When there’s an update available (not upgrade), it shows up in the available packages for updating, but eventually it’s the user who clicks on “update”, and you can uncheck the kernel if you don’t want it updated at the moment. The distro will not update without asking the user’s permission.
And indeed, when I upgrade the kernel, I keep the previous version installed so can boot with the older kernel in case something gets wrong with the newer one.
Sorry for going off topic…
I just wanted to say that I’m not a programmer, but I’m not afraid get my hands dirty if needed. Manjaro really suites me well. I think I’ll try installing Cinnamon DE since I have 2 monitors that I’d like to have profiles for.
Well Manajaro indeed does not switch to a different kernel but it updates your current kernel. But the trouble is, that you basically cannot update or install any other app if you do not want to have the kernel update - all packages depend on each other. Usually there is some needed new package that depends on the kernel update.
I haven’t encountered this issue. It happened that I wanted to delay a kernel update when I didn’t know how to quickly make display-link work, and it still let me update all other packages.
I did not know about the rolling release distributions, but I have little free time and I would like to spend more of it with my camera and the pictures instead of managing the PC (but I do get that it can be a lot of fun to control such details).
I think I’ll try Mint Linux or XUbuntu first mostly due to the lack of RAM on my machine (8Gb after extension, originally 4Gb on windows is a a pain).
Next challenge is the USB boot, it’s not the first time I try the manouver but on this HP it’s a bit harder than ususal…
Linux Mint has an Xfce edition. Remember: after you have chosen and set up a distro, you could always install another desktop environment and switch to it.
I use Ubuntu Studio which comes with many photo-centric apps preinstalled. It runs well on low spec hardware. Check it out if you have a chance. https://ubuntustudio.org
The ubuntustudio has the last Gimp, Darktable, Rawtherapee, Rapid Photo Downloader & a color calibration workflow: Displaycal, Argylcms, colord, xiccd… Xfce needs the last one for a working color calibration. Photography without color calibration is a nonsense!
Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.x might be not a bad choice for an older PC. It looks fresh but feels light. Cinnamon and GNOME are pretty heavy. KDE Plasma can be fancy and heavy or it can be light and snappy depending on how you configured it.
Except one relevant thing; I like to make a desktop icon shortcutting to my raw processor, and drag images from the file browser (I use geeqie), to the icon to open them. This has been a pain to configure, requiring gnome desktop (now default in the most recent release, thank the great spirit…), but, still required a plugin I had to install separately.
I recommend Arco Linux, it’s a flavor of Arch, easy to install, many desktops. Works well with dual graphics. New software in the repos. I think the Intel Neo driver works on Ubuntu, too. Not sure about Fedora in this respect.
If you got friends that use linux, use the same distro as they use. It makes it easier to find help if you’re stuck. In all distros aren’t that differnt from each other.