Dark Screen on Linux Laptop

[Refugee]

I use one called PCLinuxOS.
On the Linux website there is loads of versions to choose from.
You can make your own wallpaper from a photo of your choice.
Just right click your own photo and copy it to the desktop and right click it again.
The pull-down should include an option to make it wallpaper.
You can delete the icon when done.

[ppppenguin]

I always use a plain colour background. Anything else is annoying. Others may differ. I also dislike animations for opening and closing windows. I want to click and open or close. I truly hate the fancy animations that are standard on Macs.

But all this stuff about fonts, icons etc is just tweaking. The defaults in Mint Cinnamon (I don't remember Mate) are reasonable. I wouldn't bother about installing google or microsoft fonts. Arial maps nicely to Liberation Sans etc. The nasty font is Calibri which is a Microsoft special. It has ligatures that are handled badly in PDFs and elsewhere. https://www.amyuni.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2862 You even get problems on Windows systems.

[BusyBee]

I have a little laptop' almost palmtop, which has poor resources and is very slow at some things. When I hit the reduce brightnesss key is seems to do nothing then will suddenly shoot all the way to zero with black screen. The increse brightness works the same way so it seems unresponsive, but it is just very slow. In other things it's well useablefor what I use it for but I always have to remember it's limitations. Due to it's very low memory it's incapable of running Windows 10, or at least updating, but I intalled Linux and it's sorted it's main shortcomings.

As I use the same f2 key I wonder if it's a similar thing. I don't press fn plus f2 though, only f2.

Tracy

[Radio Fixer]

I will probably stick with the Mate interface, as is, for now as lots of other things on the go. But will keep in mind the ideas.

After last time I'm reluctant to try the F2 and F3 keys again Tracy. Might do later. Its workings so dont fix it.

thanks Gary

[Mike Watterson]

I always use a plain colour background. Anything else is annoying. Others may differ. I also dislike animations for opening and closing windows. I want to click and open or close. I truly hate the fancy animations that are standard on Macs.

I agree with all that. I also have a plain background on my main pc and no animations on GUI except the indication an icon was clicked on a Places bar.

The fonts is in case people send you documents created on Windows that don't have embedded fonts. Unlike Win9x or Win3.x ( but similar to NT) there is no issue adding 1000s of fonts so that 'imported' documents display properly.

[Refugee]

I always use a plain colour background. Anything else is annoying. Others may differ. I also dislike animations for opening and closing windows. I want to click and open or close. I truly hate the fancy animations that are standard on Macs.

I am happy with a static background but not an animated one. I use a static photo of vegetation with a tree stump in the middle that has an iconic pattern of woodpecker holes in it.
I am not bothered by brief animations but constant ones are very distracting.
Adblock Ultimate will sort out any flashing adverts that slip through the default scan with its block element function. I suspect that it sends something back to the software house when block element is used so that it is no longer needed after an update.
Block element can also deal with things like an excessive amount animated avatars within forums. I have not yet found a forum bad enough for me to bother finding out if it does them individually or forum wide.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
As the OP is new to Linux please don't make things complex, no running before you walk as they say. Cinnamon is nice but there isn't a world of a difference from Mate, get comfortable with it first and then upgrade when you feel confident.
You also can in the main copy your Home folder after selecting hidden files to an external SSD and then copy and paste them back to a new install and you'll not loose anything, there is one caveat though that I can explain in due course.

[ppppenguin]

The joys of Linux. No updates that happen at inconvenient times. Robust and not generally prone to malware. Nothing being pushed at you. In other words, generally polite and pleasant. Plus freedom to do things your way. And often free (as in beer) too.

A good operating system should stay out of your way and allow you to get on with more important stuff. There's always a learning curve, and Linux allows you to dive in very deep indeed**, but most of us just want to get on with life.

** If you have the skills, you can rebuild it from the ground up, changing things as you go along should you wish. All the source code is freely available. I'm not going anywhere near there.

[Refugee]

** If you have the skills, you can rebuild it from the ground up, changing things as you go along should you wish. All the source code is freely available.  I'm not going anywhere near there.

That reminds me of an older version.
Processors with more than one core were new and the kernel builder had to be used to stop the other three cores laying idle.
It took as long as a whole windows install with all the reading I had to do.

[Mike Watterson]

You also can in the main copy your Home folder after selecting hidden files to an external SSD and then copy and paste them back to a new install and you'll not loose anything, there is one caveat though that I can explain in due course.

You can add multiple desktops without a new install using the Software manager. Then at log-in screen you pick Mate, Cinammon, KDE, XFCE, LXDE or whatever ones you installed before you enter the password. You click on the icon for desktop version at the login-box.

Also copying the hidden files from one install to another can break things unless the other install/new install is the same version with same settings, same programs added and the user is the same system ID.

Timeshift is the recommend backup. Also a USB HDD is cheaper and more reliable than an SSD for backups. Also any backup device need to be ext4 format (or whatever format the Linux OS is using). Fat32, exFat and NTFS formats on external devices are only good to copy user files to non-Linux systems.

A new install is only ever needed if you deleted part of the system such that it doesn't boot at all, or if the disk fails. Every other issue can be fixed by a search on the Internet (on a phone or tablet if needs be) and typing in the command.