Hello. I’m planning on getting a little Lenovo ideapad duet 3i for general media creation n consumption. Emphasis on being able to sketch.
I want to replace win 11 s (default os) on it with a Linux distro. I heard that gallium is nice n lightweight (designed to run on Chromebooks, …which is also related cus the other computer consideration is an ideapad duo Chromebook… and these computers are very comparable.) Are there any other lightweight distros I should consider? I’m also worried about being able to run windows programs like CSP (main drawing program). N games n other things. Also would this mess up the pen-touch drivers/systems?
(Note: I know little about computer systems. And this is my first time actually setting up Linux)
I don’t know what this ‘gallium’ is. But your computer has a powerful x86 cpu, so any regular distro will work just fine.
Becuse it is your first distro, it should be something well documented (large user base) and stable.
I recommend you to format your biggest usb stick with Ventoy2Disk and it’ll be the last time you’ll ever format.
With Ventoy you can try any distro in Live mode without installing anything in your computer before you’re found your favorite.
Try at least Pop_OS! and LMDE5 (LMDE6 is released within a few weeks) over regular Mint and here’s why: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=374128
I see, I’ll try those. Debian flavour mint gets multiple reccs, hm. I knew about mint being newbie friendly. Didn’t know it has diff flavours.
“Regular” Mint = Ubuntu backend (Nvidia support) Mint Debian = More lightweight, but only Cinnamon and bad option for Nvidia gpu
curious if ubuntus slowness is related to the graphics. hm. i found someone running csp on mint cinnamon using playoblinux. so thheres some more points to mint, haha.
I have no clue. I bet Ubuntu just ships with more processes running. Stsrting from booy and continuing during the use.
Is the user experience the same with LMDE as with regular Mint?
It boots faster and is slightly more responsive as the link suggests. Neofetch has different logo.
It doesn’t have the driver manager so LMDE doesn’t play well with Nvidia gpus.
Any computer that can run windows 11 can run any Linux DE without issue - you don’t necessarily need a lightweight distro.
For that type of machine, I’d probably go with a reasonably up-to-date distro with either KDE Plasma or Gnome.
Nobara might actually be a good choice - it’s Fedora but tweaked for gaming and media creation.
By my understanding is that win 11s is a watered down walled version of win 11 for weaker machines- and that the sibling laptop has chromos, which is also a perposely limitating os also for running on weaker machines, so I assumed the thing isn’t so powerfull. Though regardless of machine power, I like my programs and UI minimal and simple (win95 boxes my belovid) I don’t like bloat or unessersary extra fancy rendering. (Idk about internal processes in terms of bulk/lightness though) i guess it is Linux and I can change the UI to anything if I beat it hard enough(?). Plasma does look appealing with the touch pen support it says.
I have an Ideapad and Fedora has been the distro that has run it ever since
i see. a fam member has experience with this one too.
I think fedora is better for most lenovo for past year, either thinkpad, ideapad, legion, etc…
Just make sure to format with @ when installing so you can restore and backup using btrfs snapshot using timeshift
While I normally prefer Linux Mint, Fedora was the only distro that worked with all touch features out of the box on my IdeaPad Flex 5. Other distros I tried out (Mint, Ubuntu, Manjaro, OpenSUSE) had some issue or another that required tweaks: Second-class touch support, like the cursor jumping to where you tap instead of real tap input, applications not drag-scrolling, and the keyboard not re-enabling after flipping back from tablet mode.
Welcome to the wonderful Linux world!
I do not know Gallium, so I have very little to say about that.
Windows software can be run using Wine. It is a Windows emulator, and there is no guarantee it will work with CSP. Alternatively you could check for alternatives that run natively on Linux (Gallium). Krita? Inkscape?
Make no mistake, your journey into Linux will be riddled with obstacles, as it is not close to Windows at all. Inform yourself, learn, ask questions. But most of all: have fun!
I have dabbled with krita/Inkscape/gimp, so if I can’t force CSP to work than I’m fine to use em, though I’d like to keep using it.
-im very aware about linux haha! I’ve floated around it /it’s floated around me for years 'n years but I’ve never touched it myself.
Gallium is only for chromebooks. For this i would recommend lmde or mx linux.There is wine for running windows program.Just check the wine index for apps which you would run.
I see. Edit: i was worried about wine not working for csp . which seems to be true(?). but it seems using playonlinux works.
Playonlinux usually has patches to make things work.
I don’t know what software you plan on using to create media, but the Duet 3i isn’t a powerful machine, and it may struggle to do media creation
Either way, a solid distro for pretty much any hardware and experience level is Mint XFCE
it seems to be the lightest mint? looks interesting. theres also middle mate mint… hm. in terms of making media… choniest program to go on it would be csp (mayb flstudio if i actually get it). others tend to be light, like pxtone, audacity, mugen, renpy, old rpg makers… i tend to draw non resource heavy art in csp as well… so im sure its good enough… i hope.
