If not solus, what distro would you be using

WetGeek For those who like to explore interesting distros, Pisi is certainly one you'd enjoy taking a look at.

My Pisi adventure was fun for a while, but unfortunately, it seems that no one is seriously working on making it viable. I reported some beta issues I'd found, and every time I checked back, my reports were still the top three in the list. And the number of issues had not changed.

I tried to join the Pisi forum, and provided all relevant info, after which I was told to look for an email with a link I should click in order to "activate" my membership. (Typical email verification.) By the nextday that email hadn't arrived, so I added another report noting what happened, and letting them know that if that process was automated, it was apparently broken. I actually got a response a couple of days later thanking me for the report, and telling me that their "web team" was working on it. But as of today, the email still hasn't arrived.

As I said, it was fun for a while, and I thought that Pisi ("cat" in Turkish) looked like it had a lot of potential, especially as a distro supporting Budgie, but it seems to be virtually abandoned. Such a shame. But since I'd encouraged others to take a look at it, I thought I should follow up with a retraction. Probably not worth your time.

elfprince This possibly could be a one person project

Yes. And I understand and appreciate that. And maybe I'll check back with them in another year or so. (It only takes me 4 or 5 minutes to create a VM.)

But after encouraging others to take a look at Pisi, I wanted to make it clear that this probably isn't a good time to do that, after all. Their experience would almost certainly be the same as mine.

elfprince Perhaps he alluded to the potential problem of a distro not running on hardware installation, but ok on VB?

I suspect so. The problem with virtual machines (and I currently have 11 available in Gnome Boxes, Zorin 16 Core permanent and the others referential/experimental temporary) is that virtual machines frequently mask hardware issues.

Brucehankins I've recently got my oldest son on MX Linux XFCE, which he seems to enjoy. Main reason was some of the software he needs is only available for Debian/apt and I want him to learn Linux before trying to compile from source first. Looks like a very nice distro though from what I've seen.

I find myself in the same spot. I need to run Microsoft Edge on the laptop I use at the railroad, and it has become clear to me that Microsoft is not going to develop either a Snap or a Flatpak version any time soon.

I am temporarily using Zorin 16 Lite (XFCE) and it is working fine, but I'm looking at Ubuntu Budgie, Lubuntu (LXQT), Ubuntu MATE, and Xbuntu (XFCE) for a longer-term solution after 22.04 is released, because Zorin 16 is based on 20.04 LTS and will not move to 22.04 LTS until the summer of 2023.

The laptop is low-spec (AMD A6/R4, 4GB, 32GB) but ran Solus Budgie acceptably. I suspect, given Ubuntu's general sluggishness, that I'll not be able to run Ubuntu Budgie comfortably on that laptop.

A side note: Ubuntu Budgie lists 60GB hard drive space as recommended. I asked about that, and got this response from fossfreedom (one of the team members of both UB and BuddiesOfBudgie): "Most distros quote out of the box requirements. This isn't realistic. When folk use a desktop, lets say for 2 or more years, all sorts of apps are installed together with lots of data accumulated. 60GB is a fair figure in a realistic real world calculation." An interesting observation on his part, although I comfortably run Linux under 30GB except on my primary Solus desktop, where Gnome Boxes distro images eat up 197GB.

Brucehankins I'm a huge fan of Lubuntu. It works wonderfully and it's very light on resources.

I think so, too, although the desktop is a different motif and is taking some time for me to work with comfortably. As I understand it, 20.04 is LXDE, 21.10 transitional, and full LXQT implementation coming with 22.04. I think that I'll focus on Lubuntu 21.10, building several instances in Gnome Boxes with different adds/removes, testing and probing until I get it right. That way I'll be ready to cut over to 20.04 in May with minimal fuss.

Brucehankins It can get a bit heavier if you start adding Plasma bits and bobs, or switch to a wm like kwin, but out of the box it's not bad so those are more for aesthetics.

I'll be using the laptop 3-4 hours a week, and only at the railroad, so I'm going to add Microsoft Edge, remove Firefox/Trojita, LibreOffice Draw/Impress, and other unneeded items, but otherwise run out-of-the-box. I want to stay as light as reasonably possible, given the laptop's specs and I'm content with basic.

WetGeek I've had great luck with the "refurbished" computers I've bought on Amazon.

I use Optiplex and Latitude, and, like you, I buy refurbished and have had good experience.

In my case, I buy then-current 7000-series models sold by Dell as "certified refurbished". The computers come with a standard Dell business Optiplex/Latitude 3-year next-day on-site repair warranty. All are computers were returned by enterprise customers, some needing component repair and others just returned for whatever reason.

When I decide is it time for a refresh, I pick out the model I want from the Dell retail site, and then keep my eyes open at the Dell Outlet until the exact model I want comes along. Usually that happens within a month. I typically pay about half what Dell is selling them for retail. The reason I buy refurbished is that I can get a decent new business computer without busting the bank, and because I got the computer at about half price I don't feel guilty refreshing every 2-3 processor generations.

The $129 Inspiron 3180's (I bought two) were "throwaways", bought specifically for use at the railroad. The first died when the keyboard got sprayed with hydraulic fluid, and the other one died with a pop this morning, presumably of natural causes.

I bought a slightly better A9/R5/4GB/64GB Inspiron 3180 about a year after I bought the "throwaways". It was 2018's "get 'em in the door" special and I picked it up for $149. I bought it to play Red Alert 2 The Aftermath. It is the only computer I have at this point that will handle Red Alert 2's oddball graphics (I've never gotten Red Alert 2 running on Intel graphics), so I'll be careful with it if I take it to the railroad. I might use the Latitude 7390 (2018) I just replaced with a Latitude 7520 up there instead. The 7390 was more expensive than the 3180 by a factor of ten, but the 3180 is priceless.

I think that it is fun to learn about each other's buying habits and preferences. The more I learn, the more I discover that we are all a bit, uh, odd.