on MUSL and Alpine and Tinkering and Solus

brent

I took the laptop that I refurb'd across the country to wife's parents house. Their internet was out (so they thought--I unplugged modem for 10 minutes...).

I had Alpine Mate freshly installed and for the last year I've been obsessed with the small "attack surface" of everything MUSL-based. Always liked Alpine. But as their internet came back the Mate install got worse. Apps pinned to panel would disappear when minimized. I know that is some borked up XDG-work that I did not want to do.

It's Not-Ready-for-Primetime performance soiled what was a great trip. In contrast the small distro was insanely fast and responsive---I love that about inits.

I have a work computer and a home desktop. I do not need a laptop.
So my MUSL/Init 'phase' has passed as I could not make it function 🙂.

Laptop to me = if I find myself in a pickle.
Criteria = must work nearly flawless OOTB (dependable).
Lesson= stick with what you know

I hope this fits my criteria--

Axios

brent I just use laptop when chilling on couch or travel and pay bills.
I could not live without 4 desktops..lol

BuzzPCSOS

brent well there it is. I have enjoyed Plasma for most of my Solus journey. I enjoy how intuitive the gui is for touch screens and find that it runs quite nicely even on the minimum 4Gb of RAM.
Some operations work way different to Budgie so initially I was tempted to install some of the programs that I was used to. On the other side of the Plasma learning curve now (but by no means a master) and most of the stock install stays as it is. Operation is quite slick and gets better with each update.
I hope you enjoy Plasma as much as I do.

brent

Axios 😀

brent

BuzzPCSOS I enjoy how intuitive the gui is for touch screens and find that it runs quite nicely even on the minimum 4Gb of RAM.

it's going on a refurb with 8GB memory and a brand new SSD. I figured KDE--I might as well get hip with the times. also at @Axios -- do both of you think 8GB/SSD adequate for Solus Plasma?

BuzzPCSOS On the other side of the Plasma learning curve now (but by no means a master) and most of the stock install stays as it is.

Plasma--the times I tried it---seemed customizable to the point you could spend hours playing. I don't want to rush into that. I want to try the bone stock experience and tweak as I go, if I need to. I don't like Kate and Dolphin etc (as much as nemo and gedit) so the "temptation" to "gtk/gmone" the install will always be there I fear...and likely my undoing.
This isn't a DD, so baby steps for me.

BuzzPCSOS

brent do both of you think 8GB/SSD adequate for Solus Plasma?

8GB? Oh the luxury! My 'powerful' laptop runs on 8GB and an SSD on Plasma and runs very nicely. Boot time of about 10 seconds and seems to deal with the few games I have tried rather well.
Plasma is a graphic intensive OS so a decent graphics card can help a lot. If that is not an option you can turn off some Plasma effects. So far I have not bothered even on my low spec Dell tablet (4GB RAM) which feels more responsive than most android devices that I have used.
Choice of an SSD can make big differences. Old machines can be upgraded using a 2.5" drive but if there is an onboard slot for a pcie device (looks like a bit like a RAM stick) this should always be the one to choose as data transfer rates are higher and will give your PC a further boost.

brent

BuzzPCSOS 8GB? Oh the luxury

used, ebay, cheap 🙂

BuzzPCSOS Plasma is a graphic intensive OS so a decent graphics card can help a lot. If that is not an option you can turn off some Plasma effects.

thank you, this is what I need to be mindful of. I will find out later today.

BuzzPCSOS Old machines can be upgraded using a 2.5" drive but if there is an onboard slot for a pcie device (looks like a bit like a RAM stick) this should always be the one to choose as data transfer rates are higher and will give your PC a further boost.

replacing the decrepit little HDD with a 2.5 SSD..it's good. also an ebay find.

New SSD and more memory cannot always compensate for low Ghz and stock graphics card...in Alpine's case it did._ Insanely fast and snappy and responsive. I hope that translates to Solus Plasma.

If I didn't feel like Alpine Mate was falling apart as I used it, I would have kept it. Plasma will be a journey.
Buzz thanks for your response.

BuzzPCSOS

brent Not sure when I switched to Plasma, the 4.5 iso is the oldest I can find in my backups but I may have been there before that.
Weekly updates have been a joy on my PCs watching everything evolve and get faster. I suppose some of that is my choice of manufacturers I like second hand Dell laptops, they are a decent quality make and Dell often give an opportunity to buy their PCs with Linux installed so the drivers should be out there.
I use USB storage a lot and particularly like the way that an external drive will get checked before asking if you want to mount it. All USB controls are available from the system tray (sorry windows term not sure what it gets called on Linux).
Dolphin has some really great features but does many things differently so I initially missed the Budgie file manager. Stay with it, Dolphin is very strong, stable and keeps on improving.

diagnostics0

@brent Have you tried PostmarketOS? It's basically Gnome on top of Alpine.

brent

BuzzPCSOS
Actually I enjoyed my 2 hours exploring Solus Plasma last night. It was by far the best and airiest version I've tried. But it was not snappy and responsive and kinda sluggish in places and I did not know how to disable all the animations stuff I was supposed to disable so not a fit for the old laptop.
That said I would consider this on dedicated newer hardware i.e. my desktop.
Thanks for all your info.