So all I know that the Linux mascot is a penguin and Arch users meme about using Arch. Jokes aside I’m planning on making to the jump to Linux as I’m planning on getting a tower PC. I recently got a steam deck and that kinda demystified the (unrealistic) expectation I had of Linux was all command line stuff and techno babble. This all very future oriented questions* as I haven’t even picked out hardware (probably gonna go prebuilt since I do not trust me) and there’s also the matter of saving up the money for a new PC.
As for my use case (cus I know some software is wonky on Linux compared to windows) it’s mostly between games running on steam, which most of my games play fine on the steam deck, and essays and note taking for my college classes, which I use libre office and obsidian (with excalidraw to hand write my notes) saved to my proton drive and also sync those documents between my surface laptop and home laptop
My ideal OS would be plug it in, let it do… things… and it’s ready to be a PC to install steam and stuff
But first question, as someone who isn’t tech inclined and tinkering is pretty much just a few VERY basic settings in the settings app on windows, so is there a Linux… idk what to call it, type? OS? Thing??? that runs out of the box without me having to install additional software manually or at least automatic setup wizards because like hardware, I do not trust me with setting it up. As for installing it after I wipe whatever computer I choose I assume I’m gonna have some OS installer on a USB and let it work its magic.
Second question, is there any specific hardware that works easier with Linux, I can’t really think of any examples cus with installers and updaters I just the computer handle it, like updating Nvidia stuff in the GeForce app for all I know it’s genuinely performing dark magic during the automated updates
Anyways I probably have way more questions that I have no idea I had, but to wrap up I’m not super tech inclined since I let automated stuff do its thang on windows (if the computer can manage and install it I’m gonna let it do that) and my pc mostly just plays games and do documents on libre office and obsidian
I personally started out with Debian given that a vast majority of distributions are Debian based, typically paired with KDE Plasma 5 for my desktop environment, and learned from there.
Now Debian is really stable but does require command-line configuration quite often so it may feel complicated but if you’re capable of reading & following documentation then you should be all good.
I made the mistake of trying Debian on a new system. While I will eventually transition to Debian for it’s stability, it’s glacial speed of change means that new hardware isn’t very compatible. I tried the half-step that was LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and even that was missing some support for my hardware. Not until I moved to Ubuntu-based Linux Mint did I finally have everything working, after some poking and prodding. I’m guessing once Debian Trixie comes out, I can test again.
You have to have more mature hardware if you go Debian. It’s not something I’d tell anyone to install on a new build.
So a lot of people have recommended bazzite so I might start with that and move to mint if that doesn’t work out for me, how does plasma and Debian fit in cus that stuff is ringing a bell. Like plasma being separate than a distro
Distributions like Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Linux Mint are actually based off of Debian however, each distribution provides their own packages and typically have system files in different places, so packages made for Ubuntu may or may not work with Debian and vice-versa.
Edit; I should’ve mentioned you can choose to go headless without a GUI and only run the shell which saves a lot of resources.
KDE Plasma is a Desktop Environment (aka your desktop). When you install a Linux distro on your computer you’ll typically be given an option on which software you want to pre install. You’ll see software like GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon, etc and by doing a little research into them you can pick the environment that suites you best.
GNOME gave me MacOS vibes while KDE is more Windows.
Hope this explains things easily!
Yeah I think makes sense thanks!
Basically Linux mint or bazzite is the system and how it’s organized while plasma is how I’m seeing that system represented and interacting with it in other words?
Yup, seems like you got the gist of it!
Obviously once you start reading documents on software you’ll start to understand it all better. Suggest reading into the Docker engine for self-hosting software on your network!