libre

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Welcome to libre

A comm dedicated to the fight for free software with an anti-capitalist perspective.

The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.

libretion

Resources

Free Software, Free Society provides an excellent primer in the origins and theory around free software and the GNU Project, the pioneers of the Free Software Movement.
Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, take Linux Mint for a spin. If you're ready to take the plunge, flock to Fedora! If you're a computer hobbyist and love DIY, use Arch, NixOS or the many, many other offerings out there.

Those on Apple Silicon Macs can consult Asahi Linux for available options.

Rules

Be on topic: Posts should be about free software and other hacktivst struggles. Topics about general tech news should be in the technology comm or programming comm. That doesn't mean all posts have to be serious though, memes are welcome!
Avoid using misleading terms/speading misinformation: Here's a great article about what those words are. In short, try to avoid parroting common Techbro lingo and topics.
Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
All site-wide rules still apply

Artwork

Xenia was meant to be an alternative to Tux and was created (licensed under CC0) by Alan Mackey in 1996.
Comm icon (of Xenia the Linux mascot) was originally created by @ioletsgo
Comm banner is a close up of "Dorlotons Degooglisons" by David Revoy (CC-BY 4.0) for Framasoft

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

apparently the £30 I paid in 2010 for a copy of windows 7 isn't good enough for Bill anymore, so I need some questions answering before I switch to Linux: (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Linux is still for nerds but I hate windows 11 more than I hate being uncool so I'm just going to have to step down my rizz and learn more computer stuff.

My 3 concerns are, in order, gaming (mostly through steam or fitgirl), playing TTRPGs through Foundry Virtual Tabletop and Discord, and image editing (but really simple image editing. more paint.net than GIMP). What distro would be best for this? What are the actual differences in distros beyond appearances? Is it worth installing the Steam OS, or is that still really only useable with handhelds?
Can I just shove all the data I want to save on an external drive, install my chosen distro, and transfer stuff back on? Will the external drive need to be formatted in a specific way first? can I just slot stuff like program settings back in the new system or will I have to convert them to a different file format?
Do I have to buy the thigh highs or do they just appear? Will it still work if I don't wear them? I don't like wearing socks so I'd prefer a distro without them if possible.

If it helps I'm running a Ryzen 5 2600 and RX 7600, and my favourite colour is purple.

Edit: Thanks for the answers everyone, I'm going to do a bit more reading on distros before choosing one, but I have a better idea what I'm looking at now.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

Any reasonably mainstream distro will handle Steam just fine, I use Fedora. I don't do much Fitgirl stuff myself, but apparently managing it through Heroic Games Launcher is relatively simple. Discord irrc works fine, but it's been a hot minute since I've used it and I don't use FVT, but they list Linux install instructions so you should be fine? I personally just use GIMP, it starts up much faster on Linux but I'll admit to being accustomed to the UI. Something like Pinta might be more your speed. You shouldn't install Steam OS, it's only meant for the Steam Deck and has poor hardware support. Bazzite is very gaming focused, based on Fedora and comes with Steam pre-installed so you don't have to faff about with RPMFusion.
Should be fine, Linux generally has decent support for NTFS. Programme setting will be a headache with how different apps store stuff, but some (like GIMP) you might be able to get away with.
It's either thigh highs or a neckbeard, choose your poison.