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Just last week I wrote a blog post about installing eOS on my SO's parents PC. They are not technical at all yet they have had (close to) no problem with switch

Just last week I wrote a blog post about installing eOS on my SO's parents PC. They are not technical at all yet they have had (close to) no problem with switching from Windows to Linux thanks to eOS.

eptcyka 7y ago
I have the exact opposite experience - the microphone doesn't work, everything is incredibly slow, my SO is buying a Windows 10 licence this christmas. It's a shame, the user was just fine with Cinnamon on Debian 5 years ago, but that machine and software is no longer good enough.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  "Linux" and "everything is incredibly slow" should not belong in the same sentence. Did you try installing an up-to-date Debian? Not sure if Debian packages Pantheon desktop already, but there are plenty of workable alternatives. For the microphone not working, you'd have to check what's going on in Pulseaudio and ALSA - both of these can be problematic at times.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    > Not sure if Debian packages Pantheon desktop already It does not, sadly. There is an unofficial third party repo but it’s very much unsupported by both Debian and elementary.
  - izacus 7y ago
    Slowness is usually a side effect of not having correct graphics drivers for 3d acceleration / composition. It seems that the poster doesn't have a Linux compatible laptop so eOS or any other distro won't work well.
    - zozbot234 7y ago
      > Slowness is usually a side effect of not having correct graphics drivers for 3d acceleration / composition. This is generally fixed by installing "non-free" firmware. Some distros may also work better than others, e.g. some hardware is better supported in Fedora than Debian or its derivatives.
      - eptcyka 7y ago
        This was an Intel Atom chipset with a GPU commonly found on smartphone SoCs, so there were no drivers that one could install on a mainline Linux distribution. It's really a shame that all the Android drivers are Android specific. The machine wasn't bought with Linux in mind, so the exotic hardware not working isn't really that big of a surprise. The reason Linux was installed was because the OEM Windows 10 that came with it was designed for a different market and it also eventually borked itself - complained about updates yet wasn't capable of updating itself. I got tired of trying to debug it remotely and installed linux. Hopefully with a retail license of Windows 10, we'll be able to install a pure non-crappified Windows 10 version and let it be. And the retail license will allow us to transfer it to whatever the next hardware will be. There really is no difference between hardware support on Debian and Fedora given that the kernels remain the same - this isn't the case most of the time of course as Debian maintains stability whilst Fedora is very close to upstream most of the time.
        zozbot234 7y ago
        > This was an Intel Atom chipset with a GPU commonly found on smartphone SoCs IIRC, there was such a chipset with a PowerVR GPU. In that case, you'd pretty much be SOL. You'd have to run Windows 10 and hope that a from-scratch install of W10 can pick up the proper drivers from the "updates" channel - which I wouldn't be sure about. Most other hardware is far better behaved.
  - markosaric 7y ago
    I'm new to Linux (switched from macOS) and I ended up on Debian Gnome after testing many including Elementary. I don't know why but somehow the same DE works better on Debian (as long as I select non-free and testing) than on the other distros that I tested. At least in my case.
- saintPirelli 7y ago
  That sounds like a bummer, everything was working just fine pretty much out-of-the-box, INCLUDING printer, scanner and WIFI, which are/were notoriously frustrating to set up on a Linux machine.
- FeloniousHam 7y ago
  Just FYI, if you have to buy Windows, you can get a working license key from eBay for <$5 (I've used three different keys from different sellers with no issues).
  - flatiron 7y ago
    Or hwidgen the free key they gave to all the windows 8 refugees. That’s what I do in my test VMs
    - azinman2 7y ago
      Tell us more?
      - flatiron 7y ago
        https://github.com/CHEF-KOCH/HWIDGEN-SRC https://github.com/CHEF-KOCH/HWIDGEN-SRC for a time they gave away windows 10 for free for anyone with 8. all those people who upgraded all have the same serial so there are probably millions of computers with it. this simply associates yer VM/computer with that serial and goes and activates. So its definitely not the most legal thing in the world, but its not like you are going to get caught since you are using the same serial number as millions of other folks.
  - nomadluap 7y ago
    Just because it's 'working' doesn't mean it's legitimate.
- m-p-3 7y ago
  If you can get a hold on a Windows 7 or 8 license, you can still upgrade it for free to Windows 10. Might be worth it if they're heavily discounted.
  - eikenberry 7y ago
    Can you do a fresh Windows 10 install using a Windows 7 license? Installing Windows 7 on modern hardware can be a real PITA.

eptcyka 7y ago

I have the exact opposite experience - the microphone doesn't work, everything is incredibly slow, my SO is buying a Windows 10 licence this christmas. It's a shame, the user was just fine with Cinnamon on Debian 5 years ago, but that machine and software is no longer good enough.

zozbot234 7y ago
"Linux" and "everything is incredibly slow" should not belong in the same sentence. Did you try installing an up-to-date Debian? Not sure if Debian packages Pantheon desktop already, but there are plenty of workable alternatives. For the microphone not working, you'd have to check what's going on in Pulseaudio and ALSA - both of these can be problematic at times.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  > Not sure if Debian packages Pantheon desktop already It does not, sadly. There is an unofficial third party repo but it’s very much unsupported by both Debian and elementary.
- izacus 7y ago
  Slowness is usually a side effect of not having correct graphics drivers for 3d acceleration / composition. It seems that the poster doesn't have a Linux compatible laptop so eOS or any other distro won't work well.
  - zozbot234 7y ago
    > Slowness is usually a side effect of not having correct graphics drivers for 3d acceleration / composition. This is generally fixed by installing "non-free" firmware. Some distros may also work better than others, e.g. some hardware is better supported in Fedora than Debian or its derivatives.
    - eptcyka 7y ago
      This was an Intel Atom chipset with a GPU commonly found on smartphone SoCs, so there were no drivers that one could install on a mainline Linux distribution. It's really a shame that all the Android drivers are Android specific. The machine wasn't bought with Linux in mind, so the exotic hardware not working isn't really that big of a surprise. The reason Linux was installed was because the OEM Windows 10 that came with it was designed for a different market and it also eventually borked itself - complained about updates yet wasn't capable of updating itself. I got tired of trying to debug it remotely and installed linux. Hopefully with a retail license of Windows 10, we'll be able to install a pure non-crappified Windows 10 version and let it be. And the retail license will allow us to transfer it to whatever the next hardware will be. There really is no difference between hardware support on Debian and Fedora given that the kernels remain the same - this isn't the case most of the time of course as Debian maintains stability whilst Fedora is very close to upstream most of the time.
      - zozbot234 7y ago
        > This was an Intel Atom chipset with a GPU commonly found on smartphone SoCs IIRC, there was such a chipset with a PowerVR GPU. In that case, you'd pretty much be SOL. You'd have to run Windows 10 and hope that a from-scratch install of W10 can pick up the proper drivers from the "updates" channel - which I wouldn't be sure about. Most other hardware is far better behaved.
- markosaric 7y ago
  I'm new to Linux (switched from macOS) and I ended up on Debian Gnome after testing many including Elementary. I don't know why but somehow the same DE works better on Debian (as long as I select non-free and testing) than on the other distros that I tested. At least in my case.
saintPirelli 7y ago
That sounds like a bummer, everything was working just fine pretty much out-of-the-box, INCLUDING printer, scanner and WIFI, which are/were notoriously frustrating to set up on a Linux machine.
FeloniousHam 7y ago
Just FYI, if you have to buy Windows, you can get a working license key from eBay for <$5 (I've used three different keys from different sellers with no issues).
- flatiron 7y ago
  Or hwidgen the free key they gave to all the windows 8 refugees. That’s what I do in my test VMs
  - azinman2 7y ago
    Tell us more?
    - flatiron 7y ago
      https://github.com/CHEF-KOCH/HWIDGEN-SRC https://github.com/CHEF-KOCH/HWIDGEN-SRC for a time they gave away windows 10 for free for anyone with 8. all those people who upgraded all have the same serial so there are probably millions of computers with it. this simply associates yer VM/computer with that serial and goes and activates. So its definitely not the most legal thing in the world, but its not like you are going to get caught since you are using the same serial number as millions of other folks.
- nomadluap 7y ago
  Just because it's 'working' doesn't mean it's legitimate.
m-p-3 7y ago
If you can get a hold on a Windows 7 or 8 license, you can still upgrade it for free to Windows 10. Might be worth it if they're heavily discounted.
- eikenberry 7y ago
  Can you do a fresh Windows 10 install using a Windows 7 license? Installing Windows 7 on modern hardware can be a real PITA.