this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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I have been using computers since before there was an internet. I have used DOS and now Windows 10. Is there a good place to learn about Linux with a GUI and which one I should purchase? I'm so tired of M$.
Edit: I am primarily a PC gamer that uses Steam and this is what has kept me from using another OS in the past.
I would recommend linux mint. Its completely free, has a nice gui, and is fairly straight forward to use. All you need to do is download the iso file from their website. If you want to try using it you can put it in a virtual machine to try it out first and then if you want to actually use it just download a program called rufus to flash the iso file onto a flash drive and then boot from the flash drive. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do this on youtube.
Linux mint does seem to be the best Debian based distro. It comes with cinnamon. There are a respectable frequency of protondb entries where people successfully run newer games in mint. Ubuntu is bad because snap. Debian cares more about open source drivers than hardware compatibility which isn't what the average user wants to fuck with. Somehow even after enabling "non-free" drivers in Debian, it still works on a lot less stuff than other distros.
Thank you.
Yeah seconded on Mint. Works really well, is very stable (way more than windows), has a lot of out of the box configuration and tools in the GUI. Connectivity (printers, wifi, network shares) and security are both excellent and intuitive. I use it 10 hours a day 5 days a week and its glorious
Linux is pretty much universally free, with the exception of a few select distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and even then, there's variants of RHEL that are free like CentOS and Fedora, the main attraction for RHEL is paid support).
Most distributions are fairly similar, these days, with the main differences being the desktop environment (i.e. how the UI looks and feels), the update cadence (some distros are much more aggressive about deploying updates to the software and utilities underlying the distro, which gives new features faster at the cost of breaking things more often, while other distros prefer to stay on older, known-stable versions longer, at the cost of being slower to deploy new features that sometimes a program needs to run), and the methods used to configure settings (some distros go out of their way to make as much configureable in the GUI as possible, while others are primarily configured through console commands, and others like Gentoo expect you to manually compile pretty much all the software yourself--this makes it extremely customizable, but extremely difficult), and the default file format for package installation (rpm, deb, flatpaks, snaps, etc).
My personal recommendation is to check out a few of these:
Ubuntu
Linux Mint (or Cinnamon)
EndeavorOS
Pop!OS
I also recommend that when you first format the disk, you make two partitions: one smaller 50-100 GB partition for the root partition (where Linux stores its system files and software), and a larger partition for /home, which is where all your personal files are stored. This way, you can easily swap between different distros without needing to really worry about losing your files.
As others have said, Mint or Pop_OS are your best options. It really depends on what you want in terms of layout. Do you want a more apple mac osx look or a Windows look, if you want Mac then pop, if you want Windows then mint. They're both based on the same OS, Ubuntu, and in Mint's case there's a Debian edition. None of these have a price, they're free, you have nothing to lose trying them out.
Thanks. As a gamer, I am primarily looking for an OS that will run games without a hitch. To be honest this is what has kept me from switching previously.
Realize this is a hot take, but, honestly I'd suggest Fedora, as it just always seemed more stable than Pop OS. Mint had core security issues some years back when I last look at it, not sure they've been resolved?
I use the KDE version of Fedora. I installed Steam and Bottles, and I haven't had a problem since.
All AMD set up though, I can't speak towards the Nvidia side of things.
Only version of fedora anyone should be using for games is Nobara. The simple fact is fedora may be rock solid, but it's definitely not as intuitive for a new user to add things like the copr repo for additional software etc.
The COPR is the only other thing you have to do, at least that's all I did.
Click a checkbox to allow third party (COPR), install Steam, and install Bottles, all from the store UI. You're making it sound more difficult than it is.
And the problem with Nobara is it's created/developed by just one person who's doing it for his dad (per comments I've seen made by the developer) (I don't know if that's still the case). I rely on my OS, so I'm not willing to put myself into that situation of depending on just one person doing it as a hobby.
The thing I like about Fedora is it's (ultimately) backed by IBM, and it has more support for more hardware, fixes, etc.
Thanks. My being a gamer (Steam) has kept me from using another OS as I was worried about compatibility issues. I will check it out.
I third Linux Mint. Everything you need is in the same place as you'd find it on Windows. Everything simply works out of the box. It's a very smooth transition. If you dual-boot you don't even need to get rid of Windows before you're comfortable. (I keep Windows available for games.)
Youtube. There are a lot of content creators in the Linux realm.
Here's a Reddit post with some people talking about Linux distros if you want to see some additional opinions: link. Manjaro with KDE is a good option as well I'd like to add, my personal recommendation is to install a Linux partition separate from Windows and ease into it, if you enjoy the experience you'll find yourself using the Windows partition less and less until you are able to finally delete it.
Hi there! I'm you. My first computer was a TRS-80 in the early 80s, and my daily driver today is Debian (a flavor of Linux). I'm not an IT person, but I've had some skin in the game for a while.
You won't need to purchase a thing unless you have some weird/old hardware where drivers will be a challenge.
There are a million flavors ("distros") of Linux. The most straightforward ones to start with are probably Ubuntu and Mint.
Most Linux distros have a "live CD" version that you can "install" on a thumb drive. That allows you to take the entire OS for a test spin without changing anything on your "main" computer.
Thanks! I have been a gamer for a while now and have primarily been using Steam. One of the main reasons that I have not switched to another OS is I have been worried about compatibility issues.
You don't need to purchase Linux. If your computer can run virtual machines (e.g. via VirtualBox) you could just download various distros and try them out in VMs. If you find one you like you can then install it as the main OS. If you're worried that you might want Windows back, buy a cheap SSD and swap it into your PC, then install Linux on that, keeping the old Windows one on a shelf just in case.
Personally, for a beginner-friendly Linux with plenty of community support I'd recommend Linux Mint.