Linux questions

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about Linux if anyone can be bothered to answer them....

1) if I have 3 SSDs in my computer, and I want to install 3 different Linux distros onto them (1 distro on 1 SSD), will I need to create a swap partition on each SSD that I put Linux on, or will 1 partition suffice? Partitioning the storage in order to install Linux onto them is such a chore for me...

Even after having installed Linux dozens of times by now I still mess something up and have to reformat and repartition the SSD before I click on "install", and the fact that some distros need ext4, while others need btrfs... or that some of them want /home partition while others don't, etc. makes it even more complicated.

2) speaking of swap, how big should the swap partition be? I did some research and the opinions are mixed, like always with most Linux-related stuff

So, what's the proper size for the swap partition? My 3 SSDs (in case that this matters) are

- 465 GB
- 465 GB
- 900 GB

And my RAM size is 32 GB of DDR 4...

3) which distro is compatible better with Intel ARC video cards?

And the reason I'm asking this is because 1) I know that Nvidia, for example, is troublesome on all / most distro, so it's possible that some distros won't work out of the box with Intel cards either... and 2) my current distro (Mint 22) has had crashes sometimes, and I assume it's because of the videocard... although, I suppose it could also be because of the fact that I've installed Cinnamon over Xfce and other stuff like that

But still, which distro do you, guys.... ok, let me clarify before someone goes like "bro, use gentoo, it's the best linux" .... so, which NEWBIE-FRIENDLY distro works great with Intel ARC GPUs (besides Mint that is, as with Mint it still seems to work well despite of my crashes and whatnot)

4) just like with the swap partition from point 1, must I also create 1 boot partition on each SSD that I install Linux on, or can I use the same boot partition for all DIFFERENT distros?

Also, how large should the boot partitions be? Some people say 250 MB, others say 1 GB lol... a pretty big difference in opinions, so what's yours? I guess I could make it 1 GB and be done with it as I don't think I'll ever feel the need for the 1 GB that I'm using for boot partition...

5) I've heard that there are 3 (or maybe more??) main Linuxes (so to speak) that all distros are based on, such as Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, etc. And I've heard that each one of these major Linuxes come with its own commands, package managers, etc...

My question: if I chose a distro from each one of these major platforms (let's say the ones I've listed: Arch, Ubuntu, Debian) and install that particular distro on 1 SSD, when I boot up the computer will the GRUB menu still appear and let me select which distro to boot into, or will they conflict with each other?

And the reason I'm asking this is because currently I have Nobara 4.1 installed onto one of the 465 GB SSDs, and Mint 22 on the other 465 GB SSDs, but when I boot the PC up I always see only the Mint entry in that list. If I ever want to boot into Nobara I need to press F11 (I think, I don't remember) or another F key that brings up (another boot??) menu and that's how I can select to log into Nobara.... pretty complicated....

And Nobara I think belongs to Fedora (or is made using Fedora code, or God-knows what these terminologies are, I never understood them), so Fedora is yet another one of those major Linuxes, and - as you can see - for now I'm only running 2 different Linuxes and they still conflict with each other, I think that with 3 of them my computer might not even start anymore

So yeah, please let me know if there will be any conflict between the various bootloaders / boot partitions / whatever should I choose to pick a distro from each major Linux

6) any particular order in which to install the various Linux distros?

I mean, for example, let's say I decided to use Manjaro, Nobara and Zorin OS at the same time (but again, each one of these onto its own separate SSD), which one should I install first and why?

I guess that what I'm trying to ask is whether some of these distros are more pretentious than others, in the way that - when dual-booting Linux + Windows, for example - you must always install Linux first because otherwise - from what I understood - the Windows installer screws up Linux' bootloader which, eventually, renders both OS unusable or something...

It's so complicated, man.... I can't believe what a HUGE opportunity the Linux community has to provide the perfect OS for people now with Microsoft turning rogue on their customers, but they refuse to make things simple and standardized just because "tHiS iS LiNuX, bRo, If yOu DoN't l LiKe iT uSe WiNdOw$$$!"

Anyway, 7) last but not least... assuming that I will intend to use the 3rd SSD (the 900 GB one) exclusively for Timeshift backups of the other 2 SSDs, do I still need to install Linux on this 3rd SSD too, or will the backups be transferable back and forth between this 3rd SSD and the other 2 at will, and without prior formatting / installation / whatever else that might be needed?

I apologize for the long post and multiple questions, but - as you can probably tell - Linux still confuses the hell out of me despite of me having used it for nearly 4 years now... There are so many distros, with so many different setups and requirements and package managers (even different commands for the same action) which is truly overwhelming for a newbie like me, even moreso for a newbie AND tech-illiterate like me... So I had to ask all of these...

If you're a seasoned Linux user (or know Linux well) please help a brother out

Pretty sure you should ask ChatGPT.

tubeboost said:

Pretty sure you should ask ChatGPT.

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I'd rather die

anybody?

Would luv to help you but cannot, reddit across a few accounts these questions. I noticed when i had a problem i wanted to fix for free ppl get pissed and start to track your reddit post across many subreddits, why i say use a few accts.

I still want to learn one day how to rotate IPs on linux vms one day when i put more effort into learning it.

wwsosop said:

Would luv to help you but cannot, reddit across a few accounts these questions. I noticed when i had a problem i wanted to fix for free ppl get pissed and start to track your reddit post across many subreddits, why i say use a few accts.

I still want to learn one day how to rotate IPs on linux vms one day when i put more effort into learning it.

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don't take this the wrong way, but I've no idea what you're talking about with the reddit accounts and tracking posts and whatnot

do not use Linux as desktop...

3 Distros - 3 Times The Problems

Pick one and be an expert - ARCH

Of the major Linux distributions, the ones that work best with Intel Arc graphics cards are those that provide the newest Linux kernel and Mesa graphics drivers directly from their official repositories, as Intel's support is built into these open-source components.

For the best out-of-the-box experience, your top choices are:

1. Fedora Workstation: Arguably the best choice. It consistently ships with a very recent kernel and Mesa, meaning excellent Arc support is available immediately after installation. It's stable, polished, and requires no extra setup.
2. Arch Linux / EndeavourOS: As rolling releases, they provide the absolute latest software. You will always have the newest kernel and drivers, guaranteeing top performance and compatibility. This is ideal if you're comfortable with a DIY approach (EndeavourOS makes installation much easier).

> Partitioning the storage in order to install Linux onto them is such a chore for me

The auto installer does that for you

if you have to worry about swapping your memory is too small

Chat.akash.network

In Linux, a swap partition (or swap space) is a dedicated area on your storage drive (like a hard disk or SSD) that the operating system uses as virtual memory when your physical RAM (Random Access Memory) runs out.

BUY MORE MEMORY and make that partition tiny although 32 GB you should never even need to swap

Always format as EXT so you can read the drive on a windows system if its in an SSD holder

If it was me I would buy another 900 GB and use both the 900's in a RAID for backing up the two 450's

SSD RAID cases are inexpensive

Learn from this expert

https://www.youtube.com/@DistroTube

Sincerely

The Eye

chadtodd2077 said:

do not use Linux as desktop...

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why not? The poor Microsoft and Apple trillionaires are losing about 0.1% of their market share and are feeling financially bootstrapped?

Please don't shill (indirectly as it seems) for mega corporations! Linux is a perfect choice (and the OS of the future) for desktops and for everything else, Microsoft's era is gone, and Windows 11 is the nail in their coffin.

I've been using Linux for my desktop computer for 3+ years now, and I'm not regretting it. Nowadays Linux is even better for gaming than Windows is, and this should tell you everything you need to know about Linux vs Doze. Microsoft is the past (the 90s), man, Linux is the present and the future, so start adapting!

Schaden25156 said:

Hey man, I get your frustration, Linux can be a pain sometimes with all the options. Here's my take, keeping it simple:

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um, I think you forgot something

theeyeinside said:

Pick one and be an expert - ARCH

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arch is not a good recommendation for newbies like me

theeyeinside said:

Of the major Linux distributions, the ones that work best with Intel Arc graphics cards are those that provide the newest Linux kernel and Mesa graphics drivers directly from their official repositories, as Intel's support is built into these open-source components.

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yeah, that's what I've heard after yesterday's research...

theeyeinside said:

Fedora Workstation: Arguably the best choice. It consistently ships with a very recent kernel and Mesa, meaning excellent Arc support is available immediately after installation. It's stable, polished, and requires no extra setup.

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funnily, that's precisely what I went with. Right now I'm typing this from my new KDE Fedora 42 installation. And yes, Mesa (the thing responsible for GPU drivers) does indeed seem to work greatly, right out of the box...

theeyeinside said:

Arch Linux / EndeavourOS: As rolling releases, they provide the absolute latest software. You will always have the newest kernel and drivers, guaranteeing top performance and compatibility. This is ideal if you're comfortable with a DIY approach (EndeavourOS makes installation much easier).

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again, Arch-based distros are NOT newbie friendly, I don't know why you keep mentioning these distros when it's clear as daylight that I am newbie.

theeyeinside said:

Chat.akash.network

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this looks like self-promotion. Also, it's not even related to my questions, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't do this crap next time...

theeyeinside said:

Always format as EXT so you can read the drive on a windows system if its in an SSD holder

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Windows can't read EXT formats. You probably meant FAT... or NTFS at least, but definitely not EXT (at least from what I've heard, I could still be wrong, of course)

theeyeinside said:

If it was me I would buy another 900 GB and use both the 900's in a RAID for backing up the two 450's

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I am not you though

theeyeinside said:

SSD RAID cases are inexpensive

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maan, what has RAID got anything to do with my questions??

You guys keep missing my questions.... but anyway, I've already figured it out by now, so I don't need help anymore. Thanks everyone who chimed in, even if you guys replied to god-knows what topics that I never inquired about

chadtodd2077 said:

do not use Linux as desktop...

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For what reason?

Hey, sorry that I didn't reply but I was so busy with visa stuff :/. I use Linux since about 2001 and last time I dual booted was with Windows XP, fulltime desktop linux user since that time.

I second Fedora recommendation and I see you picked that yourself as well... Linus Torvalds uses that as his daily driver for a reason. Generally if you want more polished, corporate product Red Hat Enterprise Linux (free developer version or clones) or just Fedora (basically testing version of Red Hat) is the best choice. Debian is an old reliable, and community based if you prefer that, and I started with it, but it has some problems nowadays. I find that while tons of things worked out of the box years ago, it's not necessarily the case anymore.

Other distros are basically experimental / for learning like Gentoo or Arch. Don't listen to people saying advanced users use Arch. Honestly, long term users probably want to use their computers, not spend days on configuration xD. But of course fun configuration has its place too and has educational value, that's why it's nice to use something like Arch (or don't be shy and do LFS xDDD) to learn about how linux works, etc, but I'd personally not use that on a daily basis, unless perhaps some preconfigured version to save time (ie Manjaro, with all the hate it gets, but stuff breaks too so... No, let's use Red Hat or Debian, eh).

I don't use Windows too often, so I'm not as knowledgeable, but you probably can access ext filesystem through Midnight Commander, I remember doing that.

If you want to distro hop with a speed of light I'd suggest old usb key (not too big, I bought new one with too much space and it's unsupported! while my old cheapish key works fine) and install Ventoy on it. Then you can have multiple live distros on one usb key and test them out. If you like it, you can do permanent install. Keep your files on a separate drive so if you change distros or reinstall the same one you don't overwrite your files. You can also test more distros in Virtual Box but yeah, if you want to run directly on your hardware live usb is the way. You can experiment with different niche distros that hobbyists are making without risking your main system. Also remember to harden your system, most people assume it can't be hacked because it's Linux, that's obviously not the case. On OpenBSD I do the other way around - it's already secured, so I rice it because it's ugly out of the box xD.

I like Linux mint. It’s mint!

I had linux mint on a laptop for 5 years straight before I got a new laptop and never had a problem. Very stable. Everything you need. You’ll find it to be familiar to operating systems you’ve already used. Very intuitive.

SilverClouds said:

If you want to distro hop with a speed of light I'd suggest old usb key (not too big, I bought new one with too much space and it's unsupported! while my old cheapish key works fine) and install Ventoy on it.

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I tried Ventoy once but it didn't work... but maybe I didn't follow the exact steps on how to make it work, I don't know...

SilverClouds said:

Hey, sorry that I didn't reply but I was so busy with visa stuff :/.

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no problem, man! We're all busy...

And now it's my time to apologize for replying late, but I was busy too, and only now I can afford to do some catching up with old stuff

SilverClouds said:

I second Fedora recommendation and I see you picked that yourself as well... Linus Torvalds uses that as his daily driver for a reason. Generally if you want more polished, corporate product Red Hat Enterprise Linux (free developer version or clones) or just Fedora (basically testing version of Red Hat) is the best choice.

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I removed Fedora in the same day because many of the actions that I took would return a SELinux error or something, and it annoyed me so much that I remove it completely as I was very pressed by time to get back to online biz, so I opted for what I got used to over the years: Mint so that's what I'm using now, despite of its still daily crashes. It's not as strong and secure as people say it is, but it is indeed more stable than every other distro that I've tried.

The only thing I regret about Fedora is KDE, I really liked that and I wished that Mint came pre-installed with KDE so that I don't have to install it myself and screw everything up in the process

But anyway, I will give Fedora another chance, but not this year as until January I will be extremely busy, so I don't have time for distro-hopping...

SilverClouds said:

Debian is an old reliable, and community based if you prefer that, and I started with it, but it has some problems nowadays. I find that while tons of things worked out of the box years ago, it's not necessarily the case anymore.

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good to know as Debian was what I heavily debated on, alongside Mint and Fedora... But since it's having problems...

By the way, as an old-time Linux user, don't you have the feeling that many distros are having too many issues lately? I can't prove this (call me conspiracy theorist if you want, I'm used to it ) but I have a feeling that Microsoft are not happy with losing ground to Linux and are attacking all / most of the popular (and arguably the most stable) distros, just to make people afraid and insecure so that they go back to Doze... That's the feeling I'm getting, but like I said, I can't prove it, it's just what I feel is going on...

SilverClouds said:

Honestly, long term users probably want to use their computers, not spend days on configuration xD.

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exactly!

SilverClouds said:

(or don't be shy and do LFS xDDD) to learn about how linux works,

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um, nope! I'm good

SilverClouds said:

I don't use Windows too often, so I'm not as knowledgeable, but you probably can access ext filesystem through Midnight Commander, I remember doing that.

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no idea what that is... and at this point I don't need it either, so I will probably never find out what that is

SilverClouds said:

Keep your files on a separate drive so if you change distros or reinstall the same one you don't overwrite your files.

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yeah, I just purchased a new 1 TB SSD and I use it exclusively for Timeshift backups (and I'm also considering putting the VMs and BackInTime backups there too, but I will see about these later),

SilverClouds said:

Also remember to harden your system, most people assume it can't be hacked because it's Linux, that's obviously not the case.

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until recently I used to be one of those "most people"

But seeing how many distros are under attack lately I got the message and I'm trying to "harden" my system to the best of my ability. But besides (finally) setting up Timeshift for the 1st time since using Linux I don't know what else to do, I assumed that Mint is secure by default...

So, what exactly can I do to "harden" it if you don't mind me asking?

Zombie Pop said:

I had linux mint on a laptop for 5 years straight before I got a new laptop and never had a problem. Very stable. Everything you need. You’ll find it to be familiar to operating systems you’ve already used. Very intuitive.

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spot on! These are the exact same reasons I've chosen Mint too... also because (4-5 years ago when I first used Linux as my main OS for the 1st time) Mint was taking up the number 1 spot in DW, so that's influenced my decision too... A LOT actually

But yeah, Mint is great and I recommend it to everyone who wants to ditch Doze for Linux