this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The issues you're experiencing are peculiar for sure. Though some of the things you've mentioned do ring some bells for me; specifically from the time I was new to Linux and installed a bunch of (random) stuff to get more battery life out of my laptop.
First of all, unfortunately an all-encompassing software that ensures optimal performance at all times simply does not exist. Your best bet would be running a distro that does a lot of heavy lifting to ensure a good experience regardless of your hardware. So let's start with a healthy dose of questions to make sure we're all on the same wavelength:
P.S. if it isn't khamzatsmom 🤣🤣. Welcome to the better platform 😉! Btw, I'm not surprised to hear that you're met with random issues if you continue to run more niche distros for the heck of it 🤣🤣. Sure; you're free to do whatever you want, but running a sane distro as a start will make a huge difference.
Thanks so much. Wow those are some tricky questions lol. My only computer and main device is my dell xps 13 9310 laptop with Intel i5 evo processor and I think 8 GB of ram. Storage isn't a concern as I never really store anything and if its important enough, I put it in the cloud. I am currently using linux mint 21.2 with cinnamon desktop.
I just installed it a few weeks ago because I was using debian 12 bookworm and was having issues with freezing and errors and WiFi problems and I could not successfully troubleshoot them (my only helped is chat gpt lol) so I wiped my drive and installed mint. I've been doing this same thing for a while. Swapping distros either due to boredom and curiosity or I break them to the point where idk how to fix it, so I reinstall.
I believe I have installed apps outside of official repos, sometimes successfully other times not. I try not to do that though. And the big problem is I can't ever really tell what triggered the issues and a lot of times its hard to pinpoint WHAT is causing the issue and sometimes if I'm lucky, I can narrow it down to a certain thing, but there's usually a ton of errors and such I find along the way. I do successfully troubleshoot and fix some things, but there's more complex stuff that is out of my wheelhouse and I usually make things worse in my troubleshooting efforts lol
Thank you for being quite elaborate!
That should be fine.
That should be fine as well.
Have you considered installing those apps inside of a container? Distrobox is worth mentioning as it streamlines a lot of this process and even allows one to set a 'distrobox' with its own custom HOME directory. It should make experimentation a whole lot less painful, so you should definitely think about it if you haven't yet.
I'd argue that if you reinstall Linux Mint with TLP -for what it offers in terms of battery life- and install the exotic packages within a distrobox, then most of your concerns would be resolved. Maintaining a healthier system like that should also decrease the rare bugs that you might be facing right now and thus enable you to run a system over a longer time period.
If this course of action makes running your distro too boring, then it's probably worth exploring either Arch or Gentoo as a dualboot alongside Linux Mint. Linux Mint would be used for school/work or whatsoever, while Arch/Gentoo is where all the 'fun' happens. Both distros also play a lot nicer with packages not found in the official repos, so they should necessarily offer a better experience.