Linux @lemmy.ml TimewornTraveler @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3d ago

Alright fine I admit it, I want to learn Linux

I'm just so sick of Microsoft and Google. But there's two things holding me back:

I wanna play Steam games on my PC
I am just an amateur hobbyist, not a tech wizard

Is there any hope for me?

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before you switch, sort out your apps. Look at what you use on windows, see if it runs on Linux. If not, find a replacement that does and test it out.

Most Linux distros can boot into a desktop from a thumb drive. You can play and test without touching your windows installation.

in that vein, ventoy is neat. You can make a bootable drive and drop ISOs in a folder to boot from. No messing with etcher or whatever it’s called

desktop environment matters as much as the distro. Check out gnome, KDE, and cinnamon.
- This is what I did. I narrowed down the distros I was looking at to about 5 that I thought might meet my needs, and made a live usb for each one, then used it as I would my regular system for a couple days. Anything that didn't work right got eliminated, and I picked the one I liked best out of the ones where everything worked.
- A start for alternate softwares, though other resources available this is just a first to come to mind: https://www.alternative.to/
- I saw some cinnamon stuff and i still dont get what that means!
  
  TL;DR: Try installing some on virtual box, by all means try Linux mint cinnamon but also try Ubuntu and Fedora KDE.
  
  Linux has some jargon and since you want to learn I'll give you a quick rundown of how a variation of Linux is composed.
  
  "Kernel" is what makes Linux Linux. It's a way of interacting with the hardware.
  
  A "distribution" or "distro" is a one of the many flavors of Linux.
  
  They are usually "based" on a common foundation like Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Nix and whatever. These also work like an onion where Mint is based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian, all of which use some version of the Linux kernel.
  
  A that's just a base will just get you a terminal (also called a shell or console) and is very useful to make a server for example.
  
  What most people think of as an OS is the user interface (i.e. clickable shit). The terminology in Linux for that is "desktop environment" (DE).
  
  You'll see a lot of distributions mix and watch between a base and a desktop environment such as Fedora with KDE, Ubuntu (Ubuntu with Gnome), Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), Bazzite (Fedora silverblue base with either gnome, KDE or deck DE).
  
  You mentioned Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a desktop environment for Mint so a Linux Mint Cinnamon contains the code of the following:
  
  Linux kernel, Debian, Ubuntu and Mint as a base and Cinnamon to interact with it by using a mouse and keyboard.
  
  There are currently three bases that are really popular right now, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch. In the DE there are currently two that are most advanced, namely KDE and Gnome but Cinnamon is not far behind.
  
  In all honestly, none of this matters all too much, just install a couple of popular distros on a virtual machine like Virtual Bok and do a vibe check.
  
  Take a couple of these, install some programs and fuck around with the settings for a bit, install themes and whatever or watch a quick YouTube video on it:
  
  Ubuntu (gets hate for being corporate but is solid, uses Gnome)
  
  Linux mint Cinnamon
  
  Fedora KDE
  
  EndavourOS (an arch based distro that's supposedly easy, haven't tried it)
  
  Bazzite (weird way to install programs through the package manager but hard to fuck up beyond repair)
  
  Something with the Xfce DE just to see the "lightweight" look.
  
  Here are three variants of Linux Mint with different Desktop Environments: (click their example image to make it larger)
  
  Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) - the default, I'd use that until you have a reason not to
  
  Linux Mint (MATE Edition)
  
  Linux Mint (XFCE Edition)
  
  All of those are Linux Mint, they use pretty much the same core tools under the hood, but the desktop environments change how you engage with them. Mostly the way things look, the way you organize programs on your screen, and the default apps (like which text editor it comes with by default). This can change your experience a lot, I think Cinnamon looks nice and is smooth, while MATE and XFCE are more lightweight and might be better for older computers or if you don't like something about Cinnamon.
  
  Now, those are all somewhat similar, they have a program start menu in the bottom left, a taskbar on the bottom, the basics are familiar. There are some (not officially supported by Mint) which are more different, like GNOME (Ubuntu's desktop default) which has a different app launcher instead of a start menu and a different way of switching between programs. Then, as others mentioned, some people choose to not even install a pre-designed Desktop Environment and only install some of the more core components of a DE, like the Window Manager. People who really love the keyboard might use a tiling window manager, these tend to make you think "wow, this person's a hacker", where they'll rapidly switch between programs using keyboard controls, with the window manager automatically shifting and dividing new windows so that they tile together to fill the screen. Loosely speaking, the opposite of a tiling window manager is a floating window manager, where windows just float and you move them around with your mouse, just like Windows (well, apart from the tiling options in more recent Windows versions when you can drag a window into the corner and it tiles to fill the screen.) I think the "best of both worlds" midpoint is a dynamic WM? I'm not sure. hyprland is an example of that.
  
  If a computer is a car, then Linux(the Kernal) is the chassis. Mint (the distro) is the motor, and Cinnamon (the desktop environment) is the fancy interior.
  
  KDE plasma is a fancy interior that works with tons of different motors.
  
  Cinnamon is designed for mint and works best with it.
  
  DISCLAIMER: All of this is analogy and isn't technically correct in a pedantic sense, but it works well enough for me. I'm sorry if my analogy isn't exactly accurate.
  
  I'd say Linux (the kernel) is the motor/engine and Mint (the distro) is the chassis. The chassis defines the shape of the vehicle and its size class, for instance.
  
  Well I'd say the distro is the model/manufacturer, Linux is the motor/engine/software, and the DE is the HUD/dashboard/wheel/pedels.
  
  The desktop environment is all the stuff like the taskbar, the settings menus, the application launcher, the login screen, that kind of thing. It’s the system level user interface.
  
  You choose which one by which distro you download. Linux mint uses cinnamon, Ubuntu and fedora use gnome. There are “flavors” of Ubuntu and fedora that use KDE. That’s why I suggested ventoy: you can download a few different ones and boot into them without making a new thumb drive.
  
  If you don’t feel like bothering with any of that, just use Linux mint. It’s good.

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