Hello All.
First, I have been daily driving Linux(POP_OS) for nearly a year and outside of some frustrations, it has been a great experience. I expect a certain level of weirdness and quirks. I was using my Windows laptop to get some stuff done, and wanted to listen to some music over Bluetooth. This is where I messed up. I guess recent Windows updates just kind of break Bluetooth?? Every fix I have googled and tried failed to fix the problem. I kind of expect this behavior from Linux. I don’t expect it from an OS developed by a For Profit company.
Long story short, recommend me a distro that runs well on an Asus laptop with an Integrated and Discreet GPU. If Windows breaks functionality, then there isn’t a big reason to keep a Windows Machine around. If you say Arch, I intend to bully you but I’m open to any suggestions. Microsoft isn’t worth keeping around, even as a backup/standby.
I appreciate you <3
Quick Edit: This received a lot more engagement than I thought. Thank you all for the recommendations. I’ll spin up some VM’s and test them out. Thank you all for the guidance. May your day/night/other be most excellent!
As you already use Pop, why change? Is there something bothering, or something does not run well? How old is this laptop?
If you don’t feel like continuing with Pop, I’d try Debian as you value stability. It may be a slight pain to set up initially, but when it’s done it should generally Just Work until eternity. The expert installer allows you to enable non-free repos for any proprietary drivers by default.
POP_OS runs great and it’s my primary OS on my System76 machine. My issue seems to be more to do with Nvidia Drivers. Nothing that’s a deal breaker, but the Machine Spirit needs appeasement on occasion. I’m actually really excited for COSMIC to be released.
On my Asus machine, I’m just tired of Windows and want to familiarize myself with more of the Linux environment. It’s maybe 2 or 3 years old at this point
Right, okay. If you want to fool around as you have a stable daily driver already, sure get a more DIY distro or just try out multiple things before settling. Debian should do the trick though, it’s somewhat DIY while being very stable so the updates rarely break anything. But you might also like Arch, or NixOS, or just Mint. I think the point is it’s just not very easy to predict how each of these is gonna actually run on your actual hardware. So to really find out you’ll have to install something and acknowledge you may need to re-do it a couple times before finding something that works for you.