Starting using linux, recommendations?

[AlexGhe]

Hi,

 

I want to try to learn using Linux, however I'd like your help with the following questions.:

 

1. I'm also a gamer, so I'd like to also keep Windows installed. They won't both run at the same time. Will there be a performance decrease for any of them because the other one exists on the same machine, even if it's not running?

2. Is Linux as picky about storage as Windows is? I have a 1TB HDD lying around and I wanted to use that as main drive for Linux installation. Should I instead get a small SSD as boot drive?

3. Which Linux distro do you recommend for beginners? Also I'm currently learning PHP as well as following CCNA course, if it's possible please factor this in your recommendation.

 

THANKS!

[Slottr]

1. no, aside from space it doesn't matter

2. What do you mean by picky? Having your OS on an SSD is always a good idea, but generally most distros are quite efficient as is

3. Ubuntu

[AnirbanG007]

7 minutes ago, AlexGhe said:

Hi,

 

I want to try to learn using Linux, however I'd like your help with the following questions.:

 

1. I'm also a gamer, so I'd like to also keep Windows installed. They won't both run at the same time. Will there be a performance decrease for any of them because the other one exists on the same machine, even if it's not running?

2. Is Linux as picky about storage as Windows is? I have a 1TB HDD lying around and I wanted to use that as main drive for Linux installation. Should I instead get a small SSD as boot drive?

3. Which Linux distro do you recommend for beginners? Also I'm currently learning PHP as well as following CCNA course, if it's possible please factor this in your recommendation.

 

THANKS!

As an Ubuntu alternative you could try Pop OS, looks a bit better, IMO. You could also look into elementary OS, however, don't go distro hunting as a beginner, stick with these options, or even Zorin OS for that matter, and you'd be fine.

[AlexGhe]

6 minutes ago, Slottr said:

2. What do you mean by picky? Having your OS on an SSD is always a good idea, but generally most distros are quite efficient as is

Thanks, picky like Windows. I recently upgraded my parent's laptop which is running Windows 10, from an HDD to a very small SSD, 120GB.

With the HDD windows was really slow, it took over 2 minutes to boot, another minute for the icons on desktop to load. And anything you wanted to do it was slow. Want to open a document? wait a few minutes. Want to open a folder? Wait a minute.

 

I currently have other financial plans so I don't want to invest into another SSD at the moment.

[Slottr]

Just now, AlexGhe said:

Thanks, picky like Windows. I recently upgraded my parent's laptop which is running Windows 10, from an HDD to a very small SSD, 120GB.

With the HDD windows was really slow, it took over 2 minutes to boot, another minute for the icons on desktop to load. And anything you wanted to do it was slow. Want to open a document? wait a few minutes. Want to open a folder? Wait a minute.

 

I currently have other financial plans so I don't want to invest into another SSD at the moment.

Thats just the down side of a hard drive. They're slow, and get slower as time goes on/get filled.

[AlexGhe]

3 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Thats just the down side of a hard drive. They're slow, and get slower as time goes on/get filled.

Well now when I use it as mass storage it's plenty fast. I mean it uses most of my gigabit internet connection when I...download stuff....that I definitely paid for....

But Windows like to constantly, 24/7 make random reads for no reason apparent to the user and that's what makes the HDD slow. Is Linux also like that? Or once it's booted, it's done?

[Slottr]

Just now, AlexGhe said:

Well now when I use it as mass storage it's plenty fast. I mean it uses most of my gigabit internet connection when I...download stuff....that I definitely paid for....

But Windows like to constantly, 24/7 make random reads for no reason apparent to the user and that's what makes the HDD slow. Is Linux also like that? Or once it's booted, it's done?

I mean thats just how an operating system is. They're constantly working in the background to work. Windows is "hefiter" and does have more background tasks than linux, but they all still need to use the disc.

[Guest]

1. No
2. A HDD is a HDD. It might perform slightly better under Linux, but I would expect your experience to be similar.
3. KDE Neon, but I am just a fan of KDE. It is built on Ubuntu LTS. I recommend removing KWrite and installing Kate.

[AlexGhe]

3 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

1. No
2. A HDD is a HDD. It might perform slightly better under Linux, but I would expect your experience to be similar.
3. KDE Neon, but I am just a fan of KDE. It is built on Ubuntu LTS. I recommend removing KWrite and installing Kate.

Thanks, I'm looking into this as well as Ubuntu as others recommended.

About KDE neon I was trying to look into their FAQ and I found this question that has a very strange aswer:

https://neon.kde.org/faq#diff-desktop

"Can I use a desktop other than Plasma?"

 

They say I cannot use any other desktop than this Plasma. When I say desktop, I'm thinking about my hardware.

Is Plasma some kind of desktop/laptop that they are selling?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, AlexGhe said:

They say I cannot use any other desktop than this Plasma. When I say desktop, I'm thinking about my hardware.

Is Plasma some kind of desktop/laptop that they are selling?

Plasma is KDE. It is the Desktop Environment. They are just stating that if you decide to install say GNOME and something breaks, its not their problem.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

8 hours ago, AlexGhe said:

Hi,

 

I want to try to learn using Linux, however I'd like your help with the following questions.:

 

1. I'm also a gamer, so I'd like to also keep Windows installed. They won't both run at the same time. Will there be a performance decrease for any of them because the other one exists on the same machine, even if it's not running?

2. Is Linux as picky about storage as Windows is? I have a 1TB HDD lying around and I wanted to use that as main drive for Linux installation. Should I instead get a small SSD as boot drive?

3. Which Linux distro do you recommend for beginners? Also I'm currently learning PHP as well as following CCNA course, if it's possible please factor this in your recommendation.

 

THANKS!

The problem with using HDD with Windows is that it starts to use a swap file too early, when RAM is far from being full. So, if you want to avoid this on Linux, just don't create a swap partition when you install Linux. I think a swap file is not created by modern Ubuntu at all, but you can check that once you install it.

 

However, for a better performance, I would suggest to just partition your primary SSD and install Linux on that partition. Any Linux installer will allow you to do that without any problems, you don't need a separate physical drive.

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Alexeygridnev1993 said:

The problem with using HDD with Windows is that it starts to use a swap file too early, when RAM is far from being full. So, if you want to avoid this on Linux, just don't create a swap partition when you install Linux. I think a swap file is not created by modern Ubuntu at all, but you can check that once you install it.

It should actually be the same. ZRAM replaces the swap partition/file, though it can dump contents to a swapfile. The same is done in Windows. Both utilize memory allocation first, then fall back to the swap/pagefile, if available/configured.

[AlexGhe]

3 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

It should actually be the same. ZRAM replaces the swap partition/file, though it can dump contents to a swapfile. The same is done in Windows. Both utilize memory allocation first, then fall back to the swap/pagefile, if available/configured.

 

3 hours ago, Alexeygridnev1993 said:

The problem with using HDD with Windows is that it starts to use a swap file too early, when RAM is far from being full. So, if you want to avoid this on Linux, just don't create a swap partition when you install Linux. I think a swap file is not created by modern Ubuntu at all, but you can check that once you install it.

 

However, for a better performance, I would suggest to just partition your primary SSD and install Linux on that partition. Any Linux installer will allow you to do that without any problems, you don't need a separate physical drive.

 

If you guys are kind enough, I installed ubuntu and I'm right about ready to kill myself, please see below thread with my issue:

 

I'll mark this one as solved.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance-winpc/what-is-normal-swap-usage/80da0d88-306b-40a3-9226-09ef4e8af3fa

5 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

It should actually be the same. ZRAM replaces the swap partition/file, though it can dump contents to a swapfile. The same is done in Windows. Both utilize memory allocation first, then fall back to the swap/pagefile, if available/configured.

Windows is known for using swap pretty aggressively. There are tons of threads on that, for example the one above (but you can google more). On Linux, there is a parameter called vm.smappiness (roughy, a percentage of free memory when the system can start to use swap partition or file), it defaults to 60 but you can set it to 0 if you have a very slow drive (then a swap file or partition, if present, will be used only if unavoidable).

[Savagebean]

On 4/25/2021 at 3:07 AM, Slottr said:

1. no, aside from space it doesn't matter

2. What do you mean by picky? Having your OS on an SSD is always a good idea, but generally most distros are quite efficient as is

3. Ubuntu

The best part on "shopping for distro's" is you can just do live usbs and try them out. The top 5 I have tried out and like the gaming setup on is Solus, pop! OS, Linux Mint, manjaro, and Ubuntu Using KDE Plasma.