79
New to Linux, have a few questions
(pawb.social)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
79 points (91.6% liked)
Linux
45595 readers
845 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I want to maintain my Windows 10 install for now as a sort of fallback. I have a lot of random software installed for my university classes, and I don’t know about all the compatibility issues I might face with those. And letting it sit there in the background in case I need it for something feels safer than jumping head first into a new OS.
Trying out liveUSB or VM stuff seemed like it would be an extra hurdle in transitioning to Linux. Like, I want to get settled in and actually use it as a daily thing, not just browse the internet a bit here and there. If I don’t like the distro I choose, I can always just install another one, right?
A live USB would let you play around in a desktop environment for a bit to see if you like it before jumping in the deep end with it. But if you've already tried out KDE plasma and know you'll like it, then you're probably fine. I agree that you won't become familiar with a full distro without data persistence and repeated use.
Maybe at least live boot gnome if you haven't tried that one yet. Gnome and KDE are the most fully featured desktop environments, so they're natural choices for users coming from win/mac.
Yeah, you can always install another, but if you are going to do that every day or two before settling on one, maybe consider installing virtual box and trying out the distros like that first. Of course, if you're in a VM, it can be a challenge to get proper hardware acceleration if you're going to try out gaming.
At the end of the day, I think dual booting is a good idea, as long as you only use windows when it's your only option. That's what I do. It's easy enough to reboot if I need to play a game or use a windows specific app. More consistent than dealing with QEMU or something.
You can indeed always install another distro. You can also run many distros in "live cd" mode, just boot from the install media and choose the live option without installing. It's actually a great way to see if a distro will play nice with your hardware and LAN and peripherals out of the box.
Oh, my misunderstanding, I thought you wanted to dual boot OpenSuse and KDE Plasma. Dual booting Windows 10 and one of those makes way more sense, especially if you have niche university software that was probably written 20 years ago for Windows XP service pack 2, is already barely compatible with Windows 10, and almost certainly never had a linux version. You definitely don’t want to gamble on abandoning Windows completely until after you graduate.
And yes, once you get comfortable installing a distro, it gets pretty easy to just install a new one.
Plasma is the desktop environment he wants on Tumbleweed. Neon is the KDE distro. I thought it was pretty clear he wanted to dual boot Windows tbh
Oh goodness I have no idea where my brain was.
Can you easily switch drives in your system? I’ll often do that on my computer because little m.2 SSDs are so darn cheap now. It’s easier and cheaper to pick up a little 64GB drive for one off projects than it is to do a proper backup and restore.
Also, I’d just go with Tumbleweed. I don’t distro hop like I used to, but that’s because as everyone else is saying, most of the distros have gotten really good. Most of the time, my little projects are trying out specific features of a different distros. So I’ll just pop a new drive in, test drive it, then either switch back or not.