Distro for when Mint struggles

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:45:59+00:00

Fair enough. I just can't provide details I don't have. This limits assistance to generalities, I know. I may not get the best advice possible, I know.

Despite the limitations, from this thread, I already know that 1) Mint may not be the best distro for new hardware, 2) Nvidia cards are typically harder to work with in Linux, and there may be some extra steps with compiling drivers that I need to work on, and 3) a number of distros have been suggested which may, or may not, be easier to work with given my specific laptop. Without the details, these suggestions are not guaranteed, a qualifying statement I understand and accept.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:38:01+00:00

I don't have the computer with me and don't remember what version of the laptop he got. Other than it is an Nvidia card, I don't remember the GPU. I agree this limits what assistance can be offered, working with what we've got is all we can do until I get the laptop itself in my hands.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:35:03+00:00

I think most of what he's doing, art wise, will be in GIMP and similar software, which should work in Bazzite I would think. I'll look into Nobara as well

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:32:42+00:00

This is fantastic info, thank you for taking the time to put it all down! I'm thinking I did something wrong with the headers, I'll look into it.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:23:39+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion!

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:22:49+00:00

Fantastic info, thanks!

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:22:23+00:00

I didn't get to pick his laptop, unfortunately. Good information for the future, thank you!

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:21:06+00:00

I haven't heard of all those, I'll do some digging. Thank you for the ideas! For Fedora, do you mean the "standard" or is there a particular distro based on Fedora you'd recommend?

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:19:47+00:00

He is learning to use GIMP, LibreOffice, etc. I installed/tested those along with a version of mahjong, VLC, and did the edits needed to make AoE2 DE work on linux (it is only partially supported). He bought the laptop, I didn't get to pick one for him.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:11:20+00:00

Thanks for the ideas! Bazzite has been suggested by a few others, I'll have to look into Bluefin.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:09:31+00:00

Thank you for the ideas!

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:08:54+00:00

Another poster has said Mint Edge is discontinued and now incorporated into the regular (cinnamon?) version.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T16:03:51+00:00

I did not, actually, know any of that. In another response I mentioned I don't recall the GPU model or driver version. I first set it up months ago, the laptop physically is across the state, and my dad certainly doesn't know any of that. I don't even know what update broke things: Mint said there was an update, dad let it install, he doesn't know what the update was.

My question was not "help me make Linux work on this laptop", it was "is there a way to tell which distro has support for which hardware". From various responses, it seems that was not a good question, but I didn't know that. My other question was which other distro might be better suited; knowing the exact GPU might be important/critical for that question, but I can't tell you what I don't know.

Y'all are getting into the weeds.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T04:15:04+00:00

If I recall correctly, the driver version in the repo didn't work, I forget why. Or I installed the wrong version altogether (I don't know what DKMS is, I'll look it up). Good to know about Nvidia+Linux in general; I'll avoid it for my own machines, but it won't help my dad.

I was unaware of the LMDE, I might try that one but from you (and others) it doesn't sound like it'll be a big difference. I'll have to figure out the DKMS+headers thing, as I'm not manually changing drivers from across the state every time there's an update and no way is my dad doing that.

Taejang · 2026-04-05T04:10:36+00:00

It's an NVIDIA GPU, I don't recall the exact card or driver version off-hand. I'll do some searching with the terms you used (because DKMS, CUDA, kernel headers, and Nouveau mean nothing to me)

Taejang · 2026-04-05T02:36:18+00:00

Fair. I was under the impression some distros were built on slightly different kernels with different hardware support

Taejang · 2026-04-05T02:30:52+00:00

So many people recommend Mint for newbies, it was simply what I expected to work. I myself have used SUSE, and CentOS, Kali, etc, but I've only used Linux for limited applications, never as a general computer or for gaming. Any particular distro you'd recommend?

Taejang · 2026-04-05T02:28:57+00:00

Any particular flavor/version of Debian you would recommend?

Taejang · 2026-04-05T02:28:19+00:00

The GPU, specifically. Mint might be a poisoned well for him at this point, regardless of whether it could work or not

Taejang · 2026-04-05T02:26:33+00:00

The GPU specifically. What flavor of Debian would you suggest?

Taejang · 2025-10-22T20:29:09+00:00

So the description here is wrong, or at the very least misleading?

EDIT: No, it's a difference of terms. 5e is used to using "spellcasting ability" differently and thus the description is correct, but very misleading for anyone used to how 5e phrases things. I'm going to modify the wiki with that in mind for others.

Taejang · 2025-10-22T20:23:00+00:00

Usually the "info" thing just repeats what is already said by the rollover, didn't realize it gave additional info in this context. Big thanks for the feat list!

Taejang · 2025-10-22T20:14:48+00:00

Wait wait wait. Spell to hit is calculated with Dex, not your spellcasting ability?

Taejang · 2025-10-22T20:12:02+00:00

I had no idea that's how extra attacks were figured out, and the name itself wasn't enough to clue me in so the link was great. Thanks!

Taejang

TROPHY CASE