I’m a government contractor, so I’m stuck on Windows and Microsoft products for work. It really sucks, but the government ain’t switching to Linux anytime soon… if ever. At least Windows 11 Enterprise (or Government, whatever) should have a lot of this shit stripped out. I hope.

Others have answered your dual-booting question pretty well. However, along the lines of “minimal” Windows, it’s not generally recommended to fuck with the system as that can break things. There are scripts that can strip a lot of the problems, though. I can’t remember any off the top of my head.

As for not requiring an account, I have old ISOs of Win11 and Win10 where the unplugging my ethernet cable trick gets me around signing into a Microsoft account. Not sure if it works on the ISO you get from Microsoft now, however. And if you have built-in WiFi, I think there’s a way to disable it in the command prompt before you install.

Edit: Win10 is going to hit EOL in the near future. I am going to use it until then. It’s got a lot fewer concerns (for me) than Win11, unless Microsoft keeps filtering Win11 shit into it.

Yep, dual disks with the Windows installation done first is how I did/do it. GRUB/systemd-boot worked just fine from then on, and I am not on Windows 11, so I didn’t get hit with that fuck-up Microsoft did just a few days ago.

Yeah, VMs are a good route since the OP didn’t mention gaming.

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I don’t know what to tell you. We need more information.

Are you on Nvidia, AMD, or Intel for your GPU? What other symptoms? Have you done any other research on this in your troubleshooting? What does your config file look like?

I ask because I have a ThinkPad on Fedora with Hyprland and it’s doing just fine. Like another commenter said, help us help you.

I run Fedora on my gaming PC (KDE) and my ThinkPad (GNOME/Hyprland). It’s a rock-solid distro. Some may think the release cycle is too fast, but then just don’t upgrade right away.

Distrohopping is an addiction for me. As soon as I get settled, I’m ready to bounce. I want my gaming PC to stay where it is, but I might hop my ThinkPad around. Maybe. Fedora on it is fantastic.

Mattermost is a lot like Slack, right?

ThinkPads are my go-to. I just got an X1 Carbon Gen 9 (i5, 16GB) for $350 and put Fedora on it after upgrading the SSD to 1TB. It’s a beautiful laptop.

Of course, there’s the tried and true T480. Love that thing, especially if you get the right display panel and touchpad upgrades. Swappable batteries, upgradeable RAM. Those laptops can be had for cheap on eBay. Also check r/hardwareswap or the Discord for ThinkPad deals.

XPS 13 units can do well with Linux, too. I’m just a ThinkPad fan.

Just switched to Fedora today on my gaming PC. This reminded me of a few things I forgot to install.

I’m definitely checking this out. I’ve been on the Audiobookshelf beta for a while and it’s not bad, but I want CarPlay support. And I really love this UI. It reminds me of that third-party Plex tie-in for audiobooks that did this same thing, Prologue.

I’m trying to get back into Elden Ring, but I forgot how late I was into the game when I stopped playing last time, so I’m getting my ass handed to me. But the DLC trailer got my hyped to play again, and I never finished my first playthrough, so I have to beat the game. I am also working on Animal Crossing: New Leaf on my 3DS. No idea what I’m doing, but I’ll take the challenge.

I may also load up Tears of the Kingdom on my Steam Deck if I feel so inclined this week.

It never stops. Distro hopping is an addiction for me.

I love how the chief justice cites his god as his legal argument. What a sham. The god of the Bible has, thus far, failed to prove its legitimacy in any context, especially regarding a secular legal system.

I’ve done a few documentation contributions for some projects. Turns out that technical writers and editors are appreciated in certain places.

Not the original commenter, but Nobara is a great distro if gaming is your focus. It’s tweaked specifically for that purpose and has built up a strong community. I just hate that they use Discord for support.

Switching DEs can get messy in my experience with leftover packages and such. It’s best, in my opinion, to experiment in VMs and go from there, then go with a clean install when you make your choice. That’s what I did with KDE.

I’m in bed early, up early, and I don’t go out. That’s been my MO for years now. I like it that way and don’t intend to change it. There’s not much that interests me anymore anyway.

Good to know! I should have clarified in my comment, I think the language they used the last time I checked was basically something like, “We no longer guarantee that we’ll support these devices once they go EOL from Google.” I don’t recall anything about extended support, so that’s awesome!

I ran GrapheneOS (and CalyxOS) on a Pixel 5 for a while and quite liked the experience. It’s remarkably polished and get’s the job done quite well for the most part, with some caveats like you mentioned. The biggest bummer is when Google EOLs the devices, so the Graphene team also has to (last I checked). So, I installed /e/OS on my P5 and stuck it in a drawer.

The ROM has come a long way in recent years, and I’m glad that Android Auto works now. (Now that I have a car that has AA/CarPlay functionality!) Good on you for making the plunge and I hope it continues to work out well for you. I am not surprised that your NFC car key doesn’t work, based on what I know about the trusted key system on Android when Google announced it not too long ago. That may be hard to find a workaround for, but I am not a developer by any means, so who knows!

I use LMDE on an XPS 13 9360 and it is a rock solid. I adore this distro, especially on older hardware. If I ever switch away from my MacBook Pro, LMDE is going to be my daily driver. (And I’m strongly considering a Framework 13 AMD as my next laptop when it comes time to upgrade.)

LMDE squad, unite!