It seems like the more interested I get in Linux, the less appealing it becomes. The community seems to have no fucking clue what they’re talking about, because everyone is just constantly talking over each other and contradicting themselves! I have spent so much time reading about Linux and distros and such to prepare for my eventual switch, but after all that I’m starting to question if I even want to make the switch. Here’s a few of the things I have read over and over, that confuse me to no end:

  • It doesn’t matter what distro you use, but also you absolutely should not use that one!! Use that one it’s much better trust me!
  • Gaming is good on Linux now, but also it’s super shit and you should keep windows if you want to game
  • Sure you can use Nvidia cards, but also no you can’t because nothing will work with them
  • Just dual boot if you’re not sure, but also no don’t dual boot because windows will erase your shit if you do
  • Trust me bro Linux is super easy to learn, also here’s 14 different specific terms you’ll have to Google, but even then you’ll barely understand them
  • Everything will work out of the box, but also you can’t use that thing with that other thing without configuring that other thing first but that’ll break that thing which needed that thing […]

I’m slightly exaggerating and I may get downvoted but I needed to vent. It honestly sometimes seems like Linux diehards are intentionally hiding some of its major pitfalls in order to “convert” more people to their side.

I know windows sucks and that’s why I want to switch, but at least when you have a windows question there’s a concrete answer, not a bunch of nerds yelling out incoherent technobabble-sounding answers that all contradict each other.

And for fucks sake please type the whole words when speaking to beginners. How am I supposed to know what a DE, a VM, a CLI, a WM, PM, or all that other stuff is?

Linux is the “least welcoming, yet most aggressively butthurt that no one is joining it” community I’ve seen in a while.

Alright rant over, you may yell at me now.

  • @ikidd
    link
    English
    16 months ago

    I’d just install something and ignore people until you are more familiar with things. You don’t have to stay with the first distro you install, and you can install many at once and see what fits. Stay away from the complicated ones until you’re further along on your journey.

    As for the dual boot thing, Windows had (has?) a habit of blowing out the Linux bootloader if it’s installed on the same physical drive as windows. IDK if this still happens, but when it did it was annoying for someone that isn’t too familiar with how bootloaders work. To be safe, using a second drive for your linux stuff and then just choosing which drive to boot from at your BIOS boot chooser (often accessed by hitting F12 at boot) is the safe way to get around this. Then you aren’t messing with the drive Windows is on at all and there’s no chance for drama if Windows Update decides to do that.

    There’s a few good beginner distros that work well enough with nVidia; Ubuntu, PopOS, Mint are all good choices for beginners. EndeavourOS and Manjaro seem to get along with nVidia if you want something Arch based if your inclination heads that way eventually. Glorious Eggroll, one of the main contributors to Proton, the gaming backend Valve is working on, builds a distro called Nobara that has most of the gaming/video tweaks preinstalled on a Fedora base, and in my experience it’s one of the easiest distros to get started with gaming on Linux. PopOS is a Ubuntu-based distro that’s put a lot of effort into being a gaming capable distro as well.

    Whatever you choose, realize that Linux is like any other interest on the internet; there’s a lot of people that like to lift themselves up by pushing others down. Ignore the donkeys and do what works for you. If that means using Windows, then I guess that’s what works and that’s fine, too.