Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Which distro is the right one for me? (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey guys, I'm an entry-level IT professional and tech enthusiast.

I'm getting a bit sick of windows for a multitude of reasons and want to try out some Linux distros.

I use my pc for web browsing, university (which uses office 365) where I study software design, software development (vs code, visual studio, jetbrains stuff) and gaming (99% of the time via steam).

My main concerns for switching are that I'll have a hard time with university work because we mostly use teams for video conferences and work together with word, and other office stuff. We also are required to do some virtual machine stuff where we use virtualbox.

Also I'm a bit worried that some games on uplay, epic and other platforms aren't available anymore.

For distros I've been mainly looking at Manjaro, Linux Mint or plain old Ubuntu. Can you recommend anything that might fit for me or will I maybe run into any issues with my chosen three?

Edit: Thanks a lot for all the replies. I've read through all of them even if I didn't reply and it was very helpful. I will test most of your suggestions in a VM before I jump into completely changing my OS. And I'll probably try booting from a USB Drive first. What I didn't mention is that I've already worked with Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS, so I'm not scared about having to use a CLI.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've found NixOS to be one of the easiest distros to use because everything is reproducible, I'm not too sure why everyone who uses it says it's a hard one to begin with

At the start you just go with the template the installer gives you, and add packages to the package list it generates, then as you want more advanced features options start to come in handy and they're just as straightforward

No nasty hidden surprises, everything for the most part works exactly how you'd expect (with the exception of syntax with some of the more funky features but you don't need those to manage a system at the bare minimum

Ubuntu on the other hand when I started using it I had to run a few random commands (disabling broken Nvidia services) after hours of digging just to get my mouse pointer to work after hibernation) and had to do that every single time I switched to a different distro, wasn't even an issue out of the box on nixos

And if you're stuck a fix that worked for someone else will almost always work for you unless it's a hardware specific issue