ordered a “new” PC to take over plex responsibilities. The old XPS is starting to show its age.
Heres my question, do I go Linux? Or stick to win 11?
I’ve heard Linux performance is a lot better, but my experince is pretty limited to a few Ubuntu Distros.
The other challenege is my library sits on a 12tb internal drive on the XPS. Is Ubuntu going to be ok reading off what I assume is NTFS?
Yes Ubuntu can read NTFS. And yes, I’ve found Plex runs happily on low spec Linux machines. Running mine on an Ubuntu VM with 2GB ram allocated quite happily.
any special deployment of Ubuntu required as far as drivers go? I know you can just chuck it on from a live USB but I’ve never actually optimized anything. Frankly, it runs like crap on Windows.
Depends on your hardware. I recently installed Ubuntu 22.04 onto an old Dell laptop with zero issues. If you’re using new hardware you’re more likely to have issues.
I’m literally running Plex on a Synology DS220+ NAS with all the usual addons in docker containers. I only use it locally and have had zero issues (Besides it getting laggy when downloading from Usenet at nearly 1gbps but I’ll give that a pass)
win 11 is such a cluster of bullshit the hassle of setup is gonna be about the same, but the nix box isn’t going to rape its own hardware to death and snitch on you for mp3’s
I booted 11 because it was installed and just to make sure the desktop runs (and I new how to review system specs on windows easier). Having to use OOBE to bypass account creation requirements is such bullshit.
I put Debian on my optiplex with xfce as the desktop environment and it uses less than a gig at idle. Debian’s great too because it has a slow update cycle so you don’t need to worry about anything breaking. You could set Plex to autostart so you never actually see the OS, then you have free extra RAM from using a lighter system
I first used Ubuntu and found snap to be really slow so I switched. I’ve put Mint on a computer and it works great. It’s justified in being the new linux favourite.
The UI has been designed to look a lot like Windows as well, so it’s easier for people to make the switch
I saw you’re having trouble with Debian at the moment. I don’t know what the exact problems you’re having are, the two things I can think of is making sure you’re in a root user, and you can edit individual files through terminal using nano
thanks for the advice. I think I might need to actually log in as root which obviously debian has disabled (for good reason). then it turns out replacing the files for plex is only half the battle. permissions have gotta be right, and stuff has to reference each other properly. Thinking it might be easier to go back to windows sadly.
ordered a “new” PC to take over plex responsibilities. The old XPS is starting to show its age. Heres my question, do I go Linux? Or stick to win 11? I’ve heard Linux performance is a lot better, but my experince is pretty limited to a few Ubuntu Distros. The other challenege is my library sits on a 12tb internal drive on the XPS. Is Ubuntu going to be ok reading off what I assume is NTFS?
Yes Ubuntu can read NTFS. And yes, I’ve found Plex runs happily on low spec Linux machines. Running mine on an Ubuntu VM with 2GB ram allocated quite happily.
Plex install on Linux is very easy from memory.
any special deployment of Ubuntu required as far as drivers go? I know you can just chuck it on from a live USB but I’ve never actually optimized anything. Frankly, it runs like crap on Windows.
Depends on your hardware. I recently installed Ubuntu 22.04 onto an old Dell laptop with zero issues. If you’re using new hardware you’re more likely to have issues.
Nah its a Optiplex 7070, nothing fancy so hopefully plays out the same as yours. thanks heaps!
I think 7070s are relatively old, so you should be fine? I’ve never installed Linux onto an optiplex though.
I’m literally running Plex on a Synology DS220+ NAS with all the usual addons in docker containers. I only use it locally and have had zero issues (Besides it getting laggy when downloading from Usenet at nearly 1gbps but I’ll give that a pass)
win 11 is such a cluster of bullshit the hassle of setup is gonna be about the same, but the nix box isn’t going to rape its own hardware to death and snitch on you for mp3’s
I booted 11 because it was installed and just to make sure the desktop runs (and I new how to review system specs on windows easier). Having to use OOBE to bypass account creation requirements is such bullshit.
Yeah they’re trying to force a google style garden walling. Fuck that noise.
I put Debian on my optiplex with xfce as the desktop environment and it uses less than a gig at idle. Debian’s great too because it has a slow update cycle so you don’t need to worry about anything breaking. You could set Plex to autostart so you never actually see the OS, then you have free extra RAM from using a lighter system
I was just reading about the whole snaps debate. No experience with Debian but I might give Mint a go. Sounds like its the darling child these days.
I first used Ubuntu and found snap to be really slow so I switched. I’ve put Mint on a computer and it works great. It’s justified in being the new linux favourite.
The UI has been designed to look a lot like Windows as well, so it’s easier for people to make the switch
does it have a built in “take control” for folder management? if so, that could be a winner!
I saw you’re having trouble with Debian at the moment. I don’t know what the exact problems you’re having are, the two things I can think of is making sure you’re in a root user, and you can edit individual files through terminal using nano
thanks for the advice. I think I might need to actually log in as root which obviously debian has disabled (for good reason). then it turns out replacing the files for plex is only half the battle. permissions have gotta be right, and stuff has to reference each other properly. Thinking it might be easier to go back to windows sadly.