this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Linux Mint
+1
I personally started by playing around with Ubuntu, but it just didn't feel intuitive coming from windows.
Went over to Mint, and was very happy,especially with drivers and gaming. I even fully removed my windows installation during this period. Having gained a better understanding of Linux, I have now moved on again.
The only real drawback of Mint is not natively supporting KDE Plasma (as they did before). And yes, you can just install it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend a beginner who barely knows how to install Linux to attempt such an endevour.
One word of advice to OP: don't wait till you can't use Windows anymore. Start by dual booting and getting a hang of Linux, but with windows at the ready for any tasks you cannot yet do/feel comfortable doing on Linux. As you get a better hold of Linux, you should naturally begin to use Windows less.
The worst thing someone can do, is to jump OS without any backup or safety net. Learning to use Windows took a long time, getting a hang of new concepts and getting used to an alien environment. Now, already having a hang of "computers" (Windows), we have digital needs and expectations (E-Mail, gaming, etc.) which will need fulfilling, but many seem to forget that a different OS means different ways of doing our daily tasks and different challenges to handle.
And yes, "different", because Windows definitely also comes with it's own unique challenges, you just don't see them as much when having gotten used to them.
Good advice here OP.
Debian Edition*
What are its advantages compared to the regular one? Genuinely interested
Debian is Debian based and regular Mint is Ubuntu LTS based and use theirs respective repos (not a big difference for the average user). While currently the non Debian version is the main and recommended version, due some controversial changes in Ubuntu people want to move away from Ubuntu and the devs have considered making the Debian edition the main one.
Ubuntu is Debian based as well. But yes, it's 100% about avoiding the shoehorned in canonical shenanigans.
Lack of corporate cronyism
To each their own, but Ubuntu's repos are a bit fuller than Debian's.
Mint is great. It also works well out of the box in virtual machines. I like the MATE versions for my older machines.
There is a major shift happening right now, and mint is slower than many to adopt changes. I'd argue that's good for mint users, but it may be bad for you personally if you plan to learn about modern linux. Idgaf personally about X11 vs Wayland, because I just need to be able to use my programs.
I recently jumped to mint, and I have to say I’m very happy with it. I struggled with like two things but the OS is popular enough that there are walkthroughs for nearly everything. And I was able to get Linux-based or browser-based software for everything I did on my windows computer
It's great for beginners and has many guides online.
How does Mint compares to Fedora? I decided to finally switch almost a month ago, and went with Fedora because it seemed like the best solution for general development, and I really like their Toolbox. However, I've been running into some issues mostly regarding gaming and NVIDIA drivers, and in general getting some applications to work on Fedora was more painful than apparently in most of the other systems.
So, should I switch, or will the Wine/Steam/Lutris experience be mostly the same on Mint as it is on Fedora?
Most problems I've seen between Nvidia and Linux were caused by Wayland. If you're using Fedora with Gnome (the default) then you can try hitting the gear icon when logging in and choosing "gnome on xorg" (screenshot). That might help with the drivers.
For any other issues, Mint might be easier just because it's based on Debian, which is immensely popular. It's more of a well beaten path, and there's probably more help online for any issues you run into.