It’s been about 8 years since I gave Linux a real chance. I have an Sony VAIO PCG-3D3l Laptop which was abandoned by it’s previous owner.
I have no real plans for it, except to install Linux, and if I get comfortable with it, it’s probably what I will end up doing my banking on, because as much as I love Windows, I can’t say I ever feel secure using Windows.
What are your recommendations? I consider myself an advanced user with most forms of technology (Have an A+ certification that’s older than this laptop), but not on the level most of the people reading this are probably on.
Just about all Linux distros will have comparable performance.
I suggest focusing instead on which desktop environment to use. LXQt or Xfce might be worth a try, or a plain old window manager if you want to get really lightweight and can tolerate some extra work. Get a live USB image and test drive one.
(For those who don’t know, most distros have a variety of DEs and WMs available in their repos. You don’t have to use the one that’s installed by default.)
This answer has a lot of wisdom. It would have helped me greatly at the beginning of my Linux journey if someone had explained the difference between a distro and a DE, and how they both work. Choosing a DE is probably more important than choosing a distro for most beginners imo
There’s a reason why Linux Mint gets recommended a lot because not only is it built upon a stable base and the distro is good (at least lmde), the cinnamon de is easy to use as well.
I found that comment clear most of the fog I was suffering from. I’m grateful to have read it before getting started.
I have another laptop of my own with 8 gigs on it, which I I’m going to convert as well now. Exciting times lol
Thank you for the suggestion, I’ll look into that.