this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
1382 points (97.6% liked)

linuxmemes

23677 readers
2252 users here now

Hint: :q!


Sister communities:


Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil
  • Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
  • Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
  • Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
  • Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
  • Bigotry will not be tolerated.
  • 3. Post Linux-related content
  • Including Unix and BSD.
  • Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
  • No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
  • 4. No recent reposts
  • Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
  • 5. πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Language/язык/Sprache
  • This is primarily an English-speaking community. πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§πŸ‡¦πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
  • Comments written in other languages are allowed.
  • The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
  • Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
  • 6. (NEW!) Regarding public figuresWe all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations.
  • Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
  • We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
  • Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed.
  •  

    Please report posts and comments that break these rules!


    Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.

    founded 2 years ago
    MODERATORS
     
    you are viewing a single comment's thread
    view the rest of the comments
    [–] SARGE@startrek.website 9 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    I know just enough about Linux to know I should have been getting into it when I graduated over a decade ago.

    I also know just enough to know it can do pretty much everything I need, as long as I'm willing to switch to a Linux alternative with similar capabilities.

    However, I am Linux-dumb and deeply set into my windows, to the point where I'm not sure I have the technical savvy to switch.

    From my understanding, Linux works very well, as long as you know what you're doing.

    I'm sure I'm overestimating the learning curve but it's still intimidating.

    [–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 15 hours ago

    Checkout Bluefin (or Bazzite if you're more into games). They do a pretty good work at making you not need to know anything about Linux to use it well.

    Unless you happen to need some uncommon driver or software, you can "just use" it.

    [–] Lebernashi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

    I felt the exact same way, still do, but I bought a new drive and installed Linux Mint on it (it's the most Windows like experience I've found). I kept my old windows drive just in case, but I haven't needed it so far.

    The only time I ever used something that wasn't Windows was DOS when I was very little.

    It's definitely overwhelming when trying to get certain things working that aren't natively supported, but thankfully those are few and far between. There's also a lot of people in the Linux community that are passionate about it, and tend to be very helpful.

    You can always download what I think is called a live distro, and run it off a thumb drive just to test the waters. Nothing you change will be kept though, and it will be sluggish comparatively.

    What's wrong with Windows?

    The better question is why Linux over something you know how to use. Both systems have there own issues.

    [–] mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    The os itself doesn't require a whole lot of learning, if you stick to something user friendly like mint cinnamon. Key differences are how you install programs and drivers. File structure is very different. After two years of daily driving mint cinnamon, I find it more difficult to do basic stuff in windows, especially 11. If it feels intimidating, the recommended approach is to try it out on another pc, dualboot, or use it in a virtual machine.

    [–] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

    Go for it. You don't need to install Linux in order to start getting your feet wet. Get a USB 3.0+ flash drive and put a "live" (CD/USB, whatever the distro wants to call it) distro on there. There are plenty of directions out there on how to make one from Windows. Most live distros nowadays are persistent, so any programs you install will be there next time you load it up. It will definitely be slower than a normal install, but it'll let you get a feel for how things work.

    Go ham wild on there, break stuff, see if you can fix it, don't, then remake it again. Try different desktop environments (DEs) and see what you like. Your distro of choice is less important if you're just starting, but any of the big ones will be fine. I'd recommend trying a few different DEs from the same distro, see what you like the feel of, then try a different distro with what you liked best. They'll usually all have gnome, kde, and a third lightweight option, but in my experience if Wayland (the other choice is X11) works well, kde and gnome will feel pretty light. I use kde Wayland on this guy and trust me, this review is giving it a lot of grace. Windows 10 was completely unacceptable on it, so if your specs are any better then this, you'll be fine with whatever you choose. Beware that Nvidia cards have driver issues, they're fixable but if you do have an Nvidia card, I'd just use the built in graphics chip for trying out Linux at first.

    Don't start with arch, btw.

    [–] SARGE@startrek.website 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    Beware that Nvidia cards have driver issues, they’re fixable but if you do have an Nvidia card, I’d just use the built in graphics chip for trying out Linux at first.

    Well, shit. Extra work for me. I knew I should have waited for the AMD series to be in stock...

    [–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

    Ehhh it's not as bad as it used to be. Depending on the distro you might have some finagling to install it to begin with but otherwise their drivers tend to be fine.

    It is however much nicer when you can just boot up a bog standard kernel and not have to worry about installing third party drivers, but it's not the end of the world if you do have to toss some third party drivers in there