So it begins.

I’ve been flashing my USB often enough that it’s now worth it to keep all my ISO’s neatly to use them when I need them. I plan on buying 10 USB sticks to just have ready when ever I need a specific version.

I’m visiting family now, so time to upgrade their Linux Mint to Kubuntu

  • Labna@lemmy.world
    931·
    20 days ago
    1. you need Ventoy to stop formatting you’re USB sticks
    2. Keeping lot of ISO is a bit useless just the few that you use daily.
    3. If you’re keeping this ISO anyway, get them by torrent and keep sharing for helping the community
      • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
        7·
        19 days ago

        Is there a simple guide to checking checksums? It doesn’t seem like it should be complex but half the time the distro’s instructions don’t work for me!

        • Kory@lemmy.ml
          16·
          19 days ago

          First you need to download the provided file from the distro page. Something with Checksum in the name most of the time. The website should provide instructions. Please note that does not validate the gpg key.

          Quick Method Terminal: Open the terminal at the location of the ISO file or go there with cd. Type sha256sum NameOfIsoFile.iso - it takes a moment depending on your system. Copy the output (some long numbers/letters). Compare it with the downloaded checksum-file - open the file, press ctrl-f or whatever you have for find and paste it. If it’s found, it’s the same.

          Method KDE: Right click the file, open properties, then go to tab “Checksums”. Paste same number/letter combination from above into the provided space “Expected checksums…” - if it’s green, it’s correct.

          • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
            5·
            19 days ago

            Thanks, that does sound familiar. Maybe it was the gpg bit that confused me before.

          • SMillerNL@lemmy.world
            5·
            18 days ago

            While checking checksums is important, it you’re getting them from the same place as the download you might as well ignore the checksum. If someone can replace the download they can very likely also replace the checksum file download.

        • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          4·
          19 days ago

          Just use the appropriate command for the hash type, i.e. sha256sum <filename> (iirc, might be wrong, man is your friend)

    • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world
      15·
      20 days ago

      Ventoy is great, it’s my go to tool, boots on basically everything (even my MacBook) but… wasn’t there a scare about possibly being compromised because it builds itself from hundreds of modules on github or something like that?

  • bizdelnick@lemmy.ml
    78·
    20 days ago

    Your family will hate you if you’ll change their distro and DE every time you visit them. Distro hopping is normal for the first couple of years, but do it on your own machine.

    • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
      5·
      19 days ago

      First couple of years? I was in my early teens when trying out many distros within a couple weeks, for example Puppy Linux, Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, OpenSuse… Then I settled on Ubuntu and used that from 2008 to 2022, when I was fed up with Canonical shoving snapd down my throat and me having to uninstall it all the time. Since then I’ve used Debian exclusively, previously I only had it on some machines.

      (I’ve also toyed a bit with the BSDs, but was missing systemd, so those never stuck with me.)

        • erebion@news.erebion.euEnglish
          2·
          18 days ago

          Several different operating systems, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD (the latter one having a live system and being the easiest to try out). Those have their history based in BSD. But thatʼs all bit too much to fit in s reply here.

          Unlike Linux distributions, those projects develop a kernel and the other parts together and make an OS.

          Most software will be available on BSDs and on Linux distributions.

            • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
              2·
              18 days ago

              Linux and BSD have the same heritage, but took slighlty different paths… so they’re cousins.

              Look it up on Wikipedia, etc… it’s an interesting bit of history.

            • LeFantome@programming.dev
              3·
              17 days ago

              UNIX was a proprietary operating system developed by AT&T that was originally shipped with source code.

              BSD started as a set of enhancements to UNIX at Berkely University.

              BSD developed into a fully independent UNIX distribution. BSD code was available for free and always non-proprietary.

              In the early 90’s, AT&T launched a lawsuit to stop BSD from being distributed.

              During that lawsuit, in 1991, Linus Torvalds created Linux. It was written from scratch to be like UNIX as Linus liked UNIX but could not afford it.

              In 1993, BSD won its lawsuit and FreeBSD was born. But by then, Linux was already getting lots of attention. FreeBSD, while technically superior at the time, has never caught up in terms of popularity.

              Linux uses the “design” of UNIX but is not UNIX. FreeBSD is considered “real” UNIX. Both implement the POSIX standard.

              FreeBSD has always been focussed on servers. There are other BSD “distributions” that focus on different things: OpenBSD (security), NetBSD (portability), DragonFly BSD (innovation/performance). Some people consider macOS to be a BSD.

              There are also “desktop” spins of FreeBSD like GhostBSD or MidnightBSD. FreeBSD recently has had more of a desktop push focussing on things like WiFi and power management. But it has nowhere near the hardware support that Linux has.

              Linux, technically, is not a full operating system. It is just a kernel (the bit that talks to the hardware). The Linux kernel is released at kernel.org.

              Linux “distros” collect a bunch of software to run on the Linux kernel to create a Linux distribution (full operating system). This includes key components like C library, core utilities, compilers, and init systems. Many Linux distros use software from the GNU Project for these components. But other Linux distros use non-GNU software for this, sometimes even software created by BSD.

              As others have said, the BSD systems are built as an entire OS by a single team. FreeBSD 15 was just released. The entire software stack was created as a unit, including C library, utilities, compiler, and init system.

              IRed Hat Linux is kind of developed as a full operating system as well as they are heavily involved in the kernel, are the primary contributors to the GNU tools, sheppard GNOME, and created Systemd. You could argue that Red Hat is the de facto Linux platform and that others distos build off that. But not everybody would agree.

              So, Linux is more like UNIX but not UNIX (created in 1991) while BSD is UNIX (in continuous dev since the 70’s).

              As a desktop OS though, Linux is substantially more popular than any BSD and so, these days, the tables have turned and the BSD variants often have to work to stay compatible with things that appear first on Linux.

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      17 days ago

      I distro hopped them once on their media PC they just use to watch YouTube and series.

      I don’t see myself changing it again, Kubuntu & KDE is so nice

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      9·
      20 days ago

      I’ve been using Linux for like 18 years and I still hop. I got a better idea of what I like to use for different situations though…but there are so many great builds/derivatives now. I’m pretty well settled into Bazzite and Nobara, or regular Fedora and Fedora Blue, depending on specific needs now though.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
      7·
      20 days ago

      Or if you want to install an entire iso in less than a minute, one of these.

      I really like that one. I can move a terabyte in minutes, and unlike some other M.2 enclosures, this one is a heatsink sandwich, which enables sustained full-speed operation.

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
          2·
          20 days ago

          True. But if you have an old one laying around, from a laptop, desktop or whatever, even a low end one will saturate usb while beating 2.5" hdds.

      • db2@lemmy.world
        1·
        20 days ago

        It may not work. I have two ssds like that and they both won’t boot ventoy for some reason, but a hdd in a usb case worked no problem.

        Also, unless you’re using the usb3 interface it doesn’t make much difference really.

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          20 days ago

          I use this one professionally, yet to come across a PC that wouldn’t boot from it.

          And yeah, you won’t benefit unless the PC also has both fast ports and fast storage.

          But half of the time I’m using it to move files from a customers old PC to their new one, and more aften than not, even the old one has at least one quick usb C port.

      • Leon@pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        20 days ago

        I’d recommend a HDD enclosure with a virtual drive emulator. I personally use this one which I’ve had for about a decade at this point. Lovely device. At some point I think I’ll pop an SSD in it instead, mostly just for durability purposes.

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          20 days ago

          Sure.

          But that’s limited to SATA 3 speeds. A “mere” 600 MB/s. Not to mention SATA SSDs often can’t sustain their theoretical maximums.

          USB3.2x2 can do 2500 MB/s, and with heatsinks on an NVME drive you can actually reach and sustain that transfer speed.

          When you’re moving more than 500 gigs of something, or if you move ISO sized things often, it’s really nice.

          When I occasionally have to write an ISO to usb for macOS or when ventoy for some reason wont work, I get annoyed at how I actually have to wait a bit, even though my thumbdrives aren’t slow.

          They’re just not NVME with a heatsink fast. I’ve gotten used to moving ISOs around like they’re text files.

  • realitaetsverlust@piefed.zipEnglish
    33·
    20 days ago

    I can assure you, you will never need them.

    I got a USB stick with ventoy installed, got a gparted and an arch linux iso on that thing, I do use those regularly.

    • ColdWater@lemmy.ca
      1·
      18 days ago

      For me seem like Ventoy is fucking with Arch iso and can’t be install from it, now my 64GB USB is only contain an Arch install, probably be I’m doing something stupid idk

    • Hi Hello@lemmy.world
      5·
      18 days ago

      I wish I knew how it worked before! I thought it was a Windows only software and I kept installing isos to my USB one by one every time. Wasted so much time :')

  • Kory@lemmy.ml
    131·
    19 days ago

    I don’t mean to crash the party, I used to love Ventoy too. But then the blob issue came up and it was met with silence for over a year by the maintainer, that made me a bit uncomfortable. They have responded to it a while ago, but it’s no trivial task to solve as I understand it: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/3224

  • rozodru@pie.andmc.caEnglish
    25·
    20 days ago

    10 USB sticks? why? just use ventoy and throw them all on an external SSD or something. that’s what I do. can even use that with specific dotfiles you need for each distro along with ventoy. much easier to deal with than 10 usb sticks.

  • azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    18 days ago

    Don’t distrohop too much, at one point there won’t be much more to explore with other distros other than wallpapers and themes

  • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlEnglish
    22·
    19 days ago

    Don’t “upgrade” to Kubuntu. I’m on it and want to upgrade away because Ubuntu. Fedora Kinoite is probably the best bet if you want KDE for a tech novice.

    KDE is really annoying though. Kate is a horrible text editor if you’re not a programmer, and Kwrite has weird default shortcuts without any preconfigured “Gnome/Windows style” available. The Dolphin File Explorer doesn’t allow you to sort and group by different things. And Kparted isn’t as easy to use as Gnome Disk Utility. Still, I like how KDE had better themes than Cinnamon and how it actually lets me move programs to different categories in the start menu.

      • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        19 days ago

        I tried OpenSUSE and I ran into various issues installing software. Plus the immutable variant of OpenSUSE is an external project IIRC.

        • JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          18 days ago

          Yep, suse is cool, the default firewall config is way more restricted (safer but annoying at times). Dbeaver can’t install some essential depends for some reason and shotcut is missing some features (I could try fixing it but for now I just use appimages). It is way more stable than fedora or arch, even if I sometimes forget to upgrade it for months.

          • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            17 days ago

            OpenSUSE seems to not accept donations from ordinary users, which suggests their target is more the server side. I think a daily driver distro should probably be a daily driver distro and not a server distro.

  • thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    112·
    19 days ago

    Maybe not Kubuntu? It’s not de-Canonical’d like Mint or Pop!_OS, so it’ll have weird bad things like Snap or the not-yet-ready Rust coreutils.