Hello!
I’m interested in moving my personal computer to running Linux but I’m not sure where to even begin. As background, I am a casual user and have a desktop with hardware from around 2014 running Windows. I am hoping to setup a NAS drive as a media server in the next year or so, offloading all of the files currently on the Windows desktop and have been interested in open source software such as Jellyfin. I also mostly game on an Xbox and Nintendo Switch, but have used the desktop in the past for gaming such as with an Oculus Rift Headset and some Steam games so not huge on getting games working on the computer. But, I do sometimes torrent using the computer so don’t want to lose that capability (especially with upkeep for the media server).
With all of that said, I didn’t know how to get started with choosing what Linux OS to use, setting it up, backing up my files to make sure I can use them with the new OS, etc. Making the switch seems to have great options for customization and “choosing a distro that works for you”, but I don’t know what would work for me or what will be user friendly for a beginner.
Any tips or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I just moved from Windows to Linux (currently, PopOS) this year around.
You can try out beginner friendly distributions like PopOS, Linux Mint, ZorinOS which are Ubuntu-Debian based or Fedora. Like others have mentioned, applications made on Linux are expected to be cross-compatible with all distributions so your choice will mainly come down to what desktop environment you like as there are many with different feel to the user experience.
To know what works for you try these out in a VM if possible before biting the bullet so you know what all packages are present in Linux, and what all of your usecase will need to be managed through WINE/Proton compatibility layers.
You would want to avoid Ubuntu, and installing anything through Snap or PPA repositories if it ever comes up in your searches.
@curiousgoo @WR5 “You would want to avoid Ubuntu, and installing anything through Snap or PPA repositories if it ever comes up in your searches.”
Snaps have improved greatly and there’s nothing to stop people from using Flatpak instead. Also, it’s not clear why you suggested not using PPA repositories, there are risks, but there are advantages too. Ubuntu has a huge support community, I’ve been using Ubuntu happily since 2007, tried many other distros, but always go back.
Why would you recommend Canonical/Ubuntu to new users when there are better distros without proprietary snap stores you have to work around.
Ubuntu is a good and stable distro, the community is great and it’s good that you feel at home with it. But that doesn’t make it an obvious choice for beginners when there are simply better alternatives for them - talking mainly about Mint.