Honestly, at this point I’m so done with window’s bullshit. Their operating system is damn near unusable. All the convenient stuff is hidden in weird places. The constant whining about having to buy their crap. Or worse trying to get me to use the horrible software that comes with the new versions.
My excuse used to be, but I can’t play games on it. This is no longer the case for the games I love. So Windows can suck it. At this point I’m switching away from a lot of stuff I used to use. (x-box became Steam-deck, twitter became blue-sky and reddit is becoming Lemmy) As a kind of computer illiterate person, this has been a worth while transition but a difficult one. Let’s just say I had to learn a lot of new stuff.
So I’m a total Linux newbie but thanks to my Steam deck I’ve become somewhat used to using it. Not like an expert, but I have run wine to create separate environments for running pokémon fangames. And have taken a look around the Linux environment. I like it and think I’ll be able to get used to it with practice. It reminds me weirdly of windows XP in how easily I can get everything to work the way I want. It takes a bit of doing and some research, but it works. Which is all I want in an operating system.
I am looking for tips as to where to start searching, because I am converting my windows computer to Linux. I just don’t know what version.
Any user experience is welcome, I have no idea where to begin. I mostly use the computer I’m installing this on as a glorified typewriter, that I play movies, music and retro-games on.
A user friendly version is preferred, I find it hard to parse out from the various versions I have seen so far how easy they actually are to use. Extra points if a large amount of the information has easy to find tutorials on the internet. I don’t always know where to start looking and as I learned while getting wine to work, some of the names/terms are completely different. (And kind of a lot at once if you are just getting started).
Any resources you might think are useful for a newbie are also highly appreciated.
tl;dr: I (a Linux noob) am looking for a recommendation for what version of Linux to use for my needs. And any tips tricks or other info that I might need to know before I switch. Because windows sucks.
I’m sorry if this has already been asked and answered. I did try to find an answer through searching, but as I already mentioned. My lack of terms and knowledge is holding me back.
I was in your shoes last year, OP.
I first installed Mint (because everyone recommended it as the newbie distro) on a laptop that I took with me on summer vacation, to see if I can do some summer course work and finals on it. It worked flawlessly for that. Then I installed Steam and the paw patrol game for the kids, with controller support, and again everything worked flawlessly.
This basically gave me the confidence to just axe windows on my home desktop and fail horribly over and over again to get Arch working. Until I didn’t. I’m still Linux illiterate, but the Arch wiki, their IRC channel and duck.ai & asking every available LLM through it for consensus, helped a ton with resolving anything I have encountered. I’d probably go for something more stable though next time.
So yeah tl;dr try on old laptop first for a month, then switch your main PC.
The best advice I can give you is to switch to Linux is don’t right away. Switch the applications you use to open source or Linux compatible alternatives that also run on windows. Then after you get used to those on windows then make the switch.
I would also recommend not dual booting at first since it’s too easy to jump ship at the slightest issue vs sticking with it to figure out the issue just like you would with a problem on windows. It’s a real thing I have experienced it in reverse as a long time Linux user that tried Windows 11 i kept jumping back to Linux every time I ran into issues that caused frustration.
I dual booted and I rarely ever used windows when i was starting, mostly because windows takes a while to reboot.
This is some very solid advise.
Sounds like Linux Mint would be a good start for you
Linux Mint. Easy to set up, reasonably easy to use, and used by enough people that a quick internet search should probably turn up results of people who have run into similar issues if you ever have a problem.
Also has an interface that clicks easier with people used to Windows.
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Linux Mint DE will be the easiest transition.
Probably Linux Mint. If you have a hardware support issue on Mint, Fedora.
A few people have been recommending Mint. I wasn’t aware it could possibly have hardware support issues, I’ll be sure to look into that beforehand. Thank you for the alternative recommendation. I’ll look into that as well.
You can always try the live USB without/before installing. It’s a great way to start getting comfortable or try out several different distros with minimal effort and risk.
I personally prefer Debian based distros just because of the number of apps in the software repo. Probably consider Ubuntu or Mint in your case. My wife and I have used Linux pretty exclusively for over 20 years. Easy of use is not that much of an issue once your setup. My wife and her dad are not technical and they have few issues.
Installing, and fixing issues is more technical but it is for Windows too especially if you do not get it preinstalled. You presumably have some stratagy for Windows support. Linux same, have a stratgey for it.
windows’ is the correct way to form that since windows ends with an s
And you might say “don’t be a dick” but to that I say: you want to use Linux. You need to learn how to type things correctly and accurately or your computer will not work. The rules of most command line programs are far more restrictive than the ’ rule in English.
Either windows’ or windows’s is correct, actually. The reason is because of exactly words like “Windows”, if you use the former, it sounds like it’s a possessive of more than one window, but it’s a possessive of a proper noun, Windows. The latter is more correct in this case because of that. (it’s also pronounced that way!)
I’m in a very similar situation like you are. I too have started to be annoyed with the Big Tech products and the Internet in general.
I have switched to Lemmy, shut down my gmail account and opened a Proton Mail, and switched from using Google search engine to Qwant.
I too have switched to Linux Mint, and I’m loving it. TBH my IT colleauges talked me into buying refurbished Thinkpad laptop and told me to install Linux Mint. Boy am I glad I did that.
The next step for me is switching to Fairphone :D
I never understood the whole fairphone thing. Theres way more phones on the planet than people. The most fair phone is just buying something 2nd hand for cheap. Save it from a landfill. I got a 150$ Pixel 6 a couple years ago, put graphene os on there, and i dont expect to get another phone until it literally stops working lol.
In my case the main reason is… removable battery.
This fair thing sounds like a gimmick to me too
It’s easy enough to replace an iPhone battery
I can’t imagine just…shutting down my email. It’s 20 years old and is integrated into a lot of my life.
I suppose I should look into other options.
Same. But I opened a Proton Mail and forwarded all my emails there. Now I am slowly (when bored) updating all my services to the new email. You can do it. Step by step over many years. But start now
Absolutely go with bazzite, I have 15 years of experience and am willing to do unlimited troubleshooting for free if you message me on matrix.
as for why bazzite? it’s immutable, which means there’s a core set of stuff that is read only and can’t be broken, which is massively beneficial for new people and is very up to date, and has the fixes for certain patent related stuff built in (fedora doesn’t as do any other american based distros) that make twitch and some other websites work properly out of the box
For the uninitiated, bazzite isn’t really a battle-tested distro or a mainstream one. I just started hearing about it within the past few months.
It kind of came out of nowhere and looks to be getting shilled hard, similar to mx linux. The amount of shilling you may see for it does not correspond with usage among the community at all.
Be careful what you install on your computers, guys.
This isn’t really true since it’s just a slightly modified atomic fedora. Even if bazzite completely evaporated it wouldn’t matter even a little to someone who currently has it installed. They’d just continue getting fedora updates like nothing happened.
And to say fedora isn’t battletested/mainstream is insane.
the only differences are minor qol improvements that fedora doesn’t have for legal reasons, and steam being installed.
🥱
I second Linux mint. It’s my daily driver and I love it. I first switched my laptop which wasn’t much daily driver to mint and when I got used to it I switched my main desktop.
Arch and Mint are the two most-used distros (Arch with double the Mint users) behind SteamOS(Steamdeck).
Installing Arch from the install medium is daunting for people so I’d recommend EndeavourOS. It’s Arch but using a graphical installer and sane defaults for a desktop PC.
It seems intimidating because there’s a lot of new terms and workflows seem to always involve the terminal. Learn to love the power of the terminal, don’t be one of those “I use Linux but am scared of terminal commands” people.
If you’ve figured how to use wine then you’re capable of searching your way to any solution I’m Arch (it’s probably on the Wiki).
I love working in the terminal, I usually have a window open for it any time I’m working on a Linux machine. The only thing I don’t like about it is people who tell you commands to run for troubleshooting and refuse to elaborate on what those commands actually do. That and
sed… That shit is black fucking magic.
Switching to something else because you’ve had it up to here with existing is a bad reason. Your mind is biased and loaded for prejudgement.
Linux Mint is the obvious “newbie” choice, and not just because everyone says so.
Now, I’m no Linux expert, but Mint is great for the huge amount of tutorials availiable. The catch is: most of them aren’t aimed at Mint itself, but Ubuntu or Debian, from which it “inherits” a lot. So, if you have a problem and can’t find a fix for Mint specifically, chances are one aimed at Ubuntu (or even Debian) will work flawlessly.
Additionally, GenAI chatbots impress me with how helpful thay are. Just by asking them how to do stuff will teach you a lot.
I highly recommend you save the info which seemed most useful somewhere for future reference. In my experience I had to do a few dozen things repeatedly and ended up remembering them. They’re mostly simple commands like
apt install,apt update,apt upgrade,cdand my favourite<app_name &>which opens the app invoked without “hijacking” the terminal.As most in the Linux community say, some things are lightning-fast to do in the terminal once you know the proper incantation.
As others said, the Mint install is incredibly simple, and much faster than the Windows one. You don’t need a guide, just reading the on-screen prompts and instructions will guide you through it. During the install I highly recommend checking the “Install proprietary drivers” box because depending on your exact hardware, some things (especially Nvidia) may not play well without it.
You will be able to do almost everything without the terminal, although many tutorials do utilize it, so using it is pretty much inevitable at some point of your Linux journey.
Now, some hearsay: I’ve heard that Windows doesn’t play nice with dual boot (although I’ve never experienced it fist hand), so you should back up your files just in case.
But, before you do that: For starting, if you’ve got the time, I’d recommend getting an old machine to dip your toes into Linux on it first without fully committing. I’d recommend you do this even though you have the Steam Deck since there are some differences between SteamOS and Mint, so it wouldn’t hurt to try.
and my favourite `` which opens the app invoked without “hijacking” the terminal.
lemmy sanitized it out, did you mean the ampersand?
I honestly think mint is an outdated suggestion for beginners, I think immutability is extremely important for someone who is just starting out, as well as starting on KDE since it’s by far the most developed DE that isn’t gnome and their… design decisions are unfortunate for people coming from windows.
I don’t think we should be recommending mint to beginners anymore, if mint makes an immutable, up to date KDE distro, that’ll change, but until then, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place for beginners.
The mere fact that it generates a new system for you on update and lets you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).
How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.
Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.
Cinnamon doesn’t and won’t support HDR, the security/performance improvements from wayland, color management, mixed refresh rate displays, mixed DPI displays, fractional scaling, and many other things for a very very long time if at all. I don’t understand the usecase for cinnamon tbh, xfce is great if you need performance but don’t want to make major sacrifices, lmde is great if you need A LOT of performance, cinnamon isn’t particularly performant and just a strictly worse version of kde in my eyes from the perspective of a beginner, anyway.
