this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
251 points (97.4% liked)
Linux
47979 readers
971 users here now
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I would go from the bottom up instead of top down.
Make a list of software and tools you use, and search for functional Linux native equivalents. Then find the distro that supports up to date versions of that software (through flatpak or the package manager).
You can honestly do 100% of this without even touching the command line if you choose something user friendly like Mint, Pop OS, Ubuntu, or Fedora. Don’t fall into the rabbit hole of finding the perfect distro. Go from what you need to what supports it.
keep the windows partition around for a while until you are 100% confident you can fully make the switch.
For finding applications alternatives AlternativeTo or reddit is best resources!
I love AlternativeTo, I go there just to browse when I'm bored.
same :D
I second this. It helps that basically every distro is highly customizable, so if you don't like some default settings or something's not supported on a specific distro, it's usually still possible to get it working with some manual tweaking. You don't want to be spending the time for every application though, so finding a distro that supports most of what you need out of the box is a good suggestion.
Personally wouldn't recommend Fedora as a newbie distro because most guides assume Debian/Ubuntu-based package managers. When I first switched from Pop!_OS, I couldn't understand why my apt-get commands weren't working. Of course, that was until I learned about other package managers like DNF, Yum, etc. Also, Nvidia proprietary drivers and media codecs can be a pain.
Pop!_OS, Ubuntu and Mint are all great recommendations though!