Running Gentoo!!!
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For the most part I’m a typical home user when it comes to using my computer regardless if I’m using my GNU/Linux distribution or Windows. I surf the web, read email, watch videos, listen to music, and I like to play a few games like Mahjong, Klondike Solitaire and I enjoy the occasional Jigsaw puzzle.
My current GNU/Linux distribution is Solus and unless things change, I think I may be a long term user because I’ve found it to be rock solid, very performant (even on my older Dell Inspiron 5555 laptop), has excellent Secure Boot support, and its a lot of fun to use and customize. In other words, its everything I want in a GNU/Linux distribution.
I like to experiment, both in Windows and GNU/Linux (but mostly in GNU/Linux) so I’m always looking for that next adventure. My current project is finding good ways of introducing GNU/Linux to curious (albeit non-technically inclined) Windows users or those who want an alternative when Windows 10 reaches end of life, but won’t be able (or don’t want) to upgrade to Windows 11 (or 12?).
I think that about covers how I use my computers in general, and specifically my Solus desktop system,
Ernie
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I’m currently using my new machine.
Mainly for everything, making videos, podcasts for work, some gaming, but only native games that got ported to Linux, writing fictional comedy stories for children of all ages from one year old’s to two thousand year old’s, emails, watch YouTube, upload to YouTube, use Brave-Browser for nearly everything. As you can see from the pictures below, I do not use Linux Mint in the traditional way, or as the devs intended.
Made my own wallpapers for each workspace, use Xfce docklike plugin, web apps for all the sites I visit daily. Transparent panels that auto hide, except for the top right notification panel. Used to use ArcoLinux and took the app Better-Lock-Screen with me to Linux Mint. I believe in making Linux your own, not ran as the devs intended. Made my own HTML home pages for Brave and Firefox. I love tinkering with Linux to make it fit round me and spend a lot of time in Virtual machines looking at different Linux Environments to see what I can do to it, to make it fit my needs.
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Linux is a great environment for testing just about any system service or tool.I have used it for years as a “test bed” for just about anything, engineering design and layout tools, Programming aka Coding, basically anything I can imagine, I user my Linux system to do. I like to joking think of it as the “Science” of trying to fit a “round peg, into a square hole” <— See the play on words! LOL Seriously, Linux is well suited to the unconventional application of applications and process’s that require some leeway or forgiveness in developing. Unlike other OS’s that if you try and make “something” work… It could hose or cripple your system. I think that this is what not only makes Linux useful, but fun to learn for the newcomer. If you are a newcomer to Linux, get familiar with the CLI or Command Line Interface. I don’t care what you have been told, but Linux is not a TRUE desktop computing environment, take the time to learn the “terminal”, it is the real workhorse behind any Linux Distribution. Once you are “comfortable” with using the “Command Line” albeit, sort of… You can move on to other activities
- Securing the Linux system, there are a plethora of tools available to make any Linux distro Secure. i.e. VPN, DNS encryption and TOR etc… Try an Ubuntu based Distro called “Kodachi” if you like.
- Writing scripts and “Code”. There is nothing more satisfying then to take some Linux application or process and bend it to your will. Scripting is probably one of the coolest activities in Linux and helps take some of the labor out of performing routine tasks. And if you show a working script to a “love interest” it could help you, in them forgetting you don’t have a Car.
- Virtual Machines is a great Linux activity. You might need to upgrade your system resources like RAM, CPU and GPU to do it. But again, there are a plethora of tools to accomplish this. KVM, QEMU, VMWare and Oracles VirtualBox which is suitable for beginners. Want to try various Linux Distro’s or can’t quite shake your Windows addiction, Virtualization i.e Virtual Machines can help you get your fix while still using a dedicated Linux machine. Checkout https://www.distrowatch.com/ to gorge on Linux Distro information
- Speaking of Windows, Linux is a great way to do everyday tasks once thought only reserved for Windows, (I won’t go into that untruth now) like browsing, email and chat, and Linux is a far more efficient and secure at these tasks. Many popular browsers are available for Linux and a few browsers you can’t use in Windows are also available, see 10 Open Source Lightweight Web Browsers for Linux and email believe it or not was invented using Unix, the parent OS to Linux and IRC or Pidgin (an IRC based chat client) HEXChat and many more to chat your life away.
- Honorable mention for the advanced Linux users… Crypto mining. Not just Bitcoin or Etherum, but many crypto tokens offer a low overhead mining experience. I found a very cool “Ecosystem” called Utopia Ecosystem, which hosts a fully doable Crypto experience including chat and P2P, its also a great way to learn if you are curious about such things. In Utopia you can find me @SexPistol
So I hope these ideas help support some inspiration, for me it is about exploring new and different ways to do stuff
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I retired from productive work in 2005. Soon after, I relegated Windows to a computer that is only used as a game console. All productive work–taxes, banking, shopping, communication, any office-type functions, music, photography–is done in Linux with Linux apps.
My home ‘office’ is Apple-free and Windows-free, except for the game console in the corner. If I could figure out how to use Linux to drive Steam games, I’d do that, too, but I’m not smart enough.
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We have a handy guide if you want to try gaming on Linux again!
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Would you be able to share what software you use for video editing & photo processing? 
I run my own computer company small scale as there is only me, plus my wife helps with the language, living in France most of my clients are french so the language can be an issue, they don’t always understand a Yorkshire accent.
So I use Linux mint for running my business, mainly text or calculations on libre office. But my web site designs I run Dreamweaver very old version on wine on Linux mint.
Most of my clients are either Mac users so no big deal simple stuff memory upgrades or similar. The main issues I find are windows users with virus problems if possible I remove the virus but if that is not practical or possible then I convert them to Linux mint. Also upgrades from xp. 7 vista then rather than windows 10 the only solution is Upgrading to mint.
Looking forward to the end of life of Windows 10 with machines not capable of taking on 11 or 12, thanks Microsoft for printing money for me.
Given a choice then my only solution offered is mint as windows takes so much time to install then do the updates and virus check. Typically 4 hours copy files, install mint. Recopy files back, job done and happy clients. Windows can take days especially if the system restore is old. Did one last night on windows 11 no copies, new machine just user lost password and no way around reinstall system ran over night then did the updates almost 12 hours and so many restarts. Ok I leave it running and just check back on progress so not labour intensive just boring.
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Yes, sure.
Rawtherapee, GIMP, Davinci Resolve.
For photo processing I use RawTherapee and GIMP. If I don’t edit the photos, RawTherapee can output high quality 8 bit JPEGs from the Nikon RAW files. If I also need to manipulate the photos, I export them as 16 bit png files, and edit them with GIMP.
For video editing I find Davinci Resolve the best tool on Linux.
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I really just game and do social media!
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I use only Linux. My last Windows computer was an xp. At my company I have Ubuntu because I have used it “always” I didn’t mind switching to Unity and never used Mir and have been pro Ubuntu untill the snap. Next work related computer will have a rolling release distro. Arch or Void. I really like them both. Void because it is super fast, super small and as reliable as any other distro nowadays. Arch because I feel a bit more at home (still) with the systemd init system. That is changing nowadays though.
At home I only use computer for streaming, learning and all that king of stuff. I don’t play with computer. I also try different distroes with my htpc computer. It has now Debian, Void, Arch and Gentoo installed. All with Cinnamon DE. Debian for trouble shooting. I also have tried some OSes in VM even win10(
). Maybe my quickest exit, at least in par with Vista…
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At last, another satisfied Void user. Congratulations.
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Does that mean Void is obscure and not used often or it just doesn’t satisfy many users?
LOL. Just kidding.
But you could say something almost the opposite about Ubuntu. Year hear lots of people that cuss it up one side and down the other, but there are also lots of silent satisfied users.
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Both of those.
I think it is an untapped resource… a bit like BSD.
Thanks! It is very fast, lightweight if needed and never crashed. I like it
I still like Ubuntu. It was my first distro. It works for anyone and is easy to install and use. It has all the software you might need installed. So for anyone who is asking which Linux they should choose for the first Linux I say Ubuntu. But let’s take my htpc as an example. I need only DE, VPN, Firefox and VLC. Maybe something else but not all you get when installing Ubuntu. My Void is 7gB. It has all I need and nothing more.
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I do all my VM work in Void… with virt- manager.
I use Void to control grub in a multiboot computer with 4 other
Linuxes.
I was initially wary of having a rolling release distro control grub, but that fear was unfounded. … as you say it has never crashed or experienced update difficulties.
The xbps package system is fast and reliable.
I like the runit init system… it is much better configured in Void than in Devuan.
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that’s a new software I never heard of before!
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It is not so new, approximately 18 years old 
It has its roots in Hungary, the startup was in 2005 or so…
It was already in the repos, when I switched to Linux in 2019.
Now the v5.9 is in the Debian 12 repo.
I like its possibilities to tweak the image, and once tweaked, apply the very same processing to a heap of other photos (which were shot in the same circumstances) with just basically 4 clicks.
Anyway, I’m glad I could mention something new for you.
I’m biased towards RawTherapee because it comes from my country, but here’s a comparison to Darktable:
For the weakness the article tells about, let me express, that it never froze for me.
Sure it demands CPU for processing the images, but the noise reduction it does well worth it…
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The good news there is that they’ve changed the default install to be a minimal install. There was a lot of push back from the community to make sure the option still existed to do a more full featured install. I can see that for a new user they will definitely use certain applications and may use other applications. If they don’t find them they may just drop the distro or Linux altogether.
For those more experienced users it’s very nice to have a minimal install and add the few applications we need.
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