MX Linux's XFCE Live USB is good

Sunspark

Live USB will allow you to play around without doing an install. Base is Debian.

Default compositor is Xfwm compositor, but also has options in the settings for Compton compositor and Intel drivers instead of modesetting. The latter two will require an install though and I haven't tested those yet but the Xfwm compositor seems to look decent.

Give this one a try if you're struggling with Windows. The regular non-AHS iso is fine.

PS. For burning ISOs to USB, I use Rufus. http://rufus.ie/en/ Best in class. I usually change the partition scheme dropdown from MBR to GPT but not required.

PPS. I should specify here, my evaluations are based specifically on my integrated Intel GPU. Results will vary with this and others if you're using AMD or Nvidia.

ryans

Sunspark Thanks for sharing. Are you able to share the exact version? How much of an improvement over Windows is it for you?

Anything special made you want to try this distro (so I can know what to look for)?

degen

Thank you for your report! I had tried Debian 11 Xfce as @KM had used and initially found beneficial, and I found it was better for me than modern Windows. I have not yet tried non-AHS MX Linux, but I found the AHS version to be not so comfortable (needs more testing). Since non-AHS MX Linux has some similarities to Debian 11 (please correct me if I am wrong), I reckon we may be on to something here.

Perhaps Debian 11 Xfce and MX Linux non-AHS may share some similarities and be a modern OS we can experiment with and potentially replace modern Windows with.

Sunspark

degen The difference between the two is with regular the kernel is 5.10 from the stable series and with AHS the kernel is 5.16 and newer versions of the graphic drivers.

MX's non-AHS is based on Debian 11.3 stable.

I don't think Debian's implementation of XFCE is the same as MX's. MX has spent years customizing the layout of XFCE and I think Debian is also using a different window manager (openbox I think) so there will be differences. Try again with this live usb.. tho your experience may be different because I think you are using an nvidia card if I recall right. For nvidia, system76 has an image specifically for nvidia. https://pop.system76.com/ I don't know whether it uses xorg or wayland or how it is in general.

degen

Sunspark

Thank you for your explanation. It seems there is more to it than I thought, irrespective of kernel versions. I will do more experimentation of MX non-AHS and Debian 11 Xfce on Nvidia and Intel and report my findings.

Sunspark

ryans Exact version? Just the first download link for 21.1. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Final/Xfce/MX-21.1_x64.iso/download

As for why, there's not too many distros that have spent time setting up XFCE and it was the third big DE using its own compositor. Compositors are where a lot of problems can manifest, we saw that with Windows too.. people turning Classic on in Win7 to disable Aero's DWM, or alternatively, liking DWM up to a certain version, etc.

The KDE compositor does not render well on my Intel iGPU and I've tried a few different spins. Too bad, because it's a good DE otherwise.

I will twiddle around with BSDs next, hopefully those install to my external usb drive without fuss. OpenBSD for example has their own fork of X.org called Xenocara. Their default is just a window manager, but we'll see how it goes. BSDs are more work to configure and setup but they are a complete system, not a distro.

With Linux, the kernel is the core that everyone has, and then they add whatever they want to the userland however they want to do it.

degen

I have been trying for a few days now, and have installed:

debian-live-11.4.0-amd64-xfce+nonfree.iso

I will not say it is as good as Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 2015 LTSB, but I am persistent in trying to find an alternative, as it is essential. This almost gets there, and I have not ruled out that it will. I will continue to use this as my main desktop for some time, as it is not obviously detrimental, alhough I have not ruled out the "small, cumulative" Linux eyestrain.

By the way, I tried the Xfce version of the newest Linux Mint and it was immediately uncomfortable. I am still trying MX Linux thanks to @Sunspark. It is not bad! I need to test it more, but it is taking a backseat to this recent potential success with Debian.

Sorry to keep tagging you @KM, but you mentioned Debian 11 Xfce and I feel that there is something here. I am using the default installed Firefox.

It would be really great if Linux held the way forward.

Here are my settings:

I believe this means sub-pixel anti-aliasing is disabled, and grayscale anti-aliasing is enabled.

Alternatively, MX Linux comes with the defaults:

Hinting: Slight

Sub-pixel order: RGB

JTL

degen I don't run XFCE as my main environment, but having hinting set to "slight" should increase rendering quality of fonts without awful blurriness.

If you have a capable image viewer not doing antialiasing of its own, you can take lossless screenshots and zoom in to see how the subpixels of text are rendered.

degen

JTL Great! A small change but one that I feel has made text just that much more legible, and without the pain I associate with sub-pixel anti-aliasing.

I am now installing the proprietary Nvidia drivers, replacing the nouveau drivers I have been using (it would be nice, but not required, to play some games). This is on a laptop with Optimus. I hope that it will not change the output and that the screen output will continue through the integrated graphics. I am using an Intel 7th Gen laptop with comfortable integrated graphics, but a GTX 1060 which is painful when output is routed through it.

Edit: I installed the propriety driver, and according to a command I found here, it would seem my integrated graphics is still running the display:

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer string"

OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (KBL GT2)

Sunspark

It is certainly possible to force Nvidia to be the primary renderer for everything on an Optimus system in Linux. You can do it.

ryans

Sunspark Just wondering if you ever gave Rasberry Pi 4 (Rasbian) a try?

karut

For me Linux eyestrain is hardware-dependent: for years I had no eye strain with Fedora and the newest graphics stack + kernel with my iGPU HD4000 of my Lenovo X200 laptop. Switching to a newer Intel iGPU or Nvidia 1050 Ti / Quadro K4000 gives me immediate eyestrain. Not on Windows 10 (or only very little).

Sunspark

No, I only have an original Raspberry, and I've never used it, but I might this year since I got back my old monochrome CRT monitor.. might be fun, though I'll have to do some re-capping first. It has a RCA video output.