It’s based on Debian, a major branch off the tree. It just fucking works. Millions of tutorials, groups, etc. to find troubleshooting info. Probably won’t have to do anything to get a machine running that does everything you’re doing now.
Get the swing of that and go from there, if you want to try other branches.
This realization helped me quite a bit: Windows does all sorts of arcane voodoo with the registry and DLLs and such. Weirdness Linux appeals to many because all the configuration is contained in simple text files. Got a program that reads and writes plain old text? Aight. You can configure Linux. In a way, it’s so simple it’s hard to get your head around coming from Windows.
tl;dr: Just download and install Ubuntu. Go from there with your nicely working machine.
So basically, Ubuntu just with a different name and paint job. (I’ve used them both)
We are all at the most basic level, running pretty much the same kernel, one of the same small handful of desktop environments, and we choose from the same pool of software, (unless you need to get out into the weeds for a program on git hub). Everything else is either window dressing, (package mangers are window dressing-- they all do the same basic thing), or a choice on just how close to the bleeding edge we want to be, (rolling releases or immutable).
Just use Ubuntu. (Surely I’ll get hate for this.)
It’s based on Debian, a major branch off the tree. It just fucking works. Millions of tutorials, groups, etc. to find troubleshooting info. Probably won’t have to do anything to get a machine running that does everything you’re doing now.
Get the swing of that and go from there, if you want to try other branches.
This realization helped me quite a bit: Windows does all sorts of arcane voodoo with the registry and DLLs and such. Weirdness Linux appeals to many because all the configuration is contained in simple text files. Got a program that reads and writes plain old text? Aight. You can configure Linux. In a way, it’s so simple it’s hard to get your head around coming from Windows.
tl;dr: Just download and install Ubuntu. Go from there with your nicely working machine.
Yes, I hate it.
Use Mint - it works better than Ubuntu, Canonical has made enough ‘mistakes’ to get on the blacklist.
So basically, Ubuntu just with a different name and paint job. (I’ve used them both)
We are all at the most basic level, running pretty much the same kernel, one of the same small handful of desktop environments, and we choose from the same pool of software, (unless you need to get out into the weeds for a program on git hub). Everything else is either window dressing, (package mangers are window dressing-- they all do the same basic thing), or a choice on just how close to the bleeding edge we want to be, (rolling releases or immutable).
No snap by default is on its own a huge difference. Far from window dressing.
If you give a new user snaps, many things will not work as they expect, and that is not a hurdle beginners should have to pass.
Nobody cares about kernel, I don’t even know anyone who builds their own (I use Gentoo btw), they either go bleed, or stable, nothing in between.
But package delivery matters a lot.