2023-05-10
So I distrohopped again, twice, first to Fedora 38 LXQT, then to Lubuntu 22.04. Do understand that I experienced some problems when I was using Linux Mint 21 using the Cinnamon DE.
So I had three problems with Linux Mint Cinnamon. Two are about video playback. Both problems only happen when playing it on external display, a larger and higher definition external display that the display on my laptop. One is with playing local files on the external monitor. It skips some frames in VLC, MPV, and Celluloid. Worse is that sometimes the frames are too noticable even with my patience. Same problem with playback of YouTube videos, though it only happens when its set to 1080p quality. The problem doesn't happen with 720p videos.
Another problem I had is that the yt-dlp and youtube-dl in the repos are outdated. I cannot download using those. Another reason to hate YouTube. The other being the removal of the YouTube dislike button. Fuck that stupid move.
Out of these two problems, I have decided that I needed to distrohop. If the problem is because of my weak ass CPU and iGPU, then using a lightweight DE may help. So I switched to Fedora 38 LXQT. I chose fedora because it offers a vanilla experience of its DEs. And also another reason is that the it has more up-to-date software in its repos as it offers a an update every 6 months with support for a year.
The problems I encountered with Fedora? Two problems that I never thought I would encounter. First is the lack of system monitor. LXQT has a native system monitor called qps. To solve this I installed KDE's system monitor, but it won't run even after reboot. OK, I installed mate-system-monitor, still didn't run. OK, maybe I'll make do without a system monitor, even if its somewhat of a dealbreaker. The next problem is what I cannot fathom why it's a problem and a major dealbreaker. MPV and Haruna video player doesn't work. Only VLC can play my local video files. From what the anime community has a consensus on, MPV is the videoplayer to go for quality and strict videoplayback. The combination of these two is the dealbreaker for me.
So I switched to Lubuntu 22.04 even though I hate snaps. I hate stuff that is not native to that distro. That's the reason why I usually avoid using QT software on GTK DE, and vice versa, though some integrate well to the point that there is not much difference that I can accept.
Now Lubuntu 22.04 solves all the problems that I initially had. Videoplayback of local files on MPV and YouTube videos, both on the external display, doesn't have any problem. qps is installed by default. I can live without a functioning yt-dlp and youtube-dl, I can trust NewPipe for that. Then here comes the next problem, battery life and overheating. I cannot understand why this is problem with LXQT, a very lightweight DE. Isn't the point of this is to consume as less resources as much as possible. From what I can see in QPS, CPU usage has always been low. On another note, I have always installed and enabled tlp and tlp-rdw in all of my installations.
I cannot take that. So yeah, I will try Linux Mint MATE. I hope this is the final time that I will do this. If not, then I will go back to Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon and just watched local video files and YouTube on my phone. ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Welp, turns out battery health is at 95%. I believe powering the external display is one of its causes. I will now only watch my local media files (mostly anime) on my phone. So yeah, I'm back to good old trusty Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon. Except for the stuttering and frameskipping when connected to external display, can't complain.
After switching to Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon, I have also considered switching to either Almalinux 9 or Fedora 38. I am concerned with the future of Cinnamon as it uses X11 and not Wayland. My problem with Fedora Gnome and KDE is that is runs slow on my Celeron laptop. Mine has 8gb of RAM, but the slow dual-core CPU is the bottleneck (I think).
So yeah, until I can no longer use Linux Mint Cinnamon as my main distro, I will stick with it. I hope I can continue using this until this laptop breaks.