EDIT: I am thrilled with so many awesome responses! I’m taking notes and looking into all the recommendations. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out (and many others, i’m sure), i’m glad i asked!

Hi,

I’m getting ready to switch to Linux. I’m looking for a kind of checklist of what to do beforehand. When i search online, there is a lot of advice on which distribution to choose and how to set it up, which i already know, but my question is the step before. I made a list of which programs i currently use (almost all have a linux variant or i can use them in the browser) and i am making screenshots of their settings. I have basically everything important backupped, both on my ProtonDrive and on a private server in the house. Is there anything else i need to prepare before switching? I wouldn’t want to overlook something.

(I already have the distribution and am trying it out, but my plan is to actually install debian and without dual boot. Also, many, many years ago i already used debian but then i had the luxury of someone who basically arranged everything for me)

Currently, i run windows 10 with Nvidia GeForce. I already am in the process of degoogling and de-microsofting so to speak, so i don’t use google drive or onedrive, or MS Office anymore (nor a lot of other things).

Apologies if this is not appropriate for this community. Have a great day :-)

  • Maturi0n@feddit.de
    0·
    10 months ago

    Honestly, besides backupping my data from Windows and choosing a distro that fit my needs, I didn’t really do any preparation.

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
    0·
    10 months ago

    Is that nvidia card old, do you need very fast performance? You could use the nouveau drivers which are mostly FOSS.

    If you need the proprietary drivers though, I advise against updated Distros except ublue.it

    Debian might be an exception as it upgrages so slowly, but I also wouldnt recommend Debian really. Debian + GNOME is probably very fine, even though also here you will miss a lot of cool new updates, but Debian + KDE is simply not ready and all those bugs are now only fixed in Plasma 6.

    So my recommendation is a ublue-nvidia image, no matter what desktop you like

    • Papanca@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      It’s not brand new, but i don’t need it for gaming or anything major. Thank you for your recommendations, i will look into it!

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
        0·
        10 months ago

        Do you prefer GNOME or KDE? I would stay away from other desktops for now, as they lack security a lot (Wayland).

        Silverblue is GNOME, Kinoite is KDE. I highly recommend you try the images from ublue.it

        They are not completely perfect out of the box though, you may need to add Flathub for the apps you need.