Linux 101 stuff. Questions are encouraged, noobs are welcome!

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Easiest/best way to make bootable USB on Linux (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/linux4noobs

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What is the preferred way to make a bootable USB drive on Linux these days? I want to try a couple of distros on my very old mother's PC before installing. When I googled it, I only found ways to do it in Windows. Perhaps my Google-fu is off? So I thought: why not ask Lemmy?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Alright.

But here's my opinon, if you're interested: maybe, just maybe, don't use Ubuntu. Of course, do what you want. If it appeals to you, that's great! :)

Ubuntu is often recommended as a good beginner Distro, but that's not true anymore. That used to be a good choice a few years ago, but it is more and more hated by the community. The company developing it forces way too much of their own stuff onto new users, especially snaps (their own packaging format that sucks). In general, Ubuntu doesn't provide you the best Linux impression anymore.

If you want to know more, then take a look into this and this video from TheLinuxExperiment.

Also, as long as your laptop isn't super old (>10 years) it should pretty much run anything, not only those "revive your toaster-laptop"-distros. Try Mint or some other beginner-friendly-mainstream-distros too and take a look on how they perform :)

I personally love Fedora for example (just ask me why) and believe it might also be a solid beginner distro, especially since the default desktop (Gnome) looks so alien compared to Mac or Windows, you automatically assume that it doesn't work like those two.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for your recommendations, and thanks for your detailed response in your first comment.

I see your points regarding Ubuntu, I just thought it would be a good compromise because of the amount of advice you can find on how to fix problems in Ubuntu. But I suppose much of that advice can be used for Mint as well... I haven't tried Ubuntu in a few years, but I trust your assessment.

I currently have MX installed on a seriously old HP laptop and have been quite happy with it. I'm not sure if my mom's laptop is older or newer, but either way it's not by much so that's why I immediately thought of MX for her PC as well. I'll put Mint on the Ventoy stick as well and see which one works best.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, almost all guides for Ubuntu apply to other Ubuntu-based distros (Pop, Mint, even Debian). Only the desktop environment works a bit different.

I don't know what's up with MX, since it uses some different technologies under the hood and I'm not informed enough how much it differs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would like to know why you love fedora.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Vanilla DEs: every spin provides a clean desktop, how the devs intended it.
Great update schedule: the 6 months release cycle provides a great compromise between stability (how often stuff changes), reliability (how often stuff breaks) and freshness. A rolling release (like Tumbleweed) downloads many GBs of downloads each week and feels like a testing ground with stuff often not working that smoothly, while Debian for example is super stale.
Community based and backed by RH (devs and $$$)
Sane defaults for me
Their immutable variants (Silverblue, etc.) are fantastic as well and a joy to use.
And more