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For many people, the #Linux vs #Windows vs #Mac debate is a privilege — it assumes you can choose. But working with the Computer Upcycle Project, I've seen the real choice is often Linux vs no computer at all.

~95% of donated computers are "too old" for Windows 11 or macOS. Linux installs on them anyway, adding 10+ years of life to machines #Microsoft and #Apple called trash.

This isn't Linux vs Windows. It's Linux vs e-waste.

#Linux #Apple #microsoft #windows #mac
in reply to Mike

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Ashwin Dixit

@thegardendude

I am an experienced Linux user and excited about nixOS. Doesn't it require some scripting though, compared to other distros?
This looks very good. I hope you put together some more sections on the webpage, like a FAQ, describing how you have made it easier.

I'm planning to derive a distro from nixOS, and replace the nix language with an existing, popular, battle-tested scripting language like Ruby or Perl. ( Ruling out Python & Raku ). This could drive adoption.

@thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸
in reply to Ashwin Dixit

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Plan-A

 — (0.0.0.0)

@Ashwin Dixit @thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @Mike
NixOS doesn't require traditional scripting. Instead of writing imperative shell scripts to install packages or configure services, you define your entire system's desired state in a declarative configuration file using the Nix language.

This means you declare what your system should look like (e.g., "I want Firefox and a web server enabled"), and NixOS handles the "how" automatically. This approach provides powerful benefits like reproducibility, atomic upgrades, and easy rollbacks, replacing ad-hoc scripts with a single, version-controllable source of truth.

There is no other way..

@Ashwin Dixit @thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @Mike

reshared this

in reply to Plan-A

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Ashwin Dixit

@zer0unplanned @thegardendude
I get the basic idea behind nixOS and its scripting language that handles configuration. I'm planning to replace the nix language with Ruby/Perl, since those languages are already known, and it would save people the trouble of learning the nix language, and would draw more people in to nixOS.
@Plan-A @thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸
in reply to Ashwin Dixit

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Daniel Lakeland

@purrperl @zer0unplanned@friendica.rogueproject.org @thegardendude @codemonkeymike

Have a look at #guix, maybe just help increase the number of packages and services available there... Scheme is a pretty easy to learn language and widely taught in CS education.

#guix @Ashwin Dixit @thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @Mike
in reply to Daniel Lakeland

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Hartmut Goebel

I support this recommendation.
Another *ixOS will take years to take of, like the others did. And I think, the world/community/… will benefit more if joining efforts strengthening the existing ones instead of having yet another *ixOS.
@dlakelan @purrperl @thegardendude @codemonkeymike
@Daniel Lakeland @Ashwin Dixit @thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @Mike
in reply to thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸

mastodon - Link to source

🌈☔🌦️🍄🌱🍉

Linux advice /History

Sensitive content

@thegardendude 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸
in reply to Elizabeth

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cybervegan

@Elizafox I've been installing Linux on laptops since about 1998. I do this a LOT. I've installed it on about 15 laptops in the past year, of varying age, manufacturer and price bracket. There's only things I've had trouble with are fingerprint readers, and an old Acer netbook which might have had a hardware problem. Yes, in the old days, this was a problem, but these days Linux supports old hardware far better than windows. It really isn't much of a problem any more.

Another point rarely discussed is that installing windows is SO MUCH HARDER and takes FAR longer. I can get Linux mint installed on a laptop with an old spinning rust disk in about half an hour, and from first login you have a fully functional office suite, web browser, media player, and loads of applications installable with just a few clicks. With windows, it takes hours to get to this point even when automated with ms intune.

@Elizabeth
in reply to Mike

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Plan-A

 — (0.0.0.0)

@Mike Fedora Atomic version for the win, really.
Not only the upgrades are rollback but it's immutable> there get to know containers!
They can hack your container or a tool of it but not the host at all.

All tools are in their Podman under the hood container form named Toolbox ( an easy way to manage tools in a container with just 1 command)
As running all tools NOT exposed to internet in a container, for other tools THAT USE INTERNET CONNECTION or others you can take Flatpak > on fedora they are Sandboxed.

@Mike
in reply to Mike

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jandi

Damn right!

A friend asked me for help with their laptop, the manufacturer's site told me, when inquiring about the exact model, straight up TO BUY ANOTHER.

An 8GB RAM Ryzen 5!

The cherry on top is that, after installing Linux, fwupd worked flawlessly and updated the firmware right from the manufacturer!

The laptop is fully compatible with latest EVERYTHING and they don't even advertise it.

It's foolish and wildly anti-ecological. Please bring those machines to good use.

in reply to andybrwn

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GunChleoc

@andybrwn You can take a gander at distrosea.com/

Also, you can stick a couple of Linux distros on a USB stick and run them straight from there. Unlike Windows, no installation needed until you are ready to commit to a distro.

@codemonkeymike

Test Linux distros online - DistroSea

Instantly test run Linux distros online in the cloud for free, right from your web browser. No installation or live boot required.
DistroSea
@andybrwn @Mike
in reply to VWestlife

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Ana Tudor 🐯

@vwestlife I have tried that for my dad. Win 7 install worked fine, true, but then using it didn't... at all. Couldn't even get it to connect to WiFi and he works remotely, so he needs that. Maybe someone who's a computer person could have done it, but I'm not one, my dad even less so and can't afford to pay for that. So then Zorin OS it was. Everything I couldn't get working on Win 7 worked right out of the box. My dad has a working computer instead of a dead one.
@VWestlife
in reply to Mike

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izzy | Technically Good ✨

Yes!! I have an ASUS Vivobook from when I was in grad school ca. 2016 - would have likely gone to the Eco station if I'd tried to install Win 11 on it.

Instead, it is humming along juuuust fine with @pop_os_official on it. I use it to do research and write articles for my blog, plus assorted feed reading, browsing, email, all that good stuff. Even some light Steam gaming.

And it looks sleeker than Windows ever did!

#Linux #upcycle

#Linux #upcycle @Pop!_OS
in reply to Howard Chu @ Symas

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Tock

@hyc Especially "newer is not always better". ("Almost Human" was such a great TV Show.)

Windows 11's clarion call back in 2021 was "hardware vulnerabilities have changed the game." Here in 2026, AI backed exploits are impacting cybersecurity in a manner that resembles the rein of Caligula. Now consider the quantum computing threat that almost no one is talking about thanks to AI. This is essentially a promise of remaking encryption from the ground up... Making everything a degree harder and slower online for all.

No hardware choices are reasonably going to stop those issues.

Then throw in RAMpocalypse: Prices skyrocketing on storage and RAM, but not just RAM, CPU shortages are next. AI datacenters are eating up the consumer supply, threatening to destroy the entire tech market for computers below $500 (I'd argue $1,000 with Trump in office)... so it's all a wash anyway.

TL;DR: When the decision is "have a laptop that isn't perfect, or have nothing at all", fuck it. Keep going with Linux.

@Howard Chu @ Symas
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Mike

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Nielso

There's also special hardware that loses driver support on macOS and Windows. E.g. I don't dare to upgrade away from my MacBook Pro 2017 because it still runs with the RME Fireface 400 audio interface (using an adapter chain from Thunderbolt 3 to Firewire 400/800).

This thing also runs with Linux, but its internal hardware digital mixer is close to impossible to use with ffado-mixer, the Linux alternative. But it's better than not running it. Thunderbolt 4 is said not to be able to run this adapter chain any more.

In my main audio workstation I use UbuntuStudio and an RME digi9652 PCI card. The last Windows driver for that card is for Windows 7 32bit. Yes, this card is 20 years old now, but it is doing its job every day and an upgrade would not give me any benefit.

So, even Linux pro audio is not always easy, you can get very professional audio interfaces for cheap now used, like the Fireface 400, since they soon won't work anymore with more recent hardware and recent other OSses.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Mike

glitchsoc - Link to source

Lett Osprey 🍉

I got myself a 12 year old lill Surface Pro 3 at a "giveaway" price, tossed out Windows and set up linux.

This computer is doing more or less anything I need at the same speed as my way newer, more powerful desktop computer.

Given what I find of "old used" stuff online now, it makes me realize that I should never have bought that desktop computer.

I am never going to buy a new computer again.

I hate this "To beat windows, linux need to..." debate, because as you point out, it is not about what "OS is best" but what is sustainable.

in reply to Mike

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Zeddi

You are generally right, of course, i also hate that Microsoft / Apple is doing this.

But there are still easy and not forbidden ways to install Win11 on older Machines and there is also a (kinda costy) Windows 10 LTSC version that is supported till 2032.

Also i have strong feelings against people who say that Linux makes an old system fast. That is often not the case, and after hearing this everywhere people keep posting frustated on our unix-board about their core2duo & co

in reply to Plan-A

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Joseph Simons 🍁 🌱

Oh, just that I had been running #Ubuntu on them, but it seemed like the OS was getting finicky, started up slowly (even after a fresh install). When I put #Mint on, these problems disappeared. I know Mint uses an older Ubuntu base, but somehow the Mint developers have made it run faster and more smoothly than Ubuntu. (I have run Ubuntu also on other old machines since 2006. And I have run dual boot machines, but it isn't worth the hassle.)
#ubuntu #mint
This entry was edited (3 hours ago)
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