• WamGams@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    Had a computer that had 16gigs of ram when we first bought it but after a windows reset only shows 8gigs. Was told 8 gigs probably got burned and will need to replace motherboard.

    What version of Linux should I install on this machine after my wife gets her own new machine?

      • WamGams@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Would Mint be good? Somebody told me its the most like AndroidOS and works well with touch screen.

        • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 months ago

          Well i was joking previously. But Mint should be great and before installing you can play around in live usb and check if everything works well

            • Darkrai@kbin.social
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              7 months ago

              You can try making a virtual machine with a 20 GB virtual hard drive to try out different Linux distros in the meantime.

                • Dalaeance@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  To make things simpler in the long run, I recommend looking into using Ventoy on a thumb drive, if you’d like to just try out various versions of Linux without installing anything. There are handy guides on YouTube.

            • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 months ago

              You still can make a live USB and check if everything works and play around. Just don’t proceed with installation wizard. But remember since its live mode things you save there will not exist(by default) after reboot. Yes you can run linux without installing

              • WamGams@lemmy.ca
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                7 months ago

                Good to know. Thank you.

                I have a proton account so I can just save the files there.

                • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  7 months ago

                  Well that also applies to settings and everything. Its a test environment which have temporary storage till reboot. Even apps you install may not exist. But there is some way that you can make the live environment save changes though, someone else has already suggested you ventoy

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              try cinnamon with mint on a ‘live USB’ so you can try before installing. and see if your ram is broken, or if windows is fucking you for cheaping out on the license.

        • KrapKake@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Mint is good but if you want the best touch screen support with gestures and an automatic on screen keyboard, you will want a distro that is using the gnome desktop environment (it is also android-like). Well known distros that come with this are Fedora Workstation, ZorinOS, and Ubuntu.

            • KrapKake@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              It’s based on it yes, but they use different desktop environments. The desktop mint uses is called Cinnamon.

            • ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works
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              7 months ago

              It’s a (better IMO) derivative of Ubuntu, but it uses the Mint desktop environment by default while Ubuntu uses Gnome. To a casual user, most distros are pretty similar other than their defaults. Those defaults aren’t even particularly hard to change. For example, switching mint to Gnome is one command and a couple GUI clicks: https://itsfoss.com/install-gnome-linux-mint/

        • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          Mint comes in three editions - or with three different Desktop Environments. Think of it like alternative launchers\skins on Android, but more influential on how things work. I believe, some can be better with touchscreens than others out of the box. I’d suggest you to start with a Cinnamon version since it looks more modern and pretty, and with a higher probability of having touchscreen gestures and stuff. All of them are close to Windows in visual design. And since it’s Linux, many things can be added or edited afterwards, and be sure someone alresdy asked your question on the web (:

      • WamGams@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        We had an overheating issue and couldn’t restore so we had to do a reset and once that happened our system information said we had 8 gigs less than we had before the reset.

        A buddy of mine said he thinks the slot connection died from the overheating.