Hello again everybody,

I've posted here before about leaving (K)Ubuntu for another distro and also picking one for my girlfriend who is going to ditch Windows because she doesn't want Win 11 on her personal laptop.

I was going to settle on Debian stable for me and Zorin OS for my girlfriend. But after much consideration, I think I might go with Fedora after all. I don't want Arch because it's too bleeding edge and prone to problems and, apparently, malware if you use the AUR, which is often the only solution for some applications. Debian has old software and doesn't support some newer hardware. Even the latest version, Trixie, is still very far behind. I realize this now.

Fedora seems to be a good middle ground with fairly cutting edge software. And, like Debian, it's also supported by the majority of 3rd party software providers with RPM packages. I don't like Red Hat one bit. But, I guess I should bite the bullet and just use that for practical reasons. I like that they have an official KDE desktop version now, too. I'm currently testing it out in a VM.

I haven't used an RPM based distro since 2004, so my rpm-cli knowledge is very outdated. I know there's DNF, which is like APT, I guess? I'll have to get used to that. But, I'd like to mainly use KDE's Discover Software Center for managing my software. Especially for my girlfriend who won't like using the terminal. And I'm read about RPM fusion. It looks like it's the equivalent of AUR in Arch. But is it safe? Can I trust that repo?

One problem I have is the installation of 3rd party, non-free codecs to play multimedia files and DVDs. (Yes I have a DVD player on my PC and I sometimes rip my DVDs to stream them on my TV.) I can't seem to find a straightforward step-by-step solution for this. What do you guys recommend?

I also saw something about Fedora 44 breaking Steam because it doesn't support 32-bit libraries anymore. Is that still an issue?

Howdy folks, tonight's ConiferFLOSS Tech & LUG meeting will be at Ripple Pizza and Ice Cream who are running a "pay what you can" in cooperation with Peaceworks, our excellent Conifer community center. Come if you can and share in the free / libre fellowship and excellent pizza and ice cream! If you can't make it but want to contribute, Peaceworks' donations page is here.

(I hope this fits this community, if not I'd be glad to know where I can post it)

Updated my firmware on my thinkpad t580. This made my external battery (3rd party) jump from 64.8 Wh design capacity to 40.4 Wh design capacity (but the computer doesnt turn off when it is "empty", this is a software bug).

AI's theory: The firmware update made the system stricter towards 3rd party batteries, blocking it and reporting a dummy number. This is plausible because after the firmware update the battery is no longer reporting its mAh (used to display 6000 mAh).

Rolling back to my previous firmware version (which is supported on thinkpads via fwupd downgrade) didn't fix it...

Has anyone experienced something similar? I also tried downgrading my kernel (hoping that an older kernel wouldn't suffer from this for some reason) but it didn't fix it.

Guesses or fix ideas that might break something are also welcome, I'm using NixOS.

Hi all, thanks in advance for indulging a complete newbie! I'd like to try Linux on an 11-year-old MacBook Pro (gifted by a relative), but I don't know where to start. What distribution would you recommend based on my background?

-Coming from the Mac world; haven't used a PC/Windows since before the pandemic. I'd prefer something that feels similar to MacOS.

-Not a techie. I've forgotten everything (everything!) I ever learned about command line because I never ended up needing to use it, and I haven't had to debug anything in a long time.

-What I'll be using it for: accessing the internet, various kinds of creative projects that I'll probably try making with FOSS software (something I've only recently started to look into), and making another attempt at learning programming (my interest will probably peter out before I get anywhere with it, though, because that's what happened the last two times). Probably won't be gaming. I'd prefer having the option to use mainstream office software in case anything happens to my current computer, but I don't actually expect anything to happen to it in the next few years, so that's just a nice-to-have.

-Priorities: works on old Mac hardware, good for privacy, decent software availability, not buggy, ability to avoid generative AI (i.e., no repeat of Apple installing the Image Playground app on my computer along with a software update, without the ability to remove it.)

It seems like a lot of people recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint to beginners, but I'm seeing some people complaining that Ubuntu is has spyware(?) and forces things users don't want, and it seems like Linux Mint is usually recommended to people coming from Windows, so IDK if either of those make sense for me. Advice/recommendations appreciated!

The role of AI tools (LLMs, mainly) in Linux is under discussion, or it was, until Linus Torvalds “put his foot down” in support of the use of AI in Linux kernel development.