default experience. It’s also at least less annoying than Bazzite was to install, probably because you don’t have to put up with rpm-ostree while the OS isn’t entirely installed. Let’s see if Fedora can keep this up.

Tetris Effect started running just fine, then my computer froze up, so I’ll let it cool down and return to it later. It’s burning up in my lap.

8/5/25#

Here’s what I know so far:

• Bazzite doesn’t install for some reason
• Pika OS I already know isn’t worth it
• Fedora KDE killed this system the last time I did it
• Pop! OS works fine
• Linux Mint absolutely works, no issues here
• Nobara KDE works fine, but sucks so much ass that I can’t recommend it

If someone can install Bazzite, I’d absolutely recommend that first and foremost as things are on this machine, but Bazzite isn’t working, so it’s time to go back to Pop! OS. I’d love to see if a KDE distro works here, but I don’t think one exists that won’t cause some serious issues, and Fedora KDE is one of those, especially coming from Bazzite’s install. I think I’m gonna go for Fedora one more time, actually, just to make sure.

Initial notes#

Old faithful. Beaten and bruised in many different ways, but has survived me nine years at this point of usage in various capacities, despite the gradual compromise of its hardware, namely the fact that its internal battery no longer holds a charge. This was the laptop I installed Linux on for the first time, trying out Rocky Linux on the platform, which I would soon learn is not a great choice for a mere civilian such as myself.

Fittingly, my discovery arc started on this computer, as I was using it a while back to idle in Roblox games using Pop! OS as my distro of choice, which seemed to work fine, as did Linux Mint when I tested it briefly. I’d like to test how an older Nvidia GPU handles KDE and/or Wayland in my pursuit, so I’m going to keep looking once my direction for the ThinkPad is settled.

Currently, this computer has nothing of value to boot into.

ASUS Windows 8 laptop (GTX 7-series?)#

This one’s not easily accessible yet. Thanks to what I know from working with the Pavillion and the Strix, this one also registers to me as lowest priority. I’ll get to it eventually.

HP Pavillion (AMD Radeon integrated graphics)#

Currently running Fedora KDE as of 11/01/25

11/02/25#

I have no clue if there is a way to genuinely save this machine, not for what I wish it were and perhaps not at all. At least, I don’t think this is the solution. This is what I get for daily driving this my entire childhood and probably wearing down the drive.

This can’t be my priority right now. I can’t even boot up Fastfetch on this thing to fill out its specs. I’m gonna go back to working on my other computers, if anything, unless there’s some miracle that can save this.

I’m upset, but not really surprised. I saw those Windows failures and expected some level of carnage. I just didn’t expect it to be this bad from the onset.

11/01/25#

I’m back. It’s been months, but I’m back here.

As was my plan initially with this machine, I think I’m going to try to install Fedora on this and then try to install Gentoo on either the ROG laptop or here (probably here, for simplicity; installing Fedora is merely for the sake of finishing what I started). For the time being, I just wanted to pick this up and do what I planned on doing from the start, and it seems like there’s nothing of major concern on those drives that I haven’t already swooped in to rescue, so I should be good. Fedora is on a new update, however, which could add complications, but I’m willing to take the plunge. After burning Fedora onto my flash drive again (I had Bazzite for the Steam Deck on there, because that’s what I did as soon as I got home from vacation), the process begins.

At this point, everything that I should care about looks to have been backed up already, save a few things that are so minor they’re not even worth looking at. The installer looks prettier than it used to, which I appreciate a lot, in part because it also comes with Colemak-DH support by default.

My computer is burning hot while installing. Having it on my lap kinda hurt.

The system seemed to install just fine, but ran incredibly slow on the first boot. It got better after some system updates and a second update, but I’ve yet to really get into the nitty gritty and test it.

Initial notes#

This one is the boss stage. Over 10 years old, according to the files on it. This thing has been with me my entire life. As I write this, it’s currently in another room with a Fedora live USB plugged into it regurgitating a time capsule of the first time I ever touched a computer onto my hard drive that should be designed for this, but struggles to handle the 150+ GB load it’s taking on.

This computer is one I’m willing to let things slide on a little bit more than many others, as I have a feeling that no one is toting around a computer quite this old and I really just want to see if I can get anything of substance to work on this at all, much less anything usable. This is a rescue project in the truest sense. I am, however, granted a bit of leniency by the fact that apparently, this is an all AMD system and I never knew this as a child. There’s a timeline where this actually influenced my parents’ purchasing decisions for the better, but I think that would imply a lot more market popularity for AMD outside of the poweruser space that doesn’t quite exist.

For now, let’s hope that backup goes well.