Every other forum has rules about these posts because there’s such a glut of them, and yes, I could go read a stickied thread elsewhere, but here I am not doing that.
How would someone with no computer skills get acquainted with the OS? What version would you recommend to the hopeless novice? Can I keep windows on my PC and run the new OS or a practice version of it in a partitioned space while I learn? Can someone with minimal skills/time/patience be happy with a unix-like OS?
Update on my linux journey:
Tried ubuntu, mint, and zorin in a live environment, they all had features that I really liked, and perhaps more importantly lacked features that I really hate. Can’t remember the last time I set up a bloatless device! I could see myself using any of them, but zorin had two advantages, the lowest learning curve and it worked with more of my peripherals and apps than the other two.
I have it dual booting on my desktop, but I have audio issues there (desktop is really my tv/gaming/media center) as it’s hooked up to a big cheap tv and soundbar, and I suspect that it doesn’t recognize them as hdmi enabled audio devices. I tired some commonly recommended fixes but no avail yet, might have to wire audio a different way. I didn’t have trouble getting games running in zorin but the performance was half that of windows. Tried updating the video driver (only a week out of date) and I need to research how to install drivers that aren’t listed. Seems like it might be a set of terminal commands. But I’m saving that for later and focusing on the laptop instead, where I have lower demands and can get more day to day use in.
Every app I use on the laptop is functional with live environment zorin, but I am again having an audio problem. No issue with the integrated speaker, but bluetooth would not connect (device not set up) which I resolved with bluetooth adapter - and now I according to the pc I am connecting and pairing, but no device will pair.
Overall I’d say it’s not a bad start considering my lack of pedigree, but I’ve got a long way to go.
Update on my update re: Sony wh1000mx3 headphones and Linux Bluetooth failure to connect: got it working, didn’t need any extra software either. The Sony’s will prompt themselves into pairing mode if another device tries to connect and they aren’t paired with another device, so I’ve never activated pairing mode on them before. The Linux (zorin) bluetooth software won’t try to pair with a device not in pairing mode, so they were like shy kids who want to dance with each other but won’t ask. In short, like the overwhelming majority of my problems: user error.
Hope my verbose incompetence saves some future googler a few minutes of frustration.
How did you arrive at zorin? Not knocking it my first Linux install was lindows… How’s it working out for you are you still using it?
Zorin was actually recommended by a programmer friend who works mostly with linux systems. I don’t think it’s their distro of choice, but it was their top recommendation for my use case. I tried a bunch of recommendations in live environment, Zorin and Mint were the most accessible. Installed both (dual boots on different devices) and Zorin just worked out the box, so I took the path of least resistance. 0
I like it; I don’t know what I’m missing from other distros, and my demands are as low as my skill. I like the UI better than windows.
Still dual boot, and probably will be for a while on the gaming pc. I’d probably be okay formatting windows off the laptop, but I’m not in a rush. Ultimately I’d like to eliminate windows from my personal life, the office is another challenge.
Honestly you are not really missing much unless you need it. If it’s working for you keep using what works!
Pretty much the only difference is desktop environment and being able to tweek stuff like the graphics drivers, the package manager for installing programs/updates but zorin and mint are pretty much just Ubuntu at the end of the day that someone made more friendly.
I would recommend you use the Linux alternative as much as you can rather than using wine to run exe files. In my experience steam native runs way better than running steam/games with wine.
For office stuff it can be like pulling teeth but thankfully most of it has functional web versions.
If you are scared of the command line start by just running stuff like firefox or chrome in it rather than the start menu. If you forget the command the tab key can usually guide you. Also “man command” will show a full manual for any command. Eventually there comes a point that it’s faster and easier than doing things with the commandline and people will think you have leet hacking skills.
Thanks for the zorin recommendation I’m going to give it a try in a virtual machine and check it out. It looks like a perfect new person recordation.
Yeah, I think I’d also like the greater customization of some of the “purer” distros, but I’m in no rush. Slow progress is progress.
Haven’t tried wine yet, but the world-buildy type games I’ve tried on linux get about 1/4 the frame-rate for similar graphical settings. The internet doesn’t seem to expect that kind of drop, so I think it’s largely resolvable, just need to get the time and mental energy to tackle it.
No fear of the command line, maybe I’ll do irreparable damage, but I’m not super concerned about it. As far as I can tell you just type sudo apt install x, then google “linux command line task description” when that fails. Maybe I’ll work out the logic behind hyphens and underscores and whether a program is available through apt install of if I need snap, but it still feels easier than windows. I really hate looking for tiles/ figuring out which hyperlink to click, typing commands is a dream come true.
Love the man command, but it’s a challenge for me to get and retain pertinent information when there’s so much to know.
Thanks for the kindness and advice, much appreciated.
I feel like your just not using the proprietary drivers on amd it matters less but I hear the free Nvidia ones are not the best. See if your friend can help you install them or if you go it alone take a backup so you can restore it if you need without getting your hands dirty with the commandline.
https://help.zorin.com/docs/hardware/activate-nvidia-drivers/ https://help.zorin.com/docs/hardware/activate-amd-radeon-drivers/
It looks like the zorin process for doing it is pretty straightforward. I get better performance on my amd system using the propitiatory drivers than on Windows. Desktop Linux has moved forward pretty quickly.
Unfortunately the friend is virtual, and I feel like we’re not nearly close enough for me to ask them (an IT professional) to remote into my pc. Not that I’m concerned, but I don’t like asking people to work on their off hours.
Take a backup? That involves a state of mind where needing a backup is a possibility.
3hrs later–Google search: how to back up Zorin, putting toothpaste in tubes. I mean they’ve done it once, how hard could it possibly be to do twice.
I did, to my minimal credit, do the modern nvidia drivers install, but the performance was pretty bad so I manually installed another driver, which looks to be the correct and latest, but now I can’t install alternative nvidia drivers - attempting to do so gets an error message about being unable to delete a file that is already in the repository or some such. I’ll c and v if I can’t stumble through it in the hopes I don’t have to reinstall, but honestly I don’t have a lot of stuff to replace so few tears will be shed. Just got to figure out how to reinstall should it got that route.
Going to see if I have secure boot on, maybe that’s the issue.
Thanks for the advice!
😊 for the most part you can just use the tar command to back stuff up in the most half-assed way.
For example: sudo tar cvzf /tmp/backup.tgz /home/
Or change /home/ to whatever directory has stuff you care about.
Then plug in a USB drive and copy /tmp/backup.tgz with the gui and it should contain your user data if you need it. It’s pretty much like making a zip file for a backup…
Then this to delete the backup file: sudo rm /tmp/backup.tgz
tar xvf ./backup.tgz to extract it or just use the gui.
My friends have asked me to do basic Linux stuff for them in my off hours and I generally oblige, if it seems quick and I know they are not going to call me having a meltdown in a few weeks if something unrelated breaks. Especially since it sounds like you already put in quite a bit of legwork trying on your own.
I wish I could help more but I’ve gone out of my way to not use Nvidia or Intel products for over a decade. So I have no idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think that the Nvidia webpage has like a .run file you can use to install them but that might just make things worse…
Try asking here you will probably get the best answer: https://forum.zorin.com/c/hardware-support/7