Hello, new guy introduction - and potential regular user in 2026!

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 01:24

First of all, I'd like to say, I'm new here and would like to introduce myself.

Although most of the Internet knows me as EbonHydra (or EbonHydra1 on Twitch streams), my name is Nathan.
I'm from Canada, my home province being Nova Scotia - but enough about me.

The real reason why I'm writing this topic is because I have had it to the limit of my sanity (and probably blood pressure) with Windows. I've used Windows for years, since my father's first PC with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, and later 95 on his PC as well as my own first PC - a 486 with Windows 95.

I've used probably almost every Windows that Microsoft made over time.

So, what does that have to do with anything Q4OS? Well, I'm getting there.

I'm going to be ditching Windows 11 starting next year and going mostly one-distro only. No distro-hopping except in cases where the device is an appliance/can't use my primary distro (like for example, my living room system runs Batocera.linux.)

So, yeah. Potential regular Q4OS user of the future stopping by to say hi.

Qwertius · 2025-12-19 05:40

Hey Nathan,

Welcome aboard.

You gave me a chuckle re Windows & blood-pressure.

Well - I'm something of an old hand with regards to Linux as well as Windows & Mac etc.

I think you will find Q4OS is a solid way to go

It sounds like you have used Linux before - 'distro-hopping' is a term most Windows users are not familiar with.

Q4OS as a system, is not as flashy as Zorin or Fedora - but ---

-- it makes up for it by being flexible - allowing users to decide how much or how little to install from the get-go.

It's a system that has a quiet way of growing on you.

Take my word for it -- I've been around Q4OS for a few years -

Must be something in the brew.

Cheers

Q

Last edited by Qwertius (2025-12-19 05:43)

q4osteam · 2025-12-19 10:33

Welcome to the forum Nathan

To add to @Qwertius's thoughts, Q4OS focuses on stability. So if you are looking for a rock solid, long lasting distribution, you are on the right track here.

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 11:53

Well, It's great to be here.

Yes, I am aware that Q4OS isn't "flashy" --- if I wanted flashy or gimmicks, I'd be picking something like Zorin or Fedora or even Linux Mint.
But at the end of the day, I just want something that isn't going to make me want to throw my computer (be it desktop or laptop) out the window.

Maybe I've settled on Q4OS - perhaps I need to have the main distro be what I want it to be starting New Year's Day - perhaps sooner if possible.

But if I have settled on Q4OS, I guess the only question is now do I want to use the KDE Plasma desktop environment? Or should TDE be my choice?

q4osteam · 2025-12-19 12:17

We recommend Plasma desktop as the primary choice for regular users. If you want really lightweight and snappy desktop consider Trinity, however it's not so advanced and usable as Plasma.

In any case, we can recommend to choose Plasma as the primary desktop and install Trinity as the secondary one, see the optimized dual desktop Q4OS configuration https://www.q4os.org/dqa015.html#ddskr . Once installed, you can switch back and forth between Plasma and Trinity upon login, just select the desired one at the login screen. Installing Trinity as a secondary desktop will not affect Plasma in any way, not even in terms of stability and performance.

hchiper · 2025-12-19 13:16

Before installing ans starting to work, one point that is worth to know is that, in the case of an upgrade from one major Q4OS version to another one, it is recommended to make a fresh install. In this case the disk partition where Q4OS is going to be installed will be erased. This is very different from Windows, where one major version could be upgraded to the next one without erasing the disk partition.

So, when you'll be installing Q4OS, think of the advantage of the option that allows you to create a separate partition being mounted into /home. That way, in the case of a fresh install, all users data will be preserved (provided you take care to install the new version on the same partition as the old one).

In my case, with a 500 GB SSD, I left 64 GB for the partition containing the system, which is more than enough, and the rest for users data.

On a test computer, I has installed Q4OS 4 on a disk partitioned like that, then I made a fresh install of Q4OS 5 (overwriting Q4OS 4's partition) and I got a good surprise: all the hidden files and folders present in my $HOME (mainly configuration data) were automatically (I presume, I didn't notice a setting for that) backed up by he installer into a clearly identified folder in my $HOME too, then removed, and new, default config files and folders created.

After the fresh install, I was able to restore selected config files and folder by hand, one by one. The most difficult was to restore Firefox and Thunderbird data. One of the pitfall was that a lot of configs that were present in "$HOME/.configkde/" had to be restored into "$HOME/.config/" instead.

Regarding the packages, there is a tool in the Profile Manager which enables you to save a list of the packages installed and to restore the same packages after a fresh install.
I didn't gave it a try yet. One thing being not clear is how it behaves in the case of packages installed that were not installed from Q4OS / Debian repositories, for example using a .deb file downloaded directly from a developer website (github for example).

Germ · 2025-12-19 13:39

Hi Nathan. Welcome to the forum!

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 13:43

q4osteam wrote:

We recommend Plasma desktop as the primary choice for regular users. If you want really lightweight and snappy desktop consider Trinity, however it's not so advanced and usable as Plasma.
In any case, we can recommend to choose Plasma as the primary desktop and install Trinity as the secondary one, see the optimized dual desktop Q4OS configuration (unsupported link) . Once installed, you can switch back and forth between Plasma and Trinity upon login, just select the desired one at the login screen. Installing Trinity as a secondary desktop will not affect Plasma in any way, not even in terms of stability and performance.

So basically what it boils down to is I should choose KDE Plasma as opposed to what was KDE before Plasma? OK. I don't even have the computer I'm going to switch from my current main yet - but will have to get it someday soon.

I'm also somewhat familiar with Trinity - and the not-so-advanced as usual desktop environment, but I always am a fan of snappier desktop environments. (For reference, I installed Peppermint OS on a Dell Optiplex SFF that I bought from Amazon when the refurbished seller still had them. I can't find that page now, likely due to them being all sold out now.)

And when I could find it, I've also used Ubuntu Trinity Desktop Environment - because of course I'd want to use it.

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 13:51

hchiper wrote:

Before installing ans starting to work, one point that is worth to know is that, in the case of an upgrade from one major Q4OS version to another one, it is recommended to make a fresh install. In this case the disk partition where Q4OS is going to be installed will be erased. This is very different from Windows, where one major version could be upgraded to the next one without erasing the disk partition.
So, when you'll be installing Q4OS, think of the advantage of the option that allows you to create a separate partition being mounted into /home. That way, in the case of a fresh install, all users data will be preserved (provided you take care to install the new version on the same partition as the old one).
In my case, with a 500 GB SSD, I left 64 GB for the partition containing the system, which is more than enough, and the rest for users data.
On a test computer, I has installed Q4OS 4 on a disk partitioned like that, then I made a fresh install of Q4OS 5 (overwriting Q4OS 4's partition) and I got a good surprise: all the hidden files and folders present in my $HOME (mainly configuration data) were automatically (I presume, I didn't notice a setting for that) backed up by he installer into a clearly identified folder in my $HOME too, then removed, and new, default config files and folders created.
After the fresh install, I was able to restore selected config files and folder by hand, one by one. The most difficult was to restore Firefox and Thunderbird data. One of the pitfall was that a lot of configs that were present in "$HOME/.configkde/" had to be restored into "$HOME/.config/" instead.
Regarding the packages, there is a tool in the Profile Manager which enables you to save a list of the packages installed and to restore the same packages after a fresh install.
I didn't gave it a try yet. One thing being not clear is how it behaves in the case of packages installed that were not installed from Q4OS / Debian repositories, for example using a .deb file downloaded directly from a developer website (github for example).

I haven't even done an "initial" install yet on real hardware - it's mostly virtual machines I've been using.

q4osteam · 2025-12-19 13:54

hchiper wrote:

... in the case of an upgrade from one major Q4OS version to another one, it is recommended to make a fresh install.

We discourage people from major to major upgrade of any Linux distro. It's to make sure that incompatible old configurations from the old edition are not carried over. Upgrading Q4OS is possible with similar results as with arbitrary Linux distribution, see https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4323

The above applies to all Linux distributions including Q4OS. We believe Q4OS is somewhat more stable and resistant on such upgrade though.

hchiper wrote:

This is very different from Windows, where one major version could be upgraded to the next one without erasing the disk partition.

This is not different at all. Q4OS can be upgraded without erasing the disk partition too. And we wouldn't recommend major to major upgrade of Windows as well for the same reasons. A fresh clean setup is always better and more stable indeed. Our goal is the maximum possible stability at the expense of simplicity.

Last edited by q4osteam (2025-12-19 14:04)

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 14:00

Germ wrote:

Hi Nathan. Welcome to the forum!

Hello to you too. Great to be here!

q4osteam · 2025-12-19 14:01

EbonHydra wrote:

So basically what it boils down to is I should choose KDE Plasma as opposed to what was KDE before Plasma?

It really depends on what you actually want, just make your decisions We can only recommend and describe.

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 14:05

q4osteam wrote:

hchiper wrote:
... in the case of an upgrade from one major Q4OS version to another one, it is recommended to make a fresh install.
We discourage people from major to major upgrade of any Linux distro. It's to make sure that incompatible old configurations from the old edition are not carried over. However upgrading Q4OS is possible with similar results as with arbitrary Linux distribution, see (unsupported link).
The above applies to all Linux distributions including Q4OS. We believe Q4OS is somewhat more stable and resistant on such upgrade though.

hchiper wrote:
This is very different from Windows, where one major version could be upgraded to the next one without erasing the disk partition.
This is not different at all. Q4OS can be upgraded without erasing the disk partition too. And we don't recommend major to major upgrade of Windows as well for the same reasons. Our goal is the maximum possible stability at the expense of simplicity.

I've only been using Q4OS in virtualized systems for the moment - I have yet to actually press the button on the installation of Q4OS on real hardware yet. On the bare metal. I just want it to work - and if having it maximum possible stability as opposed to simplicity is the aim of Q4OS, then I'm fine with that. At least it'll be better than Windows where it will give me a Blue Screen of Death, or if you have the courage enough to install it --- Windows 10 or 11's Insider Preview version, but more than likely these days', Windows 11's Insider Preview version - Green Screen of Death. I'm also okay with the package manager of the distro not refusing to update something if a dependency is broken, but it actually is possible to fix a broken dependency.

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 14:07

q4osteam wrote:

EbonHydra wrote:
So basically what it boils down to is I should choose KDE Plasma as opposed to what was KDE before Plasma?
It really depends on what you actually want, just make your decisions We can only recommend and describe.

Thank you for clearing that up. I'll make my own decision and keep you up-to-date on what I actually choose.

q4osteam · 2025-12-19 14:15

Again, you can install Plasma as the primary and Trinity as the secondary desktop, so you will have both available https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.ph … 291#p33291

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 14:18

OK. I'll need to put this to a test in order to know for sure. Fortunately I have plenty of VMs kicking around with Q4OS. So all I need to do in theory is boot into one of them I've configured already, and install Plasma if the Trinity desktop is installed on it already.

theasmitkid · 2025-12-19 14:32

Welcome to the forums Nathan~

EbonHydra · 2025-12-19 16:45

theasmitkid wrote:

Welcome to the forums Nathan~

Good to be here. Nice to hear from you.

Qwertius · 2025-12-20 04:39

Nathan ---

You're using a Dell SFF ------

My machine is an Optiplex 9020 - i5 with 16GB ram --- more than enough for playing chess

Picked mine up for peanuts -- slotted in a 2TB HDD and it just goes and goes

Q

EbonHydra · 2025-12-20 12:42

Qwertius wrote:

Nathan ---
You're using a Dell SFF ------
My machine is an Optiplex 9020 - i5 with 16GB ram --- more than enough for playing chess
Picked mine up for peanuts -- slotted in a 2TB HDD and it just goes and goes
Q

A Dell SFF, huh? I should probably look for one for a reasonable price. I mean, I've been running my personal homelab off of a Lenovo ThinkCentre M93 Mini-Tower using Proxmox - and it's been handling everything I've been throwing at it just fine.

Qwertius · 2025-12-20 16:12

Hi Nathan - re the Dell

I must have misunderstood you when you wrote --

I installed Peppermint OS on a Dell Optiplex SFF that I bought from Amazon when the refurbished seller still had them

Cheers

Q

EbonHydra · 2025-12-20 23:55

Qwertius wrote:

Hi Nathan - re the Dell
I must have misunderstood you when you wrote --
I installed Peppermint OS on a Dell Optiplex SFF that I bought from Amazon when the refurbished seller still had them
Cheers
Q

Pfft. Yes. I did install Peppermint OS on a Dell Optiplex - which I did get from Amazon when they still had it. The seller doesn't have them anymore.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2025-12-19 01:24

Hello, new guy introduction - and potential regular user in 2026!

#2 2025-12-19 05:40

Re: Hello, new guy introduction - and potential regular user in 2026!

#3 2025-12-19 10:33

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#4 2025-12-19 11:53

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#5 2025-12-19 12:17

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