Trying Linux after using Windows for decades

Which way do I gotta go for the Unix beard?

The socks were in my cart, my mouse pointer right io the order button but before I could click the mouse, I changed my mind. It was almost too late but I installed Fedora just one moment short of being unable to turn back for good...

If gaming is a priority, Garuda is a nice one to avoid as well

Don't forget a apple fan boi level of false superiority.

Me but opensuse tumbleweed, have it on my PC and Thinkpad now.

My first distro was arch btw. It's not hard if you approach it with a mindset to learn. That's the whole point of Linux anyway, it's a tool and the better you know your tool the more capable that tool becomes.

It's like a lathe with interchangeable parts and gears. You don't know what your doing it might throw some metal at you but it's also capable of crafting a precise and finely finished part in a short amount of time.

I also throw fedora on my laptop because laptops are an ergonomic nightmare. Plug and play is nice for when you don't have time to really learn your tools or do setup and just need any hammer to get the job done. You can still smack your thumb though, it's not a cordless drill with proprietary batteries like Macos or windows.

Straight up it reminds of of being back on Windows 7 and it's so goddamn cozy to be back there

Since Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu, are you being asked to pay for security updates? Using Ubuntu right now and looking to switch soonish

I only had a couple programs holding me: Fusion 360 and Windows 3D Builder.

Then I found out there's a functional snap pack for Fusion 360. Now I just have to come up with a solution for Windows 3D Builder.

And the reason I use Windows 3D Builder is for 1 feature: it's model repair function is far and away the best I've used for broken 3D models.

As Nobara is Fedora based and Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu/Debian, perhaps stay in this eco system and use some Fedora spin/derivate on the Laptop as well.

Good luck with the transition away from Windows!

How's it with NVIDIA hardware?

Green Ubuntu best Ubuntu

Steam has a native linux client and they've also spent years, developing a proprietary wine-wrapper, called Proton. I've been able to run all my Steam games on Linux with no problems. :)

1. I'd recommend pop os over bazzite because it's a more standard distro, bazzite is immutible (update entire system at once instead of individual apps, and part of the filesystem are read only. It's harder to break stuff on an immutible distro, but they're less common and most resources online are for normal distros). It isn't hard to get nvdia drivers working on pop os, so I'd just google it after you get it set up.
2. I'd make sure your windows drive is unplugged before installing, so you don't accidentally wipe it! I've never dealt with swapping what drive the os is on, but I'd expect some stuff to break because the filesystem is pointing to unique IDs that no longer match. That shouldn't be hard to fix by googling the errors, but I'd watch out for it.
3. Windows updates like to mess up bootloaders sometimes, I've never had that happen, so I don't have any advice there. Unplugging the windows drive when you instsl should help, and just make sure the default is to boot into linux, that way any auto restarts won't get into windows to mess stuff up unless you let it.

c/pop_os@lemmy.world

c/linux@lemmy.ml

Could also be good places to ask

I recommend downloading the latest Linux Mint .iso file and using Rufus to create a bootable, live USB drive. Also, if your computer has an internal d: drive, I would recommend using that entire drive, instead of dual-booting from c: (I had a bad experience removing Linux from a dual boot system and getting the partitions back to normal). This way, you're not touching anything on your windows (c:) drive.

If you’re really worried about messing up your c: drive, you can physically disconnect it while you’re installing Linux, so the Live installer only has one choice for installation. After you've installed Linux, change your boot order in BIOS to boot from your d: drive first. Once you’re sure Linux is working correctly, you can run “sudo update-grub” which will add your c: drive to the boot menu on the d: drive. This allows you to dual boot into either OS without touching anything on your c: drive (so the boot menu will be on d:, your linux drive). Grub will let you choose between continuing to boot from d: or to boot windows on c: without you having to change the boot order every time in BIOS.

If you use Steam to manage your games library, you're really going to like that Steam has been developing a proprietary Wine wrapper, called Proton, which lets you run all your Steam games from Linux. Steam also has a native linux client. So all the Steam games you backed up on windows, you can restore on Linux. I've run everything from Unreal Gold, to Witcher 3 to Techtonica to Fallout 4 without any problems.

::: filesystem's Linux uses a fuckton of different filesystems for different functions (Linux is at its core -simple, but it is voluminous in the knowledge base - 15 years later and I'm still going, 'oh, that's cool, I didn't know I could do that) Anyway, the main fs on Linux is ext4, but it can read/write/modify NTFS, fat, vfs, luks, and on and on. Windows does NTFS and fat. :::

::: don't be scared The terminal is actually, really, truly, for real, your best friend and portal to power potential :::

Resources may seem overwhelming at first. Linux uses a lot of words to do things. The GUI has gotten prettier, but the real customisation comes in text files(all of Linux is text files) there's not registry that is mostly unreadable/unusable.

Linux manages resources much better (Maybe because it doesn't try to stuff ads all over the place and spy on you)

Use the manpages man7.org or sjmilar Use archwiki.org Use bash.org Use your distros site (or use Ubuntu.com or Debian.org for deb/Ubuntu variants like mint)

Learn your package manager. (Apt, pacman, whatever it is). Install apps from there. Unless trusted or you've reviewed the code, avoiding installation from websitez is good practice.

Everything is a text file. Configuration files are usually easily readable and configurable. Though some may be in json and some in Java and some in Matlab and some in sh and some in plaintext (the joys of not having monolithic monopolies controlling everything)

Anyway. Its late. I've rambled. Happy fossing

For both 2 & 3 the answer is the same:

Having Mint and Windows on the same machine will end up with a completely fucked boot drive if you're not super careful.

When I installed Mint on an NVME I installed specifically for it, either it or windows decided that the boot info should be placed on my SSD with Windows and not on the same NVME as mint (as I wanted, as windows was literally just a dead data drive to me at this point that happened to be bootable), so when it came time for the wipe and swap of drives I suddenly couldn't boot anything

Minor headache to get boot repair rolling and get everything set up properly to the partition I'd made on the NVME, but the googling I did to fix this taught me that Mint and Windows Dual-Boot is a question of "when and what will fuck Up" rather than "if it will"

My advice would be to just read carefully what's happening when you do drive shit and to keep a working boot USB for mint (should do this anyway, but keep it updated) for at least as long as you're dual booting. Boot repair WILL save you, its very easy to use, and remember the words emblazoned on that amazing book: Don't Panic

Consider Nobara for gaming!

Honestly, I'd be a Mint user if it weren't for me being almost entirely spoiled rotten by the the ease of using pacman. I've literally never had an easier time with a package manager.

If I had to choose a more ready-made distro to replace my current Arch install, I'd probably look into EndeavorOS.

If I wanted to be violated as much as Windows 11 wants to violate me I'd reinstall Grindr

Can somebody explain why everyone is trying to ditch xorg? I've never had an issue with xorg, but I'm always hearing about major issues with Wayland.