My favorite trick to reviving old computers is trying to find ways to get them to run off of solid state storage. It really makes a huge difference. You will be surprised by how much more tolerable classic computers are when you no longer have to deal with slow storage mediums.
Mind you this doesn’t make them modern levels of fast and you no longer get the satisfaction of hearing the hard drive grinding away when you open a window but thems the tradeoffs…sigh…
If NVK is good enough maybe Nvidia will consider dropping the proprietary driver because no one will want to use it and it will cost too much for them to maintain a separate driver.
A man can dream.
Depends on the usage. That’s the gamble you take. I would maybe buy three and put two in a mirror and keep the third one as a replacement?
That’s 240$ for three drives without warranty though… Nevermind I’d prefer to buy two new Toshiba X300 new for 210$ a piece and forget the headache and get the warranty.
Sometimes you get what you pay for … Sometimes
I think immutability is the point of this particular distribution. There are definitely some kinks but conceptually I really like what they’ve done.
I’m curious, what apps are you having issues with specifically?
I think about this a lot and it really does depend on your needs.
Home lab vs home server. I like to keep them separate just because I consider my lab unstable and my home server stable. You don’t have to do it this way it’s just the way I like it.
https://a.co/d/6k6QpOD If you want to build a low power NAS I suggest investing in an Intel n100 based itx Nas motherboard. You can then use a case like this from Jonsbo https://a.co/d/1ayqwJV. This could be a nice cool and quiet solution. If you want to do video transcoding, the n100 has quicksync on board and with something like Truenas it’s pretty easy to set up via the app catalog (check out truecharts).
If you want something even more simple (good for home users or like a backup target you keep elsewhere) I’ve been meaning to grab one of these “Topton 2-Bay NAS R1 PRO 12th Gen Intel N100 Network Attached Storage Media Server” from AliExpress for just this case.
As for a Lab, I suggest finding a W680 chipset based motherboard like an ASRock IMB-X1314 LGA 1700 Intel W680. You can get a cpu like a 12400 or 12500T (lower power and less heat) used cheap and you have the option to upgrade and use ecc memory without a XEON. You also have a lot more pci express connectivity.
What ever you do choose, anything pre 12th gen Intel is basically ewaste (those 11th gen mobile erying I9 engineering samples are very good but less reliable than desired). Do not invest in any old x99 based gear (unless you get it for free). I have an old dual XEON system that is still running and it uses power like a small fridge.
I just want to drop this here
Jorge Castro has been the head of this project and I am excited by his vision. Bluefin aims to be the immutable desktop distro with the most sane defaults that also supports Nvidia.
Give it a whirl!
You know back in the day they used to sell Linux distributions on the shelf at software stores. I remember seeing a boxed copy of mandriva next to windows. Home computing used to be a hobby for some but that means there was commercial support at some point.
I do think that home users of “Linux” will need a commercial alternative that supports all their apps. ChromeOS looks like the current best alternative. If you can get people into chrome books, you’re one step closer to getting them onto Linux.
People are gonna end up forking this just to change the name :: facepalm::
I agree with a lot of your points but I do think containers a great solution.
I’ve been a really big fan of Universal Blue lately. It presents a strong argument for containerizing everything. Your core is immutable and atomic which makes upgrades seamless. User land lives in a container and just gets layered back on top afterwards.
Yeah, I think as the replacement for x before Wayland?
I think they are! I’m still trying to do more with ZFS everyday.
Ubuntu used to get a lot of undeserved hate but lately the hate feels deserved. Ubuntu has been the face of the usable desktop Linux for a long time and they just keep tripping over themselves every time they try to move forward.
Their intentions are usually good. A lot of things they propose usually end up being adopted by the community at large (just not their implementation). They seem to just yank everyone’s chain a little too hard in the direction we’re eventually going to go and we all resent them for that.
Off the top of my head, there was Upstart (init system), there was unity (desktop), and now snaps (containerized packaging). All of these were good ideas but implemented poorly and with a general lack of support from the community. In almost each case in the past what’s happened is that once they run out of developers who champion the tech, they eventually get onboard with whatever Debian and Rhel are doing once they were caught up and settled.
Valve’s lack of interest in maintaining the snap makes sense. The development on the Ubuntu platform is very opinionated in a way where the developers of the software (valve) really want nothing to do with Canonicals snaps.
On another note: my favorite thing about the Ubuntu server was LXD + ZFS integration. Both have been snapified. It was incredibly useful and stable. Stephane Graber has forked the project now into INCUS. It looks very promising.
Enshittification continues
How do we as the community turn hope into help? Is there a way to contribute directly to the NVK developers?
I just think it’s neat!
Building a machine that does everything is coming to a household near you! The rest of us, well we’ve been building custom gaming machines for one or two games for a long time.
The tooling is just getting better everyday. I don’t think Windows gaming will ever die but I think the experience has gotten bad enough that people have begun seeking alternatives. If this wasn’t true I don’t think that the SteamDeck would be so successful.
With that being said, I don’t tell everyone to try Linux. I do think that Linux is good for gaming but just hard to use for most gamers. I’ll probably buy a steam deck OLED in March just to “do my part” even though I have far too many custom machines and not enough time to enjoy playing the games.
I tried this specifically to get Alan Wake 2 to work (with the 3080ti) and it is a less than spectacular experience as most of the effects on the game (shadowy figures, screen distortions, Ray Tracing) do not work properly in comparison to running on windows.
In bazzite-nvidia’s defense, it does just “work” but only to the extent that the Nvidia driver works. This is still more of nvidias issue and less bazzite-nvidia. Regular Bazzite with a 5700xt worked very well.
There are DOZENS OF US! DOZENS!!
My vote is universal Blue and its spins like Bluefin or Bazzite