I’m at about 19 years since switching - MS reaffirms my decision for me each and every year.
I’m on windows 10. And they were right that it was the last version of windows I’ll ever need. I only change OS when I update my hardware. So next hw refresh, I’m going to Linux.
welcome
I will be happy to make the switch.
we all here happy to help you can ask me personally and i will help if i could so which distro are you trying first
I’ve used Mint, Ubuntu, CentOS and Kali here and there. Never on my personal computer though. May go with one of those, but I see some other newcomers that I might try. I appreciate the offer to help.
mostly debian so there won’t be big diffrence
Sure it can’t be uninstalled, but that’s no big deal. Just go to Settings and turn it off.
Of course, software needs to update, so it might get turned back on occasionally. Just go turn it off again.
And all the other stuff you turn off. Every time.
Just switched from windows to arch with KDE Plasma on my laptop and I have been experiencing so much joy playing with all the wonderful FOSS I never even knew about
goodjob bro i use arch but with gnome i used it with kde for a lot of times but now im using gnome
Or macOS
idont think so mac is closed source
That is true but it is still Unix based and doesn’t come with candy crush preinstalled
I switched a few years ago. I’ve been using windows for over 30 years. They changed a bunch of random shit I had used in the past. I figured I’d give it a shot.
I never went back. I’m not a coder. I don’t even like tech very much. I’ve been really happy with Ubuntu for years.
I wanted something that just worked. It has.
I installed Pop!_OS on a Thinkpad and made it my main work computer. It is the most boring computing experience ever. Nothing ever breaks. It just works.
It’s been my daily driver for years now. The two computers os have literally never failed, no software issues other than some bugs I myself introduced.
The Steam Deck was the reason I changed. Used the Deck as my only PC for a couple of months and liked the experience so I changed.
I’ve had OpenSUSE on my PC for over a year now and really like it… But I’ll be honest, the move and troubleshooting problems for setup was a pain in the ass. But it’s stable and steady since I’ve gotten over setup pains.
They say they’re the distribution for humans. Apparently, it is so!
Can anyone recommend a very beginner friendly Linux OS for someone who only knows what Linux is but doesn’t have experience with it and has never used anything but windows? Even Apple’s OS is confusing to me. But windows is trying to force this most recent terrible update every time we turn on the computer, and I’ve had enough.
(I told my husband about all the helpful comments and he sent me this, thinking that’s what everyone was explaining to me. I told him no, I know Linux isn’t an OS, I just didn’t know the OS’s are called distros. Cue the most confused face I’ve ever seen. He’s usually more tech savvy than I am, so I got an ego boost explaining it to him. Thanks everyone!)
Mint, some people will criticize me for sugesting it but I belive it’s the most user friendly distro that you can just search an error on google and get a solution instantly since it’s so widespread. I was going to say Ubuntu but they have made some questionable decisions regarding ads.
I’m going to second Linux Mint, I installed it on my grandma’s computers recently and she’s had no complaints in the last 6 months.
Other than trying to get her Epson printer to work (which I only found out about this morning because she uses it so little) so I’m going to try to get it to work for her tomorrow.
I did mention that I’d happily buy her a new printer but she’s insisting on keeping her current one. I’m praying I can get it working.
Why would anyone criticize Mint as a suggestion? It’s easy to use and stable. I have been using it on my main pc for abut a year with barely any issues (i had more problems on windows). I have tried other distros: mutable, immutable, rolling etc but I always come back to Mint if I want things to just work.
P.S. I have used ubuntu professionally for about 7 years and while I don’t always like it, it is still a solid choice.
Linux Mint and maybe Fedora
Amazing, thank you so much. I’m going to check it out right now!
Mint.
I’ll be very honest with you. It’s not fancy, it’s not snazzy computing. It’s simple, designed with a graphical interface in mind, and a good operating system for someone who A) does not know Linux, or B) does not want to fiddle.
Stick with something popular. People like to argue about distros, but beyond their package manager and some settings, it’s the same thing under the hood (not saying these difference are nothing, but still). For a beginner, or really for anyone just looking to use their system instead of tinkering with it endlessly, a popular, well supported distribution will do the job.
Ubuntu fits that bill, although they made some very weird decisions recently, so I’d suggest starting with Mint if you’re new to this. Most everything should work out of the box if you have common hardware, and there’s a decent community around in case something goes wrong.
I’d also advise jumping to anything too new, flashy, or promising stuff that should really, really not be distribution dependant. My position on things is that if there’s a common tool that’s available everywhere to do something, and some distributions decides to make “their own” which does the same thing but is very specific, that’s just wasting time. Hence the disdain for raw ubuntu, among other.
As already said, Mint is the only sane choice for the common user. The only thing I’d add is to select the MintDE edition which is built off Debian instead of Ubuntu.
You won’t notice any real difference between either variant but you should encounter fewer issues on the Debian version.
While I agree philosophically and would prefer the Debian based version. I personally have had issues with it, myabe it’s my Nvidia graphics.
So for a beginner I would reccomend the version that is considered the “main” version at the moment. Currently it is still Ubuntu based afaik.
If you do ANY gaming at all: Bazzite KDE
If you don’t: Fedora KDE
Talking by experience, the one distro that let me just install it, then use my computer without to care about what distro it was using, was Fedora Specifically the XFCE spin
The best that I can think of that fits those requironments would be Linux mint. When downloading you can select between 3 different Editions, whose only difference is the desktop, all this boils down to is how it looks, so just select whatever looks best to you.
Now something to keep in mind when switching to linux; while you will be able to do all that youd want on a PC on linux, some software that you might use and be accustomed to (like the adobe suit) might not be supported on linux (like the adobe suit) so youd need to find alternatives. Linux was designed around terminals, ‘cmd’ on windows, so while you can do most in a GUI, you will more often than not find tutorials using said terminals. And unlike on windows with guis, terminals have both direct system access, as well was expect you to know what you are doing, so read what it prints, its important.
I’ve been using Pop!_OS, and I’m quite pleased. I would definitely recommend it for Linux newcomers.
I like Kubuntu tbh
I didn’t like Mint all that much.
If you have an old laptop you can try a few out and see what works, they’ll run faster than windows. If you’re on windows you might have access to Hyper-V Virtual Machine and then you can just run some Linux Distros in a virtual machine to see if they’re nice. You can even try moving some files into the VM and see if you can still work with them after a migration from windows.
Pop! _OS, provided you know how to find specific wifi modules (drivers) for laptops like Macbook or Broadcam devices in general.
I’ve got some documentation somewhere on the topic let me see if I can find it.
In any case for now I suggest looking it up, it can be installed on literally anything. I installed it on multiple Macbooks using Ubuntu WiFi drivers (both free and non-free WiFi modules) to gain full functionality Wifi-wise.
For the most part “wl” will be available for your device (foss wifi module) so for most devices you’ll be fine right outta the box. And, in the event bluetooth is missing, by installing “blueman” for Bluetooth capabilities.
For most if not all Windows devices (amd64, amd86, intel, NVidia, etc) it can be installed in one fell swoop.
Best part, you can encrypt your data using the same password you use to login. It’s one of the first things you see before confirming the installation to your device.
And the installer is intuitive and really user-friendly.
In terms of DE’s it is as versatile as Ubuntu, it is after all, compatible with most - if not all, Ubuntu repositories.
You can use the default DE GNOME to make your device look like Windows Vista.
You can, alternatively use KDE Plasma to make it look like it’s Windows 7 using the sddm display manager.
It’s as versatile as any other distro but with an easy installer, you literally just press buttons. Obviously you’ve gotta wipe the data on the drive. So here’s to hoping you’ve either made backups or, have made peace with the death of that drive.
In any case, failing drives are as easy to fix as telling the drive to ignore the damaged sectors.
Pop!_OS is like Ubuntu if it had Debian’s stability IMO. It’s been fantastic thus far and I highly recommend it. They also have very extensive documentation!
Ubuntu is one of the easiest distro to get into Linux in my experience.
I am currently running Linux Mint and it had a lot of issues one both my machines (laptop and PC). Never had these issues with Ubuntu. I am waiting to finish my client’s project before I am dropping Linux Mint.
Endeavour OS. It may be a bit more hands on than something like Ubuntu/Fedora but there are ways less abstractions, better document and community support that makes it simpler over all.
Pick up a note-taking application like Joplin or something and write down solutions to problems and you’ll be fine.
I’d recommend against Ubuntu/Fedora/Mint etc. tbh, they are simpler on the surface but there are no ing parts that make it more complex when things break.
Play around with distrobox and docker too, that makes a lot of stuff easier.
Linux!? But I heard that’s nerd stuff and I want to play all the latest video games!?
I wish Debian wouldn’t try to autoinstall updates out of the box like Windows. Especially when it doesn’t have the disk space to do that and bricks itself
If you choose “expert install” it asks you if you want automated updates or not.
Removing Windows from your computer is like ridding your body of a terrible disease
If there’s any new Lemmy users here, coming from Reddit (feel like I’m opening a seance), and if you’re wondering what else you might decide to change during this era of change -
Try Linux! It’s easy now, and frankly just better :)
If ur new to Linux try mint. Dont try arch or gentoo or some other distro cos someone said it was cool. Take the basic Linux mint and get urself comfortable with it first.
Yes, I’m new to Lemmy, ex-Reddit, and now I’m looking at what else I can do. I ran Linux Mint on an old laptop for many years, but that was when I was still working and I also had a company laptop on Windows if I needed it. So now I’m retired and currently I only have a refurbished Lenovo with Win 10, which goes out of support soon. I suppose I could do dual boot on that machine, but I’d rather have Windows in a VM for the rare occasions when I can’t get something to run in Wine. I have no idea where I’d buy a copy of Win 11, but presumably Microsoft have a store.
I think Lenovos are kinda renowned as good candidates for Linux laptops, though I’m not knowledgeable enough to talk models and such. Go for it!
This year totally is the year of Linux, guys!
Trust me!
year +1
The only way Linux ever becomes viable for the mainstream is when there is a single distribution that covers every feature and is as streamlined and user friendly as possible.
- No command lines ever for anything
- huge software compatibility
- hardware compatibility of the newest and oldest of hardware
- easy troubleshooting even your nan can follow
- and most of all: every Linux user agrees it is the best Linux distribution (unless you are into niche stuff)
So until even you guys can agree on one distribution being the best, it will not be the year of the Linux ever.–
Disclaimer: when I say “bullshit”, I do not mean “you are brainless fool”, I only mean “this idea is so ridiculously wrong it is time we put it to rest at last”
No command lines ever for anything
This annoys me so much I literally registered to answer: bullshit. Stop with that strawman, will ya all, Linux enthusiasts
easy troubleshooting even your nan can follow
Same level bullshit. Watch win (and mac?) being hell to debug
every Linux user agrees it is the best Linux distribution
Bullshit. See Win XP times with many custom-made “flavours”. That did nothing to make windows less popular
when there is a single distribution
Bullshit number one. Linux will become major thing as a result of people pushing back against corporate wall-gardening and spying and/or when it starts coming pre-installed (see Android phones for the latter). All the scary-command-line whining is just elitist bullshit
Hell people still argue about the best version of Windows lol (I miss XP and 7) people will never agree on a single Linux distro
I was going to make a crack about you inventing MacOSX, which is at least “Linux adjacent”, but I don’t know how to work without a command line on either Windows or Mac. Some functionality is just so much more inconvenient or even impossible through the GUI, even on those
“How do I do X on Mac”
“First install homebrew, and then install this plugin”
50 plugins later
“There, now I can finally use the GUI”
So Macs run Gnome now?
It seems like what you want is a tablet.
I used Linux on and off over the years and will probably switch back to using it when Windows 10 is no longer supported. Linux will never be mainstream but the user base would grow if every Steam game ran on Linux seamlessly. That’s probably never going to happen, though. There will also never be “the one” distro to rule them all. Mint and Ubuntu come pretty close.
It’s honestly getting there. The major barrier at this point is kernel level anti-cheat, which is a bad idea people shouldn’t be using anyway.
Y’all, for real, I was on Windows for gaming. Gaming on Linux really does seem to “just work” now. I’m using CachyOS. It just works. The only tweak I had to do was to tell Helldivers 2 to use the vanilla version of Proton instead of Cachy’s version. So literally if I was on a more traditional distribution I’d have to do less.
I was trying or Linux for gaming… But I found using mods too difficult or annoying and switched back to Windows. That’s only for my gaming machine though…I use a Linux laptop for everything else
What games?
Bg3 mostly. It’s a copy from dodi too… Which requires 4 additional updates to be current lol
I’m sure I could have figured it out, but would have just taken time.
I play all kinds of old games, Japanese games that require patching, and use mods. That technical stuff is why I haven’t tried Linux yet, because things are already irksome with a well-known OS. I don’t want to imagine what edge cases on Linux could be.
Unfortunately, I might be forced to make the switch if Microsoft decides to ally with the Trump Regime. 😱
Yep. Used to be cautious about it working, having to check protondb before buying/installing/playing and what have you…
but I havent done that in a year.
I just install a game, even a new game, and it just works. No thought, no concern,no issues… OS related, that is, it obviously doesnt make buggy games not buggy, so buggy games are still buggy, but thats the games fault, and you’d run into that regardless of the OS… Like Cities Skylines 2 bad performance, or modded minecraft crashing due to mod things.
Want to be specific so someone doesnt follow my post with a predictable “WELL I PLAYED insert known buggy game AND IT STILL CRASHED AND I DIDNT GET A BLOWJOB FROM BETTY WHITES GHOST OR ANYTHING, YOU LIAR!”
My aunt bought some Wal-Mart $200 Lenovo like 8 years ago. It ran Windows 10 like I run a mile…eventually. I put what upgrades into it I could (added some RAM and an SSD) and threw Linux Mint on it, perfectly usable.
Last week: “Hey, can my Linux computer run The Sims? They just released a bundle with Sims 1 and 2.” I got to looking at it, “no info” on steam deck compatibility, system requirements require a newer GPU than her laptop, like they call out Intel HD 620 and she’s got Intel HD 520.
Proton will almost certainly run it, but that machine’s iGPU won’t. I got to blame the hardware and not Linux!
saving her some headaches, I think.
I’ve heard the rereleases are very buggy and crashy.
EA? Being lazy and publishing a subpar product? In this timeline? You don’t say.
my favorite thing is that you can only get the proper UI scale and zoom level at 1440p in the rerelease Sims 1.
Its just mindboggling.
All the games I play regularly worked with zero configuration. I can count on one hand the number of times I had to tweak something to get a game running. Gaming on Linux is amazing these days.
However, there are a few popular games still broken. I don’t do online competitive, so this doesn’t impact me.
the best time to switch to linux is a few years ago.
the second best time is now.
True every single day
I got a countdown on my birthday app counting down to October 14. Cant wait