I just installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Cinnamon) on an empty laptop a couple days ago and have been experimenting a lot. I’m coming from being a Windows user since I was just a little kid playing old DOS games on my grandpa’s Win-98 PC back in around 2000. My daily driver is currently running Windows 10 but I am pretty adamant on not going with Win-11. I’ve been wanting to experiment with Linux for a while and Cinnamon so far seems like a lot of fun to navigate. Terminal is amazing. The fact that you can custom-write keyboard commands that can be hand-tailored to individual programs on your computer via the OS… that’s powerful.
I have not tried running WINE yet but I plan on doing so soon. I also have not done much of anything, honestly, except for learning how to search for programs with gnome-software --search=. I have also used sudo a couple times to download software here and there, but I know I am not tackling this in as systematic of a way as I ought to be to really figure this machine out.
What are some really important basic commands I can use to start branching out into Terminal command structures and learning more about how I can edit and customize my computer? And if Cinnamon has shortfalls or weaknesses that I may run into eventually, what are some good alternative distros that I could leapfrog to eventually? I do not have any coding experience (currently), but I do consider myself a semi-power-user on Windows, having messed with CMD many times and digging through all the damn menus to access drivers and alter ports.
My main recommendation is this - The more techsavvy you are, the harder a switch to Linux will be, because you know how to do some complex things on Windows, and now you’ll have to relearn it on Linux.
Take your time, Google lots, and just know the ceiling on Linux is much higher for power users, so getting over the initial hump will reward you greatly
I also switched to linux after using windows for more than 10 years. I still havent gotten used to linux yet. There are still a lot of things I struggle with.
I kind of had difficulty setting up my printer, I tried to install the HP drivers but it did not install. But none of this installation was required because linux supports driverless printing throught the cups service which I wish I knew earlier.
Another is the use of vi text editor, I couldn’ t figure out how to even edit the file and save the file🤣.
Yeah many more examples. It is a bumpy ride. But it is all worth it.
You don’t have to learn vi if you don’t want to. Just switch your default text editor to one that you like (it doesn’t even have to be a GUI one)
Ctrl+R to search your bash history. I hate how long I went without knowing this, so I’ve always got to spread the word about it.
if you use zsh, typing the first part of the command and then using the up arrow searches through the history for commands with the same starting characters
Didn’t take me that long, but I had a similar reaction to learning about it haha
Press the up arrow over and over until you find the command. This is they way!
Wow! On Fish, it brings up a whole search bar with a colored grid of results and tab to select and fuzzy finding. This is cool!
Two tips:
I have not tried running WINE yet but I plan on doing so soon.
Steam “just works” on Linux, you can install it via flatpak (which I use) or from their deb repo. It includes “Proton”, which is a fancy bundle of wine and some extra open source valve sauce to make it nice and easy to use. Any game that runs on the steam deck also runs on Linux via proton, and there’s no messing around at all. It looks and feels just like steam on Windows, and thousands of games just work with no setup or config beyond clicking the big blue and green buttons to install and run. Not EVERY games works, but tons do. I’d heavily recommend this over raw wine to a beginner.
The second tip is not to ask what you can do on Linux. The answer, to a first approximation, is that you can do everything on Linux that you can do on Windows or OSX. I daily drive all three, and mostly do the same stuff on them. Instead, ask YOURSELF what you WANT to do on Linux. Then Google and ask us HOW to do it… or what the nearest approximation is if the precise thing you want to do doesn’t work on Linux.
- Linux is not Windows
Do not expect things to work as they do in Windows.
- The terminal is not to be feared (it only bites when told to)
While you can get most things done via a GUI option using the Terminal is much more powerful and gives more information.
- Not all hardware works with or works well with Linux
This pertains mostly to Laptops and peripherals, but always do a quick Google search to check for any issues.
One of the big issues for people is sound, a lot of computer & parts makers like to use the cheapest no-name parts they can because Windows lets them require “drivers” aka software fixes for poor hardware whereas Linux tends to give unaltered output leading to complaints about sound quality.
- Not all software works on or works well on Linux
You are not going to find software from Adobe, Microsoft office 365 etc running on Linux even using WINE.
Some games will not work on Linux even using the Proton compatibility software.
- Linux software is often lacking in the visuals but has lots of options under the hood.
There is a lot of software made for Linux are made by devs who focus more on the under the hood performance than making the software GUI look pretty. So don’t be put off by the looks of a lot of Linux software.
- Alternative to is a great website.
I highly recommend Using the Alternativeto website to (as the name implies) find alternatives to software you use on Windows.
- Backup’s are your friend
Setup an external device be it an internal hard drive, external hard drive or NAS as a backup target for your files.
You can use Timeshift to backup the entire drive (and it can reload a chosen backup directly onto the drive), Lucky backup to sync specified folders (either one way or both ways) to your drives or as I do use both.
And backup before doing major updates.
I have Timeshift setup to backup the entire drive (including $home) to a separate internal HDD and Luckybackup set to backup my important folders to an external USB HDD.
- Accidents will happen
As you are learning how to use and navigate you will have accidents that will require a full reinstall, don’t fear this has happened to everyone else and why you backup your files so it’s an annoyance instead of the end of the world.
My tip would be to try a few distros before you settle on one. Ubuntu was it for me about seven years ago, but I used mint for a few years and am using MX with xfce now.
Also, sudo !! is pretty useful when you forget to sudo the previous command. It means “super user do the last command I just boneheadedly forgot to do that to”
Also can use !! and do a space at any place to bring in last command. Not used much as you could just do an up arrow but helps if you edit around a lot and experimenting with a cli tool or command.
