this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
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Fair disclosure, I personally run OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, BUT...
Honestly for this situation I think Linux Mint might be your on-ramp. It's very familiar from a user experience perspective from someone coming from Windows, and everything can be done with GUI apps.
It updates the entire system smoothly through an "app store" so it stays nice and secure. "Cinnamon" is also a highly attractive and smooth desktop environment.
I've switched a few people to it who were sick of Windows on older machines, but NOT computer people at all, and they've enjoyed it a lot! The nicest thing is it will feel like your computer again, not like you're leasing it from Microsoft.
Don't try and "completely switch over" in one go.
Look up how to try Linux in a virtual machine on your existing setup (so you don't have to risk anything!) and just try it and play around with installing and using it.
An old laptop or something is also a great way to try it out.
You can always dual-boot if you want. I sure did for a while until Win10 started BSODing for no discernable reason, and refused to let me "refresh this PC" because "Sorry, can't. Goodbye."
I still have it, just in case, but it's been most of the year since I've even bothered logging into it.
If you game: you'll want Heroic Launcher for your GoG/EA stuff, and Steam of course, and maybe Bottles to run your old CD/DVD games maybe. :)
Sometimes things take a little tweaking, but Mint's community is fantastic and helpful. You really will start to learn a lot about computers just by using Linux a little and trying things, while Windows makes every effort to hide things from you. ("wE'rE gEtTiNg ThInGs ReAdY" who's "we"?!)
As you start to get comfortable with it, it will grow with you. You can start trying to get the hang of the terminal, or jump to another distro once you learn why you might prefer to.
But you really can't go wrong just trying Mint out. It's overall just a pleasant OS.
ProTip: You'll be asked about a file system when you install any distro. I spent COUNTLESS HOURS on researching this question. BTRFS can be a bit of an advanced file system, but if you just "set it and forget it", it has the ability to take incremental snapshots without taking a ton of space! So if something really goes south, you can use an app called "Timeshift" to just roll back.
This is great for your root drive / partition, but I wouldn't suggest it for your home folder. :)
(Just like Windows rollback used to do, but...more reliable lol)
Lol sorry for the ramble but I hope this might help you feel a little less lost at the grocery store. ;)
Thank you for your detailed comment. :)
I am dual booting Linux Mint Cinnamon, and you are totally right. The "app store" is very nice and I was honestly impressed how much control Cinnamon offered and made it accessible for beginners through GUI. It felt more streamlined than Win10 in some places. Steam's Proton is also a huge deal, as most games work great with it enabled out of the box. I do however often feel lost. I didn't expect that but the thing most difficult for me is basic stuff, like navigating the start menu. I really like the customization Win10 offered and miss it dearly.
I guess it is part not having a feeling on how Cinnamon works yet. After using Windows since 2006 I know my way around it failry well, and I don't have that "gut-feeling" in Linux yet. It will come with time, but atm I am feeling a little defeated.