It is indeed a pain to use on Linux. We have a similar (maybe the same) Macbook Air and recently I had to deal with the same thing to make it usable. I have tried many different distros, and most of the time I had to install the broadcom-wl driver via phone-tethering. Installing or even using dkms version is not the only problem too, the driver is also awful. The distro I settled was LMDE, surprisingly it was the only distro that came with Broadcom drivers, which was a plus at first. However it deteriorated so fast as you described, I had to find a permanent solution. My solution was completely ditching broadcom-wl drivers in favour of Intel’s iwd driver.

iwd also has performance issues time to time, but at least disabling/re-enabling it solves the issue, unlike had to restart the Macbook with broadcom-wl.

I also tried to replace the Broadcom Wi-Fi module by opening the back cover of Macbook since I had a Wi-Fi card laying around, but sadly the one on Macbook was not a nowadays’ standard M2 unit, so couldn’t done it.

I see. Those indeed are not possible on Wayland, at least not the way that was on Xorg. KDE has a built-in tool like xprop but I don’t know if it can be used on its own other than running it via KDE settings (There is Detect window properties option under Window rules.)

From my own experience, using global keys was quite a hassle. I have found some workarounds to some but it’s still an open issue for me. Wayland has changed how a lot things work and I believe there will be solutions or at least workarounds to all Xorg tools in time, maybe with something like Flatseal but for Wayland but main issue which is security remains, so I don’t know how things will go.

Don’t know about the other things but “focus follows mouse” is possible on Wayland. Well, it’s possible on river at least, not sure about KDE or GNOME. Could be a wlroots related feature though.

What’s the pH of snake oil?

Technically all distros support Nvidia since it’s a kernel thing, however some of them have better out of the box experience, so it would be wiser to go with one of those distros. For gaming, it’s usually better to have more recent drivers, if you play different varieties of games and some of them are newer titles. Though depending on the games, even Debian could be a suitable option.

If you don’t want to learn under-the-hood features, Bazzite could be a nice option for you. If you want familiarity with Windows, you might want to go with KDE as your desktop environment. However don’t be afraid of trying new angles if you like the general idea of a distro. So Pop!_OS might look different than Windows, it’s also a solid distro.

If you’ll need Microsoft programs or some Windows-only programs, choose something you can install Winboat on it, which isn’t currently usable for Bazzite, until the devs bring Podman support for it. Know that, Winboat is not the only interface you can install Windows programs, it just makes things much easier. So depending on the programs, Bazzite still could be a good option for you.

People here seem to recommend Arch-based distros but I wouldn’t start with them, at least until you get some familiarity with Linux in general. There is no problem using them, but a beginner couldn’t handle if something goes wrong after an update (usually happens with Nvidia). It does not happen a lot, but even once is enough for people who can’t handle it.

There is nothing wrong with Linux Mint. You might find it quite straightforward. It does not have the latest Nvidia drivers most of the time but this might not be a problem for you. If you play newer titles though, then it’s probably not the distro you would want.

I wouldn’t say never against a FOSS project. Some people do like GNOME. It’s the best to see for OP’s own eyes. They might like it or hate it. However one shouldn’t be prejudiced. Hate all you want after you tried and found weak points for your usage cases. Some popular distros use GNOME for a reason. Personally I find it too restrictive, but I don’t hate it. You would have rights to hate if it was the only DE around but you have tons of alternative options out there.

Water is deprecated, use ammonia.

Well, it’s the same since I started using my first Android phone. Whatever the cheap option I can install a custom ROM. My last 3 phones were Google Nexus 5X, Lenovo K6 Power (normally wouldn’t buy this but Nexus 5X died in 2 years), and Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 (current one and using it for less than 2 years).

I see. Then this looks like a phone I would want. Though the phones I usually use are around $150-200 so the price is kinda high for me. However if the replaceable battery is common, it might worth the price.

How is the GPS? Also, can you install apps from F-Droid?

Manul

Interestingly it was more or less the same on Reddit as well.

Glad that worked! For some reason, Battle-net does not work well with regular Wine for some time now. It works but when there is a new agent update for Battle-net, it gets borked and either can be fixed with a complete reinstall or as a temporary fix, symlink the new agent to the old one. Anyway, these problems are not present with GE-Proton. Heroic made this easy by adding built-in downloader for GE-Proton. I guess it would be nice if Lutris does a similar thing.

Lutris would also work if you set GE-Proton on it too. From its hamburger menu, go to Preferences, go to Runners tab, find Wine way below the list, open its settings (left button), and select GE-Proton as your Wine version. It will detect if you put it one on Steam’s /compatibilitytools.d/ directory, or you can manually select your preferred directory by enabling advanced options too.

If it works on Heroic, you don’t need to do this of course. I just wanted to let you know that it’s possible on Lutris too. I think Lutris needs a built-in GE-Proton downloader just like Heroic.

From Xbox to LinuXbox

It’s hilarious that we live in different worlds. I have no idea what are those Fortnite or Overwatch copies. I have no interest in hero-shooters or battle-royale genres too.

🐧_🐧🐧

to value your privacy

No problem! One of the strongest aspects of Linux is, there are too many tools to choose. There is no best one, but there is a best one for you out there. So it’s always good to try out tools people suggest, until you settle on one of them.