this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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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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Hey guys, I'm an entry-level IT professional and tech enthusiast.

I'm getting a bit sick of windows for a multitude of reasons and want to try out some Linux distros.

I use my pc for web browsing, university (which uses office 365) where I study software design, software development (vs code, visual studio, jetbrains stuff) and gaming (99% of the time via steam).

My main concerns for switching are that I'll have a hard time with university work because we mostly use teams for video conferences and work together with word, and other office stuff. We also are required to do some virtual machine stuff where we use virtualbox.

Also I'm a bit worried that some games on uplay, epic and other platforms aren't available anymore.

For distros I've been mainly looking at Manjaro, Linux Mint or plain old Ubuntu. Can you recommend anything that might fit for me or will I maybe run into any issues with my chosen three?

Edit: Thanks a lot for all the replies. I've read through all of them even if I didn't reply and it was very helpful. I will test most of your suggestions in a VM before I jump into completely changing my OS. And I'll probably try booting from a USB Drive first. What I didn't mention is that I've already worked with Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS, so I'm not scared about having to use a CLI.

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[–] 0xb 2 points 1 year ago

If you don't have the newest hardware i would also recommend Mint. I believe is the most friendly to windows users plus is Ubuntu based so there's pretty much anything available to it, and lots of support if needed. Nothing of the software you mention seems like a problem since everything is available or runs in the browser.

Remember to enable proton for all games in the steam settings so that you can run your entire library.

If you en up using a local office suite I would instead of LibreOffice recommend Onlyoffice, in my experience has better compatibility with the ms office formats. You can keep both installed, that's what I do.

Teams I haven't used but there's a flatpak available I believe, so I think it shouldn't be a problem, or you can run it in the browser.

If you have newish hardware then maybe fedora will be a better option, probably the kde spin. Everything else is the same, just with fedora is indispensable to use the rpm fusion repositories.