Update on my #LinuxCurious journey. Linux Mint remains my daily driver. I go back to W11 every month or so to push backups to a service that doesn't support Linux, and do stuff I haven't figured out here yet.

I used to buy my DRM-free music from Apple. But that's not an option here. And I'm not giving Jeff Bozo any extra money. Found Qobuz.com. Seems sketch, but apparently has a decent reputation. No software needed!

I was NOT a fan of meta embedded on the signup page, and them disabling + in email addresses. So I used the "dot hack." Just add periods in the email you give them. Gmail ignores them.

I have a love hate relationship with Zoom, but one major bright spot is that I hosted a committee meeting last night, on Zoom via my #LinuxMint daily driver PC. Zero issues, it just worked. I appreciate that they have options for a whole host of Linux distros.

PS: I just learned you can double click a downloaded .deb file to install, just like a windows exe. And here I was using command line. Ha!

An update on my #LinuxCurious journey. The transition was surprisingly easy despite an audio issue which drove me nuts and turned out to be a windows-not-playing-nice plus dumb user issue.

#LinuxMint was my daily driver most of May. I haven't returned to windows in a few weeks. Still a few uncommon usecases to explore (I'm putting them off) but I'm happy. #Linux (seems applicable to #endof10 folks, too)

First of many CDs from Grandma and Grandpa's collection to rip and add to #Plex: Tracy Byrd- No Ordinary Man. Turns out the first step, is the two-step.

Sound Juicer is working well. I usually rip raw wav files, settling for flac. Suppose it's time to join the modern world, circa 2001.

Continuing my #LinuxCurious journey today and exploring my less common usecases.

Today #LinuxMint recognized my external optical drive with no issue. Though it wasn't obvious that it "saw" it (no disc loaded yet)

About to explore CD ripping options. ChatGPT says folks like sound juicer so that's where I'll start.

Hey #OpenSource and #Linux community... I know it's fun and cute, but maybe don't call your stuff "really bad" if you want broad(ish) appeal?

This is cool. But while you’re at it maybe take Linux out for a spin? Linux Mint has been my daily driver for a few weeks now. It’s not perfect and I can still fall back on Windows if I must, via dual boot. But it’s good to try new things. Join me in being #LinuxCurious https://mastodon.world/@signalapp/114546833960629125

Upon upgrade to #Windows11, I magically lost the ability to print double-sided. Had it with Windows 10, and it was taken away with 11. I never bothered to dig in and find out why.

Not only did #LinuxMint recognize my printer automatically, I again can request a double-sided print. Huzzah!

I've been #LinuxCurious for a long time. Meta banning talk of it really got my attention. That plus all of the Fedi chatter from Linux nerds [he typed with admiration] and Microsoft finding new ways to suck really solidified my intent to experiment.

Well. Mint has been my mostly daily driver for a week. It hasn't been perfect. But better than expected. The one HUGE annoyance was self-inflicted (gah!) can't fault it for that.

I am not out of the woods yet, still a few more things to test out, but so far all of my use cases have been met. Yay!

Trying to get used to Nemo, the default file manager [windows Explorer] in #LinuxMint. It's different, but not bad. Familiar, but just foreign enough to have me thinking "there must be a way to do the thing"

I discovered bookmarks. Using that as a crutch instead of mapping network drives which looks.... Not fun. I started with favorites. No clue what those are for.

Thumbnails don't generate by default but I stumbled upon a global toggle in preferences. And WOW! They generate so much faster here than in Windows.

sudo more command line stuff in the past week than the entirety of my life

Greetings from Linux. An update on my #LinuxCurious attempt to make Mint my new daily driver...

My audio issues? I spent way too many hours trying to diagnose/fix.

@RadND came in with... Have you tried *fully powering down* and booting directly into Linux? And, amazingly, that worked.

I guess in all that time I was only doing restarts which weren't enough to reset hardware to a good state for Linux.

Well, dang. Spent a few hours messing w/ audio stuff in Linux. No luck. Lots of helpful replies, though. Nice!

With
lspci | grep -i audio

I see Intel Corporation Alder Lake-S HD Audio Controller (rev 11)
As well as NVIDIA video

similar results with
aplay -l
``>

alsamixer f6 select sound card, nothing is muted levels are high. disabled auto mute.

Installed and ran pavucontrol. outputdevices/line out (plugged in), and I see the equalizer bouncing along doing its thing getting signal, even knows what's playing.

You'd think the speakers weren't plugged in. Except if I reboot windows 11, all is fine.

I heard that Linux very broadly is known for sound issues. And I had anecdotal assurance that Linux Mint was better off in that regard. I noticed right before leaving the house that I seem to be affected. I’ll mess with it later but it’s understandable to have issues given my PC was made for Windows. Any tips on where to start, #LinuxMint pros?

Yes, speakers are on. Volume is up. Not muted #Linux #LinuxCurious

Hello! This is my first toot from Linux on my now dual-boot home PC. I did it!

I had to upgrade to a newer fork of the daily driver open source password manager I've been using for 20+ years. And I got to play with the terminal in order to install @joplinapp (which isn't in the software manager, ahem!)

Not sure how I'd manage without chatGPT whispering what to do in my ear.

I thought to myself, “hey why don’t I try to install Linux on my home PC while I’m hosting a super important call w/ my bosses!”

So that’s what I’m doing. Maybe. Let’s hope I don’t screw something up.

I always dread setting up dual boot and messing with partitions. Such overwhelmingly bad luck there. Yay for multiple backups of everything.

Threw a second flash drive in for crucial files and to maybe grab screenshots…

Downloaded rufus and the ISO.

Going through the integrity and authenticity checks... an interesting experience. Hello PowerShell!

I think this optional [but important(?)] I and A process is where most Windows users would check out.

Sure am thankful for the guide linked below which is on the LinuxMint install page. While it doesn't specifically indicate you actually need to install GNU Privacy Guard (gpg4win.org), I eventually figured it out.

Will continue on my #LinuxCurious journey... later.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=291093 #LinuxMint #Linux

EDIT: Changed grub to rufus

While I am -and plan to remain- an AI skeptic, I can't deny that chatbots have been helpful with specific use cases.

Here's a great example: I knew I needed a partition for an install but I didn't know how to ask what to do next. So I told chatGPT what I did and it gave me next steps.

Worth noting I feel way more confident continuing my #LinuxCurious journey with it (and Fedifriends) for help.

And that's pretty darn cool.