Hi everyone, looking to make the switch from windows. I’m reasonably technically apt but not a programmer by any means. I’ve been doing some homework on which distro I would like to use and pop_os kinda feels like the right direction. I’m running an Nvidia 3060TI on a Ryzen 5600 chip set on an Asus tuf motherboard. Any other distros I should be looking at, and does somebody have a link for a comprehensive guide to installing? I’m looking to continue running windows on the side until such a time as I am comfortable enough with linux that I don’t need it.

2 points

It’s more important to make the swap in the first place than it is to pick the right distro, unless you dive straight into LFS or Gentoo or something. You’ll eventually find what you want and can swap easily enough, or you’ll find that you’re happy with what you have!

permalink
report
reply
6 points

Just pick one and roll with it. Eventually as you use it you might want to switch so do that if you wanna. Distro just comes down to preference so find one you like. At the end of the day they’re all Linux

permalink
report
reply
6 points

Linux Mint Debian!! It’s simple, already set up, easily extensible, and is based on one of the most popular distributions. You can always find out how to do something on Debian and it won’t break on you.

permalink
report
reply
2 points

Why tve Debian version? I’d recommend Linux Mint as well, but I’d recommend the normal one.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Snap being partly proprietary while also being forced on Ubuntu users leads me to avoid Ubuntu derived distros. Plus my philosophy when it comes to Linux is that you wanna stay close to a distro’s upstream, so I only really recommend the big ones like Debian, Fedora, Arch, or openSUSE. The less levels of maintainers the better, essentially.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I get your point. But Linux Mint does not have Snap by default, so that does not really apply.

I’d still recommend the normal Ubuntu based one since there is so much easily available help out there for any Ubuntu based system.

The Debian dist is (iirc) just there in case Ubuntu becomes unsuitable as an upstream in the future. I would treat it as a safe backup option, not a primary choice and def. not something I’d recommend to beginners.

But that’s just my take on it :)

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I’ve had serious trouble with pop and usb devices waking up from sleep. Tried for weeks. Also had trouble with many flatpacks. Most help pages and tutorials were outdated or plain wrong, too.

Changed to arch eventually. Never regretted it. Mostly coding and gaming. Eventually deleted windows, because, well, everything just worked. I must have reinstalled pop like eight times. Am still sporting the first arch installation. Well. EndeavourOS, really.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

Does endeavoros automatically generate BTRFS snapshots before every update? If not, do not use Arch.

A broken system sucks. Use Fedora or Opensuse.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I had to look that up. Never became an issue for me on any distro. How do you get a broken system when updating? Does it really happen that often? I might just have been lucky.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

It happens sometimes. Same as with security, you dont realize it until you would have needed it

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

There are few comments more useless than “I had some random error on unknown hardware with distro X”.

permalink
report
parent
reply
35 points

IT’S DONE! Went and got myself a new SSD this afternoon and put POP!_OS on it. Looks like I got it all right but I can only boot into my Windows11 side through the BIOS. I tried all the GRUB commands but apparently after more reading GRUB isn’t used in pop 22.04. Any other ways to have a selection screen of some sort for the OS I want to boot rather than having to wait for the splash and frantically hit “F2” at the right time?

permalink
report
reply
3 points

Go to Bios settings and make the efi entry of Popo-OS the first. But if you honestly use the same drive dont. Or simply never do a Windows update again, which is also insane

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

There is a section here on dual booting using systemd boot. Never used it, but it will hopefully work in your case, or at least point you the right way.https://ostechnix.com/dual-boot-windows-and-pop-os/

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

There are few things I’d suggest more than keeping Windows and Linux installations WELL separated. I’ve had windows update EFI entries for the whole system more than once, leaving the linux OS unbootable.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Yeah, this is a thing. Make sure you have a recovery usb key handy, and you’ll need to follow the POP os bootloader recovery document.

So if Linux just ‘disappears’ after a windows update, don’t fear, just do the bootloader recovery process.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Did you encrypt your whole drive during Pop installation? If so, I’ve never found a good way to dual boot with an encrypted drive other than refind.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

POP!_OS apparently uses systemd-boot (not to be confused with systemd). It apparently adds a Windows entry automatically if Windows is installed on the same disk. When Windows is installed on a different disk, it looks like booting the windows boot manager EFI program is still possible with systemd-boot. The instructions given in that link are a bit vague, though.

This page has a different, simpler approach and more specific steps. Apparently you can just copy the Microsoft EFI folder to a specific directory in your Linux drive’s ESP partition. I’d be a little bit concerned about Windows not being able to update its EFI bootloader, but I also don’t know if Windows ever updates that. The page also has instructions on how to interact with the systemd-boot menu during boot.

You could also install grub yourself, but I can’t guarantee that’ll be easy. Mashing F2 might be the sanest solution, unless you plan on booting into Windows every day.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

This is perfectly fixable, but take the win and leave well enough alone imo.

If you’re on ext4, you could also simply refind.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I’m taking the win and leaving well enough alone for now.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

oh uhhh, not sure OP sorry. hope someone knows. youd be best editing the body of the post

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

get flatseal, stick with flatpaks from your app manager. use keepass for your passcodes and syncthing to sync everything. have fun!

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Avoid Flatpaks for some things, eg eMacs, vscode etc

Look into distrobox

permalink
report
parent
reply

Linux

!linux@lemmy.ml

Create post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Community stats

  • 6.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 7K

    Posts

  • 188K

    Comments