Linux Mint - NOT "Usable Out of the Box" - Probably switching back to Windows
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They just need to learn how YaST works and it's done mostly. They won't even need terminal for anything. I installed openSUSE Leap on my sister's PC and she's using it without any problems for quite some time (Though gotta admit installing Xbox controller driver was a hassle, maybe it's not like that for Tumbleweed). She previously used Manjaro, Pop!_OS, and Mint and she had problems with all. Leap is pretty much perfect. (Let me put nazar amulet here 🧿)
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If you come with expectations that you’ll just be fully catered no matter what your setup is and expect things to just work without ever trying to understand problems, you sure can be disappointed. Believe or not, most of the time those issues are out of control for Linux or the distros, as your hardware vendor made it to work on Windows and Windows only. Community is here to help you, but with your attitude it gets difficult no matter how much others try to help.
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i had a similarly confusing and frustrating experience when trying Ubuntu on a netbook many years ago. It has come a long way since then but sometimes you can get a bunch of annoying issues all at once.
It could just be bad luck with the hardware you have (no one really ever cares about the bluetooth adapter in their system until it causes issues) or Mint being behind the bleeding edge.
You might find Fedora KDE to be more compatible with your setup, or you can leave it a bit longer and check back later. No harm in patience!
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I absolutely disagree with you. If a manufacturer does not care about Linux support, it's on the manufacturer. Do not blame the thousands of unpaid volunteers and a few paid ppl for not supporting a specific BT chip or controller or whatever.
The signing issue is so on OP cause disabling secure boot or using a supported distro like ubuntu could have fixed that, and yes you can run Windows 11 with Linux dual boot without secure boot.
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However, for some reason on PC it's often quirky (Windows or Linux). My PC bluetooth works through a dongle so I wonder if an integrated card would do better.
Is it an USB dongle?
If so, make sure to add a short USB-A to USB-A cable between your PC and the dongle. Interference is a serious issue on USB 2.4 GHz wireless dongles when directly connected to a mainboard.
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Bazzite has been great for me. Bluetooth, Nvidia GPU, controllers, Bluetooth controllers all worked out of the box, and it's based on Fedora so you get all of those perks, and the rollback feature, which comes by default, works (to an end user) rather like timeshift (I think - it lets you return to the previous working configuration if an update has a problem, which admittedly did happen to me recently, I just rolled back and waited for the devs to fix the problem the next day, lol).
It doesn't have a live boot option so it just has to be installed to try it, which is disappointing.
But I totally get if OP wants to take a break and maybe come back to Linux in a few years, because Linux will keep getting better and Windows will keep getting worse.
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Just commit some time into learning on how to enable/install (proper) nvidia support on arch and it'll be a smooth ride after that.
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My friend who uses Linux mint on a hybrid nvidia laptop faces similiar issues with you. He had gone a lot of trouble on having his Nvidia GPU to work reliably and on some issues with bluetooth which can be attributed to issues with the DE's interface with the bluetooth driver/hardware. I had similar problems with bluetooth years ago when I used gnome on arch linux but it resolved itself later maybe due to some updates. Recently he was faced with problems on updates on his system which borked his DE and just landed him on a console, which was enough for him to restore his system to a previous working state. I think that the hacks and tinkers he they have done to solve the previously said problems (and others I may not be aware of) may have caused the update problem.
As for me I haven't had those problems. This was recent though because years ago you really would be doing a lot of manual tinkering to even make windows games to run on linux. I'm running KDE now on arch and it is even much more stable than my windows partition which I dual boot. Heck, its the windows updates that causes problems on my linux partition.
My friend has similar opinions with you that linux is still not as good as windows and its infuriating specially when it does not work. It may have been because both of you may have chosen a distro not right for your needs and use case. Linux Mint may be touted as a beginner distro for switchers from windows, but I think that this may not be the case for most since some of those who switch are tinkers or may have specific use cases which Linux Mint is not built in mind or incapable of offering. Using Linux though is a learning experience. It maybe easier than ever to jump on linux now but it is still fundamentally different from windows and that some steps from there does not apply here. There's a lot of suggestions and advice on this thread and I suggest that you try some of them.
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i have one laptop with one of the new internal Intel wifi cards and it works pretty well, but all of my other devices don't work that good. I just hate that you can't use the microphone and headphones at the same time with most Bluetooth devices without getting horrendous quality, if that was improved I might use it a bit more
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Thanks so much!
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I believe I had it installed as a flatpak and I definitely do now that I'm on POP Os. Do you think I should switch?
