Hi all,

As the title states, I’m interested in making the switch from Windows to Linux. I know absolutely nothing about Linux, other than that fact that there are distros that exist under Linux, and Linux itself isn’t an OS, or so I think.

I have 2 laptops and my main home office PC, which I use for my job and gaming.

My plan is to switch one of my laptops to a Linux distro, and test it out. This laptops only purpose is web browsing, so I figure getting Linux set up to do something as simple as opening a browser is something I am capable of.

Down the road, once I’ve sort of learned on this laptop, I may work my way up to using other distros and dual booting my main PC. Who knows, maybe I’ll even switch over completely prior to Windows 11 rolling out.

I’ve heard getting games to work with Linux can sometimes be a hassle, and can require some fiddling, so I won’t be doing gaming on a Linux distro until I feel quite comfortable.

So with the above context, I’m looking for recommendations on a distro I should use, any guides that any of you may have found helpful, and generally any insight on things I may need to be aware of.

I am fairly tech savvy (probably not compared to most of you), and am not afraid of tinkering with things until they work. Any help would be muchly appreciated, and if this isn’t the correct place to post, please let me know and point me in the right direction.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•1 month ago

    I’d suggest to start with ubuntu. I’d the distro that has the most guides/resources available.

    Personally, I prefer xubuntu. Which is ubuntu, but with a slimmed down UI.

    I’ve heard good things about https://www.linuxmint.com/, maybe read about that one too.

    To get started, I always use Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/) which downloads the required files, and makes a bootable USB flash drive.

    • Prison MikeEnglish
      3•1 month ago

      I’d say start on Ubuntu too. I actually kind of hate it, but it’s was my second or third Linux distro and was stable enough to jump into it, learn stuff then form an opinion about what I want in a distro and move on.

      I think a lot of people get hung up on this — for basic use, a lot of distros offer more or less the same things. It’s when you start to drill into the lower level stuff (that you’re probably not now concerned with) that you become pickier with distros.