I bought a laptop yesterday, it came pre-installed with Windows 11. I hate win 11 so I switched it down to Windows 10, but then started considering using Linux for total control over the laptop, but here’s the thing: I keep seeing memes about how complicated or fucky wucky Linux is to install and run. I love the idea of open source software and an operating system without any of the bullshit that comes with Windows, but most of the open source stuff I have is on my android and fairly easy to install. Installing and using Linux just feels like it’ll be a whole different beast that’ll eat up most of my time and I’m kind of intimidated by it.
TL;DR Linux scawy, how does a barely computer literate scrub like me who’s used nothing but windows since the dawn of their life get started with Linux?
Dont install it, yet. Make a bootable usb stick with balena etcher and put a linux distro on it (I highly recommend mint, pop_os or ubuntu (standard version) as ISO on it.
Ubuntu is very controversial in the more advanced sphere but I learned on it and its great for beginners.
If you want to go a little bit over the top download ventoy and put it on the usb instead. You can then put as many ISOs on there as you can fit and just select one of them at boot.
The most important part for beginners is the desktop environment anyway so gnome should be fine. If you have tried it for more than an hour and still feel like this could be fun, click install and give it a go.
You could also dual boot but windows might fuck you over since they‘re not great neighbors as an OS.
Feel free to ask if you want to know more. Good luck.
Try out [distro based on Ubuntu], [distro based on Ubuntu], or Ubuntu? These are largely on in the same. Either test drive something with a non-.deb base & a different package manager, or suggest what a lot of folks really notice when discussing the feel which is the alternative DEs (desktop environments) on offer. Fedora & other big names usually offer ISO varieties with the major DEs. I think finding a DE is a better starting point since most DEs will be offered by most distros.
No. Thats exactly the reason why folks get frustrated with linux. Because folks cant fathom how much handholding a user needs in the beginning.
apt and systemd based distro is great for beginners, so is gnome. They‘re very popular and a lot of folks know how to troubleshoot if possible.
I suggest you make your own suggestions instead of trying to „correct“ others‘.
If the person is supposed to test out a distro, the stuff they will remark on is the default apps & layout of their DE first & foremost that it’s disingenuous to the larger landscape to make 67% of your recommendations are GNOME & all are the same base. GNOME’s UX sucks. Others might like it, but a lot like me probably won’t so why not include an option with KDE Plasma, Cinnamon (listed), XFCE, & maybe a tiling manager if you know the target audience well enough for your short list is a better take. Who new to Linux is going to be able to tell you the difference between Pop_OS & Ubuntu? …This is why your list of 3 is a bad suggestion–too much of the same that leads a new user into thinking there isn’t a world of possibilities.
The frustrating part at the beginning is all the under-the-hood stuff that isn’t visual like the DE. I never suggested talking about systemd, musl, pipewire, Wayland/X11, GNU coreutils, or any of that other stuff that is harder to understand.
Ubuntu is very controversial in the more advanced sphere
I would argue only turbonerds really complain about it. But in my experience, for professionals who just need to get things done it works perfectly fine 99% of the time. Same for Windows or OSX to be honest.
Of course there’s going to be those one or two guys from the vocal minority with some esoteric hardware that didn’t work chiming in shortly I’m sure.
I think its an outdated recommendation. They keep making weird choices and one of only two friends that was willing to try Linux went and tried Ubuntu without my input and decided to go back to windows for a bunch of mostly mundane reasons that could have either been configured away or been preempted by using a different distro. The other guy will be back but on bazzite after trying my steam deck he only left for shitty rootkit anticheat games that he’s now sick of. He started on one of the arch easy install methods and was already a power user on both windows and Mac.
In fact I used ubuntu until version 23.10 iirc so no, its not an outdated recommendation. Actually I still use it on my servers because it doesnt need a desktop there and I‘m not changing OSs unless I have to. 22.04 is still perfectly fine on there.
The issue with power users (I‘m an admin myself) is that we‘re used to being in control and some new OS feels weird as we might get stuck for a bit. Not everyone likes to deal with that.
Still valid opinion I think. Have a good one.
I’m using Nix and it’s basically the same as every other Linux distro except settings and packages are managed slightly differently. It’s the DE that really makes a difference for people I think.
In fact, I dont use ubuntu on my desktop anymore because of their snap craze. I also think talking down to people shows lack of character btw. Have a good one anyway.
There are ways to remove snap and prevent it from (even accidentally) being installed again, that’s what I do. https://www.baeldung.com/linux/snap-remove-disable
But you can tell me how you think I was talking down to people? I’d like to know so I can correct my behavior if necessary.
Was it the word turbonerd? Sure not everyone may agree with that, it was said jokingly and I really just meant non-professional users who are passionate about Linux, wasn’t trying to make fun of anyone.
If someone is leaving windows for privacy reasons, it doesn’t make sense to go to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a great gateway distro to Linux. It ressemble Windows a lot, stable and straight forward to install and use.
So a new user is not too lost when switching over.
And, yeah, privacy is not that great, but having installed windows 11 on a new PC, Ubuntu is a lot better than windows
