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looking for helpful advice regarding migrating to Linux?
| While I have personaly never tried it I heard Pop_OS is outstanding when it comes to ease of use.
A good recomendation that i was given and used is to at some point when you fell like it just try out another distro and keep doing that to get a fell for which one you like most.
since installing a linux OS is free and all it takes is a small amount of time.
| So the distros everyone used to recommend are mint (probably more windows like ui) and Ubuntu (Mac themed kinda sorta)
I can also vouch for pop os, do note you can always install a different desktop environment no matter what distro you choose so if you don't like the UI change it!
| If it's got a Nvidia card you should install the proprietary driver, should be in whatever the GUI updater is or Google for command line instructions
Don't be scared of the command line it's often the fastest way to do things even on Windows
| So Pop_Os and mint? I'll be sure to look them up, but I'm not comfortable with the command line interface. Have you got any advice/tutorials for me?
| best thing to do is learn to use your package manager, and move around in the filesystem
Cd name, to change directory (you can use .. to go back one folder or / for root of your drive)
Ls, to list files & folders
Cat name.txt, to read out file
Nano name.txt, text editor (if a tutorial says to type vim at any point probably a good idea to use nano instead, vim is very powerful but doesn't hold you hand at all, there's a reason "I know how to quit vim" is a meme)
| Also a blank "cd" will return you to your user/home folder
Sudo apt update, to find updates for installed software
Sudo apt upgrade, to install upgrades
Sudo apt install name, to install software
If apt doesn't work replace it with apt-get
You can also
Sudo apt search or sudo apt-cache search to search for software
Lot of info if you don't know any of it so what I did when starting out was make a text file with everything to reference
| Hey wow! Thank you guys very much for these commands, I really appreciate all of your advice! This will help lots, I'm sure! C:
| >>615014
those package manager commands vary depending on your distro/package manager
i do recommend installing /home on a separate partition. your guided installation probably will help you do this. if you decide you hate whatever distro you installed, you can install something else over / and keep your old /home directory. although you should still back up files in /home you need anyway when you do a reinstall (just in case™)
| I'm not very knowledgeable with Linux, but I've been using it since 2012. Ubuntu to start easy (it works out of the box), then Mint and Debian. Command line becomes necessary at some point.
| >>615081 this is very true but the recommended distros were pop and mint and they both use apt, didn't want to over complicate things too much
| Oh, ok, can i have a so called "/home" with my current files on windows? Or will I need to back up my files(on windows) and then install linux? Also, will there be built in guides in the command line? (And a sorta separate question, is linux actually less resource intensive than win 10?) Thanks all for your help. C;
| >>615228
Kindof Linux will allow you to mount an ntfs drive no problem.
But ntfs can not store linux permissions making it something you'd want to avoid for long term use but will be fine if all you need is to acess your old files.
The closest thing to a builtin command line guide are the man pages, which are usually massive and way to detailed for the avrage user.
I don't think this is a big deal since you can just look up your problem n get a copy paste solution.
| >>615228
>is linux actually less resource intensive than win 10
Absolutley, Insanley so.
How mutch of a diffrance you will notice will depend on the desktop enviorment, which is included in most distributions
The difficult question is will your software run better?
It gets complicated quick.
e.g.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=windows10-linux-browsers
but for the majority of things the anwser is again yes.
| >>615228
i didnt quite understand your question about /home (if you install Linux on your windows drive, you are most likely erasing the windows partition and any data that was there) but no matter what, even if something "should" work without backing anything up, you should back it up anyway.
| Please back up your files g/u/rls!
| >>615228 backup your files you want from Windows installing Linux will either be dual boot (in which case you split you HDD space in half to share with Windows, but this will let you mount your windows install and read the files)
Or it will erase windows and use the whole thing for itself in which case you'd better have backed up what you want to keep
| What the person was recommending was that if you store your /home as it's own thing you're config files for a lot of things will be able to be kept if you blow away your Linux install and install a different distro
There will not be built in guides to the command line but most programs have a --help
Eg `cat --help`
And everything from your package manager should come with a "man page" or manual
Eg `man cat`
(Press q to leave and arrow keys to scroll)
| Plus you can always Google something, man pages can be found online and there's a near 0 chance you're the first person to look up what a command does or how to do something
If you can't find something level up your Google skills
Use "quotes" for exact match and -words to exclude
| >>615315 I should add Ubuntu for sure which should include mint and pop (they're based on Ubuntu, which is based off of Debian) should have their own gui updater
But you have to open the GUI, wait for it to load, search for the program name, wait for that to load, click it, then install like any other app store style thing, with the terminal you can just type one command and let it install
| Oh I almost forgot almost forgot on every os you can press Ctrl+c to interrupt (stop) the program currently running in the shell if you type `yes` you have to press Ctrl+c to stop it
| *side note anyone know what the point of `yes` is?*
| I guess you could use it in scripts to automate a "y" input to respond to anything
| >>615206
I'm far from a technical user. I just got a job where they ran Linux and stuck with it at home.
Now I can't go back to windows (it's unbearable), but I also dread the day I have to install new fonts on debian.
Linux tutorials don't help either, they're all "draw the rest of the fucking owl".
| >>615568
I'm not a sudo user so I can't do it through the GUI; I'm terrible with command line so I have to dig up the right commands. Yes, I'm that bad.
| >>615576
alrigth then open up your file browser goto ~/.local/share/fonts and put your font it that folder, that all you need to do.
It's a literal drag and drop solution.
| >>615576
or if that path is to long for you to remember, debian still supports the old font folder
~/.fonts
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| so i recently got an old imac, but it had a password on it, so i decided to throw windows 10 on it because that's the os that i know how to use. however i have been considering migrating to linux but it seems rather intimidating. i find the customisation appealing, however i don't really know my way through the "linux landscape"(so to speak). if you could give me some helpful advice on what would be the best distro for a windows user would be, i would be greatly appreciative