Maybe making the switch...

[Beerus]

What is a "desktop environment"? Different UIs?

That is the UI yeah lol The DE is the UI with specific software built in.

 

[LividJay]

That is the UI yeah lol The DE is the UI with specific software built in.

Then no. I just assumed the default would be there and would suffice. But I'm sure you're about to tell me otherwise...

 

[Beerus]

Then no. I just assumed the default would be there and would suffice. But I'm sure you're about to tell me otherwise...

Default Fedora is good for laptops and touch screens. You want a desktop environment on top of it. I like Plasma the most, that is what me and Jay both use but I have used Cinnamon as well.

 

[Beerus]

Zorin is another option as well. It just depends on your preferences but that uses Ubuntu. I would say if you went with Ubuntu over Fedora, Zorin and Mint are the best options.

 

[LividJay]

Can these be installed during the installation... or is this something you gotta do afterwards?

 

[Jay]

Can these be installed during the installation... or is this something you gotta do afterwards?

Download here: https://fedoraproject.org/kde/download
Write ISO to disk, boot and install. Everything else is handled for you.

 

[LividJay]

Download here: https://fedoraproject.org/kde/download
Write ISO to disk, boot and install. Everything else is handled for you.

Do you do anything special regarding LVM/partition setup?

Also, I have two additional SSDs for storage that are NTFS. Any recommendations for maintaining those files?

 

[Jay]

Do you do anything special regarding LVM/partition setup?

Also, I have two additional SSDs for storage that are NTFS. Any recommendations for maintaining those files?

LVM is not default, btrfs is. Leave it all default.
NTFS filesystems can be read just fine.

 

[LividJay]

NTFS filesystems can be read just fine.

Don't I lose out on some functionality? Thought I read somewhere that you don't get full support for things like permissions and symbolic links... and there's a difference in performance.

 

[Jay]

Don't I lose out on some functionality? Thought I read somewhere that you don't get full support for things like permissions and symbolic links... and there's a difference in performance.

Maybe, I don't use NTFS because it's bad. If you can offload the data and format the disks, I'd do that.

 

[Giga Hertz]

NTFS filesystems can be read just fine.

Caveat - if opened by Windows you generally have to make sure Windows actually shuts down, and doesn't do "fast startup" (or at least, that was the case a number of years ago).

 

[Jay]

Caveat - if opened by Windows you generally have to make sure Windows actually shuts down, and doesn't do "fast startup" (or at least, that was the case a number of years ago).

Yep, dealt with this plenty when cloning with CloneZilla.

 

[LividJay]

If you can offload the data and format the disks, I'd do that.

And here's where I was looking for suggestions

 

[Jay]

And here's where I was looking for suggestions

Where/how to offload data or what filesystem to use?

 

[Giga Hertz]

And here's where I was looking for suggestions

sudo rsync -av /source/ /destination/

 

[LividJay]

Where/how to offload data or what filesystem to use?

If I were to want to convert these drives to a supported, non-NTFS filesystem, and move the files back.

sudo rsync -av /source/ /destination/

So this would allow me to move the files to a new drive, format the old one, and then I could do it again to move it back?

 

[Giga Hertz]

So this would allow me to move the files to a new drive, format the old one, and then I could do it again to move it back?

rsync -av is a straight copy that does everything recursively.

 

[Jay]

If I were to want to convert these drives to a supported, non-NTFS filesystem, and move the files back.


So this would allow me to move the files to a new drive, format the old one, and then I could do it again to move it back?

Yeah what Giga said or just drag and drop. Then format to btrfs and move them back.
You could also configure snapshots of your system with Vorta using one of these extra disks.

 

[Giga Hertz]

So to clarify: you use rsync -av to copy the files (not move), ensure it's all there, then format the drive (ext4 is fine) and then copy them back.

Moving using GUI is also an option. But moving isn't strictly necessary since you're going to be wiping the drive anyway. It's just doing an extra step.

Also while we're here and talking about an almost 15 year old computer, if you have a mechanical hard disk it might not hurt to test it before putting it back into usage after copying.

MHDD and Seatools are good bootable options. I think there's a build of MHDD called WHDD that you can run from inside Linux.

 

[LividJay]

So to clarify: you use rsync -av to copy the files (not move), ensure it's all there, then format the drive (ext4 is fine) and then copy them back.

Moving using GUI is also an option. But moving isn't strictly necessary since you're going to be wiping the drive anyway. It's just doing an extra step.

Also while we're here and talking about an almost 15 year old computer, if you have a mechanical hard disk it might not hurt to test it before putting it back into usage after copying.

MHDD and Seatools are good bootable options. I think there's a build of MHDD called WHDD that you can run from inside Linux.

I have all SSDs. Replaced out the HDDs a long time ago.

Any of you make use of multiple volumes for any reason? Like, having one for OS and apps, another for personal files, another for temp files, etc.