Following @pboy’s advise, I’m writing these lines as an exercise and a catch-up. Mostly about the process of installing, tuning-up and using Fedora on what’s now my main laptop: A Samsung NP540U3C I’ve been upgrading since it was my father’s. First, an additional RAM module for it to reach it’s limit of 12GB (it was quite an upgrade on Windows, mostly), second, adding an SSD and installing Fedora Workstation (it was 37 back then).
The first issue was the touchscreen, since it has a terrible problem: a ghost touch that is as if the user was pocking the screen all the time, rendering it almost unusable. Before the SSD, I was able to permanently deactivate the touchscreen on Windows, afterwards, it was back to square one. Thankfully, once again, the community helped A LOT.
After that I followed TechHut’s guide after installing Fedora: Configure DNF, update, enable RPM Fusion, Install Media Codecs, etc. Coming from Windows and MacOS, I fall down to the familiar and needed to install Gnome Tweaks so I could have the classic three buttons on the top-right corner (Now I’m used to the Gnome workflow, so I don’t use them anymore), making the experience easier for my folks in case they need to use the laptop (the haven’t used it once so far). Maybe the only reason to install Gnome Tweaks now is the dark mode for those applications that are not up-to-date with GTK4 and Libadwaita, like Rhythmbox (I think).
There are many things you don’t notice until you do. The GNOME workflow is great and I find myself using the laptop’s track pad way more often than when I used Win10. Also navigation shortcuts, even if I have to press the “Super” and “Fn” keys at the same time to switch form one workspace from the other. Two finger scrolling is smooth and even if this track pad doesn’t support more than two finger gestures, is now another experience.
The only problem I’m still facing is a minos one: In some web sites like social media (Instagram, Facebook or TikTok) and some e-Learning platforms (like the one from Fundación Telefónica), the video player is unable to play anything. I tried every guide, every CODEC pack with nos success so far (I’m still open to any suggestion). However, Youtube and Netflix work fine.
I’m looking forward to use Fedora on more recent and more powerful hardware, but I don’t consider myself ready to turn the last Windows PC at the house, the one my parents still use, into a Linux machine.
Since I listened to @pboy in the Fedora Podcast I found myself wanting to join the Docs team… Hope this becomes one of my firt steps.