linux Switching to linux

[Guest]

Hi there,

After reading about privacy issues of Windows, I'm thinking about switching to Linux. But the problem is I no nothing about Linux, so I don't know where to start and what Linux distro to use. So I would really appreciate if you guys could give me some pointer to start with, like which distro to choose, which tutorials to follow, etc.

 

Thanks in advance

 

P.S. I dunno whether this relevant but I usually only use my Laptop for my college work, web browsing and occasional game play.  

[sazrocks]

Look into Pop!_OS, its essentially Ubuntu but with things fixed and tweaked to run more smoothly, and is pretty easy to get working with steam and proton.

[pixeledadler]

Sup,

as @sazrocks said, it's a good place to start with Pop!_OS. It is a quite user friendly and very Linux like distro, with one of the most, if not the most, popular desktop environments Gnome. Pop also has the most 3rd party app support. The most apps are made for Ubuntu and almost all of them work flawlessly on Pop.

 

A very good German produced Linux system is Manjaro. (https://manjaro.org/) It looks a bit more like Windows and could be easier to adopt, if you want to flatten the learning curve. It uses not so common desktop environment by default. It is very light on the hardware and the speed of installing, booting and sleep/wake is just staggering. It doesn't have a great app support, but if you only plan to use it for web and office, it is really good. It also includes an office, that is very similar to MS Office. Called FreeOffice (so choose this at the installation)

 

One of best backed systems out there is Fedora. It is quite heavy all together, but is a very robust system. One problem might be, it doesn't that great app support and You might have to tinker around to make everything work your way, if you need to use some special programs/apps.

 

I my self use Fedora, but it's just because I like to tinker around.

[Kon-Tiki]

Hi CHA99,

apart from the distros already mentioned (which are definitely worth giving a look) I would name Linux Mint as a possible option. Being based on Ubuntu you will find a lot of software for it, plus the Cinnamon Desktop is very similar to Windows (just make sure to download the Cinnamon version).

Thanks to Steam and Steam Play gaming should work as well (obviously with the known limitations, though, personally, it works pretty good for me).

 

I hope you find something that fits your needs

 

[LloydLynx]

I find that anything GNOME runs like garbage. If you want nice effects and a smooth experience go with a distro running Cinnamon or KDE Plasma. Cinnamon is the smoothest experience I know of, KDE Plasma is 2nd in smoothness but is FAR FAR more costomizable. I'd suggest you start with Linux Mint since it has newb friendly features like the sources settings and non intrusive update manager, plus it works with pretty much all ppa's for the ubuntu version it's based on and later. Start with Mint and figure out what you need from there.

[DaftBlazer]

I've used linux for a little over 10 years, and Ubuntu/Ubuntu-based distros have always been what I used. For someone who hasn't used Linux before, an Ubuntu based distro will probably be the easiest to learn. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, KDE might cause some screen tearing, but theres some simple fixes for that. I personally use Fedora as my daily driver, I find it's much more stable than ubuntu, and getting proprietary software to work is not really that much extra work. I used to not like GNOME, but since Fedora ships with Stock GNOME, I love it. I think ubuntu's GNOME tweaks tend to break things.

[regex]

Hello, 

I second Linux Mint for ease of transition from Windows.  However, you would be doing yourself a disservice by jumping straight into another GUI rather than to learn (and further develop) the ins and outs of the Linux operating system.  This is, of course, your choice.  I don't know how interested you are in non-mousey-clicky stuff.

 

I like to explain Linux in terms of Lego.  Say you download a Lego castle and install it on your system.  Sure, now you have a shiny new castle to play on/with.  Now imagine downloading the parts and arranging the Legos your way.  Now that's a castle.  That, my friend, is Linux.

 

Anyhow, I'm getting preachy-speechy here.  If you are interested in learning, check out the first two (free) courses online from edx.org at https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=linux :

• Introduction to Linux
• Linux Basics: The Command Line Interface

Good luck!

[wasab]

Just get Ubuntu. Maybe Fedora if you are a bit more advance. Both distros gave me the least headaches in terms of tweaking and configuring to get them to work the way I wanted. 

[CactusMan]

For a beginner, I'd say either Solus or Ubuntu(or Pop!_OS).

 

Ubuntu

Everybody knows this distro, and it is the most supported distro in most online forums, by developers, and by manufacturers.OMGubuntu is a nice resource for beginning ubuntu users.

Pop!_OS is a distro based on Ubuntu, so any Ubuntu related topics will also apply on Pop!_OS.

 

Solus

(I have a little bias here since this was my fist distro.) It's a rolling release that focuses on the user experience with an active and friendly community around it found in its forum and subreddit. Its help center is easy to navigate and it covers the basics.

 

If you ever get stuck with something, please consult the two greatest Linux resources known before asking. ( Arch Wiki, Gentoo Wiki )

[Augustin]

Dive straight into gentoo. You will hate me for it.