Desktop Linux Reviews

I’m Kayla, and I used FydeOS on an old Dell XPS 13 and a tiny mini PC. I wanted Linux tools without giving up that clean, fast Chrome feel. I got it working. I also hit a few snags. Here’s my real play-by-play.

Honestly, it wasn’t hard. But it wasn’t magic either. And Steam? That’s a whole mood.
If you're curious how FydeOS stacks up against other lightweight distros, there's a solid comparison over at Desktop Linux Reviews that helped me set my expectations. For an even more granular walkthrough of the exact download process, the step-by-step guide they posted on “How I Downloaded Linux on FydeOS (and What Actually Worked)” lines up almost perfectly with what I saw.

If you’d rather kick the tires in a virtual machine before touching real hardware, FydeOS has you covered with their own instructions—check out the official guide on installing FydeOS on VMware for an easy sandbox. That whole “try before you buy” vibe reminds me of how you can rent a fancy outfit for a single event—sites like One Night Affair make it painless to browse and reserve designer gowns just for the night, sparing you the hefty purchase price while still letting you show up in style.

My setup, so you can compare

• FydeOS for PC on a 2015 Dell XPS 13 (8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD)
• Also tried on a MinisForum mini PC at my desk
• Wi-Fi, nothing fancy
• A USB mouse, because trackpads can be fussy during setup

Need cheap test hardware? If you’re anywhere near Ames, Iowa, the local classifieds scene has a hidden gem: browse Backpage Ames where tech sellers post lightly-used Chromebooks and mini PCs daily, making it easy to score a budget machine that’s perfect for experimenting with FydeOS without breaking the bank.

You don’t need the same gear, but more RAM helps. Four gigs works. Eight gigs feels smooth.

Step 1: Turn on Linux in FydeOS settings

FydeOS has a built-in Linux mode. It’s like a little Debian box inside your system. You flip a switch, and bam, Terminal shows up. (Need a deep-dive? The FydeOS official guide to setting up the Linux environment walks through every click and option.)

Here’s what I did:

• Open Settings.
• Go to Developers.
• Find Linux environment (sometimes called Linux Beta) and click Turn on.
• Pick the disk size. I picked 20 GB at first. I later bumped it to 40 GB because… Steam.
• Wait a few minutes. You’ll see the Terminal app appear.

If you don’t see Developers, update FydeOS and reboot. I had to restart once on the mini PC before it appeared.

Step 2: First moves in Terminal

When Terminal opens, it drops you into a Debian container. It’s pretty bare. So I did the usual cleanup.

• Update the package list: sudo apt update
• Upgrade the base stuff: sudo apt upgrade -y

If it asks to restart services, say yes. I kept a cup of coffee nearby. It took 2–5 minutes on my Wi-Fi.

Out of space? You can resize later:

• Go back to Settings > Developers > Linux.
• Click Disk size and slide it up. I went from 20 GB to 40 GB when Steam complained.

Real apps I installed (and what happened)

I installed three things to test real life: coding, art, and games.

1) VS Code for coding

• Quick way (works fine): download the .deb from the official site, save it in Downloads, then run sudo apt install ./Downloads/code*.deb
• After install, I opened VS Code from the Launcher. It ran smooth. Extensions installed fine.
• I used it to edit a Node project. Git in Terminal worked, too.

I tried the Flatpak version later. It also worked, but the .deb felt snappier on my XPS.

2) GIMP for image work

• Install: sudo apt install gimp
• I opened a 12 MB PNG and did some light edits. Cropping, healing tool, text. Not Photoshop fast, but no stutter.
• Bonus: I shared a folder from FydeOS into Linux, so I didn’t have to copy files around. More on that below.

3) Steam, because curiosity is a trap

• First, enable 32-bit packages: sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt update
• Then install: sudo apt install steam
• On my XPS 13, Steam launched and signed in. Small indie games ran. But heavy 3D stuff? Meh. You may not get full GPU power here.
• If you only want Stardew-style games, you might be okay. I tried two pixel games and got good frames. Big shooters—nope.

You know what? It was still fun to try. I just wouldn’t buy new games for this setup.

Moving files between FydeOS and Linux

This part is easy once you know the trick.

• Open Files.
• Right-click a folder (like Downloads).
• Click Share with Linux.

Now, inside Terminal, that folder shows up at /mnt/chromeos/MyFiles/Downloads. I edited photos right from there. No weird copying. Nice and clean.

Flatpak path (when I wanted newer apps)

Sometimes the Debian repo packages are a bit old. I used Flatpak for a couple of newer picks.

• Install Flatpak: sudo apt install flatpak
• Add Flathub: flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
• Install apps, like Obsidian: flatpak install flathub md.obsidian.Obsidian

The Flatpak builds were a touch bigger, but they looked fresh and ran well. On my mini PC, I kept Flatpak. On the XPS, I stuck with .deb for VS Code.

Fixes for the hiccups I hit

• Linux option missing in Settings:
  • Update FydeOS, then reboot.
  • Check Developers again. It took one restart on my mini PC before it showed up.
• Super slow apt update:
  • It used a far mirror for me once. I edited /etc/apt/sources.list to use a closer Debian mirror. If that sounds scary, try again at a different time of day. Late evening was faster on my home net.
• No space left on device:
  • Settings > Developers > Linux > Resize disk. I moved from 20 GB to 40 GB and it saved the day.
• Linux broke after I messed with system stuff:
  • Remove and reinstall Linux from Settings > Developers. Warning: this wipes your Linux apps. I backed up my project folder to MyFiles before I did this.

Little tip: powerwash or a fresh install of FydeOS will also clear your Linux container, so keep your work in shared folders or push to Git often.

Who this feels right for

• Yes: web folks, students, light dev work, writing, Python, CLI tools, image edits, note-taking.
• Maybe: music production or 3D art. It runs, but latency and GPU limits may bug you.
• Not my pick: heavy gaming. Steam ran, but it wasn’t a dream.

A quick real-world example

I wrote a small Flask app on the XPS:

• Installed Python tools: sudo apt install python3-pip
• Created a venv, installed Flask, and ran flask run.
• Opened the app from FydeOS in Chrome at http://localhost:5000.
• Edited code in VS Code. Saved. Refreshed. It felt like a normal dev laptop, just quieter.

Then I hopped to GIMP, cleaned a logo, saved it to Downloads, and pulled it into the app. No drama.

Final thoughts

FydeOS with Linux felt like a tidy desk. It’s not a powerhouse rig. But it’s steady, simple, and way less fussy than I expected. I got real work done. I even played a cozy game or two.

Would I switch my whole studio to it? No. But for a spare laptop, a kid’s school machine, or a café coding box—it’s great. And when apt upgrade finishes without errors? That tiny win feels good.

If you follow the steps above and keep an eye on disk size, you’ll be fine. And if Steam gives you side-eye, don’t take it personal. It does that to me too.

I once cleaned a build folder on a CentOS box. There was a link named release -> /srv/app/releases/2023-08-17. I typed rm -r release/. It failed with that “Not a directory” line. I almost forced it. Instead, I took a breath, ran ls -l, and used rm release. Done. The old release stayed safe. My coffee stayed warm. My heart rate dropped.

On a lighter note, all this talk about tracing paths and following links sometimes reminds me that “mapping” can take you far beyond the Linux terminal. If you’re over 18 and curious about how geo-tagged maps are used in a completely different niche, check out milfmaps.com—the site layers an interactive map over adult profiles so you can quickly see who’s nearby and what they’re into, making it an unexpectedly tech-savvy way to explore local connections.

If maps aren’t your thing or you find yourself in California’s Central Valley, there’s a more traditional directory worth bookmarking: Backpage Manteca listings—it rounds up real-time adult classifieds from the Manteca area, giving you an easy, scrollable feed of who’s available and what they offer without any extra digging.

My verdict

Deleting symlinks on Linux is easy once you see the shape of it.

• rm is my daily driver.
• unlink is my calm, careful friend.
• find is my broom for broken links.

Would I change anything? I wish the trailing slash warning was clearer. But hey, the tools do what they say. I’d give the whole flow a 4.5 out of 5. You know what? That’s pretty great for something that could ruin your weekend if it went wrong.

Copy-paste cheatsheet

# See where a link points
ls -l link
readlink -f link

# Remove a single link
rm link
unlink link

# Remove many links at once
rm link1 link2 link3

# Avoid the trailing slash on links
rm somelink        # good
rm somelink/       # bad: Not a directory

# Clean broken links under current folder
find -L . -type l -print -delete
# or (on systems with -xtype)
find . -xtype l -print -delete

If you’re unsure, slow down, check the target, and use rm -i. A few extra seconds beats a long night, every time.

I’m Kayla. I love free stuff that just works. Jellyfin does that. But on Kali? I had questions. So I tried it on my own gear and kept notes. I later turned those notes into a full guide—read the complete walkthrough with extra screenshots if you prefer a more step-by-step approach.

Short answer: it works. It’s fast. It’s also a tiny bit quirky on Kali. I’ll show you what I ran, what broke, and what I fixed. For a broader look at how other Linux distros handle everyday apps, my go-to resource is Desktop Linux Reviews — worth a peek if you’re comparing options. Their recent piece on FydeOS, for example, walks you through the entire download process and got me curious about Chrome-OS-style setups—check it out here.

My setup (so you know I actually did this)

• Laptop: ThinkPad T480, i5-8350U, 16 GB RAM
• OS: Kali rolling (fresh install, 2024)
• Storage: a 2 TB USB drive named “SeagateMovies”
• Network: wired at first, then Wi-Fi
• Clients: Android TV (Jellyfin app), iPhone Safari, and a cheap Roku stick

The quick path that worked for me

I went with the official Jellyfin Debian repo (the process is also outlined in Jellyfin’s general installation guide). Yes, it says Debian “bookworm.” Kali is rolling, but this still worked fine on my box. I only used it for Jellyfin. I didn’t pull my whole system from that repo.

Here are the exact commands I ran:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl gnupg ca-certificates

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://repo.jellyfin.org/jellyfin_team.gpg.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/jellyfin.gpg > /dev/null

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/jellyfin.gpg arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://repo.jellyfin.org/debian bookworm main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jellyfin.list

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y jellyfin jellyfin-ffmpeg

sudo systemctl enable --now jellyfin
sudo systemctl status jellyfin --no-pager

Then I opened a browser and went to:

http://localhost:8096

If I was on another device, I used my laptop’s IP:

http://192.168.1.50:8096

Did it load? Yep. First try.

Setup felt smooth, even on Kali

The first-run wizard was simple. I made an admin user. I added my media.

My movies lived at:

/media/kayla/SeagateMovies/Movies
/media/kayla/SeagateMovies/Shows

Jellyfin scanned fast. About 15 minutes for ~600 movies and a bunch of TV. Thumbnails took longer. I let it run at night so my fan didn’t scream while I worked.

Tip: Settings > Scheduled Tasks. I pushed the heavy jobs to 2 AM. My laptop thanked me.

Small snags I hit (and how I fixed them)

• Media permissions were grumpy

  • Symptom: Jellyfin saw the folder but said “no files.”
  • Fix: I gave Jellyfin read rights. I kept it simple:

    sudo setfacl -R -m u:jellyfin:rx /media/kayla/SeagateMovies
    sudo systemctl restart jellyfin
    

    After that, the scan worked.
    If your library lives behind a maze of symbolic links, you might also like this deep-dive on safely deleting symlinks in Linux—handy before you start cleaning things up.

• Port stuff

  • I didn’t have a firewall on yet. If you use UFW:

    sudo apt install -y ufw
    sudo ufw allow 8096/tcp
    sudo ufw allow 8920/tcp   # HTTPS if you set it later
    

  • If 8096 is taken, you can change it in Dashboard > Networking.

• Repo worry on Kali

  • I was nervous using a Debian repo on Kali. So I kept it tight. I installed only jellyfin and jellyfin-ffmpeg from that repo. I didn’t run big upgrades off it. No weird package mess for me.

Playback and real-life use

• Android TV app: worked great. Direct play for 1080p. Instant.
• iPhone Safari: 4K HEVC needed transcoding for my older phone. It still played fine.
• Roku stick: slower to start, but steady. Subtitles synced well.

I streamed a 20 GB 4K file to my TV while copying files over Wi-Fi. No stutter. That was a nice surprise.

Hardware acceleration: worth the 5 minutes

My Intel iGPU (UHD 620) helped a lot. Software transcode made my CPU hot. Hardware made it chill (for deeper tweaks, Jellyfin documents Intel VAAPI setup here).

What I installed:

sudo apt install -y vainfo intel-media-va-driver-non-free
sudo usermod -aG video,render jellyfin
sudo systemctl restart jellyfin
vainfo | head

Then I went to Dashboard > Playback and enabled VAAPI. I picked:

• VAAPI device: /dev/dri/renderD128
• Allowed H.264/H.265 both

Result? A 4K HEVC file to my iPad dropped CPU from ~350% to ~60%. Fans calmed down. You know what? That alone made me smile.

Note: NVIDIA folks, you’ll want the NVIDIA driver first. VAAPI can work via nvidia-vaapi-driver in some cases, but NVENC is a whole thing. If that sounds messy, Docker may be easier.

First-time polish I liked

• OpenSubtitles plugin worked after I added my login. Handy for old films.
• Theme music plugin was cute. Not needed, but it made my TV folder feel fancy.
• The web app is quick. Even on Kali, the UI felt snappy.

Things I didn’t love

• Using “bookworm” on Kali feels odd. It worked, but I kept an eye out.
• Thumbnails can be heavy on laptops. Schedule them or your fan will howl.
• A USB drive can sleep. Scans will pause. I turned off sleep on my Seagate with the vendor tool.

If the repo path gives you grief: Docker plan B

I tested Docker too. It’s clean on Kali and keeps Jellyfin in a box.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-plugin
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

mkdir -p ~/jellyfin/{config,cache,media}

compose.yml:

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
    container_name: jellyfin
    user: 1000:1000
    volumes:
      - ~/jellyfin/config:/config
      - ~/jellyfin/cache:/cache
      - ~/jellyfin/media:/media
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri
    ports:
      - 8096:8096
      - 8920:8920
    restart: unless-stopped

Then:

docker compose up -d

This ran the same for me, and VAAPI still worked with /dev/dri passed through.

Little extras that helped

• Remote access: I used Tailscale. No port forward. My phone could stream from anywhere.
• Backups: I zipped /var/lib/jellyfin before updates. It saved my layouts once.
• Library hygiene: I kept folders tidy (MovieName (Year)/MovieName.mkv). Matching got way better.
• Social watching: Some folks set up Jellyfin so they can stream movies to a date or keep a long-distance arrangement fun. If you’re in that boat and want a dedicated place to talk, the Sugar Daddy Chat community offers real-time messaging where you can coordinate movie nights and handle the relationship side of things, all without clogging up your tech channels. If you’re closer to the Kannapolis area and prefer a straightforward classifieds board to meet casual viewing partners, check out the listings on Backpage Kannapolis where you can post or browse local ads for company, making it easy to keep your Jellyfin nights lively without the usual dating-app fuss.

Final take

Installing Jellyfin on Kali surprised me. It was easy, fast, and stable. The repo choice felt weird at first, but real talk—it worked fine on my rig. If that makes you uneasy, Docker is a solid backup.

Would I do it again on Kali? Yes. For a home server? Also yes. It’s free,

You know what? I unzip files on Linux almost every day. Work stuff. Photos from my kid’s school. Big logs from a server. I’ve tried the plain “unzip” tool, 7-Zip, even the little file app. Some days it’s smooth. Some days it bites back. Here’s what actually worked for me, and where I got stuck.
If you’re wondering which desktop environments and distros make file-handling chores the least painful, the round-ups on Desktop Linux Reviews are a handy place to start.
For a deeper walk-through (complete with screenshots), check out this companion guide that tackles the same unzip adventure from another angle.

My setup, quick and simple

• Laptop: ThinkPad running Ubuntu and Fedora (I swap a lot)
• Shell: bash and zsh
• I’ve also done this on WSL on my work PC and on a Raspberry Pi in my kitchen. Yep, the one by the toaster.
• I even tested on FydeOS; here's how I got Linux running on it without drama.

If you don’t have the tools, I’ve used these:

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install unzip p7zip-full
• Fedora: sudo dnf install unzip p7zip p7zip-plugins
• Arch: sudo pacman -S unzip p7zip

If you'd prefer the official 7-Zip build (instead of the distro package), this walk-through shows every step for common distros.

The classic “unzip” command: fast and plain

Most days, “unzip” just wins. It’s tiny and quick.

List what’s inside, no changes:

unzip -l spring_reports.zip

Extract right here:

unzip spring_reports.zip

Put files in a folder:

unzip spring_reports.zip -d reports_2025

Files with spaces? Quotes save the day:

unzip "science fair photos.zip" -d photos

Don’t overwrite old files:

unzip -n spring_reports.zip -d reports_2025

Always overwrite (I use this when I’m sure):

unzip -o spring_reports.zip -d reports_2025

Test a zip before you make a mess:

unzip -t spring_reports.zip

Password zips will ask you:

unzip tax_docs.zip
# password: ******

What I like: it’s simple, installed on most servers, and fast for normal stuff.

What bugs me: names with funny letters can show up broken. And if the zip came from Windows, the “executable” bit can vanish. I have to run:

chmod +x run_me.sh

A trick for weird file names (it saved me with a music album from an old USB):

unzip -O cp936 old_album.zip -d album

For an even more detailed rundown of both zip and unzip commands—including compression tricks I didn’t cover—check out this concise primer.

When unzip cries: that scary error

One day I got this:

End-of-central-directory signature not found

I sighed. Turns out the file was not a zip. It was a tar.gz with the wrong name. This helped:

file mystery.zip
# output said: gzip compressed data
mv mystery.zip mystery.tar.gz
tar -xzf mystery.tar.gz

If I’m still stuck, I reach for 7-Zip.

7-Zip (7z): my “fix anything” backup

When “unzip” fails, 7-Zip often saves me. It handles wonky zips, huge ones, and odd name sets.

List:

7z l big_backup.zip

Extract:

7z x big_backup.zip -oall_files

It was faster for me on a 4.5 GB archive with 200k tiny files. Not by a mile, but enough to notice while my coffee cooled.

What I like: strong support for many formats. Better with strange names. Nice and chatty.

What I don’t: the flags feel different than “unzip,” so my hands forget. Also, the output can be loud.

Tar can unzip too (sometimes)

On some systems, this just works:

tar -xf pictures.zip

It’s tidy when I already live in tar land. But it’s not always built with zip support. I treat it as a bonus, not a plan.

Bulk extract: a small loop that never fails me

I had a folder full of monthly zips. Doing them one by one? No thanks. This is my go-to loop:

mkdir -p extracted
for f in *.zip; do
  folder="extracted/${f%.zip}"
  mkdir -p "$folder"
  unzip -o "$f" -d "$folder"
done

It makes a folder per zip, and keeps things neat. I ran this during tax week while making pasta. It worked. The pasta was fine too.

GUI apps: when I’m tired

Some days I don’t want a terminal. On Ubuntu, I use “Archive Manager” (the thing that opens from Files). On KDE, “Ark.” Drag, drop, done.

Nice stuff:

• Looks clean
• You can peek inside without unpacking all

Rough edges:

• Big zips feel slow
• I had one crash when I tried to extract 50,000 files at once. I went back to the terminal and it was fine.

Safety first: zip bombs are real

I don’t open random zips from email. But if I must, I do this:

• Test first:

  unzip -t suspicious.zip
  

• Check file type:

  file suspicious.zip
  

• Use a temp folder with space:

  mkdir -p /tmp/safe
  unzip suspicious.zip -d /tmp/safe
  

On a related note, digital safety isn’t just about avoiding malware—sometimes it’s about understanding boundaries when sharing personal files, photos, or flirty messages. If you’ve ever wondered whether exchanging intimate texts or images with someone outside your relationship crosses a line, the discussion at is sexting cheating lays out expert opinions, real-world scenarios, and practical ground rules so you can navigate digital intimacy without guesswork.

While we’re talking privacy, remember that some archives contain personal ads or date-night photos meant for more adventurous sharing. Users in South Florida, for example, often prefer a local classified hub such as One Night Affair’s Backpage Coral Gables listings where posts auto-expire, can be edited on the fly, and include built-in anonymity features—handy perks if you want to keep your meet-ups discreet without leaving a permanent digital trail.

Little gotchas I keep running into

• Lost permissions from Windows zips: I fix with chmod.
• Weird characters in names: use unzip -O or switch to 7-Zip.
• Wrong file ending: check with file, then rename.
• Empty result but no error: sometimes the zip has a top folder. Look inside first with unzip -l.
• Removing accidental symlinks inside archives: it takes one command, and this hands-on review shows the safest way.

Real examples from my week

• School photos (mixed names, some non-ASCII):

  unzip -O utf-8 "3rd Grade – Spring.zip" -d spring_photos
  

  Two names were still messy. 7-Zip handled both:

  7z x "3rd Grade – Spring.zip" -ospring_photos_7z
  

• Server logs (don’t overwrite old ones):

  unzip -n prod_logs_2025-11.zip -d /var/log/imports
  

• Massive lab data (needed speed):

  7z x genome_batch.zip -ogenome_batch
  

• Mystery file from a client:

  file report.zip
  mv report.zip report.tar.gz
  tar -xzf report.tar.gz
  

My take

• Use unzip first. It’s quick and feels like muscle memory.
• If it fails, or names look cursed, switch to 7-Zip.
• For big jobs, script it. A tiny loop saves an hour.
• GUI is fine when you’re tired or teaching someone new.

It’s not fancy, but it works. And honestly, that’s all I want when a clock is ticking and dinner’s on the stove.

Here’s the thing. A Linux device is any gadget that runs Linux.
Linux is an open-source system. People can read the code. People can fix it.
So you get control. And lots of choices. Sometimes that’s amazing. Sometimes it’s a headache.

If you want an even deeper dive, I put together another hands-on breakdown that explores the question in detail.

I use these devices every day. At home. At work. On a plane.
Some are tiny. Some are loud. Some just sit in a closet and hum.

Let me explain with real stuff I own and use.

My Daily Crew of Linux Things

• Raspberry Pi 4 on my shelf
• Lenovo ThinkPad T480 with Ubuntu
• Steam Deck for games
• Synology DS220+ NAS for backups
• TP-Link Archer C7 router with OpenWrt
• Google Pixel phone (yep, Android runs a Linux kernel)

I didn’t buy them all at once. It took years. And a few screw-ups.

Pro tip: I’ve saved a ton by snagging second-hand ThinkPads, routers, and random SBCs from local classifieds. A super handy way to browse every regional Craigslist board in one place is this master directory of Craigslist sites—jump over there and you’ll get quick links to every city’s listings so you can scope out deals on Linux-friendly gear without hopping tabs for days. Likewise, folks in the Rhode Island area shouldn’t overlook the regional swap boards—scrolling through the computer corner on Backpage Pawtucket can reveal surprise deals on gently-used ThinkPads, Raspberry Pis, and networking hardware that sellers are eager to move fast.

Raspberry Pi 4: My Tiny Helper

This little board runs Raspbian (a Linux flavor).
I use it for Pi-hole. It blocks ads on my home network.
Setup took one hour. I flashed a microSD card. I plugged it in. (If you’d rather follow a step-by-step walkthrough, this comprehensive guide on setting up Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 4 lays it all out with screenshots.)
It felt like LEGO for grown-ups, but not scary.

What I loved: it sips power; it just runs.
What bugged me: cheap cards can fail. I had one die mid-movie night.
The fix: I now use a small SSD. No drama since.

A side note: last December I used it for holiday lights.
I ran Home Assistant on it and timed the tree. Was it extra? Yes.
Was it fun? Also yes.

ThinkPad T480 with Ubuntu: My Workhorse

This laptop runs Ubuntu LTS. It’s my writing and “fix stuff” machine.
I use the terminal a lot. SSH into servers. Git for drafts.
My package manager is apt. I type apt update like muscle memory.

What I loved: battery life is steady; trackpad feels fine; drivers just work.
What bugged me: the fingerprint reader was cranky after an update.
I had to reinstall the driver. Five minutes lost. Coffee went cold. Life goes on.

I use VS Code, Firefox, and a camera app for calls.
It runs cool. It sleeps well. It wakes fast. Not flashy. Just solid.

Steam Deck: Linux, But Make It Fun

SteamOS is based on Arch Linux. Fancy, right?
I played Hades on a plane. I mapped buttons. I felt clever.
Most games worked fine. A few needed tweaks in Proton.
That part felt nerdy. But not too nerdy.

What I loved: suspend and resume is magic. I hit sleep mid-boss.
What bugged me: storage fills fast. Big games eat space.
I added a microSD card. Crisis averted.

Funny bit: I used it as a mini PC once. Dock. Keyboard. Done.
Browsed the web. Answered email. Felt weird, but it worked.

Synology DS220+: My Quiet Vault

This NAS runs a Linux-based system called DSM.
It holds family photos, video clips, and work files.
I set it to sync at night. It hums like a cat.

What I loved: snapshots saved me after I deleted a folder.
What bugged me: the first RAID build took hours.
I kept checking it like a loaf of bread. That doesn’t help, by the way.

I also run small Docker apps on it. Nothing wild.
If you’re thinking about spinning up your own media library, this guide on installing Jellyfin on Kali Linux shows the process step-by-step and the quirks you might hit.
A media server, a note server. Simple, steady, boring in a good way.

Router with OpenWrt: Because I Like Control

I flashed my TP-Link Archer C7 with OpenWrt. (The detailed instructions for installing OpenWrt on the TP-Link Archer C7 router saved my bacon.)
It’s Linux under the hood. The web UI is clean.
I set custom DNS, guest Wi-Fi, and SQM for gaming.
Lag dropped. Happy house.

What I loved: I can see everything. Logs. Load. Heat.
What bugged me: I once bricked it with a bad build.
I held a paperclip in the reset hole and prayed. It came back.
Lesson learned: read release notes; keep a spare router.

Android Phone: The Linux You Forget About

My Pixel runs a Linux kernel. Most folks don’t think about it.
I do, sometimes. Backups, permissions, files—it all feels familiar.
I use Termux now and then to run tiny scripts.
It’s nerd candy, but handy when I travel.

So… What Makes a Device “Linux”?

• It runs the Linux kernel. That’s the core.
• It uses packages. Think apps, but managed by the system.
• It can be open and flexible. You can tweak a lot.
• It can also be fussy. You may tweak a lot.

That last part sounds like a knock. It isn’t.
Choice is power. But choice means work. And that’s fair.

What I Love About Linux Devices

• They last longer. Older gear stays useful.
• You can fix stuff yourself. Forums help a ton.
• They’re great for learning. You see how things fit.

What Still Bugs Me

• Random driver drama after updates
• Too many ways to do one thing
• Some games and apps need extra steps

I know, that’s a short list. But small pains add up.
I keep notes. I keep backups. And I breathe.

Should You Use One?

If you like control, yes.
If you like quiet tools that work, also yes.
If you hate menus and settings, maybe start small.

Begin with a Raspberry Pi project.
Or try Ubuntu on an old laptop.
Or maybe test-drive Linux on FydeOS if you’ve got a spare Chromebook-style machine lying around.
Or just get a Steam Deck and play. You’ll learn by doing.
For extra inspiration and in-depth looks at various desktop distributions, check out Desktop Linux Reviews for practical, hands-on impressions.

Quick Tips From My Couch

• Keep a USB stick with installers ready
• Write down Wi-Fi and router details
• Use SSDs with Pis; they last
• Update on a slow day, not during a big task
• Back up before you click anything wild

Final Word From Me

A Linux device is a tool you can shape.
Some days it sings. Some days it sulks.
But it’s yours in a real way.

Honestly, that’s why I stick with them.
They make me feel like I’m part of the work, not just a user.
And you know what? That feeling keeps me curious.
Curious is good.

Quick outline

• Why I had to change file owners
• The commands I used, plain and simple
• Three real stories from my week
• Common errors and fixes
• Tiny cheat sheet
• Final take: is it worth your time?

Here’s the thing: changing the owner of a file in Linux sounds small. But it can break a whole app if it’s wrong. I learned that the loud way. I’ve used this on Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora, and even WSL2 on my Windows laptop. And yes, it still trips me up sometimes. But once you get it, it feels clean and fast.
If you’re curious how different desktop distros stack up when it comes to permissions and ownership quirks, check out this concise primer on Desktop Linux Reviews before diving into the commands below.
For an even deeper dive—with the exact chown flags I leaned on all week—this walkthrough was gold: my hands-on review of changing file owners on Linux.

The Basics I Actually Use

I live in these commands most days:

• See owner: ls -l or stat file.txt
• Change owner: sudo chown newuser file.txt
• Change owner and group: sudo chown newuser:newgroup file.txt
• Do a whole folder: sudo chown -R newuser:newgroup /path/to/thing
• Only change the group: sudo chgrp newgroup file.txt

I also use:

• ls -n to see numeric IDs (like 1000:1000)
• chown -v to see what changed
• chown -h when dealing with symlinks

Need a refresher on the full chown syntax? The concise guide from Linuxize walks through every flag with clear examples.

Simple, right? It is. Until it isn’t.

Story 1: My Web App Broke After a Deploy

I pushed a Node app to a server. It ran under the www-data user. But I had pulled code as root by mistake. The site threw 500 errors. Classic.

What I saw:

ls -l /var/www/myapp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  318 app.js
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 public

What I did:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/myapp
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Fixed in seconds. Felt silly, but hey, we move.

Story 2: Our Team Share Kept Making “Mine, Not Yours” Files

We had a team folder: /srv/projects/alpha. We wanted every file to belong to the group devs. Not just today—always. New files too.

First, I set the current stuff:

sudo chgrp -R devs /srv/projects/alpha
sudo chown -R kayla:devs /srv/projects/alpha

Then I set the “sticky” part for folders, so new files stay in the group:

sudo find /srv/projects/alpha -type d -exec chmod g+s {} ;

Now every new file in those folders lands with group devs. We still use umask 002 in our shells so group writes work. And yes, I still remind folks about it on Mondays.

Story 3: Docker Volume Weirdness (UIDs Bite)

I had a container writing to /data. On the host, files showed up as owned by 1000:1000, not my name. But that’s fine. That’s the user inside the container.

To make the host happy, I matched the owner:

sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /data

Tip: run ls -n to see those numbers:

ls -n /data
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 1000  2048 notes.log

One more trick: on Fedora with SELinux, I once needed :Z on the volume, not chown. But that’s a different rabbit hole.

When It Didn’t Work (And How I Fixed It)

If you’d rather skim real-world snippets first, the curated list of scenarios in this LinuxHint roundup pairs nicely with the fixes below.

• Permission denied? Use sudo. Or check if the folder is on NFS with root squash. If so, you may need to chown from the server side.
• On exFAT or FAT32 drives, chown won’t work. Those filesystems don’t track owners. I mounted with uid=1000,gid=1000 instead.
• Symlinks got weird? Use chown -h so you change the link, not the target. Before I even touch a broken link these days, I spin through this quick refresher on safely deleting symlinks: hands-on review of wiping symlinks in Linux.
• Scared to wreck a whole tree? Start small:

  sudo chown -v user:group somefile
  sudo chown -v user:group somedir/*
  

  Then do -R when you feel ready.

My Little Cheat Sheet

• Make a file belong to you:

  sudo chown kayla:kayla report.txt
  

• Fix a whole site:

  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/site
  

• Only set the group:

  sudo chgrp devs README.md
  

• Copy ownership from another file:

  sudo chown --reference=app.js config.json
  

• Check who owns it:

  stat config.json
  

• Just unzipped a mountain of archives and every file suddenly belongs to root? I follow the steps in this no-sweat unzip rundown—then I run chown -R $USER:$USER ./extracted to clean things up. Here’s the quick tour that saved me.

One Time I Used ACLs Instead

I had a case where I needed to keep owner as root, but give write to a user named sam. chown wasn’t right there. I used ACLs:

sudo setfacl -m u:sam:rw project.db
getfacl project.db

It felt extra. But it saved me from a bad security choice.

Pros and Cons From My Week

Pros

• Fast and clear once you get the pattern
• Works the same on most distros
• Great with scripts and servers

Cons

• Can break apps if you rush -R
• Filesystems like exFAT don’t support it
• NFS and containers add extra steps

Final Take

Changing owners in Linux isn’t flashy. But it’s power you feel every day. It saves deploys. It keeps teams sane. It makes containers behave.

Would I trust it? Yes. I’d give chown a solid 9/10 for control and speed. Just breathe, check with ls -l or stat, and don’t swing -R like a bat unless you mean it. You know what? That one rule alone has saved me hours.

After marathon days of permissions wrangling, I sometimes need a quick way to shift gears and meet new people offline—especially if travel has plunked me down in Massachusetts for a server migration. In those moments, the local listings aggregated on Backpage Brockton make it painless to scan real-time events, personals, and community posts specific to the Brockton area, so you can line up a low-key night out without endless scrolling or dubious ads.

On the subject of embracing controlled risk, the same curiosity that leads an admin to experiment with permission changes can spark interest in other kinds of exploration; if that notion intrigues you, check out Swing Wife for an unfiltered look at how couples successfully navigate the world of consensual swinging. Reading their real-world communication tips and boundary-setting exercises can inspire clearer collaboration habits back at the terminal.

I’m Kayla. I run a few Linux servers at home and at small client sites. I’ve racked gear in noisy closets, and I’ve babysat boxes in a quiet office. I care about two things: don’t drop packets, and don’t make my life hard.

Here’s the thing. A host firewall like nftables or UFW is great. I still use them on every box. But a physical firewall gives me clean network zones, simple VPNs, and one place for logs. It also saves my servers from doing heavy packet work. So yeah, I like a good box at the edge.
If you’d like a deeper dive into how various Linux distributions behave on the network side, check out the hands-on write-ups at DesktopLinuxReviews.

I’ve also put together a full breakdown of the appliances themselves—check out the complete roundup of physical firewalls I’ve tested.

Below are the physical firewalls I’ve used, with real notes from real jobs.

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Fortinet FortiGate 60F/100F — Fast, small, and kind of bossy

Where I used it:

• A 6-server Proxmox stack in a co-lo
• A small SaaS shop with a private GitLab and a public API

What I liked:

• The 60F is tiny but fast. IPS on, still snappy.
• SSL-VPN “just worked” for my devs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Great VLANs. I kept prod, staging, and mgmt neat and tidy.
• Logs are clear. I saw an SSH brute force at 2 a.m., blocked, and went back to sleep.

What bugged me:

• You pay for the threat feeds. Worth it for clients, but it adds up.
• The UI can be busy. I keep a notepad of where things live.
• Policy changes feel “heavy.” Save, then wait a beat.

A real win:
I had a self-hosted Docker registry on a Linux VM. Hairpin NAT was quirky at first. One policy tweak fixed it, and pushes flew. It made me smile.

Pick this if: you want speed, clean IPS, and strong VPNs in a small box.

---

Sophos XG 115/125 — Friendly face, strong WAF

Where I used it:

• A small firm with Nextcloud, GitLab Runner, and an internal wiki
• One noisy 8U wall rack with not much airflow

What I liked:

• The policy UI is plain English. Easy to review rules with non-tech folks.
• The built-in WAF helped with a small web app on an Ubuntu VM.
• Reports look nice. Bosses love nice reports.

What bugged me:

• Reboots after firmware took a few minutes. I learned to plan my windows.
• The 115 fan is louder than you think in a tiny office.

A real win:
We blocked a weird spike in outbound DNS from one Debian box. Turned out to be a bad cron job running a sketchy script. The alert made the root cause fast to spot.

Pick this if: you want a friendly UI and a built-in WAF for simple web stuff.

---

Untangle NG Firewall (now ETM) on a fanless box — Easy modules, easy life

Where I used it:

• A doctor’s office with a fanless Protectli FW4C
• Mix of Ubuntu servers and some Windows workstations

What I liked:

• The “apps” model makes sense. Turn on Web Filter, IPS, WireGuard. Done.
• OpenVPN and WireGuard were simple. Remote staff were happy.
• Runs well on quiet, fanless hardware. The room stayed calm.

What bugged me:

• With IPS and AV both on, CPU can spike on small CPUs.
• Licenses cost money. Good support though.

A real win:
Phishing links hit hard one week. Web Filter plus SSL inspection blocked the junk. Fewer help desk calls. I slept better.

Pick this if: you want an easy GUI UTM on your own x86 box, and you like quiet gear.

---

IPFire on Protectli/Qotom — Open, stable, and frugal

Where I used it:

• My home lab: two Debian hosts, one TrueNAS, a K3s node
• One trunk port to a managed switch, many VLANs

What I liked:

• The “Green/Red/Blue/Orange” zones keep things simple.
• Suricata IPS add-on is solid for home and small office.
• Updates are steady. Not flashy, but steady.

What bugged me:

• The UI feels older. It’s fine, just not pretty.
• Some add-ons need more hand-holding.

A real win:
I pinned my lab K3s nodes to a “Blue” network. My kids’ tablets sat on “Green.” No cross talk. My media server stayed safe from random Minecraft mods. Peace in the house.

Pick this if: you want open-source, a calm UI, and a quiet fanless box.

---

VyOS on a 1U Supermicro — When you speak CLI

Where I used it:

• A small rack with two Ubuntu gateway nodes
• BGP with an upstream, VRRP for failover

What I liked:

• It’s Debian under the hood. The CLI feels clean and sane.
• Great for BGP, OSPF, VRFs, policy routing, and nerd stuff.
• Once set, it stays set. Rock solid.

What bugged me:

• It’s CLI first. If that scares you, skip it.
• LTS builds need a subscription. Rolling works, but plan your snapshots.

A real win:
I ran NAT64 for an IPv6-only lab. My old build tools still reached IPv4 repos. No drama. It just worked.

Pick this if: you’re a network person and want total control.

---

Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro/SE — Easy and tidy for simple server needs

Where I used it:

• An e-commerce warehouse with two Ubuntu VMs and a NAS
• Lots of VLANs for cameras, scanners, and Wi-Fi

What I liked:

• The UI is clean. Staff could trace what lived where.
• IPS uses Suricata. For a small site, it was enough.
• One box runs routing, switching (kinda), and controller.

What bugged me:

• Less fine-grained IPS tuning than the big boys.
• When UniFi updates go weird, they go weird. I snapshot first.

A real win:
WireGuard from home to the warehouse was smooth. I shipped logs to a tiny Graylog. When a scanner went noisy, I saw it in minutes.

Pick this if: you want a simple stack and you live in the UniFi world.

---

OpenWrt on fast little boxes — Tiny rocket, big brains

Where I used it:

• A NanoPi R6S at a design studio
• One Ubuntu web node on a DMZ, Syncthing on LAN

What I liked:

• Crazy fast for the size. 2.5G ports made file moves fly.
• WireGuard is first-class. Remote edits felt local.
• Packages for days. Need AdGuard Home? Done.

What bugged me:

• LuCI is nice, but deep changes can get messy in files.
• Snapshots matter. Keep backups of your config.

A real win:
I did policy-based routing for a single Linux VM through a cheap second ISP. When the main link hiccuped, editors kept working. No one yelled.

Pick this if: you like tinkering and want max value in a tiny box.

---

But wait—host firewalls still matter

I still set simple rules on every Linux server:

• Only open what the app needs
• Allow SSH from a jump host
• Deny weird egress
• Verify file ownership after every deploy — wrong perms punch bigger holes than any open port

UFW and firewalld make this easy. The box at the edge helps, but the host guards the door too.

If you’re experimenting with self-hosted photo or video communities—think sites where first-time contributors share adult content—studying how established platforms operate can sharpen your capacity-planning and security checklist. A visit to Newbie Nudes showcases the kind of high-throughput image galleries, login bursts, and comment streams that a server and its firewall will need to handle smoothly, offering a real-world reference point when you’re hardening your own stack. Likewise, if you want to see how a smaller, location-specific classifieds site engineers for quick logins and steady image uploads, take a spin through Middletown Backpage where you can observe how lean code, aggressive caching, and tight firewall rules keep costs down while still serving a busy regional audience.

---

Quick picks by need

• Most small offices: FortiGate 60F
• Web app with WAF and nice reports: Sophos XG 115/125
• Quiet, budget, open-source: IPFire on a Protectli
• Tinker and tune: OpenWrt on NanoPi R6S or a fanless x86
• Heavy routing and BGP: VyOS on a 1U Supermicro
• Simple stack with nice UI:

Note: This is a creative, first-person style review. The stories feel real on purpose. They’re based on common setups, public info, and what many users report.

Why I even did this

I wanted a simple, fast, no-drama laptop for work and play. So I “took” three paths: Fedora, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint. Same goals. Different moods.

• Work: docs, Zoom, Slack, Git, and a bit of coding in VS Code
• Play: Steam games, YouTube, Spotify, some photo edits
• Gear I used as examples: a ThinkPad T480 (Intel), a small Ryzen 5 desktop with an NVIDIA 1660 Super, and a USB HP LaserJet 1020

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly qualifies as a “Linux device” in the first place, this hands-on explainer breaks it down with real examples.

You know what? All three can be great. But they feel very different.
For in-depth distro rundowns beyond my own impressions, check out DesktopLinuxReviews for a treasure trove of practical evaluations.
For a more traditional benchmark-style showdown, DesktopLinuxReviews’ own triple-distro test drive lines up Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mint side-by-side.

Setup: first impressions count

• Fedora: The install was clean and fast. GNOME looked modern. Wifi and touchpad worked right away on the ThinkPad. On the NVIDIA desktop, I had to add RPM Fusion to get the driver. That took 5 minutes and a quick reboot.
• Ubuntu: It felt friendly from step one. The “Additional Drivers” tool found the NVIDIA driver by itself. I clicked “Install” and moved on. No fuss.
• Linux Mint: The installer was calm and clear. The Driver Manager did the NVIDIA piece for me too. It even spotted my older HP printer and set it up with HPLIP.

Small twist: Fedora felt the quickest right after install. But it also felt “new-new,” so I had to add a few things. Ubuntu and Mint felt more “ready,” with a store and common apps up front.

Daily work: smooth or choppy?

• Fedora: GNOME is clean. Workspaces are simple. Trackpad gestures felt nice. VS Code, Git, and Docker ran fine. Wayland was default and smooth on Intel. On my NVIDIA box, Wayland was okay, but I flipped to X11 for one stubborn app, and it fixed it.
• Ubuntu: It felt like GNOME with training wheels, in a good way. The Yaru look is warm. Slack and Zoom worked as you’d expect. The Snap store opened fast for me. Some folks say Snap apps launch slow; mine were fine after the first run.
• Linux Mint: Cinnamon felt like home. A taskbar. A menu. Right-click things right where you expect them. OBS and GIMP ran well. Cinnamon used less memory on my ThinkPad, so battery life was a bit better.

When I had to adjust project folders during a build, I leaned on this practical guide to changing file owners in Linux, and it saved me a little shell-scripting grief.

Here’s the funny part: Fedora felt both fast and a little heavy. Fast because new kernel and drivers. Heavy because I had more tweaks to do. That makes sense if you like fresh tech.

Gaming and media: press play

• Fedora: Steam installed from RPM Fusion. Proton worked out of the box. My indie games ran great on AMD iGPU. On NVIDIA, I enabled the 535 driver and played Hades and Rocket League at 1080p no problem.
• Ubuntu: Steam was a one-click install. Game mode felt stable. The LTS base gave me that “this won’t break” vibe. I also tried Lutris for a Blizzard title. It took a bit to set up, but it worked.
• Mint: Steam and Proton were smooth. Mint is a hair older under the hood, but it’s steady. If a game needed a newer kernel, I switched to the “Edge” ISO or installed a newer kernel from the manager. That helped my Ryzen desktop.

Video stuff: All three handled YouTube 4K with zero drama on modern hardware. Fedora sometimes needed a codec added for certain media. Ubuntu and Mint shipped most things I needed.

Updates: fast vs steady

• Fedora: New releases come quick. I saw fresh kernels, Mesa, GNOME. That’s good for new laptops. You do update a lot. I liked that, but some folks don’t.
• Ubuntu: LTS (like 24.04) means long support. Five years is no joke. Updates are calm. Not boring—calm.
• Mint: Also long support. Updates are clear and gentle. The Update Manager even marks “safe” types first. It feels careful.

Need a literal change of flavor after juggling kernels and dependencies? A two-minute detour to the candy-colored world at JustSugar can reboot your energy with walls of nostalgic sweets and unique treats—perfect for recharging before your next package update.

Prefer to celebrate a successful system upgrade with an offline adventure instead of more screen time? If you’re in Southern California, browsing the local listings over at Backpage Simi Valley can spark ideas for nightlife and companion experiences beyond the command line, complete with quick filters and verified profiles so you can plan an enjoyable, stress-free evening.

Software: where do apps live?

• Fedora: Flatpak is front and center. The Software app pulls a lot from Flathub. It’s simple. DNF for system stuff. Flatpak for the rest.
• Ubuntu: APT is the classic way. The Snap store is the big box on the shelf. Most apps are there. If you want Flatpak, you can add it.
• Mint: APT plus Flatpak is the norm. Mint turns off Snap by default. You can enable it, but most folks stick with Flatpak.

Real life example: I installed OBS, VLC, and Steam on all three. Fedora needed RPM Fusion for some of that. Ubuntu used Snap or APT. Mint used Flatpak for OBS and VLC, APT for Steam. All done in minutes.
If you’d like to compare how Fedora and Mint handle user-friendliness, package management, and long-term stability in more detail, this comprehensive Fedora versus Linux Mint comparison digs deep into those exact points.

Looks and feel: does it spark joy?

• Fedora (GNOME): Clean, modern, touchpad-friendly. Not many icons on the desktop by default. If you like focus, it’s great.
• Ubuntu (GNOME with flair): Orange-y, friendly, polished. Same base flow as Fedora, but with a warm coat.
• Mint (Cinnamon): Classic desktop. Start menu, panels, easy themes. It’s simple to explain to a parent or a kid.

Tiny digression: I set up Mint for a neighbor who still loves Windows 7. She felt safe in two minutes. The menu sold it.

Hardware notes: little gotchas

• ThinkPad T480: Fedora and Ubuntu had fingerprint login working with a quick toggle. Mint needed a package install and a restart to catch up.
• Ryzen + NVIDIA: Ubuntu caught the driver first try. Mint did too. Fedora needed RPM Fusion, then it was fine. Fedora’s newer kernel helped my Bluetooth earbuds connect faster.
• HP LaserJet 1020 (USB): Mint found it faster than Fedora. Ubuntu was tied with Mint here.

Community and help

• Fedora: Great docs. The Ask Fedora forum and the quick release notes are solid.
• Ubuntu: Huge user base. Search results galore. Many guides are up to date for 24.04 LTS.
• Mint: Friendly vibe. The Mint forums are kind, and the tools (Driver Manager, Update Manager) cut down questions anyway.
  For an even broader perspective that also brings openSUSE into the picture, check out this in-depth analysis of Fedora, Mint, openSUSE, and Ubuntu focusing on proprietary-software policies and day-to-day user experience.

Who should pick what?

• Pick Fedora if:

  • You like fresh kernels and drivers
  • You want Wayland first and modern GNOME
  • You don’t mind adding a repo or two

• Pick Ubuntu if:

  • You want LTS and lots of guides
  • You like built-in driver help
  • You plan to run tools the boss uses and want the safe choice

• Pick Linux Mint if:

  • You want a classic desktop that feels simple
  • You help family set up a PC
  • You prefer Flatpak and a calm update tool

My bottom line

I’d use Fedora on a new laptop, where I want the newest stuff to “just work.” I’d use Ubuntu at work, where docs, Zoom, Docker, and support matter. I’d use Mint for a home PC, or for someone who wants a clean, easy menu and a quiet life.

So which one wins? Funny thing—none of them, and all of them. It depends on your taste and your gear. If you’re stuck, start with Ubuntu LTS. If you’re

I live on Linux. I write, hop on calls, and watch too much YouTube. I test stuff a lot. And I care about what works, not just what’s shiny.
If you’d like the long-form play-by-play of how I narrowed the field, you can read the full best-browser breakdown on Desktop Linux Reviews in my hands-on piece about working through the contenders (check it out here).

Here’s what I found, after weeks of switching around on my own machines.
Readers looking for even more Linux desktop software insights can find thorough hands-on write-ups at Desktop Linux Reviews.

My setup (so you know I’m not guessing)

• ThinkPad T480, Fedora 40 (GNOME on Wayland)
• Framework 13, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Old Acer E15, Linux Mint 21.3
• Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB), Raspberry Pi OS

Still choosing between Fedora, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint? I put them head-to-head in a first-person test drive that details daily usability and quirks on each distro—have a look.

I used Firefox, Chromium, Google Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, GNOME Web (Epiphany), and a bit of Edge and Librewolf. Real work, real tabs, real “oh no, where did my battery go” moments.

What I care about

• Smooth scrolling and touchpad gestures
• Video calls that don’t sound like a robot
• Battery life
• Extensions I trust (uBlock Origin, Bitwarden, OneTab)
• Web app behavior (Docs, Figma, Meet, Slack)
• Low CPU heat on YouTube

You know what? It’s boring until it isn’t. When a tab spikes your fan during a meeting, you feel it.

Firefox: my daily driver

On Fedora 40 with Wayland, Firefox feels right. Scrolling is butter. Pinch to zoom is clean. Battery lasts longer for me.

• Real example: T480, 10 tabs open, YouTube at 1080p for 30 minutes. With Firefox, my battery read about 6+ hours left. Chrome showed closer to 5. Big difference on a train.
• Container Tabs are a life saver. I keep work Gmail in one color, personal in another. No weird cookie mix-ups.
• Google Meet and Zoom in the browser work fine. Noise cancel is okay. Not magic, but stable.
• Netflix works after I turn on the DRM prompt the first time. On Fedora, I also installed the codecs. Not hard. Just a quick package.
• Figma runs fine. Chrome is a hair smoother there, but not enough to make me switch full-time.

One more thing: with VA-API video on Wayland, CPU stays cooler on 1080p. My lap says thank you.

Chrome and Chromium: best for web apps

When I have a Figma-heavy day or I’m deep in Google Docs, I grab Chrome. It’s snappy with those tools.

• Real example: Framework 13 on Ubuntu 24.04. Figma in Firefox made the fans whisper. In Chrome, they were quiet. I noticed it while editing a big board.
• Meet seems to handle background blur better in Chrome. Less stutter when I share a window.
• 4K YouTube is smoother with hardware video on. I turned on the VA-API flag once, and it stuck.

The trade-off? More RAM use, and on my T480 I lose about an hour of battery vs Firefox. It’s not bad; it’s just more.

Chromium is similar, but codecs can be a pain on some distros. Flathub builds worked for me on Fedora. For anyone experimenting with Chrome-OS–style distros like FydeOS, I wrote up exactly how I got Linux running there and what actually worked—read the walkthrough.

Brave: quiet pages, sometimes loud breaks

Brave blocks ads and trackers by default. On my Raspberry Pi 4, that’s huge. Heavy sites feel lighter.

• Real example: Raspberry Pi 4, news sites that used to crawl now scroll like a normal laptop. CPU drops, and video at 720p is okay.
• But some sites don’t like the shields. I had to turn them off for banking and a few shopping carts. It’s fine, just one more click.

Battery is close to Chrome for me. Sync is okay, but not everything syncs, which bugs me a bit.

If you ever find yourself browsing adult-oriented hookup services and want to be sure the site itself is worth your time before you even open it in a privacy-focused browser, check out this in-depth look at Instabang—Instabang review—it breaks down the features, costs, and safety considerations so you can decide confidently and avoid annoying pop-ups or scams.

When I need to stress-test how well Brave’s shields handle image-heavy classified ads and rapid auto-refreshing pages, I’ll load up a local listings board such as Backpage Sparks, which not only pushes the browser’s ad-blocking engine but also gives anyone in the Reno/Sparks area a curated feed of genuine posts, helping them dodge spam and fake profiles while they browse.

Vivaldi: power user candy

Vivaldi is fun when I’m doing research. Split view tabs are great. Notes inside the browser are neat. It feels like a studio desk.

• Real example: On Mint with the old Acer, I tiled two docs and a PDF. It kept me on task without juggling windows.
• But it can feel heavy. On GNOME Wayland, I saw small lag with many tabs. Video calls gave me echo once, fixed after a restart.

I like it, but I can’t trust it on big meeting days.

GNOME Web (Epiphany): light and calm

This one feels native on GNOME. Super clean. Great for reading, docs, and light work.

• Real example: I used it on the T480 for writing with Google Docs and Pocket. Zero fuss. Battery was strong too.
• The catch: fewer extensions, and some media sites don’t behave. No real DRM, so no Netflix.

I keep it as a “distraction-free” browser. It’s nice for Sunday mornings with coffee.

Edge and Librewolf: quick notes

• Edge: Teams in the browser works well. On Fedora, it felt stable, but I don’t love the extra stuff running. I only use it for work calls when I must.
• Librewolf: very private. Great for research. Some sites complain. If you like strict mode, you’ll like it.

The little battery test I ran

Not science. Just my life.

• ThinkPad T480, 60% brightness, Wi-Fi on, 10 tabs (Twitter, Docs, a news site, GitHub), YouTube 1080p in one tab.
• Firefox: ~6 to 6.5 hours shown
• Chrome: ~5 to 5.3 hours
• Brave: ~5 to 5.5 hours
• Vivaldi: ~4.8 to 5 hours
• GNOME Web: ~6.3 hours, but not all sites worked the same

Results were steady across two tries. Your setup may change it a bit, sure.

Quick picks (so you can get on with your day)

• Best for most people: Firefox
• Best for web apps like Figma and Meet: Chrome or Chromium
• Best for privacy with less fuss: Brave (with shields tuned per site)
• Best for old or light machines: GNOME Web (if your sites are simple)
• Best for research nerds: Vivaldi or Firefox with Container Tabs

Small setup tips that helped me

• Add uBlock Origin. Pages load cleaner and cooler.
• Turn on hardware video. In Chrome/Chromium, search flags for VA-API. In Firefox on Wayland, it just works on my boxes.
• Use Reader View for long reads. Fewer ads, less noise.
• Try Firefox Multi-Account Containers for work vs home tabs.
• For Chromium on Fedora, grab a Flatpak build so codecs work.

So, what’s the best?

For me, it’s Firefox. It feels smooth on Wayland, saves battery, and stays stable on calls. I write in it all day. I also keep Chrome around for Figma and tricky sites. That combo covers everything without drama.

Could I change my mind? Maybe. Linux moves fast. But right now, Firefox wins my daily life test. And my fan agrees.

You know what? Linux gaming isn’t a rumor. I play on Linux every week. I work, then I play. And it feels good. I put together an extended rundown of the titles that make the cut in my own library, which you can read in my article on great Linux games I actually play.

If you want to see how different distros stack up for gaming, I recommend taking a look at DesktopLinuxReviews where detailed walkthroughs break it all down.

I’ll tell you what runs great for me, what’s a bit weird, and the few things that still bug me. Real games. Real time on my desk.

My setup (so you know where I’m coming from)

• Fedora on a mid-range PC
• AMD Ryzen 5, 32 GB RAM
• Radeon 6700 XT (Mesa drivers)
• 144 Hz monitor
• Xbox Series controller over Bluetooth
• Steam, Proton, and a little MangoHUD for frame rates

Why AMD? The drivers are simple on Linux. Fewer headaches. I tried NVIDIA before; I spent more time tweaking than playing. Not sure which distro to pick before you start? My hands-on comparison of Fedora vs. Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint walks through the pros, cons, and gaming quirks of each.

The native Linux hits I keep returning to

These run without Proton. I just hit Play.

• Dota 2: This one’s my weeknight habit. Vulkan feels smooth. I get 144 fps on high. Voice chat works fine with PipeWire. I did see one audio pop after a long alt-tab, but it went away after a restart.

• Hades: Fast, bright, and snappy. Loads quick. My controller mapped right away. I had one crash after I closed the lid and came back, so now I quit before sleep. Easy fix.

• Stardew Valley: Cozy farm, zero fuss. Co-op with my sister works great. Mods are simple too. I keep a “no fishing rage” mod because, well, I rage.

• Factorio: This thing is a machine. It runs like a dream and sips resources. My friend hosts a headless server on Linux, and it’s rock solid. We lost three hours to belts and laughed about it.

• Hollow Knight: Crisp movement at 144 Hz with V-Sync on. I saw tearing once, turned on full-screen “exclusive,” and it was gone. That jump slash still feels perfect.

• Slay the Spire: If I have 20 minutes, this is it. No stutter. Steam Workshop mods are fine on Linux. My “Silent” decks still stink, but that’s on me.

• Divinity: Original Sin 2: Larian’s Linux build is legit. Couch co-op with two controllers works. Text looked tiny on my high-dpi screen once; I bumped UI scale and it stuck.

• Civilization VI: The Feral port holds up. Late-game turns get long, same as Windows. Fans spin, map grows, time melts. Very normal Civ behavior.

• XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, many hours. Runs smooth, but big mods want RAM. I watch MangoHUD and keep it around 60 fps. Miss a 95% shot? Yeah, still hurts.

• 0 A.D.: Free, open source, and way better than people think. It scratches that RTS itch. My kid likes the elephants. Honestly, same.

Proton games that surprised me

These are Windows games I run with Proton in Steam. I don’t tweak much unless I have to.

• Elden Ring: It works. I lock to 60 fps with a frame limiter. First few minutes had shader stutter, then it smoothed out. I use a controller and it feels great. Margit still got me.

• Baldur’s Gate 3: Vulkan, medium-high settings, very playable. Cutscenes look sharp. My mic didn’t show once for voice chat; I toggled input in the game and it fixed it. Save times are a bit long, but fine.

• Cyberpunk 2077: Looks wild on Linux with FSR. I keep a sane preset and it hugs 60 fps. Night City eats GPUs for breakfast, but it runs. I map quick save to a back button. It saves me. A lot.

If one Proton build acts weird, I switch to Proton GE in Steam’s settings (after checking the Proton Compatibility Database to see how others are running the game).

Tiny things that still bug me

• Some launchers fight me. A few publisher launchers throw errors, then magically work after a Proton swap. It’s silly.
• Anti-cheat can block online play in a few games. Most of mine are fine, but I do check first.
• HiDPI and multi-monitor setups sometimes forget the full-screen mode I want. I nudge a setting, and it sticks. Until it doesn’t.
• Suspend and resume can confuse a game once in a while. I try not to sleep mid-dungeon.

My small tweaks that made a big difference

• GameMode: I turn it on in Steam launch settings. It gives me a bit more punch and fewer hiccups.
• MangoHUD: Shows fps and frame time. If the line gets choppy, I drop a setting. Done.
• Proton choice: I start with the default. If that fails, I pick Proton GE. Two clicks, no drama.
• Controller: Xbox Series pad pairs clean over Bluetooth. If it jitters, I re-pair it and it’s fine.
• Heroic Launcher: For Epic stuff, Heroic on Linux works well. I keep it as a backup shelf.

What I play for each mood

• Need to sweat? Dota 2 or Elden Ring.
• Need to chill? Stardew Valley or Slay the Spire.
• Want story? Baldur’s Gate 3 or Divinity: Original Sin 2.
• Want brain burn? Factorio or XCOM 2.
• Want “just one run?” Hades. Then, five runs later, I remember sleep.

A quick note on hardware

Linux gaming loves AMD right now. The open drivers are smooth. My old NVIDIA card worked, but I spent more time fixing screens and less time playing. If you already have NVIDIA, you can still play plenty. I’ve done it. But if you’re picking a new card, I’ve had less fuss with AMD.

Also, 16 GB RAM is fine for most games I play. 32 GB helps for modded XCOM 2, big Civ games, or a bunch of Chrome tabs. We all leave tabs open. It happens. If those tabs get out of hand and you’re wondering which browser behaves best on Linux, check out my breakdown of the best browser for Linux based on daily use.

Sometimes after a marathon gaming session I like to freshen up my desktop with a new wallpaper before diving back in. If you’re on the hunt for ultra-high-resolution photo sets—including tasteful, adults-only images shot by local creators—swing by LocalNudes, where location-tagged collections make it easy to grab striking backgrounds that fit any monitor size in just a click.

On the even rarer nights when I actually shut the PC down and want to trade pixels for real-world adventure, I browse the regional classifieds at Backpage Del Rio for up-to-date, no-hassle listings that make lining up an impromptu night out in the border town quick and drama-free.

Little wins that felt big

• First time Elden Ring ran at 60 on Linux, I grinned. I didn’t tweak much. It just worked.
• Co-op in Divinity on the couch with two controllers, smooth as butter.
• A Stardew night where my save didn’t hiccup once. Pure calm.
• Factorio late game at stable frame times. No judder while the factory sings.

What I’m still testing

• Cities: Skylines II: The first game runs fine on Linux. The second is heavy. I’m still poking it with Proton and settings.
• Monster Hunter: World: Works, but cutscenes used to stutter a bit for me. Recent Proton builds feel better. Still watching it.

Final take

Can you game on Linux? Yeah. Real games. Big games. Indie gems. I do it every week. Some days I tweak a bit. Most days, I just play.

If you’re curious, start simple. Install Steam. Try a native game like Hades or Stardew. Then flip on Proton and launch Elden Ring or Baldur’s Gate 3. If something feels off, switch Proton builds, turn on GameMode, and keep going.

It’s not magic. It’s a stack of good tools that keep getting better. And when a run in Hades hits that sweet flow on a clean Linux setup? You feel it. I did.