Lately I've been thinking about how much of my everyday computer use depends on having an account somewhere. Notes, files, photos, bookmarks, even little things I used to just keep on my own computer.

I'd like to get back to having more stuff stored locally, but every time I look into alternatives, I end up down a rabbit hole of self-hosting guides, syncing tools, and services that need their own maintenance.

I don't want to spend more time managing my setup than actually using it. I just like the idea of my files still being there even if a service changes its pricing or shuts down.

For those who've gone down this road, what did you move locally first that was genuinely worth it?

Starting with Linux can be exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming when troubleshooting laptop issues, choosing a distribution, or setting up a new PC build.

For experienced Linux users, what do you wish you'd known when you first started? Share your best tips, favorite distros, and lessons learned to help newcomers get started with confidence!

I have mint and my mic has some bad background sounds. I can onlu solve it bu decreasing my mic levels. I am not sure if my sound is lower. Also my friend said that he has a similar problem. Btw I have Lenovo Thinkpad

Hey everyone as the title suggests I’m opening a new chapter in my life perusing cyber security. Currently I work on radio communications for the USGOV and have always had interested in it. I am looking for guidance on where to start for learning linux. I’ve tried arch 2 years ago to fully immerse myself and turned back to windows after day 2. I keep getting told Linux knowledge is implied for cyber careers and regardless of that I’ve always wanted to jump in but it seems scary yk.

What distro do I start off in? Are the beginner friendly guides (I suck at reading). Security practical application training? If I sound like a dummy lmk.

Currently I have downloaded wallpaper engine n we- manager it works but the problem is there are always multiple errors when I turn on my pc like steam autostart works but wallpaper engine doesn't start automatically how do I fix that please help 😭

Hi Reddit,

A few years ago, I got an old optiplex 7050 from my university that they didn’t need anymore. It's just been sitting in storage but I'm trying to use it now — I was hoping to use it to run Linux Mint. I'm very new to Linux and hoping to learn with this.

However, the university never wiped it and the computer is running Fedora which is an OS I am not really familiar with. So far, I have been unable to install Mint through a bootable USB stick.

When I try to restart the computer, I am unable to go to a BIOS/UEFI boot menu, I am only able to go to the grub menu which is giving me only three options to boot up fedora (no option to boot from the USB). When I try to access the command line on the grub menu, it asks for a username and password which I do not have.

When it finishes booting Fedora, it lands on another Username / password page which I also don't have.

I have tried all the key combinations I've seen on various forums — tapping and holding F12, F2, F3, F4, esc, Ctrl + Alt + ... None of this has worked.

Does anyone here has any idea how I can try to get to the BIOS/UEFI on fedora? I am hoping I do not need the grub username and password as I am aiming to wipe the system and replace it completely with mint but I can’t find a way to install the mint ISO I have on my flash drive. Would be very thankful for any advice!

I use qemu to create virtual machines but it doesn't link to the cdrom , why?

title

I am a windows user with little IT knowledge looking to switch to Mint.

I am aware that there are already similar posts on this subreddit and elsewhere, but I cannot seem to get a good answer one way or the other concerning the security around different packages for browsers.

I have heard flatpak is better because it has sandboxing. I've heard native apt is better because the browser itself already has sandboxing and flatpak interferes with that. Flatpak is better because it's more up to date and syncs well. APT from Mint repo lags behind but is more stable? Mozilla has their own apt repository which I know nothing about.

The usual advice seems to be just don't go to sketchy websites that get flagged by your browser. I'm currently using firefox on windows and it never flags the free streaming sites I use, but I know those have potential malware when you misclick something. I can't think of any other site I use that poses the same risks, so am I already fine?

Thank you for your time

For some reason, this weekend pop os had an update or something and now my laptop won't turn on, i tried all options from new kern to old kern to recovery and all three turned the computer off and restarted, the only one that worked was recovery in init=/bin/bash , that's how I managed to backup my files.

My laptop used to be a galaxy book 4 but I switched to pop os cuz I wanted to use linux

But the weird thing is, is that when I tried to boot a live USB that had endeavorOS it opened up the gui completely fine, it was still turning off if I disconnected the charger but it wasn't turning itself off by default.

So pop os was the cause of my laptop turning itself off, and I suspect it caused this whole situation, and I really want to understand how, cuz how can a kernel update cause my computer to be unable to be turned on without it being connected

Hello Gentlemen and Gentlewomenmen

I've got an M2 SSD with Windows 11 currently installed on, and two seperate Sata SSDs. I now want to switch to Bazzite Linux. For doing so I need to format the drive where I want to install Bazzite, in my case the M.2. I tested this procedure on a budget PC and everything worked fine there.

So now, would it work if I copy my data from my M.2 (where Win11 is) to the other Sata SSDs, unplug the other SSDs, format my M.2 and install Bazzite and then copy the data back to the M.2 (most of the data is Steam Games anyway so I'm gonna reinstall anything new)?

I have a 2020 MacBook Air with the Apple M1 chip, on Sonoma 14.5 and I'm wondering if I can boot it to Linux for personal use.

I wasn't ever a big fan of Apple and since I've been passed down this Mac last week (sister doesn't use it anymore since getting a PC for uni) I want to know if it'd be smart to switch to Linux on this laptop or if I should just leave the thing be.

I was really happy to try to install linux mint xfce on my laptop. I've put it on a USB, am able to boot it from the USB (and then install it). Though, without usb I am not able to run it. When searching it online it seems I have to select an UEFI file as trused, though this option is nowhere to be found in my bios (I have an Aspire EST -332, Acer).

I tried with chatgpt and it just tells me to check things like if the partition on the laptop is correct. Keep running in circles there...

Here are the pictures of how my bios looks like (without the USB in it):

https://ibb.co/20xJtFq7
https://ibb.co/KpzpjdGr

Any help is very much appreciated. Instead of being fun it is just frustration at the moment....

I'm a new fellow linux user. The mouse sensitivity is very different from mine in windows. I figured because mouse acceleration is on my installation but when I look for it I can't find it

I just got a new laptop with Windows 11 Home Edition. For a long time now, I've been really tempted to switch to Linux but I'm definitely a bit nervous about taking that leap. I have no experience running a Linux based OS.

My primary use cases are making YouTube videos and I also work a lot with Claude Code and other AI related activities.

I'm looking for people who have made this exact switch and would be willing to share their experiences.

My system is

Lenovo Legion Pro 5 16ADR10 Specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX (8 Cores / 16 Threads)
• RAM: 32 GB DDR5
• GPU 1 (Dedicated): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-Series Laptop GPU
• GPU 2 (Integrated): AMD Radeon Graphics
• Storage (Drive C:): ~1 TB NVMe SSD (Windows-SSD)
• Storage (Drive D:): ~1 TB NVMe SSD (Data)
• Display: 16" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS Display
• OS: Windows 11 Home

I'm still pretty confused about many things about this OS, i've been a Windows user for 20 years and i'd like to have more info on what best distro i could install for gaming.

My biggest doubt Is: can steamOS be used for other apps like vpns, streaming, image storaging and such? I mean, can It be used like a normal windows OS or is it specific for the steam app? Again, i'm a layperson in this sense and i really know very little about Linux

I'm trying to stream audio from a Linux Mint laptop (PipeWire/WirePlumber) to a Windows 11 desktop via Bluetooth (A2DP). The goal is to mix the laptop's audio into the desktop's headphones (which are connected to Windows).

The Setup:

• Source: Linux Mint 22.3, PipeWire/WirePlumber, Intel Bluetooth.
• Sink: Windows 11. I'm using third-party software (AudioPlaybackConnector) to make Windows act as an A2DP Sink (receiver).
• The Issue: Windows detects the Linux machine, but it's listed as an audio device (speaker) with a "Sound" icon in the Bluetooth menu. Windows tries to send audio to the Linux machine, which is the exact opposite of what I need. On the Linux side, the a2dp-source profile either doesn't appear or doesn't connect properly, and Windows refuses to act as the sink.

What I've tried on Linux Mint:

1. Manually forcing the profile: pactl set-card-profile bluez_card.XX_XX_XX a2dp-source
2. Creating a WirePlumber config
3. Restarting wireplumber and reconnecting the device.

Despite restricting the roles to [ a2dp_source ], Windows still sees the Linux machine as a speaker (Sink). I've also checked bluetoothctl — the endpoints (sep52, etc.) show up, but Windows doesn't seem to want to initiate an A2DP connection where it is the sink.

Has anyone successfully forced Windows 11 to act as an A2DP Sink for a Linux source? How do I stop Linux from advertising its A2DP Sink capability entirely so Windows is forced to connect as a receiver?

My goal is to make a partition of my ssd in the Debian installation usb. I cannot do it in windows.

Usually, this would just be selecting “manual” as the format when setting up the disk, but when I do that, only the usb flash drive itself shows up, and not the ssd itself. I tried going into busybox and using fdisk but that didn’t work, and neither did cfdisk or part.

After I partition it, I will use the free partition to install Debian and dual boot windows

KDE Plasma 6 dot whatever is provided with Debian Trixie.

Per title, sometimes my left <CTRL> key is ignored. I think it just started today; this computer is new-ish, but this OS install has been stable for a couple months already.

The right <CTRL> key works fine, but it's not my motor memory / workflow. This plays havoc with ^c ^v and any number of actions that I would like to continue to be able to do without having to make my brain work too hard!

Sometimes simply using the right <CTRL> key seems to re-enable the left <CTRL> key, and it's good for a while until it isn't. I have not been able to systematically identify circumstances which would provoke it.

As far as I can tell, this does not behave like a mechanical intermittent (eg faulty connection).

I did some googling, and apparently on some desktop environments the <CTRL> key can be used to find the mouse pointer, and the DE gets into some orphan state sometimes. But the closest thing I could find on KDE was something about shaking the mouse (I turned that off in system properties but it didn't help).

This feels like something that should be really easy once you know the answer, so I'm pitching it to y'all ... help? ... thx!