I’m gonna disagree on both counts.

I run fedora on my desktop and a bunch of laptops and have done so for years; I would never recommend it to a beginner, or even do the install and all the laborious post-install steps and then hand it over.

Plasma is closer to a standard desktop paradigm, but it has its stupid choices that aren’t welcome on a laptop - FOUR finger gestures, really? why?! also, it’s way too configurable so it’s super-easy to fuck up something without an easy way to reset it.

so, both the options you mentioned are natural progressions for an intermediate user, someone who started with an easy option like Ubuntu + Gnome, and then progressed because they don’t need the kiddie wheels no more; but not as first distro.

runs fine on my setup (R5 5600, RX 570 4 GB) 1080p medium, but I haven’t played it much as it has some weird setup where it wants me to use both keyboard/mouse and controller (prompts me to press B on the gamepad to get out of car) so I continue to shoot peggies; I’ll revisit it some day.

as to repacks, DODI runs exceptionally well for everything I tried, whereas Fitgirl has some bonehead compression play that a) takes eons to install and b) makes your PC unusable while installing. once installed, there aren’t any discernible differences.

anyone knows how to accomplish similar with LineageOS? I had a programmable power off and on timer ona Samsung S3 a long time ago, but that’s missing from the current builds.

I used to run my stack on macOS and back then I used Catch to grab episodes of shows I was subscribed to via ShowRSS and Filebot to rename and sort the downloaded movies and shows in a Plex-friendly layout; Plex then grabs new additions autmatically, pretty sure you don’t need to rescan manualy.

like most here I replaced that mess with Sonarr/Radarr and eventualy switched over to Jellyfin when Plex introduced one “feature” too many.

everybody recommending mint skipped over the fact that this is a convertible, i.e. has touch. mint/cinnamon/mate isn’t terribly optimized in that regard and is rocking X11, a headache a beginner doesn’t need nowadays. mint is a phenomenal choice for older laptops, but not this one.

with a heavy heart, I’m recommending Ubuntu. it runs Gnome, which is a way more modern DE, runs on Wayland so has solid gestures and touch support, and lastly, it is very beginner friendly. you’ll be able to sort out any potential issue as that’s the most widely used distro and has solutions and tutorials for practically everything.

once you’ve crossed over and gain some experience, you’ll inevitably start banging your head on the ceiling (snaps and such). by then you’ll have enough experience and knowledge to move to something better.

also, a darknet diaries episode.

this is like month+ old info, at least mention that when posting. otherwise people assume it’s an update.

I deployed RocketChat on two different client installations (didn’t check the licensing you’re mentioning, I’ll have to look into that) and I run a Prosody instance (XMPP) on my own; tried Matrix for a short while and ran away from that mess as fast as I could. anyhow, although the messengers work without any significant issues or downtime, the amount of flak I get from non-tech normies about the client apps is staggering.

the apps just aren’t up to current UX standards. they’re used to Twitter and iMessage and Telegram quality UX, and getting used to these PoC-quality apps - both on mobile and desktop - makes them “feel icky”. I’ve had to intervene on a number of occasions when some of them transferred their business-related comms to other platforms because they just can’t/won’t get used to these apps.

check out dell latitude 5285/5290 2-in-1. they are Surface Pro lookalikes with detachable keyboards, but with way service-friendlier interior - easy to open and SSD, comms, battery can be easily replaced, whereas RAM is soldered. the screens (12" 1920x1200 IPS mutlitouch) are gorgeous and the hardware isn’t too shabby, kabylake (7xxxu) and kabylake-r (8xxxu), with standard UEFI BIOS so you can install Linux and have SecureBoot even. I can get them locally for $100-150, dependent on config and equipment (even less if they’re without battery and keyboard).

edit: yeah, I misunderstood your idea, I thought you wanted a cheap linux tablet. what you actually want is a fantasy - an ultra-portable device with huge battery autonomy running linux and such a thing doesn’t exist, for any kind of money.

namely, the mentioned dells are twice the heft of a normal android tablet and the battery autonomy is laughable; not only is it not an improvement over a normal laptop, it’s likely to be worse, as that thing’s essentially a laptop with extras, like touch, gyros, etc.

then comes the real hammer - touching the thing. Gnome and Plasma (and their derivatives) have touch support but if you’re coming from an android or iOS tablet, that support is in its infancy. it’s crude, inconsistent, flaky, and not very well propagated throughout the system. it’s way better than it was a few years ago, but this is not something you’ll want to hang your career or education on.

you can tweak the thing into something semi-usable, and for the price (around $100) that’s a worthwhile endeavour and cute hobby project. it bears repeating, it is not daily driver material, and that includes way pricier solutions - saw a Ryzen 6-series the other day for like $700; everything I’ve written applies to it as well.

no, he constantly pulls that stupid face, like in every photo. even in the movies, the latest clerks, he’s constantly giving the eyebrows a workout. silent bob was a quiet and stoic character, a perfect counterpoint to jay’s motormouth. now, it’s a fucking explosion of hyperactivity and facial contortions, like can you chill out for second dude?

how about adding the cutoff limit in the ui then? find myself shrinking and shrinking an image until it gets accepted and then promptly forgetting what the limit was.

so, no need to resize images before upload on account of “image too large”, lemmy will handle that?

there’s no observable difference between a T420s, T480s and said T14 Gen1 AMD, they all lose battery while suspended. the battery drain is endemic to practically any modern laptop that’s not a Macbook Pro running macOS; even the MBP running Fedora has the same drain.

it’s easily solved though by implementing suspend-then-hibernate; the laptop sleeps normally and if not woken in, say, 60 minutes it hibernates to disk na shuts all power off - zero battery drain. once woken, it resumes from the disk super-fast, faster than cold-boot.

can you share the server spec?

regarding the pricy enclosures, there are vastly cheaper eGPU solutions especially if you’re able to utilise the on-board M.2 or mini-PCI slot. if you don’t move the laptop around, it’s a viable option. this would be an example - not an endorsment. you’d need a $15 PSU to power the graphics and it works well in linux, with the hotpluggability being the primary issue; if you’re willing to shutdown before attaching the eGPU, close to no issues.

you can run it as graphics card (i.e. utilize its display outputs) or just use the laptop’s display with optionally switching between the onboard and discrete graphics.

I believe T480 is the last one that has two batteries; T49x and T14 def don’t have any, possibly some P-series models, can’t check now, but those are workstation-class machines with discrete graphics, so not in the same ballpark.

I don’t know your use case, but the dual-battery isn’t necessarily a good thing; apart from marginally improving battery autonomy (by like 20%), its primary use is you being able to hot-swap the second battery without shutting down the laptop. that (carrying around multiple fully charged battery packs) is a 20-year old paradigm that nobody uses nowadays.

my point being, going with a more modern platform nets you better battery autonomy, even with a single battery, and more computing power when running docked. case in point, T14s Gen6 (12-core Snapdragon EliteX) has but one battery but with 20+ hours of autonomy. that’s obviously a vastly more expensive device, but even T14 Gen3 with 6xxx Ryzens can sip power while on battery and go full blast when docked.

edit: can’t help you with the fingerprints as I routinely disable it on any laptop I have, but I seem to remember that all non-S versions mentioned ITT are good to go OOB.

all Thinkpad models (doesn’t extend to other Lenovo series) have exceptional Linux compatibility and support as long as you go a generation or two before the current one. there are some edge cases, like the fingerprint sensors on some less popular models, but if you stick to tried and tested models, you won’t have problems.

the S-suffix models are like the Macbook Air models, they’re thinner, have a single battery and have some more exotic materials used, like carbon, magnesium, etc. they also have one RAM bank soldered so that’s an issue if you get one with e.g. 4 GB soldered, you’re either maxed out at 8 GB if you want dual-channel performance or if you go with an additional 8 or 16 GB stick you’ll have some performance penalties.

I have a T480s (here’s how I got it) and even though it’s less serviceable and expandable than the non-S version, it’s light years ahead from the usual consumer grade models out there, everything is easily sourced and replaced, with detailed hardware maintenance manuals straight from the manufacturer.

anyhow, if you’re moving from some consumer-class model, you can safely ignore the additional thinness as even the standard T480 is portable enough in comparison to the usual drastic-plastic e-waste.

as to newer versions, I was merely pointing out that you don’t have to limit yourself to the exact model (e.g. T480) but look at other, similar models if you happen to stumble onto one. like, I got a T14 Gen1 AMD with a busted screen for about $100 and that’s a vastly better machine than the T480s. it’s hexa-core, way better graphics, connectivity, power efficiency, and since it’s younger the battery is in better shape. the soldered 16 GB limits it to 32 GB max, but that’s more than enough for my use cases.

to me the Ian Holm abomination was terrible, without any redeeming qualities. same thing as rogue one, exact same shittyness, zero technological progress, crude and unnecessarily distracting.

that’s about the crux of it. it’s a widely available platform that can be had for cheap, the replacements and upgrades are plentiful and cheap and cross-generational compatibility (both from earlier and later models) is exceptional. some notes:

• ignore the NVMe speeds; they’re perfectly congruent with the rest of the machine and there are virtually no bottlenecks for the use you mentioned
• no idea about the Guix thing, normal Linux distros (Fedora, Arch, Debian, etc) have OOB functionality for all comms; spotty fingerprint reader support though
• there’s a negligible performance difference between the top-of-the line i7-8650u and the entry-level i5-8350u, so feel free to ignore the CPU entirely. also be aware that earlier models came with the kabylake 7xxxu line, which you don’t want for any kind of money
• although panels can be upgraded cheaply and easily, make sure you don’t get a 768p panel. the factory 1080p stock panels are IPS and 6-bit, so they’re decent and power-efficient. if you’re into color-accurate use cases, you’ll need a 8-bit 400-nit upgrade at some point
• if at all possible, try to buy it without RAM and storage; they’re predominantly available with shitty 256 GB drives and one 8 GB stick and that makes a normally specced machine with 32 GB and 1TB+ storage unnecessarily pricier
• don’t shy away from newer models (T49x, T14 Gen1) if you happen to find them for cheap; T14 AMD for instance has one slot populated with 16 GB (1 free) and has only one battery, but it makes it up with a more modern, powerful and power-efficient platform
• if you plan on using it with external devices (monitors, sound, etc.) do yourself a favor and get a dock station. just like the T-series they’re widely available, cheap and work across generations; e.g. the 40AJ dock, you click the laptop into place and all your devices and PSU are connected instantly

no idea as to specific stores, but judging from the keyboard layouts the majority of the laptops coming to the SEE are of german, swiss, and nordic origin, so with you being in the EU importing those shouldn’t be a huge hassle and/or cost, should you fail to locate local businesses that import those en masse.