Linux is interesting to me, but I’ve never dipped my toes into it because it seems really intimidating (and a lot of loud people act pretty snobbish about it towards non-Linux users, making it seem even more intimidating to get into; I’d rather not be bullied for my choices in software or my ignorance in others).
It seems so complicated to me, and there’s so many types, and so much lingo that I’m not versed in, so that when I consider getting into it I just feel so overwhelmed I can’t even think.
My understanding of Linux is bare bones to say the least. I understand it’s highly customizable. I understand it’s a lot of manual work, though, at least… it sounds like it? From what I’ve seen people say, it seems like you need to remember a lot of codes and functions to do basic things unless you install interfaces for things? Again, I’m really ignorant about this stuff, so excuse my lack of proper terminolgy and such.
I also am under the impression that Linux isn’t the greatest for most games? Or at least, that’s what I heard a lot years ago, I don’t know if it’s still true (or if it was even true back then). If that’s still a thing, is it because Windows is just what everyone defaults to when designing software? How viable is gaming on Linux?
And how does one even… go about setting up Linux? How do you choose what er… version? Type? Ah, distro? Again this… terminology is foreign to me, I’m not fully sure what I’m saying. Would I have to whipe a laptop of Windows to install Linux on it? How would I do that?
I am fascinated by the concept of Linux but like I said, there’s just so much. I have ADHD and Autism and combined, the whole idea of jumping into this is so goddamn overwhelming to consider figuring it out all by myself.
Sorry if this is out of place, by the way.
ETA: Thanks for all the help so far everyone. I’m gonna start playing with various distros using an older laptop of mine. I bought it real cheap and used a few years ago and it has mainly just been used as my own personal tv that only plays Whose Line Is It Anyways? with Drew Carry every moment of every day, virtually nonstop… and the poor thing can do that on Linux just fine, too.
ETA2: After backing up the Whose Line episodes off the laptop, I tested out Ubuntu using virtual box on my regular laptop but it didn’t entice me much, so I searched for something else and found “Live Window Maker”, a uh, fork(? is that the right term?) of Debian and installed it onto the laptop. So far, successful! I havent explored it much since I finished my backup last night and installed the distro before I left for work, but I’m excited to start playing with it. I really enjoy the classic windows interface styling of this one, so I’m looking forward to playing with it.
Download a widely supported Linux distribution like Ubuntu and put it on a USB stick.
Now boot from that stick. It will load (slowly) but it will not touch your disk.
You can have a look around and kick the tires. Check out the default apps. Install some more apps.
You can reboot and remove the USB pen to get back home to Windows.
Now download something else and repeat.
Do this until you feel that Windows is not your home anymore.
That was my journey, maybe it is yours too.
This is exactly what I did. Download a bunch of iso images and use a USB thumb drive or burn them to disc.
If using thumb drives, make sure you delete all hidden files when burning a different Distro to it so it’s clean.
I would suggest going to https://distrowatch.com/ to read about the types of OS on offer.
Think of it as,
Linux is a car,
Distros (Distributions) are the manufacturer (Toyota, Ford, Kia, Audi) and
the DE (Desktop Environment) is the model line (Prius, F150, Sorento, A6).
You need to choose a Distro and a DE.
Distros to check out, Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Pop!_OS, Fedora, OpenSUSE. This will give you a variety to test a “live disc”, no need to install right now.
DE’s to test, KDE, Gnome, Mate, Unity, Cinnamon.
Most Distros are completely re-installed 2x a year with April and September being the release months.
You can find LTS (Long Term Support) versions of many Distros. These are installed once and updated regularly for 3-5 years.
And lastly there are Rolling Distros that are installed and updated in perpetuity.
I personally settled on Kubuntu LTS. It’s a KDE (Plasma desktop). It’s very easy to customize when you get a little experience, but not necessary to customize at all. I’ve been using this for over 12+ years.
Play around with some Distros, take some notes on what you like. You can dual install with Windows if you want/need to.
And remember, Live discs (USB) are just a testing ground, changing settings will not save if you test the same Distro again.
Always choose the “Try” or “Live” option in the boot menu and it won’t mess up your computer.
And backup your current data before doing any of this. Better safe than sorry.
Also, if your thumb drive is big enough, which it probably is, you can use Ventoy to load it with multiple bootable isos
This is the way. I went from 6 low-end 16gb flash drives to 1 high-end 256gb Ventoy drive and it has been wonderful. I have yet to run out of space with 17 different Linux ISOs on there. I update Ventoy every month or so.
As for booting from USB stick: use Ventoy for that. It allows you to copy any number iso files to the USB stick and boot from any iso file that’s on it. No need to go through the hassle of writing an iso to memory stick over and over again.