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Linux for newbies

CHA_I_99
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Hi there,

I'm a complete newbie to Linux and want to tryout some thing before committing long term. I usually use my PC for web surfing and school stuff, like online class, reports. I'm currently on the fence between Ubuntu and PopOS, but not sure about which one would be most suitable for my needs. So, I would really appreciate your advice, specially my OS selection, newb mistakes or anything you think that might be useful to me.

Again thank you! really appreciate your help!😄

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PopOS is effectively Ubuntu with a different desktop environment. 

 

I would personally recommend Manjaro over both, but it's up to you.

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I heard Pop has better driver support and is updated better than ubuntu. Also, because its also based on ubuntu, information and help on both are widely available. 

@kelvinhall05 why would you pick manjaro? (I have never used any form of linux and I am a noob to it just like OP. )

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1 minute ago, Saksham said:

I heard Pop has better driver support and is updated better than ubuntu. Also, because its also based on ubuntu, information and help on both are widely available. 

@kelvinhall05 why would you pick manjaro? (I have never used any form of linux and I am a noob to it just like OP. )

I have never had a good experience with Ubuntu (on my desktop and laptop, anyway). It's always been slow, buggy, unstable, etc.

 

I also find the ability to rely on the Arch wiki and have access to the AUR to be fucking amazing and can't imagine going back to Ubuntu and not having it.

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CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

🏳️‍🌈

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7 minutes ago, CHA_I_99 said:

Hi there,

I'm a complete newbie to Linux and want to tryout some thing before committing long term. I usually use my PC for web surfing and school stuff, like online class, reports. I'm currently on the fence between Ubuntu and PopOS, but not sure about which one would be most suitable for my needs. So, I would really appreciate your advice, specially my OS selection, newb mistakes or anything you think that might be useful to me.

Again thank you! really appreciate your help!😄

Ubuntu is a great start, and there's lots of support available for it.

2 minutes ago, Saksham said:

I heard Pop has better driver support

>Not really sure how this works. Most of the "drivers" are from the linux kernel itself. Ubuntu provides that and proprietary stuff as well.

Just now, kelvinhall05 said:

I also find the ability to rely on the Arch wiki and have access to the AUR to be fucking amazing and can't imagine going back to Ubuntu and not having it.

I'll admit I've had similar experiences with Ubuntu here, but most of that was likely due to my noobiness, not Ubuntu. It's been super stable on my server, which has been mostly set-and-forget.

 

That being said, AUR is really quite good. I've run pure Arch rather than Manjaro though.

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1 minute ago, svmlegacy said:

I've run pure Arch rather than Manjaro though.

Agreed, but Manjaro is more user-friendly, at the very least with the install process. I used Manjaro for a year before switching to Arch a month or so ago and it's been pretty sweet, lol.

2 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

but most of that was likely due to my noobiness, not Ubuntu

Also agreed. In hindsight, this might have been due to experiemental support for my 370. But that doesn't explain why it still ran like shit on my Elitebook with basic Ivy Bridge i5 and Intel iGPU.

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Posted (edited)

When I started I started with Ubuntu, then I moved to mint. Currently I'm in manjaro. Manjaro was at like 0.65 beta release when I started moving from windows. If I could go back I would skip Ubuntu. My experience with Ubuntu is slow clunky and a resource hog. I would start with Manjaro or pop os, I know pop is is built on Ubuntu but system 76 has done a good job at making the system fast and sappy.

 

For me manjaro has installed with everything working out of the box. I can't say the same for Ubuntu. Mint does a good job of that to.

 

Also if you can install with you're /home as its own drive or partition. You will more than likely start disro hoping.

Edited by acjonesy
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I switched from Windows 7 to Linux Mint (based on ubuntu) back in 2015 with no prior experience of Linux. It was a fairly easy transition. I highly recommend.

System Specs: Second-class potato, slightly mouldy

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@acjonesy I'm sure this is going to be a stupid question but what you mean by "/home as its own drive or partition" ? 

Sorry!😅

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3 hours ago, CHA_I_99 said:

@acjonesy I'm sure this is going to be a stupid question but what you mean by "/home as its own drive or partition" ? 

Sorry!😅

Gonna go against the flow a bit here and recommend Ubuntu. Pop is designed to run on specific hardware and there's a lack of documentation for the things it does differently from Ubuntu, leading to a bunch of problems that wouldn't have been there on Ubuntu (just check the post history on this subforum...). Manjaro is a rolling release distribution which is not suited for intermittent use.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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9 hours ago, CHA_I_99 said:

@acjonesy I'm sure this is going to be a stupid question but what you mean by "/home as its own drive or partition" ? 

Sorry!😅

/home is like you're user folder in windows. Linux allows you to install the whole system like windows on one HDD. Also you can split it up so if you need to do a re install you can leave you're documents and photoa, things of that nature in touched. A quick google search will show you how to do this at install :)

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I tend to agree with @Sauron, save for using Linux Mint over Ubuntu. For older hardware, and those who object to systemd, I'd recommend Devuan instead. Ever tried systemd on a P4 or Core2 Duo? The latter kinda works, but boy is it ever so stroppy, like thick molasses. On any Pentium it's totally unworkable. Don't tell me no-one has these types of PC's any-more, people do and want to repurpose them. Use Devuan, period!

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision"

 

(Faithless, 'Reverence' from the 1996 Reverence album)

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1 minute ago, Dutch_Master said:

Ever tried systemd on a P4 or Core2 Duo? The latter kinda works, but boy is it ever so stroppy, like thick molasses. On any Pentium it's totally unworkable. Don't tell me no-one has these types of PC's any-more, people do and want to repurpose them. Use Devuan, period!

To be honest I've never seen data indicating a significant performance loss from using systemd over popular alternatives... gonna go on a limb and say that Devuan is lightweight because it uses a light DE and doesn't have a lot of services running out of the box, which doesn't depend on systemd.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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7 hours ago, Saksham said:

@kelvinhall05 what is AUR?

Arch user repository. 

Quote me to see my reply!

SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

🏳️‍🌈

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