I went with Nvidia and I never really had any issues on Linux with it (I only use Linux).

AMD might be better on Linux out of the box in the sense that you can just install whatever distro and it’s going to work and with Nvidia some distros will require to install the drivers yourself or tinker one time in the terminal but it’s really not that big of a deal

But go with whatever you think is best for you.

But have they figured out how to keep the wheels from falling off?

Btw I’d still use mint…I only switched away because I wasn’t a big fan of how much it looked like windows and how green everything was. Lol. But I was still a noob at the time and hadn’t fully comprehended how customizable Linux distros are. I could’ve changed a lot with the appearance if I knew what I was doing

Honestly. I don’t think you’re missing much. It’s not like if you go to a different distro suddenly you’re going to have all these new applications you can’t get on mint or anything.

I started with mint and played around with other distros (mostly Debian/Ubuntu & Arch based ones) and I ended up settling on an Ubuntu based distro with kde desktop.

Using something like Arch might make sense if your PC is super new as they tend to have support for the newest hardware.

At most you might want to try a different desktop environment but if you have no reason to hop I would say don’t waste your time unless you’re bored and want to experiment just for the hell of it.

there’s a site that will let you play around with different distros/desktop environments over the Web (it’s going to be slow and you can’t use a VPN when connecting) but that might be a good choice before going through the trouble of downloading a distro, flashing to USB and possibly installing it on your PC/laptop just to find out you hate it.

In my experience I’ve noticed Linux tends to (disproportionately) attract both libertarians and socialists/communists. I feel like I run into more of both within the Linux community than I do in other communities.

I started using Linux because I couldn’t force myself to use Windows 8. Up to that point I used whatever version of Windows came right before the graphical interface but 8 was too awful so I started playing with mint and never went back…

I got off the capitalism train in the middle of that but that was only because I decided to major in business and when I saw how the sausage was made I jumped ship but I didn’t know anything about socialism or communism or marxism or whatever you want to call it. I was so not into politics or economics that I literally had to search the Internet and ask people on social media what was an alternative to the crap I was reading for my classes… And then I went down that rabbit hole. If was enlightening. I learned a lot.

Also… for people who think college is Marxist indoctrination…Marx was brought up for one paragraph in one book at the very very end of my 4 years. But by that point I already knew who he was just from the rabbit hole I went down when I was curious for some alternative to what I was being taught.

If enough people steal via self checkout they will go away. (This is not shopping/self checkout advice)

I’m on Lemmy.world & using the eternity app I haven’t had any real issues yet but it’s only been about 2 months for me since I started using this platform.

Are you using the VPN on your laptop or phone only? If so, maybe try to run your VPN at the router level and see if you can cast then? It might work…

If you want to save money on a pixel I’d recommend taking a look at swappa(dot)com Even if you don’t want a used one they do have people selling pixels new sealed in the box for usually pretty good deals. I think the cheapest new in box option is a pixel 6a. Or 6 pro.

You can also find new pixel 7, 7 pro, the 8 and the 8 pro.

I’ve been buying and selling devices there for years and never had a problem as a buyer or a seller.

True. That’s why I chose graphene in the end. Ib liked the idea of the multiple user profiles to sandbox certain activities to a disposable profile and the fact that if I need Google play I can sandbox that as well by running it as a regular system app on it’s own profile…

So far it’s been pretty good. I think my only complaint is I can’t get my Chromecast devices to connect. I got my Google TV to connect but all Chromecast devices refuse to pair for some reason but that pales in comparison to the headaches I’d get trying to daily drive a Linux phone. But I’m big on Linux (I use it as a daily driver on my computer) so I’m patiently waiting for a daily driver worthy Linux phone. 🤞

I looked into this for myself but I was told a lot of what has already been said here and decided to go with a pixel + graphene OS .

I’m probably sticking with this type of setup until there’s a proper Linux phone that can be easily used as a daily driver.

I think the key is patience. One day I think we’ll have something that will be able to daily drive Linux that won’t feel like you’re using the alpha release of android.

For music:

https://www.f-droid.org/packages/it.vfsfitvnm.vimusic/

Or

https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.anandnet.harmonymusic/

There’s also alternatives for YouTube like newpipe & libretube etc

IMO it’s not that Debian isn’t good for gaming. It’s that it’s not good for gaming IF you want to just install Debian and start gaming right away. There’s going to be a bit of downloading/installing, & configuring first.

If Debian is too far back of a starting point for you then I’d either go with a gaming distro where many things will already come installed and possibly (idk for sure because I’ve not used any gaming distros) configured for you to where you mostly just need to sign in and download your games.