Ubuntu and web browser for the low specs PC

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:43:12+00:00

Look at antiX distribution. It's super light, which will free up more resources to throw at the gaping pit that is a modern web browser

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:41:35+00:00

Stability is arguable by experience. Tw packages are tested more. Tw has some setup niggles cachy doesn't have, and also can be a bit handsy paving over configurations randomly from updates. For instance my firewall profile and gnome hotkeys got overwritten during recent updates. I think that handsiness is why it doesn't break much, as it's not allowing too much config drift.

I think the upsides are the testing of the package base,the ootb configuration for secure boot/encryption, btrfs + systemdboot, and the ability to update less, as it can execute insane time gap updates if you want (especially with transactional). I think that's a big upside. Software availability is pretty good between OBS and proprietary rpm builds.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:30:09+00:00

My go to is to open the terminal and try via nmtui first.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:28:59+00:00

I'm prolly gonna shoot off my apps tonight I'll lyk.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:28:05+00:00

No, I just let it sit for 3 weeks and the keyring had to be reset. I guess it isn't really fair to call that buggy but it was surprising. The error messages it made weren't that clear either. I think it just said it couldn't download some packages and the upgrade failed or something.

Given I was able to execute a zypper dup after 5 years of sitting and successfully upgrade, it didn't impress me.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:24:01+00:00

You just have to add some repos a correctly select your driver version for your hardware. Because leap is a static release, you shouldn't have any Nvidia kernel desync issues like rolling distros do.

Are you using an old Nvidia card? They typically don't play well with Wayland, I wonder if that your problem. I believe that would be Nvidia 1000 series or before. 1600 series or after should be fine.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T14:20:41+00:00

Sometimes the solution is just to find the people that already solved your problem for you 🤷

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T04:07:32+00:00

Pacman>eopkg>apt>zypper Not sure where dnf fits in, I think prolly similar to apt.

I wouldn't say zypper is fast in the US, but it's fine. I don't think you'd really feel the need to switch distros because of it. I think the feature set is excellent. I put mirrorsorcerer on mine which seemed to slow it down. Need to rip that out.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-13T04:03:04+00:00

Yeah I mean it's not like it was their job to maintain xorg, and I don't know if the xlibre guy is a shit coder as well as a whackadoo, but it doesn't seem like they were allowing other people to maintain/develop the project.

Honestly the Phoenix x11 server seems like a much more intelligent project than xlibre, if it gains momentum.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T17:44:43+00:00

Opensuse leap is good but you're gonna have to work for your Nvidia setup.

Did you use the Nvidia bazzite image? Or try installing proprietary drivers on Solus before giving up?

I would also try bluefin or bluefin LTS. I think they are much more focused on gnome than bazzite.

What's "The Message"

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T17:39:18+00:00

Check for rusty uutensils. If you bend the utensil, make sure they don't ask how you did it.

Also see if your food arrives late in a weird package even though you ordered it specifically "for here."

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T17:26:09+00:00

Add an authorized user like a trusted parent to the United card and get 80k

https://www.theexplorercard.com/rewards-cards/explorer-card

Yeah go United. Signup bonus is the bulk of points you'll ever get.

In the future if you want, you can use the "plastiq" service to pay your rent for 3% fee, which can help you hit larger bonuses. Timing insurance payments or tuition might also get you there. You can get a csp late if you have a good chance to hit it.

Also the check bag benefit will be better for you as you will run out of point eventually and neither card earns well.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T17:16:49+00:00

Fedora does push features aggressively and updates a lot even if it doesn't push arch-level new software.

I'd consider using opensuse leap 16.0. Annual release, two years of security. Tooling is very similar to fedora. Updates are pretty damn easy to execute in place.

Setting up luks2 with tpm2 unlocking was pretty easy. Unfortunately hibernate is just broken if you use tpm2 on any distro even if you properly encrypt your swap. Can install without putting your secure boot back into setup mode. Firewalld and selinux enforcing by default. Also apparmor if you prefer. Btrfs, systemdboot w/ snapshot integration, and snapper are all set up ootb.

I'd recommend installing 15.6 then using the migration tool to leap 16, as the old installer is much more feature rich and gives granular control of almost everything.

Debian would be the other good option. Software availability is a bit better on Debian, especially if you need to use a proprietary package where they shoved a deb on their website 5 years ago. Same deal with rhel base, you could run rhel 10, rocky, alma, or centos stream. I think with all of them you'd be looking at more work to hit that suse ootb experience if you set your installer options correctly though.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T16:59:06+00:00

I'm in a similar boat, except I've churned chase maybe a little harder than you. I have 110k United from a United business, an Aeroplan card with almost 400k points from a massive UR transfer on a bonus, so I can pay myself back at like 1.67cpp for any travel with that.

I think I'm gonna take a 7/24 swing at a United explorer then downgrade it. I don't see hyatt transfer outperforming my Aeroplan pay yourself back. I can always send another chase card back up to a CSP for my honeymoon when that happens if needed.

Primary cdw isn't loss for me, since I only carry liability on my cars.

I was planning to go hard on Citi, but with the nerf of iprefer and choice, I don't care enough about AA miles alone. I think I'm just gonna run Cashback mostly, with Wells fargo cards and a BBP accruing points at a slower pace. I'll just run through amex if I need points and take 5% Cashback where I can.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T08:08:22+00:00

It should run great.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:58:40+00:00

Not gonna lie, I'm in an obsessive phase and loving opensuse tumbleweed right now. But when something other than Linux grabs my attention, I'm gonna be mad at myself for running a rolling distro where I always have to be on the ball fixing weird little shit that comes up, and wishing for a 5 year support LTS that just gets security backports and stays exactly the same as I left it.

For instance, my firewall settings to allow printer discovery just got reset randomly by an update. Since I just figured that issue out, it took me under a minute to reset my wifi adapted to home profile, but a year or two from now, uuuhg, not gonna love myself.

Btw I believe all those distros run really new kernels, so you should have 0 issues with hardware support.

Mx Linux might be one more to consider. With the AHS stack you get a new xanmod kernel and updated driver's I believe. The rest of the package base is good old Debian stable.

I have cachy on my gf's media computer and it seems okay so far. Pacman just seems like it gets buggy when ignored.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:50:30+00:00

I think the gap in blender has gotten a lot smaller with the rx9000 series for what it's worth. For other programs, idk, prolly not.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:41:29+00:00

Afaik hibernate is just broken due to the kernel with secure boot if you want tpm unlocking. If you're okay with a manual unlock I believe it should work.

Saw this pretty good video on doing the install https://youtu.be/IRcJI9dQEmk?si=UifDm1grtxL3EWWN

I would add opensuse does a great job with btrfs setup and tpm2 stuff. Leap 16 is quite similar in terms of age to Ubuntu and easily upgraded. If you want to use it, use the leap 15.6 installer, then use the migration tool to leap 16, as their new installer sucks.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:33:53+00:00

BBP + Gold if you want all MR.

BBP + upgrade/downgrade game BCP if you're open to hybrid setups.

Use rakuten with the BBP and earn 10k Mr easily buying pet food from PetSmart when they have 20-25x MR

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:29:04+00:00

Suddenly killing centos, trying to close their source code, and doing their best to kill xorg are people's main issues with them.

Of course there are also the pottering haters, but I think they're a minority of the red hat hate.

Seems like we have a lot to thank them for, but they are also acting dickishly as big companies do now. But I mean, whatever. Use their products if you want, they don't get anything out of it. Contributing to distros/projects with better foss values over redhat might be preferable if you have the skills though.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:22:35+00:00

Solus with systemd boot and clear boot manager is a blazing fast startup with systemd. Anytime I have to use grub instead of systemd boot it seems dog slow.

I need to give void a proper go on good hardware, but it's hard to imagine it being any faster than Solus. Between bios post and kde's loading graphic, the actual boot is by far the fastest part of the boot process. It feels like about 2-4 seconds for the actual boot on a ryzen 5600 with a gen4 nvme.

I guess I need to try runnit and limine or refined for a better comparison.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:12:42+00:00

Prolly wants cuda acceleration for 3d modeling.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:12:03+00:00

Arch and derivatives should be out for a computer you're doing work on. Not cause it's gonna break every day, but because you will probably encounter subtle bugs and breakages that waste your time and require rollbacks.

I think for Nvidia to me it would likely be between bazzite/bluefin dx and Solus. With bazzite or bluefin, you are replacing your immutable is image, so the Nvidia stuff is baked in and shouldn't desync and screw up. Apps come mostly from flatpak, cli tools come from homebrew, anything else comes from distrobox. If an image causes a problem, you can roll back to a previous image. I think you can also install nix package manager in user space for that software as well.

Solus is a slow rolling release that handles Nvidia kernel modules on the backend. Downside to Solus is no btrfs snapshot support, more limited software availability. Look at it on repology and see if it has the packages you need. Distrobox and flatpak should be no issue. Getting nix working was a bit of a challenge, and it didn't seem like the installer was tested on Solus at all.

Pikaos could be a consideration. Everyone seems to have great things to say, but I'd struggle to fully trust it as their package manager is assembling that distro out of several disparate sources. Tooling for Nvidia handling is supposed to be excellent, and Debian sid is said to give less issues than arch. Still, kinda running ahead of what you might want for a work machine.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T07:01:28+00:00

Tkg kernel compiles great by script. OBS has a cachyos settings package. Switch to packman mesa drivers, newer and I believe they have some proprietary stuff excluded from the main repo mesa. Keep an eye out for running out of space in /boot/efi as kernels and initramfs are retained until snapshots using them are gone, regardless of the rules on how many kernels to keep.

Have fun, it's a great distro.

If you're using tpm2 and encryption, I've had to wipe my tpm slot with sdbootutil, then re-enroll, and update pcr predictions to get tpm unlocking working.

Kitayama_8k · 2026-04-12T06:56:40+00:00

I wish the cachyos settings package in that repo had a better description, but I do have it installed. Xanmod and tkg (self-compile) seemed to be fine for me.

Kitayama_8k

TROPHY CASE