The best one I’ve ever heard is they like the Microsoft wallpapers. Yes i told them you can use them on linux too. But they argued with me that they wouldn’t be compatible.
The best one I’ve ever heard is they like the Microsoft wallpapers. Yes i told them you can use them on linux too. But they argued with me that they wouldn’t be compatible.
I want to switch, but I need some help. I need to be able to “RDP” into remote machines. I think that one is probably easy and built-in from decades ago. I also need to be able to setup a Hyper-V equivalent, to run other machines from my main laptop- haven’t figured that one out yet. And for my media server (Plex), I need to understand the best way to setup a RAID5 or better across multiple drives. Any recommendations on guides for a lifelong NT4 MCSE & current Azure admin? I am sick of Win11 (and 10, 8.1 was OK, 7 was better… they just keep getting worse)
I recommend libvirt + virt-manager as an alternative to hyper v.
The cool thing about virt manager is you can do it over ssh.
Remmina, do this every day for work from my Debian system.
Virtual box or QEMU + KVM. I use QEMU + KVM, works really well.
Recommend Jellyfin over Plex but in either case - if you want software RAID then use mdadm, this is how the RAID5 array on my jellyfin server works. Otherwise, there are compatible drivers for some hardware with actual hardware RAID5 arrays you can look up if you have such hardware.
For reference, all my machines whether client or server run either Debian 12 or Debian 13.
Thanks. I’ve had a lifetime subscription to Plex for more than 10 years and it works well on TVs and such for the few ppl I share it with (they’re all luddites). I also.may have mis-typed, I have a hardware RAID 5 off a ?Perc5 controller, but its NTFS and I would want to switch.
Well you’ll be glad to know that NTFS drivers are available these days on Linux!
KDE has a built in RDP server you can enable!
If you’re using X server and not Wayland, xrdp is also good.
Remmina is a good RDP client.
GNOME Boxes might be what you’re looking for? KVM if you need a full blown hypervisor.
Thank you. I liked KDE when I played with Mandrake many years ago. Does that still exist? Maybe just dated the last time I tried to run Linux as my primary. I have “supported” Linux as needed throughout the years, but mostly through competent searches and general IT knowledge.
I’ve never heard Mandrake it but gave it a quick search and it seems they’ve been discontinued for a while.
KDE is alive and well! It honestly feels a bit like Windows 7 which was why I as a former Windows user like it. I personally use Fedora KDE and would recommemd it.
Nearly everything you are talking about is easy and built into the vast majority of desktop linux distributions, and more than a few server ones too!
RDP: Remmina, KDE (windows like Desktop Environment)
Hyper-V: KVM+QEMU, but im going to ask why? There are very few reasons to do full virtual machines these days when you can just run everything as containers.
Plex: Plex
RAID5: use ZFS Z5 or linux mdadm r5. The advantages of ZFS is that you get lots of tools like snapshots, and reslivering which helps prevent bit rot.
Depending on your hardware I would honestly suggest your host OS be Proxmox, and then just run your gaming/personal system as a VM with GPU pass through. Proxmox has all the KVM+QEMU tools and ZFS tools baked in with a good web UI that makes managing these things easier.
Easy?!? We’re talking about breaking 30 years of habits :). But thank you for your response. Remote/RDP because I travel as much as possible (digital nomad currently in the Caribbean) and want to connect home while I’m out. Why hypervisor? Work. I tend to spin up a clean VM for each client, and sometimes need to test things. And my media server has a hardware RAID, but needs to move off NTFS. Probably the first machine I move to Linux.
Honestly moving to a KDE desktop environment along with any well maintained Linux distro will feel like going back to Windows 7 but now with modern powershell
There will always be a few things different like not needing to download apps from websites. But most of the rest will feel normal.
And which flavor of Linux? I would assume I’d use Ubuntu, but I don’t know the pros and cons of any of them.
Ubuntu’s not bad, though watch for out of date info when you look things up. It’s been around a long time.
One of the most useful things I’ve heard is that while there are a lot of little niche distros, it comes mostly down to three main types: Debian based, Fedora based, and Arch based. This crosses with the most popular desktop environments: KDE Plasma, LXQt, GNOME, XFCE. There are other options but it’s easier to not have to learn two things at once.
The desktop environment is the front end ‘look’n’feel’ of the system. Look at some screenshots to get the look. Some are more easily customizable/prettier (KDE more windows-y, GNOME more Mac-y) and some are lighter on resources if that’s a worry. (XFCE/LXQt)
The three main swaths of distros are more about the back end. Debian tends to be more stable, but not bleeding edge, so it might not handle hardware that just came out but is a bit less likely to break. Arch tends to be on the bleeding edge, with a lot of capabilities, but can give you some ‘learning experiences’ you might not be looking for. Fedora is in the middle.
Almost anything you can do on one, you can do on the others, so don’t worry too much about exclusives. It’s more about what comes as pre-installed conveniences/bloatware. (e.g. steam and lutris on gaming distros, networking tools as on Kaisen or Kali, or a kernel tweaked for lower latency audio in Ubuntu Studio meant for music production)
And the best part is you can try a whole bunch of them very easily if you have a spare good-sized thumb drive laying around. Ventoy is a tool for booting multiple systems from a single USB. Most major distros offer a ‘live usb’ file. Set up a ventoy USB drive. Download the ISOs for any distros that look cool, and then boot from the USB to try out any that interest you without even needing to do anything to your existing windows install.
Thank you! Being an IT professional, I have many machines and will probably try more than one until I find my stride. I bought a new SSD for my media server so I can swap out (and go back if I run out of time) while I learn the new OS. I have two or three other machines that are ready for a change. My primary laptop may only get a Linux VM or two while I adapt.