Some questions about EOS

I will be installing on a new machine, a Thinkpad T440s. Will be using the latest iso with online install. I’ve used EOS in the past (came from Antergos) so I’m not new to EOS/Arch/Linux.

  • by default does it use Xorg or Wayland? should I switch to Wayland? The laptop has Intel graphics only
  • I’ve read about sddm vs lightdm etc, which one is default and which one is recommended?
  • can fingerprint reader work for login/sudo prompt etc?
  • I have 8GB RAM, not sure if swap is needed. does the ‘swap with file’ during install do the same thing as adding a swap file manually?
  • are there things that work better in Plasma vs Gnome? Not asking about merits of the DEs themselves but issues related to hardware/OS etc. I prefer to use KDE

Thanks

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Only for gnome is wayland the default.

There is no right answer to this question. It works better for some scenarios but not others.

It depends on the DE/WM selected. We use whatever is most appropriate for the environment. For example gdm with gnome and sddm with kde/plasma.

Yes

They are different and there are pros and cons with both. You should use whichever you prefer. There is nothing about EOS which makes one better than the other. We support them both the same.

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Thank you.

What is the default size of swap file created with that option (same as RAM)? Sorry I couldn’t find answer by searching.

I meant if Wayland in general is considered stable enough, from reading around it seems the answer is yes with some caveats, e.g. Nvidia, which I don’t have, but also things like sleep/suspend issues, which seem to be more distro/DE related, which is why I asked and mentioned my hardware, and preference to use Plasma.

There is also a general sentiment I detect that Wayland is more optimized for Gnome, don’t know how much truth there is to that.

It isn’t about stability, it is about compatibility.

A small number of applications don’t work or don’t work fully on Wayland. Also, kde itself considers Wayland support experimental still. Either way, it is trivially simple to switch back and forth and nothing you need to worry about during the install.

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Welcome to the forums! I find it easier to customize the power saving settings in KDE/Plasma than on some of the other desktop environments, which I find beneficial for laptops.

Libreoffice is a good example of some hiccups in the UI with Wayland. I’ve also had issues with the mouse not working in Virtualbox on Wayland. The issue with Libreoffice is pretty minor and it’s a simple fix, but one of those little things that make you go “grr.”

I didn’t experience any problems with LO… What was it on your system? But using gnome.

LO wouldn’t remember the size of the window while using KDE, and would sometimes open as just a little spec. Changing the environmental variable for LO to gtk3 resolves that issue.

Ok KDE Wayland. That is annoying…

Any reason why interested in Wayland?

For me the only reason is different global scaling in laptop vs external monitor that works on Wayland but not xorg. Let’s say you want your laptop 100% and monitor 200% because different dpi. Else I don’t note any difference in gnome Wayland. One can also logout and back into xorg session.

Note we had a couple of recent debates on xorg vs Wayland. Not everything is objective…

If you are interested:

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No particular reason. I had mistakenly assumed that Wayland being more modern would have perhaps better performance/font smoothing/scaling but it seems its still considered not production ready. I wonder if X11 will ever be deprecated?

With how Linux seems to work. . . no lol.

I mean, I would have thought openbox and even MATE would have been toast eons ago.

I only use wayland these days for one reason - I love the touchpad gestures, and x11 doesn’t do them, and even with touchegg they are nowhere near as responsive or smooth.

500MB but easy to resize after install…

after finding out about zram, I’m beginning to doubt why you’d need swap?

that would be something I want. Why is it that gestures can’t be implemented in X11? The touchpad is already responsive right - all it needs to do is report events the rest is all upto the window manager?

They can be. Use touchegg.

The implementation is better in Wayland imo though.

“Ever” is a very long time, I’m sure eventually it will. All software will. Everyone using and working on it will eventually die. All men must die, all civilisations eventually collapse, all species eventually go extinct, all planets become inhabitable and all stars die…

But it’s not very likely to happen soon. Xorg is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, if I were to make a wild guess, I would guess that Wayland is more likely to get abandoned sooner than Xorg. Of course, the user nobody can know what will happen. The point is: Xorg being deprecated is greatly overstated. It is still regularly updated and used by millions. And besides, Wayland sucks. You can’t even run Xeyes on it.

For my part, I prefer Xorg, although I have traditionally used Xfce the most.
I usually used lightdm most of the time, but now I switch to Gnome and use gdm, but it also works with lightdm.
Swap never hurts. It’s like in math: parentheses don’t hurt, even if they seem unnecessary. 8GB of swap may be sufficient, but the use of the swap file should also be considered.
Plasma or Gnome, this is always an eternal debate, but there is the much more wooden Xfce, but also the Gnome fork Cinnamon. I think everyone should use the desktop environment that is more convenient for them.

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You haven’t found Weyes yet?

Pudge

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Nope.

cry