this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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This is like staying in an abusive relationship and then complaining about how abusive their partner is. Get the fuck out of there. Linux works like a charm. OK, now come at me with your bullshit excuses of "Linux bad" "mah games", "my Adobe" blah blah blah. Staying in this abusive relationship is what makes microshit what it is.
I want to switch to Linux, but I honestly don't know how/where to even start or the proper way to even ask.
I asked once on a Linux forum when the whole Cortana debacle happened, and I was called a moron or sent a link to "Linux from scratch"...which was definitely above my technical knowledge at the time. I've been scared to post on Linux communities ever since lol
I'm so sorry this happened to you. We do have some assholes on our forums. But from experience, I can assure you that people on Lemmy are much nicer. Also, Linux is now so very easy to install. All you need is to get your ISO and burn it onto a USB stick then boot from that USB from the Bios. Linux even has a "live environment" where you get to try it and see if your hardware works. Don't worry too much about what "distro" to install for now. They're all the same except minor differences and how often they get updated. Your only mission is to choose which desktop environment you like. If you like how macos looks like, choose gnome. If you like windows, choose KDE plasma, if you like a windows 7ish look, choose xfce or cinnamon. If you want the easiet way to burn an ISO to a USB, then check out Fedora media writer. It even downloads the iso for you. Just stick your USB into your pc and launch the app and go from there. It does everything for you. It's available for all OSs. Fedora comes with both KDE and gnome and others. I'd stick with the distros that are the easiest to install and where everything works out of the box. Fedora and Linux mint are the ones I'd choose from. And also, now YouTube is full of amazing Linux channels like this man Jay Lacroix. He is freaking awesome and has so many videos that will help you. Here is his channel. He even made a video the other day on how to dual boot with windows. If you have any questions at all, please post them in the Linux community here on Lemmy and we will all help you.
Thank you for the links! Someone else has also mentioned Mint, and I love the Win7 interface, so that's probably what I'll be playing around with.
Of course. Also, try it in a virtual machine or on a spare laptop if you got one, before you commit to it.
I second this. Been using a few distros in the last 20 years, going back and forth between windows and Linux, but I've been using Mint in the last year and I don't feel like switching anymore. Teams, office and outlook all have a web app so no need for a native office installation anymore, and most Windows games on steam work well with proton.
Agree. Just try Mint. It’s a solid choice.
Thank you so much for writing this out, I really appreciate it! Looks like I'll be installing Mint on my old laptop this weekend to see how I fair.
From what I found, Lemmy is much better in this regard. I've gotten lots of helpful answers here, so give it a go! There is also a ton of tutorials on YouTube, I recommend something like this for beginners.
Thank you, I'll take a look at the video and at the Lemmy Linux communities!
Asking stuff like that is always a good idea, IMO. It could be the difference between a successful Linux install and a very expensive paperweight.
... Don't ask me how to install it, though. I've only tried Ubuntu as a dual-boot, and that was several years ago.
Oh absolutely. Looking back I probably asked in a hardcore Linux enthusiast community (no fault to them, we all get tired of our parents/siblings/coworkers asking us to "fix the wif")
I just don't know where the Linux-noob safe spaces are. Is Lemmy's Linux community one?
I recommend taking a look at this Linux gaming wiki guide about getting started. It is geared towards gaming, but even if that is not your primary focus there is a lot of really useful tips and steps to take for anyone trying to switch to Linux. If you have some other questions you can shoot me a DM, I'm by no means an expert but I've been using Linux for around 4 years now so I like to think I'm at least moderately experienced!
We have actual gaming distros. They're literally put together for gamers. GloriousEggRoll, the dude who made protonGE spun up "Nobara" off of Fedora as a gaming distro. You have Garuda Linux and others.
Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at the guide over the weekend! Someone already mentioned Linux Mint as a starter, but if I have any questions I'll definitely take you up on the DM offer!
From what I found, Lemmy is much better in this regard. I've gotten lots of helpful answers here, so give it a go! There is also a ton of tutorials on YouTube, I recommend something like this for beginners.
It is getting better but there are still alot of things you just can't do on Linux.
Like for my work we have alot of specialized software that is only for Windows. Sure I might be able to get it working under Linux but what do you think will happen if I need get software Support for this software? They will say i am using an unsupported OS and hang up.
And for my home, there is so many anti cheat software that refuses to work on Linux or potentially get you banned.
Linux has come a very long way in the last 5 years but there is still alot of situations the abusive relationship is your only option.
For work is understandable. I use nothing but windows at work because work requires it. I don't give a shit if they used a potato, as long as I get my paycheck. At home, though, sorry my friend, I won't ever understand no matter how many excuses you give me. If a company doesn't want to support my os then to fucking bad, I won't give them my money, and will move on to the ones that do.
Sure the is commendable but end of the day it is what is important to you. If my group of friends is playing a game and that game isn't supported on Linux. That affect me a lot more then it would affect the company.
You do whatever works for you.
It's like the BDSM dynamic. Linux is sub, Apple is dom, and Microsoft is like a guy who calls himself dom, but is actually just a dick.
Some don't realize it's an abusive relationship, because they never saw anything else. Or they are addicted (let's call it Adobe drug or certain games drug). But these are the minority. Most people simply don't care.
BTW just for the lolz, in 2010 I predicted that we would 10 years later (in 2020) have probably 30% market share on Linux desktop. Boy I was off.
My relationship with my Linux installation was disfunctional in its own way. It was that partner that went into a meltdown when presented with any new, slightly complicated situation that was outside of its extremely limited comfort zone. I guess that works for people that have the time and patience to hold its hand and convince it that it can actually do everything. But Linux definitely isn't suitable for all people in all situations.
Distro dependent, and hardware dependent. Some have a great experience OOTB
That is kind of the problem with Linux though. I definitely had hardware-distro compatibility issues, and I get how for some people, trying out a dozen different distros to find the one that works best for them is a lot of fun, and that's totally valid. It's just not a good fit for everyone. I think fans of Linux can overestimate its stability, ease of use, and suitability for all use-cases. It's right for some people, but not everyone.
Yep, to me there are two groups that linux works well for (at home)
In the 2 category if they just need a computer for netflix, browsing, email and zoom calls you set them up with a stable diatro and it works the same every day with no windows surprises.
Yep, I agree with that breakdown. It's the people in the middle: tech literate enough to need their computer to do a lot, but not sufficiently interested in tinkering to spend time arguing with their OS, that are often better off using Windows or MacOS.
That's the correct answer. I run endeavourOS, and it's even considered a "terminal distro". Set it up once and never had any major issues after that. I've used Debian testing for like 2 years before that, and oh my god, that fucker was solid af. I literally had 0 issues. Like nothing. The thing just worked all the time. Fedora was the same for me.
I had great luck with OpenSUSE Leap on two machines. Another machine was really old and OpenSUSE was a bit slow on it so tried debian, it struggled with all debian based distros I tried. But NixOS has been amazing on it with 0 issues. It really is a dice roll.
Yup. Different distros work differently for different people.
This was back in 1765. The world has changed since then. I hardly ever touch the terminal. That's another bullshit story some people tell you.
Lol. I am not. Try it out for yourself. If you run a "works out of the box" distro, you'll not need to touch the terminal, unless you choose to. Try Linux mint, fedora, zorin OS, elementary OS, Ubuntu, pop os.. Etc. On those, you literally won't need to touch the terminal for your day to day work. Everything works.
Sounds like a you issue. I promise, I'm not lying, I don't ever need to use the terminal, unless I choose to, or in some rare instances. Pick a simple works out of the box distro
For real. Literally yesterday, reboot my computer and Nvidia drivers that had worked fine the day before no longer functioned resulting in my screen resolution being reduced and unchangeable.
Had to run a few commands to fix it but they are not obvious to me as a new-ish Linux user. Something about dkms being a dependency but not configured?
To recover, I had to:
sudo apt purge nvidia-*
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/
sudo apt install nvidia-dkms-550
(Reinstall Nvidia 550 drivers)
Why did I have to do all this? I ask that rhetorically, but Id like to know so I can understand what went wrong. Linux is non-trivial and people who deny that are not seeing things clearly. Then again, triviality of use isn't particularly the most salient to me. Rather, it's a mixture of is there enough compatibility to what I use my desktop for, is it reasonably easy to use for most tasks, and does it give me the freedom I want for the device.