Download Safing's Portmaster and take control of your network traffic: https://safing.io

Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en#

👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
Get access to a weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelinuxexp/join
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment
Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperiment/

Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp

👕 GET TLE MERCH
Support the channel AND get cool new gear: https://the-linux-experiment.creator-spring.com/

🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST:
Listen to the latest Linux and open source news, with more in depth coverage, and ad-free! https://podcast.thelinuxexp.com

🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE:
Website: https://thelinuxexp.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/web/@thelinuxEXP
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/TLENick
PeerTube: https://tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel/videos
Discord: https://discord.gg/mdnHftjkja

#Linux #Ubuntu #linuxdistro

00:00 Intro
00:51 Sponsor: Regain control of your network connection
01:49 Why not just use Ubuntu?
03:54 Debian (instant clickbait)
05:14 Linux Mint
06:19 Rhino Linux
07:37 Pop!_OS
09:18 Tuxedo OS
11:01 Why not these ones?
13:24 The LTS problem
14:23 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux
15:28 Support the channel

Generally, what people dislike about Ubuntu are the inclusion of Snaps, the proprietary backend of the Snap Store, the opt-out telemetry, and some questionable decisions over the years.

But you could always disable all of that? That's just part of the story. If what you dislike is Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, then disabling this doesn't really help.

And we'll begin by immediately lying, as this one isn't Ubuntu based: it's actually the one Ubuntu is based on: Debian. If what you like about Ubuntu, and what you want to keep using, is apt, the package manager, the vast software repos, but you want a vanilla KDE or GNOME experience, and none of the Canonical projects and decisions, Debian might be a really solid bet.

Mint is based on the latest Ubuntu LTS, and removes basically everything that makes Ubuntu, Ubuntu: snaps aren't there, some apps that don't have a debian package anymore in Ubuntu have on in Mint, like Chromium, and they don't use the GNOME desktop: you get Cinnamon, a desktop Mint developed themselves, once based on GNOME 3, but now pretty much its own thing.

One you might want to try is Rhino Linux. It's also a relatively recent distro, and it moves away from the Ubuntu template by being a rolling release: it doesn't give you major upgrades, it's always updated in the background, especially the Linux kernel, and some important apps, like Firefox.

Rhino Linux doesn't use the GNOME desktop by default, it uses its own vision of XFCE, that, let's be honest, feels very much like modern GNOME. You can use apt, but Rhino Linux also comes with a meta package manager, called Rhino-pkg, that lets you install debian packages from the repos, flatpaks, snaps, and it also lets you use pacstall, an equivalent to the Arch User repository for Ubuntu.

Another Ubuntu based distro that has a few cool tricks up its sleeve is PopOS. PopOS has some updates on top of that base, notably for drivers and the Linux kernel, and has some applications that are provided in their own repo, so you're not stuck on very old versions of important apps. They also have some interesting tweaks to the GNOME desktop: they offer a different experience, with a dock by default, an app launcher, and auto tiling features that let you switch from floating windows to a tiling window manager at the press of a button, or with a keyboard shortcut.

If you're more of a KDE user, then there's Tuxedo OS. It's Ubuntu based, with the latest KDE apps and desktop, plucked straight from KDE Neon's repositories: this means you get a semi rolling release model, with access to the repos for Ubuntu's latest LTS version, plus some extra repos on top of that for more recent kernel and drivers, and some applications that need to be more up to date.

And now for a list of the distros I didn't really include, and the reasons why!

The first one is Zorin OS: while it's a good take on Ubuntu, being basically exactly Ubuntu LTS, but with a customized desktop, pre made layouts, and support for virtually every packaging format out of the box, it's also based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and the Linux kernel 5.15.

The second one is elementary OS. It's based on 22.04 LTS, and does have access to the full Ubuntu repos. While I personally think it's a really great option, the defaults won't fit everyone, including the removal of all debian based packages from their graphical app store.

And then there are all the Ubuntu flavours: they're also now constrained by Canonical's decisions, like preventing them from shipping another packaging format than snap.

Download Safing's Portmaster and take control of your network traffic: https://safing.io

👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
Get access to a weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelinuxexp/join
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment
Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperiment/

Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp

👕 GET TLE MERCH
Support the channel AND get cool new gear: https://the-linux-experiment.creator-spring.com/

🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST:
Listen to the latest Linux and open source news: https://podcast.thelinuxexp.com

🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE:
Website: https://thelinuxexp.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/web/@thelinuxEXP
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/TLENick
PeerTube: https://tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel/videos
Discord: https://discord.gg/mdnHftjkja

#steamdeck #steam #linuxgaming

00:00 Intro
00:45 Sponsor: Secure your internet connection
01:43 What I wanted from this SteamOS Console
02:48 Console in name only
04:39 The specs
06:03 SteamOS / HoloISO: not easy
11:40 Performance: top notch
14:10 Not worth it, but I love it!
15:51 Support the channel

Fix for AMD GPU bad performance https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=271286

I went for a Micro ATX PC, which means that, yes, it doesn't look like a console, but it was easy to install the GPU, it has ample room for cooling, and it sort of fits in my TV cabinet, so who cares. It's a Tuxedo Cube.

So here I have an intel core i7 12700,. I have 32Gigs of 3200Mhz RAM, I have a 1TB PCIE4 SSD, with a 750W modular power supply. For the GPU, I got a Radeon 6650XT off Amazon for 300 euros.
The total cost is a bit less than 1400€, which isn't cheap.

On it, I installed HoloISO, which had issues:
First, the default kernel they pick doesn't work with a lot of hardware, it lacks support for a bunch of things, so I had no Wifi and no Bluetooth support. Fortunately, they also ship with the holoiso kernel, which is more mainline, and does support a lot more things. You can select it during boot, with GRUB.

So I turned to the controversial Grub customizer, that's a graphical app that lets you tweak your grub boot options. HoloISO, like SteamOS, is based on Arch, but they don't really ship a correct pacman config with the correct repos, so I had to manually edit the pacman config to add the necessary repos to it, and then run a full system update, followed by the install of Grub Customizer.

And it flat out didn't work, it couldn't open the grub config file. That's because that file is preconfigured with conditions to boot with specific options on certain devices. I just commented all these conditions, and then Grub Customizer managed to open the file, and I could set the HoloISO kernel as the default boot option.

All games ran at 720P max. Of course, a simple web search gave me the answer, it's because SteamOS is meant for the steam deck, but you can change all that in the game's properties to select the max resolution you'll allow.

Then, the performance was horrible. I couldn't manage 1080p60 in Spiderman at medium details, Jedi Fallen Order had to run at 768p on medium to even get close to 60FPS, it was a mess, and this system should have been able to give me a lot more.

After a few hours of looking online, I found a solution: some AMD cards on Linux run in low power mode by default, and don't move to full power when you need them to.

But how's the performance then? Well, I can play virtually everything at least at 1440P, max settings at a smooth 60FPS.

I've completed a full playthrough of Spiderman, also running at 1440p high settings, upscaled to 4K through in game FSR. I've played about 13h of Cyberpunk at max details, 1440p upscaled to 4K through the in game FSR, with sharpness turned to the max, and it maintains 60FPS no problem, even when driving around in the city.

I played about a third of Red Dead Redemption 2, also running at 1440p, high settings, upscaled to 4K through HoloISO, at a smooth 60 fps as well. Everything can run at 4K High details, from 50 to 60 FPS.

And so this makes this console a better performer than a PS5, because PS5 rarely runs AAA games at 4K60, generally, if you want 4K high details, you're using quality mode, and you're running at 30FPS, not 60.

The performance mode on PS5 generally runs games at 1440p, and either medium or high details.

Cost wise, compared to a PS5, it's very expensive for a marginal visual improvement. And yet, I love it, and I plan to play everything I can on this and not on the PS5.

Because it runs Linux, and I love Linux. It also works with an Xbox controller, which I prefer to the dualsense 5. Also, my game library is mostly in Steam these days. I can also start a playthrough on my TV, and then pick up my Steam Deck, make sure my saves are synced, and go play on that outside, or in bed, or on holidays.