physicist164
physicist164 Yes but I never used solus for extended periods of time. I use to have dual boot with windows and since my hardware is old now I can't use windows anymore.
Your hardware is not preventing you from using Windows. Microsoft is preventing you from using Windows. The hardware requirement changes that have been made were done in order to force millions of people to purchase expensive new hardware which is not necessary for the end user but is being done to enrich a handful of already very rich people.
My laptop was built in 2011 and was designed for Windows. I have since rebuilt it and upgraded most of the parts. In March 2019 I was able to finally successfully install Solus Budgie and have run that same installation successfully ever since. There has never been any issue that has broken my installation so badly that I could not fix it.. and I have tried. Prior to using Solus I broke four different Debian/Ubuntu based distros. I have not had to use Windows for any reason in the time between.. I've not had any issues working remotely (although I have sometimes had to spend a while finding solutions/tools to make that possible)
I am "that guy" everyone calls to fix their computer. I would feel confident installing Solus on my mother's computer and believe that she would be able to use and maintain the OS without my help. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because she won't leave me alone with her computer long enough to do it. 😃
Some PERSONAL suggestions to avoid some of the problems I have run into:
1: DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL ANYTHING FROM SOURCE.
It is entirely possible to install pretty much anything from source on Solus. I advise against it. It is always more complicated than it is supposed to be and always creates more issues than it solves, from my personal experience.
2: Solus Official Repo > Flatpak > Snap > AppImage
If there is a version of the software you need available in the Solus Repo I would always advise you to use that to install applications. In my opinion, Flathub is the more secure alternative to find third-party applications. I prefer using flatpak over snap as well. I use Snaps only when there is no Flatpak available. AppImages are very easy and you can find pretty much anything at places like AppImageHub.
3: Budgie/Gnome has been easier than KDE, in my experience.
I hated KDE for a long time and am only now coming to understand it well enough not to have to fight with it. However for simple functions like streaming using a DLNA server in KDE took hours and hours and hours to figure out what worked best.. using Budgie or Gnome sharing your media is enabled by default using Rygel and it's built in.
4: There is always an Open Source alternative.
There is always a version of whatever application you are looking for that run on Linux. I would advise you to become friends with AlternativeTo. Whatever program you are looking for, just do a search for it in AlternativeTo and it will give you multiple alternatives that can be filtered for just Linux options.
5: Vivaldi is a good browser for Higher Education.
I am Vivaldi Ambassador. Vivaldi has a number of built-in features like Mail and Notes (and many others) that make it an exceptional choice for people attending University.
6: Solus OS is the best OS.
Solus OS is reliable, stable and secure. It has an exceptional community. Solus and Vivaldi are the only two tools I need to do everything I do. You can feel confident choosing Solus as your main driver.
