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1 • Poll (by Osgood Fopp on 2026-05-04 00:17:10 GMT from United States)
I wonder how many users have one device and one device only. I have several with several different GPU/CPU configurations. The one I'm on now has integrated GPU. Later on this evening I'll be on a machine that is two different chips.
2 • Ubuntu 26.04 (by Sam Crawford on 2026-05-04 01:23:52 GMT from United States)
After reading Jeff Siegel's story about Xubuntu I refelcted on my attempts to install Ubuntu 26.04 on 3 different computers. The first was a Thinkpad T480, The second was a Thinkpad P16s, Gen 4 AMD and the the third was my desktop, running an AMD Ryzen 9.
All three installs were a disaster. The TPM enabled encryption wouldn't work on any of them. I used LUKS encryption and the Security Center didn't show any encryption enabled LUKS on any of the machines. I expereienced various crashes and reboots throughout the installations on all three installations.
I ended up installing Debian Trixie on both the Thinkpad P16s and the desktop machine and both work perfectly. The P16s needed a backported kernel because of the newer hardware I installed Ubuntu 24.04 on the T480 and hope that by the time Ubuntu lets me upgrade, 26.04 will work better.
My experiences with Ubuntu in the past have been good, I wondered why/where they dropped the ball with 26.04?
3 • Xubutu -- (by soothsayer on 2026-05-04 01:56:54 GMT from United States)
Sad to see about xubutu, I just installed it for the first time on 2 machines in the last week -- strated with 24.04, I didn't want to risk much, and I ran into an install problem too -- installer won't run with nvidia 3060 in the system! tries to run graphics acceleration and puts up gibberish on screen - I swaped to a 10+ year old card and was able to boot -- i guess, I shoudn't have! oh well, will have to restqart the hunt
4 • GPUs, integrated (by firealarmwentoffimgruppy on 2026-05-04 05:13:41 GMT from France)
I've been a convert of integrated GPUs since AMD's Ax series CPUs called APUs at the time, I've been impressed with the performance, played what I really wanted (my slightly older games) and kept me out of the performance rat race.
I game a lot, it's my main guilty sin in my otherwise open-source computer life, I estimate that less then 5% of my library won't play well enough on my Ryzen and none of them are games that I feel a need to play... eventually when I upgrade (a plan 8 years in the making... and going...).
5 • Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, YMMV (by El Cacho on 2026-05-04 06:18:13 GMT from United States)
I've been trying/testing several distros lately. I run a 10th gen i3, 16 GB RAM with Intel graphics. Running Kubuntu Resolute as my main distro since they started releasing the dailies. So far it's been flawless. Install was quick and easy. I'm trying Ubuntu Resolute on a VM, and install and function has also been easy and flawless. I was surprised by the problems with Xubuntu. I don't use XFCE, so I hadn't tried it. Curiousity got me, so I downloaded and installed it.
First I installed it on Qemu using Virt-Manager. Only problem was I had to switch "video" from VirtIO to VGA to be able to adjust resolution. Otherwise all was good. Flashed a thumb drive and installed it on a USB connected SSD. Live took about 1 min 45 seconds to make it to desktop, slow, but par for the course these days, I find. Installing took about 15 minutes. I do a minimal install, which takes a little longer. As with Kubuntu, a minimal install has no snaps, not even a web browser. No Ubuntu App Store present either. Installed flatpak Gnome Software and flatpak plugin using Synaptic. Added flathub repo. Installed Firefox flatpak, some desktop tweaking, and off to the races. Runs beautifully. One thing: It's using 1 GB RAM at idle, which is not so much less than some distros with Gnome.
You mileage may vary, but mine is pretty damn good.
6 • Ubuntu is essentially Debian with bugs (by Microlinux on 2026-05-04 06:50:55 GMT from France)
As a long-time Linux user with two and a half decades of experience, I can't help thinking that the Linux ecosystem would be better off without Ubuntu. Don't get me wrong. I used to love Ubuntu. Even published a book (prefaced by Mark Shuttleworth himself) about it. But since then, the journey has been one disenchantment after the other, with reinventing the wheel, integrating half-assed or downright crappy technologies and accumulating showstopper bugs. I've moved all my projects to Debian stable on the server and a heavily modded LMDE on the desktop clients. I its current state, I wouldn't touch Ubuntu with a ten foot pole. With friends like Ubuntu, the Linux ecosystem doesn't need enemies.
7 • Never install release version Ubuntus (by style99 on 2026-05-04 07:19:53 GMT from United States)
This just shows you how bad Ubuntu typically is until it hits a point release. I'm going to hold off on upgrading until at least 26.04.1. I can wait till July.
8 • agree with #6 (by jg on 2026-05-04 07:22:47 GMT from United States)
Don't use anything from Canonical unless you can fix lots of annoying bugs that you don't get with Debian.
9 • Poll (by ?!? on 2026-05-04 08:03:06 GMT from Italy)
@1 "I wonder how many users have one device and one device only."
I may agree with you, but I'm not too surprised. There's lot of people simply coping with one computer; I do know some that don't even have one and live their whole digital lives onto an iPhone...
Maybe your claim is due to the fact that this is a, say, "non-Windows" website whose estimators mostly own a machine but don't trash that when they buy a new one (why do that if it's still working?) and that leads to collecting some more in years. But Microsoft's addicted are used to owning and changing, once every (some?) year, and old machine easily ends up being given back for refund, sold as used or gifted to somebody else.
If you've been told all over your life that Windows is "compulsory to be able to use your PC", you can believe once a computer is too old, its OS is, too. This mean lie would still be working, if only PC prices and Big Tech's avidity hadn't grown that ludicrously.
10 • xubuntu (by kc1di on 2026-05-04 11:04:01 GMT from United States)
Sorry to hear about xubuntu. a number of years ago maybe ten it used to be my go to distro. but have really not used it in many years. I find that Kubuntu 26.04 has been solid and works great on my hardware. Have been using kubuntu since beta. For xfce setup I use Deb or Mx linux.
11 • @9, Poll. Coping? (by Kuripot on 2026-05-04 11:19:29 GMT from Philippines)
"There's lot of people simply coping with one computer" Wow! I have one computer, but I'm definitely not "coping" I only use one. How many do I need? I do have one broken laptop that's not worth fixing and will be donated to a local shop for parts. Gave another to relatives that needed it. No use sitting around here gathering dust. Computers don't get better with age. I spent enough years fiddling with them, and I'm too old for nostalgia. My PC is a tool, nothing else. I will probably get a spare just in case, and a new one when this one gives up, if I'm still around. No laptops. I have no need for portability and my old eyes prefer a big screen. So I'll likely get a simple small tower or a mini. No hurry. Oh, I have integrated graphics.
12 • One computer? (by Osgood Fopp on 2026-05-04 12:30:23 GMT from United States)
@9 and @11 in my @1 post I was (a bit sarcastically) criticizing the poll's assumption that users have one machine to reference when responding to said poll. Go back and look at the poll's wording in query and choices.
No biggie of course, as it really does make me curious about the population of Linux users specifically and the number of machines they have. I made it a point several years ago to acquire computers representing the Big Three in operating systems: Windows, Mac, and Linux.. with a foray into BSD as well (I honestly thing GhostBSD is very under represented and one of the best OSs out there).
13 • Poll choices (by Osgood Fopp on 2026-05-04 12:32:49 GMT from United States)
Cannot edit posts here.. but yes I'm aware of the "multiple computers" choice in the poll and was refering to the query wording and the other chocies.
14 • Yes. Coping. (by ?!? on 2026-05-04 13:04:56 GMT from Italy)
@11 "I only use one. How many do I need?"
It depends. On what your perception of a tool is.
I have more than a PC; as I said, that's because I don't feel urged to giving the old one away just because I have a new. Obviously, if the old one is broken, it's different, but it seldom happens. For computers, rust and dust are a by far rare cause of damage: they're mostly replaced when they're perceived as not being able to perform any more. But if that happens only because somebody at Redmond had decided that despite your needs, that's a good reason not to agree.
Ask yourself: how many Torx screwdrivers do you own? One only? Or some more? A tool should be redundant because you never know if (_when_, actually) you'll need one just when it's either out of service or unavailable in some way. Computers are just the same: you might have your main one damaged right when you need one, so keeping at least two (or even more, if it costs nothing) is a good idea. They won't be totally interchangeable, but, do we care?
Consider this, too: more computers = more opportunities to explore different OS solutions. I use Linux but I want to experience with BSD sooner or later: which better way to do that than having more machines?
15 • QA videocard memory (by Dark on 2026-05-04 13:15:27 GMT from Portugal)
"Expanding-into-new-territory asks: I'm not much of a gamer and, as they say, unused memory is wasted memory. Is it possible to extend my laptop's RAM by using the memory in my video card?"
I would like to add to the very interesting Jesse answer that Videocards are not exclusive to playing videogames like they used to.
They accelerate many day to day tasks like video decoding, website browsing and even using many Desktop Enviroments.
Say bye bye to the laptop's battery while watching a youtube video being decoded by the CPU.
As pointed by others, if your laptop has a integrated videocard, it is already using you RAM as VRAM.
Most modern laptops with a dedicated card use a hybrid approach where the integrated card do most of the light work and the dedicated card only do the heavy 3d lifting.
16 • wayland (by the_morgan on 2026-05-04 13:52:19 GMT from United States)
Is wayland, generally speaking, all that is cracked up to be?
I've got one guest running debian 13 with wayland for Waydroid. I don't even fire up waydroid that often, it waits for the weekly activities that I need an android app for - but beyond that the OS is mostly a browser. ANd the thing resets, kills my web sessions all the time, daily. This is with Librewolf and firefox.
Everything is X11 around me, mostly debian and Pop!. Nothing does this to me but the one guest with wayland.
17 • Xubuntu review (by Osgood Fopp on 2026-05-04 14:18:48 GMT from United States)
The 'buntu stuff more or less got boycotted by me back a long time ago when I realized what they were doing (some of that realization came via news entries here and some at other sites and blogs).
I was very much bothered by the Canonical thing.. and then a sort of assumption began to emerge at sites oriented around distro advice for users new to Linux. Ubuntu was nearly always at or near the top of recommended distros. I bristled at that every time I saw it for reasons that honestly don't need to be explained much now that Canonical/Ubuntu is out in the open as .. well, as what they are.
This review highlights what is on the periphery of all this: The huge number of other 'buntus and thus the perception of choices or even diversity wrt that company. Is it really much diversity? Is the diversity of Debian based distros different in important ways by comparison?
As an aside I'm trying to get a handle on why I do not particularly like distro reviews written by the current person who wrote this week. Some sort of "choppy" feeling about his reviews, along with too much "me.. I.. me.. me.. me stuff" I'm thinking... as I'm donning an asbestos suit and hoodie.
18 • Discrete video card ? (by GruntZ on 2026-05-04 14:42:29 GMT from Canada)
I have many computer at home, and all the laptop have integrated video card (latitude & thinkpad),
And I allways use Intel or AMD GPU to assemble tower PC, then all are with integrated VC.
I'm not gamer, nor graphist, or anythings that cannot work with integrated video card.
19 • @14 • Yes. Coping? (by Kuripot on 2026-05-04 14:59:51 GMT from Philippines)
@14, "It depends. On what your perception of a tool is." A tool is a tool regardless of anyone's perception. It is an extension of mind and body designed to achieve a particular task. "Ask yourself: how many Torx screwdrivers do you own?" I don't own any. I have no use for one. When and if I do, I'll get one. The point is that you speak condescendingly of anyone owning only one computer, going so far as to accuse them of being Microsoft addicts.
"more computers = more opportunities to explore different OS solutions." I enjoy trying and using different distros. There are 4 installed on my PC, plus 6 more on VMs. And yes , I've tried BSD. I change when I feel like. For me it's just entertainment, kind of a hobby. It doesn't mean that anyone running just one distro is just coping. Maybe they have different interests. You want to do it on several machines, enjoy! As I enjoy doing it my way, and not just "coping".
20 • Xubuntu (by David on 2026-05-04 15:56:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm sure that Canonical do a great job for their paying clients, but any distro cobbled together from Debian UNSTABLE by a very small team is going to have problems and I've seen a lot over the years. There's a reason that Clem keeps working on the Debian version of Mint, just in case!
21 • Ubuntu 26.04 (by BasedPatriot on 2026-05-04 16:03:50 GMT from United States)
@2 Glad to know I wasn't the only one to have problem with hardware encryption on my T480. I spent probably an hour trying to get it to work and ultimately decided to just move on. That said, once I got it installed, everything else seems to be fine. I haven't had any problems with it, though I haven't stressed it too much yet, so time will tell.
22 • Ubuntu/Canonical has an agenda (by Matt on 2026-05-04 17:22:09 GMT from United States)
I try my best to use a distribution that doesn't have an agenda driven by corporations over end users, or driven by insane political ideology either. I don't trust software written by corporate automatons or by insane people.
I think I have a pretty low bar here, but it seems increasingly difficult for any distribution to clear that bar.
For a long time, my distribution of choice was Debian. The Debian community does have some insane people, but as a whole I thought they put stability and end users first. Recently I switched to Devuan after I read about the plans to embed "age verification" (whatever that actually ends up truly meaning) into systemd. All the systemd warnings when it was first released turned out to be true.
A lot of people might turn my finger pointing around and call me insane. I'm OK with that!
23 • Distributions (by Luke on 2026-05-04 19:02:43 GMT from France)
The concept of a FOSS OS distribution as it is now seems flawed to me. The components are coupled together too tightly. You can't easily install software versions you want without a lot of duplication and overhead - like in Snap, Flatpak, nix etc. OK, you can if the desired software targets an LTS release of RHEL or Ubuntu or Debian, and it is a common practice - but absolutely not universal.
The installer is also coupled to its distribution. Why should Xubuntu use the Ubuntu installer and not, say, Calamares? I envision a better world where distributions are more modular and less monolithic.
24 • Review (by Senor Zero on 2026-05-04 19:46:16 GMT from United States)
No flames @17, but just wanted to say I really enjoy Jeff's reviews and particularly enjoyed this one.
25 • Ubuntu 26.04...Gnome 50? (by César on 2026-05-04 20:37:55 GMT from Chile)
Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
I install Ubuntu 26.04 and i have a big problem with Chrome derivates -same engine- (Opera, Vivaldi por ex.), big blinks when open the browser...totally unable to use...and i give a try to Fedora 44 and the same problem over and over again...is Gnome 50 the problem or Wayland???...i use a AMD graphic card, never i have any issue with this card...well, at the final i continue use Debian "Trixie".
Me despido atte.
26 • GTK2 (by We all float down on 2026-05-04 20:39:01 GMT from Netherlands)
I welcome this: build back better. We have now seen many examples where older does mean smaller, faster, safer and improved design. One might consider it becoming a trend. My modest proposal therefore is to block these misguided second-system syndromes and concentrate on either backporting, backward compatibility, banting, bug-fixing or revising the CoC for those who can't. Thank you for your attention to this mad hatter.
27 • GTK 2.0 (by rhtoraS on 2026-05-04 21:23:29 GMT from Greece)
Its nice to see Devuan dev recreating GTK 2.0 and maintaining it. We could create simpler applications and desktop environments with nosystemD.
There is also CTK a GTK 3.0 fork. Also i love how cafe desktop looks and feels but the project is growing slowly.
28 • Xubuntu (by DaveT on 2026-05-04 21:27:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
Jeff, you have my sympathies!
There you are happily using Xubuntu forever and they decide to break it.
I'm old and Old School with it so I don't use Flatpacks or Snap.
Give Devuan a try. Anything that is only available as Snap or Flatpack is surely available as source code?
Isn't it?
29 • @25, Ubuntu 26.04...Gnome 50? (by César) (by El Cacho on 2026-05-04 22:47:34 GMT from United States)
Saludos desde Gringolandia.:)
No problems here with Gnome 50 or Ubuntu 26.04/Fedora. I'm on Intel graphics, so it may not apply. However, the last time I had any graphics problems with Ubuntu they were solved by going to an older or different kernel. Not hard to do if you're familiar with the process or can follow online directions.
Regards.
30 • Feature Story (by Matt on 2026-05-04 23:05:17 GMT from Canada)
I have to fight the urge to scream loudly into the ether "WHY?!!" when I read these articles about people who still use backward distros with stale software like Ubuntu and Debian and woefully outdated desktop environments like XFCE.
31 • Distribution choices (by Jesse on 2026-05-04 23:10:43 GMT from Canada)
@30: "I have to fight the urge to scream loudly into the ether "WHY?!!" when I read these articles about people who still use backward distros with stale software like Ubuntu and Debian and woefully outdated desktop environments like XFCE."
If you get upset by other people using tools that work better for them than the alternatives, that says a lot more about you than those people or their choices in software.
Some people like cutting edge, some people need stable. Some people like new/shiny, some people want something efficient. There is no reason to get upset by other people using what works for them.
32 • xubuntu (by InvisibleInk on 2026-05-05 02:18:04 GMT from United States)
I just want to say to xubuntu fans, there is also Xebian, a Debian-based alternative that is themed to look like xubuntu, but without any Ubuntu extra stuff. The main edition is rolling, based on Sid, but there is a static edition based on Trixie. Just sayin'.
33 • Re: Feature Story (by DaveT on 2026-05-05 07:45:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
@30 XFCE works for me. I don't need any whizzo stuff. I last used Gnome when it was Gnome 2, never really got on with any version of KDE.
My 2006 iMac runs Devuan. It still uses LILO because it works.
The window manager is CTWM because I like it.
Mind you, apart from my new Ducati my bikes are 25 to 80 years old. They still work, they are still fun.
34 • ...Outdated? (by ?!? on 2026-05-05 09:06:35 GMT from Italy)
@30 "I have to fight the urge to scream loudly into the ether "WHY?!!" when I read these articles about people who still use backward distros with stale software like Ubuntu and Debian and woefully outdated desktop environments like XFCE."
Don't fight the urge. Scream and shout. Then breath. After that, consider it's not a problem of yours if Alice chooses a WM, Bob a different one, Charlie a "stale" (!) distro and Dana a bleeding-edge one.
It's not a problem for anybody at all: the problem would be, not having any choice. I might even share some frustration in seeing efforts wasted in some dead-end projects, but it's up to developers to decide how they want to contribute.
35 • @30 (by Microlinux on 2026-05-05 09:16:25 GMT from France)
You just explained to the world that you've obviously never run a production system.
36 • Choice (by Noddy from Aus. on 2026-05-05 01:36:14 GMT from Australia)
@31 Well said Jesse, not all are young go getters. Some of use prefer something more stable without bells and whistles.Something that remains the same year after year.
On the computer side I have 3, a pi 4 which I use Debian 12 rather than Debian 13 as I find it a bit slow, and I also use Arch linux, These are using Mate desktop.
On the 15+ year old laptop Debian 12 with Mate desktop works well.
The newer desktop has 3 drives.
I used to use Linux Mint Mate all the time, til I had a few problems with newer hardware, but that has been sorted now with HWE system.
An alternative drive I use is Cachyos, with KDE desktop as it is very much like arch linux.I like that for its speed.
And last is a trial of Kubuntu 26.04. Have been using on and off since early alpha days. I works ok but could be better, seems bloated compared to other distro's.
It also appears that the Mate desktop is becoming less well supported now.In the early years of my computer endeavors I started with Gnome 2 on Ubuntu. May have to change to Cinnamon or KDE desktops in the future.
37 • Ubuntus (by Chris on 2026-05-05 12:59:15 GMT from South Africa)
I have a Dell Celeron dual core and was wondering which of the Ubuntus would be happy running on it?
38 • "..backward..stale.." (by Slappy McGee on 2026-05-05 14:31:34 GMT from United States)
@30 One of the many things wonderful about the open source/linux/bsd world is that some of the software discoveries and implementations of those discoveries remain useful indefinitely. XFCE is in that category in my opinion.
"Backward and Stale" as in foundation is one of the ways I see it. But I'm (mumble) years old, so take it with a grain of Marmite.
39 • Ubuntu flavours (by Luke on 2026-05-05 16:24:03 GMT from France)
@37:
It is not a CPU that matters. The amount of RAM and GPU are more important in terms of system requirements. What graphics processor do you have, is it integrated or discrete, how much RAM does your PC have?
40 • Does your computer use an integrated or discrete video card ? (by eb on 2026-05-05 16:30:28 GMT from France)
Thanks Jesse for your article about vRAM.
It could be an interesting means to create a fast swap on a server (?).
Alas, I have only integrated video cards (Mac-mini).
41 • Choices in Linux (by Dog Hammarskjöld on 2026-05-05 17:37:15 GMT from United States)
I have trouble with notions of this or that linux or bsd project being not valid if they are from years past. This is what is revered by many about linux and bsd; that validity comes from not only usage but from "sandboxing" or taking it upon oneself to improve or just modify a project found "out there."
Rejoice. Don't scream in anguish. My goodness.
42 • Buggy Xubuntu (by Chris Whelan on 2026-05-05 18:24:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
@Jeff Siegel
Sounds like MX Linux would be a good fit for you. It is most definitely not buggy, has a fast and easy installer, and its Package Installer has a dedicated Flatpak tab. It uses X11.
Two family members have been running their small businesses on it for several years without issue.
43 • Xubuntu and XFCE (by Keith S on 2026-05-05 20:26:40 GMT from United States)
It always mystifies me when a distros like Ubuntu or Red Hat with the presumed financial resources of corporate backing have so many problems with installers. I remember when the Ubuntu installer was truly amazing, really better than anything available today, but that was at least a dozen years ago. Why does engineering go backwards? I just don't get it.
I second the suggestion by @42 to try MX Linux for an excellent XFCE experience in a stable distro based on Debian. I've been testing Void with XFCE the last couple of weeks and really like it as well, although the XFCE installed is a little bit more vanilla. That's not a bad thing, though.
44 • GTK2 revival (by greenjeans on 2026-05-06 00:35:49 GMT from United States)
Thanks Jesse for another great edition of Weekly, and thanks for mentioning the gtk2 revival effort, i'm one of the mods on that forum and a (minor) collaborator on the project itself. Lot of attempts have been made on that front, but this one has the full backing of a really talented group of people and is not only going to re-build gtk2, but also resurrect some other legacy software and bring it up to date and useable on modern machines as well as older hardware. We are here to stay and make a difference. We welcome all who would like to contribute so join us, it's gonna be a hoot!
45 • XFCE (by ?!? on 2026-05-06 05:45:53 GMT from Italy)
@42 @43 I have a simple solution for getting "an excellent XFCE experience in a stable distro based on Debian": I use Debian. It's just that easy.
46 • Ubuntus (by Chris on 2026-05-06 08:05:33 GMT from South Africa)
@37 It's a Dell Inspiron laptop. 8GB RAM upgraded from 4GB, 256GB SSD upgraded from HDD.
47 • @37, @46 Ubuntus (by El Cacho on 2026-05-06 08:36:04 GMT from United States)
"which of the Ubuntus would be happy running on it?" Which would you be happy running? With those specs all should be fine. Xubuntu would feel snappier but Gnome (Ubuntu-Desktop) or KDE (Kubuntu) would be okay.
48 • what's the matter with ubuntu? (by hulondalo on 2026-05-06 11:54:15 GMT from Norway)
their site also was ddosed by iranians
haven't used ubuntu or any of its flavors and derivatives for a long time but i always grateful because shipit sent me installer media. back then bandwidth was expensive so that helped a lot.
49 • GTK2 revival (by ned on 2026-05-06 15:32:33 GMT from Austria)
Really hope that the revival is successful - getting tired of the latest brightly shining software breaking things which used to just work ... that's not progress, that's stupidity.
If you want to do things in a new way, first you have to learn how to do them the old way; then you can find out if there's a better way.
50 • Xubuntu (by sj on 2026-05-06 16:52:47 GMT from Germany)
I've been working with Ubuntu flavors for years, including Xubuntu on and off. Unfortunately, I can confirm that version 26.04 is causing problems. System error messages keep popping up, and gdebi crashes constantly. I'm sure the team will get it sorted out. However, I've pulled the plug, deleted Xubuntu, and installed something I know works.
51 • Xubuntu (by Drew on 2026-05-06 17:20:35 GMT from United States)
A number of years ago, I downloaded Ubuntu for an old and rather slow HP laptop I had sitting around. Gnome is pretty slow on that laptop, so I installed Xubuntu from that Ubuntu installation. Everything has worked well, and I can switch between DEs at login. XFCE is much more responsive than Gnome.
I'm on 24.04 LTS now and haven't yet been notified that there's an update.
I think I'll just keep plugging along with what I've got and see how things shake out.
52 • Surprising poll results (by Let's see if this goes through on 2026-05-07 01:09:46 GMT from Netherlands)
I'm a little surprised that more than two out of every five people here, only have integrated graphics. But I'm far more surprised that there are more people here who only have discrete graphics, than people who have both. Are you all running really old, really expensive or server CPUs, or something? Where do you even manage to get hold of desktop CPUs without iGPU anymore these days? Let alone laptops without integrated graphics - do those even exist? What is the reason that you are willing to spend more money on a CPU that can't process graphics natively?
53 • Maybe it's just like that (by ?!? on 2026-05-07 11:28:56 GMT from Italy)
@52 "Are you all running really old, really expensive or server CPUs, or something?"
If they're using an OS which values them for a long, long life, why bother? I've got a 2017 notebook which works just fine with Debian 13, but could work very well even with the at least 5-years older tower I had to scrap just because power supply kicked the bucket and mobo didn't appreciate.
A computer is not a car (nowadays, it's quite more likely the other way round...): it has no hard wear, mechanical components are rarer and rarer and electronics are low in power need. If kept with attention, a PC can last even quite more than a decade: good kitty!
54 • @53, Poll results, old chips (by El Cacho on 2026-05-07 13:10:02 GMT from United States)
"a PC can last even quite more than a decade" Integrated graphics have been around since the 1980s (See the Tandy 100 and IBM PS2.) so he (@52) is talking about really, really old CPUs. Graphics built into the CPU rather than the motherboard (True On-Die Integration) have been around since around 2011, so your old tower would have had integrated graphics even if you added a graphics card. Systems without integrated graphics are on very rare specialty systems and most are very expensive. Just about all those answering "discrete video card" also have integrated, but either don't know or just answered about what they always use, not what is available in the PC.
55 • decades on one machine (by Slappy McGee on 2026-05-07 13:21:44 GMT from United States)
The idea of a computer machine lasting long is very dependent on the needs of the users. Now we are used to a big chip on a card in the system board (SSD, NVME, etc) doing what a spinning hard drive used to do; those hard drives now seem quite primitive. But there are apparently a lot of them still in use, and I think that is one of the biggest reasons for linux and bsd not just dying off in favor of Mac and Windows. There are myriad other reasons, of course.
@53
56 • XFCE (by Keith S on 2026-05-07 23:26:33 GMT from United States)
@45 I have nothing against Debian, obviously. I would say that if Ubuntu is "Debian with bugs," MX is "Debian with really convenient tools." Yes, you can do the same things with Debian as you can with MX Tools, but it will involve a lot more than a couple of clicks.
57 • Un*x is made for lasting (by ?!? on 2026-05-08 08:58:23 GMT from Italy)
@55 "The idea of a computer machine lasting long is very dependent on the needs of the users."
I definitely agree. Provided that those needs are not only having a window opening some msecs faster.
I have some older and newer device drives, but I didn't resolve to changing all the former ones with the latter all of a sudden. Instead, I planned to replace any internal HDD with a SSD every so often - and in earlier years to upgrade by adding RAM, which is definitely more difficult in modern times - according to what market offers (nowadays, really not very much). Saying an HDD has become obsolete just because it's slower (but it keeps working fine) is a dangerous approach. It's quite more useful to think of that to something which can keep its own value at least until replacing that has become too cheap to avoid with respect to its improvement.
Both Microsoft and Apple have been claiming for years that when version x+1 is out, version x products MUST be dismissed; you're lucky only when you're granted some partial refund. It's nonsense. People should be able to mortgage their own tech properties with a reasonable amount of time, not throwing them back as soon as some reseller tells them they can't do anything else - for their own profit only.
I've been buying and using computers since late 80's: if I had replaced them all once every three years or worse, I'd become broke before 21st century... Just like a VIP's list of divorces!
58 • HW vs. SW - preceding posts in particular (by Sondar on 2026-05-08 09:54:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
Much PC HW was/is designed with built-in obsolescence because some companies/nations are blinded by the profit motive - aka profit, as well as progress. True some HW, notably the PSU, an highly stressed item, can 'break' but it's not true that it/they can't be 'fixed' - done so many times (but note VERY CAREFULLY dangers for the unwary/newcomers). Some 'sealed' components can be opened for repair, even old BIOS chips with internal batteries can be revived with a small grinder and resealed with epoxy. Of course, discrete graphics cards can be swapped easily provided compatibility. With knowledge, a soldering iron, time and ingenuity much can be accomplished. SW may need different skills, but clever coders can make/modify code to run on HW from the previous century.
Reductum ad adserbum. (sorry - >70yrs since Latin class!))
All about needs, time, money, progress, interest and capability.
59 • Needs of the user/User habits etc (by Slappy McGee on 2026-05-08 13:22:31 GMT from United States)
@57 I confess. I have moved along with the newer hardware as it's been presented to us by the gloved hands of the corporate entities. But yes I revel in memories as I look at those stacks of Western Digital hard drives over there; the machine I had for years had a plastic sliding door on the bottom that came off with one screw and the hard drive could be unplugged and replaced.
I at one time went from distro to distro doing just that, not dual or triple booting, just swapping out the HDs on the whim of using/playing with another installed linux distro.
Then.. well, honestly I doubt if the population of users I am in is small.. those of us who go ahead and follow along with tech/hardware upgrades. It's always a Windows machine, and then it's not anymore as I cover that with a distro that has my attention (I do have one Dell with Windows 11 and a Macbook Pro in addition to two machines for linux fooling around).
60 • Box vs laptop (by Friar Tux on 2026-05-08 21:59:35 GMT from Canada)
I notice, with interest, that a lot of folks, here, are talking about using a box as opposed to a laptop. Originally, way back when, we used to have a "family box" with Windows XP on it. While it served it's purpose, there was always the question of who got to use it, when. When we decided to upgrade, we went for two laptops. It was the best decision we ever made. I love the "lap" part of laptop. The Wife and I now sit in our comfy chairs with our laptops on our, well, laps. No more dedicated desk with straight back chair. Just grab the laptop and sit anywhere. So, my question is, since, now-a-days, laptops can pretty well do anything a box can do, why are some of you still using a box? This is an honest question on my part as all my kith and kin also use laptops.
61 • Box vs laptop (by moulder61 on 2026-05-08 22:43:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
@60
Personally, expansion capabilites, a proper keyboard and 2 1920x1080 24" monitors. Plus I hate all that swiping/touchpad lark.
Don't even get me started on mobile phones!!
Obviously it's not portable, so if I have to go away for any amount of time I take plenty of paperback books and have a good read.
62 • @60 • Box vs laptop (by El Cacho on 2026-05-08 23:30:16 GMT from United States)
"straight back chair"? Really? I have a comfortable office chair. Could lean back and sleep in it if I wanted. A small desk with everything I need at hand. A 24" laptop would just be too cumbersome.:) I also have several USB drives which I may connect or disconnect at random times. Wired over the ear headphones used sometimes, which would be more stuff to carry around. I could write a long list, but I'll refrain. Had a laptop which gave up the ghost a while back. Not worth fixing or replacing for the very limited use it got. Wife has a large tablet with keyboard, which suffices for her. She mostly uses her smartphone.
Number of Comments: 62
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