Hi there!
Seeing the enshittification of Windows unfold, I’m curious about trying out Linux.
I don’t want to move over my main machine just yet, but I’ve got a 9 yo HP Pavilion 15-e001ed spare laptop I want to experiment with. Eventually I want a gaming laptop that can run steam games.
When I googled I found a plethora of pieces of advice, but seeing the proselytizing for Linux here, maybe I could get a bit more personal advice as a potential conscript.
So what advice would you give me to start my journey into Linux?
UPDATE: Ok my cherry is popped, writing this from a fresh Mint install. It’s suprisingly smooth sailing. Only thing is somehow software gets installed on my root partition instead of the home partition I made because people told me so.
But overall not nearly as dounting as I thought it would be. Thanks for the help everybody!
I was using the software manager indeed. For steam that seems like the only way to go as it says it needs 32 bit and hence needs root access. (Self reportedly).
I tried downloading the installer from stream itself, but that didn’t fare well.
I’m currently debating doing a re install and just make the one partition for everything, which is a shame ai was proud I managed the separate partitions all by myself. But if this can happen and my root can get filled up with files like this I don’t see how having a separate partition is worth it.
The main reason why you might want a separate home partition is for easy distro hopping, so you can keep all your personal files when you reinstall/change the operating system. Which is something you may want as a new user, however obviously it’s not too hard to backup your home directory somewhere if you’re wiping your drive for a reinstall.