Clear Linux Further Enhances Its Desktop Installer, Launches Help Forums

[Mario Junior]

Using for more than 1 week. With FFMpeg installed and Firefox recognizing the codecs, now everything is fine. No regrets! Using with an Xeon E3-1241 v3 and a RX 570. Just werks with my steam games.

[M@GOid]

OK, so suppose today I'm buying a new laptop. Should I get an AMD processor that won't need Spectre/Meltdown mitigations, or do I go for Intel on Clear Linux?

The whole Spectre/Meltdown mess affected the performance of database-like programs, AFAIK. If you do not pretend to run these or games, I suspect you will have a better experience with a Intel based machine. And I say this as a confessed AMD fanboy.

As the model of the machine itself, if you do not choose one from a Linux only vendor, like System76, Purism, etc, or specific Dell models that are already sold with Linux installed, I recommend Lenovo's Thinkpad T-series. They are immensely popular among Linux programmers and tend to be very well supported. They cost more, but tend to be better built machines overall.

[teresaejunior]

As far as I understand it - the clear linux os will run fine on any AMD hardware - so choose the hardware you want and then choose a distro to run on it.

Sure, I just thought Clear is more optimized for Intel.

[boxie]

OK, so suppose today I'm buying a new laptop. Should I get an AMD processor that won't need Spectre/Meltdown mitigations, or do I go for Intel on Clear Linux?

As far as I understand it - the clear linux os will run fine on any AMD hardware - so choose the hardware you want and then choose a distro to run on it.

[teresaejunior]

A laptop with the Vega APU is the best choice because of the best graphics chip. Dgpus in laptops cause more problems. Then you can use my distribution, I have removed sadomasochistic code from the non debug 1000 Hz timer AMD wip kernel. My distribution uses Padoka ppa mesa git too.

I don't really care about the GPU, though.

[teresaejunior]

OK, so suppose today I'm buying a new laptop. Should I get an AMD processor that won't need Spectre/Meltdown mitigations, or do I go for Intel on Clear Linux?

[Michael]

finally a better installer. i wonder if you can install it with wireless network only. i know that text installer had no way to set the wifi network a few months ago and the live image never work for me. it use to get stuck after starting the installation without any error. does it support other DE than GNOME?

Xfce and KDE work, I've personally used them on Clear, not sure off hand about others.

[teresaejunior]

does it support other DE than GNOME?

wintel conspiracy uses gnome3 to prevent the Linux desktop success.

https://clearlinux.org/software/bundle/xfce4-desktop (and I haven't looked into other DEs)

[ms178]

Wishlist:

1) native Chromium + VAAPI build (LTO, PGO, + other possible Clear Linux optimizations)
2) everything media related should just work (preferably out of the box, or make it super easy to get the needed packages if there are legal issues preventing that)
3) As Ikey works for them again, is any more work on Steam integration incoming? His repo hasn't been updated for a while. Gaming is a big driver for new desktop users and that suits Clear LInux performance oriented approach very well. Any work which furthers the gaming experience on Linux is very welcome.
4) Nice to have: An easy way to build the kernel and other performance sensitive packages from source (with Clear Linux patches applied) and let me specify my own custom compiler flags plus keeping these packages up-to-date.
5) Offer several architecture-dependant builds for popular CPUs (next to the generic build and also for AMDs Ryzen+).

[loganj]

finally a better installer. i wonder if you can install it with wireless network only. i know that text installer had no way to set the wifi network a few months ago and the live image never work for me. it use to get stuck after starting the installation without any error. does it support other DE than GNOME?