New Linux User

[Tay Sondelski]

Hi! 

I'm looking into using Linux as the OS for my desktop, and I just wanted some advice. 

I've only used Windows and Apple IOS before, and this would be for personal use only. I'm leaning towards Linux Mint because you can switch between that and Windows, and it seems beginner friendly. I'm switching because I'm concerned about security. I'm a student and use my devices in all sorts of public places. I also live in an apartment building with internet included, so I get a little worried about my desktop. I use a VPN of course, but Linux is more secure than Windows. (according to my professor lol) Plus, and I don't know if this is relevant, but I HATE how Windows is constantly pushing it's AI tools. I don't mind AI, but I would like the option to disable the features when I want to. (Looking at you Google, eugh) 

Is this a good choice? Are there better options? Is there anything in particular that I should know beforehand? And is it possible to put it on my laptop as well, or just my desktop? Most of my homework is done through virtual machine labs, would switching affect that?

I'm a newbie so any and all advice is appreciated!  

[Tom P]

Linux is generally more secure than Windows, or at least less often attacked. 

Linux Mint is a good choice for people coming from the Windows world. 

One difference between Linux and Windows is that Windows version X (10/11/ whatever) looks and feels the same across all Windows machines running that same version. Windows 10 is Windows 10, apart from maybe changing the desktop wallpaper. 

Linux, however, is slightly different, in that there are more than one desktop environments available. Any given version of Linux can have the Gnome desktop, or KDE, or LXDE, or several other choices. You can even switch desktops on the same machine without reinstalling. 

Other people here can chime in on what desktop is the most Windows-like. I've heard that the base Mint install does a very good job making Windows users feel at home. I think MATE and Cinnamon are the two most common desktops for Mint. I  also hear that  XFCE is a good desktop with a lot of Windows-like features. I personally use the KDE desktop almost everywhere, on Ubuntu and Fedora Linux. I don't have any direct experience with Mint. 

But as I said, Linux Mint out of the box is pretty good, and there are ways to change the desktop later, if you want to. 

A lot of people dual-boot between Windows and Linux. If you have some must-use Windows application that you can't do without, that may be the case for you.  PhotoShop and one or two others come to mind. But there are so many equivalents to Windows programs that you may find you don't need to jump back and forth.

Good luck, and let us know what other questions you have. 

-Tom

  

--
Homepage: http://www.milwaukeelug.org/home
This forum online: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/MilwaukeeLUG
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Milwaukee Linux User's Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to MilwaukeeLUG...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/MilwaukeeLUG/4e1ce93f-97c8-4e8f-a783-23c3d27a216en%40googlegroups.com.

--

--
Tom Peters • a50m...@gmail.com • N9QQB (amateur radio) • Six meters: The Magic Band
"HEY YOU" (loud shouting) • Second Tops (Set Dancing) • FIND ME ON FACEBOOK
43° 7' 17.2" N by 88° 6' 28.9" W • Elevation 815' • Grid Square EN53wc
LAN/Telecom Analyst • Open-source Dude • Musician • Registered Linux User 385531

[John Tankersley]

Hello

I am John Tankersley. I was wondering what happened with Roger Jenson?

Did he retire or take another job?

I was working with him remotely to be trained on Linux.

John Tankersley

johnta...@gmail.com

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/MilwaukeeLUG/CAE1P%2B1dzRTXUGak5ZsoSC4zybuQ03cf2p7XiY66QApM-o-gA%2BA%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Tankersley]

Hello,

I am John Tankersley. I was wondering what happened with Roger Jenson?

I was being trained with him remotely on Ubuntu Linux?

John Tankersley

johnta...@gmail.com

[Isaiah C]

I am with Tom concerning KDE; my primary workhorse runs Fedora 42 with the plasma desktop.  If I can, I would offer a word of caution regarding dual booting: not all linux installers are created equally, and while most (desktop) distributions have an option to install alongside windows, not all of them take into account whether or not you are booted via UEFI, but have other operating systems using legacy boot, or vice versa.  This could lead to the bootloader for Windows being overwritten leaving your Windows installation unusable.  Because of this, I recommend that you ensure any files that you can't afford to lose are backed up to a seperate device before you try a dual boot installation.  If you can swing it, cloning your windows partition is a good way to have a path back in case something goes wrong.   I don't bother dual booting anymore on my laptop since Fedora with a Windows virtual machine does pretty much everything I need it to, however, when I did dual boot my method was to save everything I needed to keep to an external drive, do a clean install Windows on half machine's drive, then install Fedora on the other half.  This way I didn't have to deal with the fiddly process of shrinking NTFS partitions to make room for linux.

If you have a second non-essential device, it may be worthwhile to just install the distro of your choice on it and try to daily drive it for a while.  Along that vein, my (possibly unpopular) opinion is that striving for a "Windows-Like" experience is impractical, as there will always be a fundamental difference between the way Windows works and the way Linux works, much in the same way that MacOS and Windows will never function the same way and you will never be able to fully paper over those differences.  I think it is better to get a beater laptop and just throw different distributions on it until you find one that you like and just embrace the differences.  Then, if you decide you are ready to commit to a distribution, you put it on your main machine in dual-boot or however you want to approach that.  Having your "play" installation of Linux on a beater laptop will also allow you to get a feel for the issues you might encounter or problems you might need to fix without having to worry about your main machine being down without an immediate solution when you have a paper or something due.