Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Advice for a middle-age, moderately pc knowledgeable person to finally switch to or become proficient with Linux? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by Andonyx@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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This is my third attempt. Partly to rage quit Windows, and partly to gain utility and control with some professional AV software.

I have converted an old Asus netbook to Ubuntu netbook remix and used it for a while. I was impressed with how much better that tiny thing ran with Linux than Windows. But in the end it still had less power than a TI-84. So I stopped using it, and never really learned Linux proper.

I dual boot my Chromebook, so I can use gimp for photos on vacation, but everything I do with the Linux partition is cut and paste from articles by people who know what they're doing. (I was motivated to post here by a meme about that.)

I'm thinking of dual booting my main desktop, because I need Windows for some fairly processor intense A/V software I use for work. So what would be a good distro to look into for a novice and where should I look for a tutorial? I would ultimately like to see if I can use Linux to run my AV software in emulation and add drivers for some professional audio interfaces. I'm fed up with windows and trying to see how far I can get without it. Your help is appreciated in advance, and if this is inappropriate for this topic, let me know and I'll delete it.

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (8 children)

My advice is to restart with Arch (I use Arch btw). Not Manjaro, I'm talking Arch.

I think using/installing Arch as well as its barebones nature FORCES you to understand how Linux works differently than Windows with concepts like root, bootloader, terminal emulation, and disk partitioning, just to give you some examples. At the same time, Arch has excellent documentation, a great package manager in pacman, and rolling release model that greatly simplifies maintainance during daily use so you can tune it to exactly how you want it.

I believe doing it the hard way at first will make it easier for you in the long run if you really want to understand Linux, and Arch is just the right amount of difficult to make you learn Linux, whereas Gentoo would be too hard and you don't learn enough from using Ubuntu/Debian/Mint.

But yeah, if you just want to use something that works well out of the box, then Ubuntu is great, there's nothing wrong with using the more user friendly distros.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Arch is amazing for all of these reasons, and I agree that by design it'll give you a lot of insight in to what's under the hood that most other distos tuck away.

I've used it in the past and ended up moving away from it because it requires quite a bit more effort to maintain, which got tiresome.

Arch has an active and dedicated community, so obviously there's a whole lot of people out there who feel it's worth the effort. Maybe OP will too. But it's not a distro to take on lightly.

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