unix like operating system lovers

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This is a community that is only for nerds jk. everyone who doesn't scare when seeing UNIX terminal welcome! rules:

don't make comments that branch out from the main topic too much, at least please somehow relate to it.
retro operating systems, e.g. discussion about them, is strictly forbidden, please make a retro community instead.
please be nice for others.

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I have no idea what I'm doing, help! (sh.itjust.works)

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

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're really not sure and don't want to break anything, I'd suggest installing some different OSes in virtual machines and try on that first. That might be a learning curve by itself, but you won't take your computer as hostage for your beginner's errors.

There are more user friendly OSes than others. I'd go with a Ubuntu or *buntu flavor just for the fact that there's a lot of beginner friendly websites, tutorials and forums.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's two votes for ubuntu. I like the idea of a virtual machine protecting me from myself. I've got desktop and a laptop, but need them both active. I've also got an old desktop in a closet somewhere, wonder if the hardware would still be functional enough to learn on. CPU is probably a 7th gen I5, to give you an idea of the datedness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Make that 3 votes for Ubuntu. It's one of the most user-friendly distros (and a lot of other user friendly ones are just Ubuntu with some tweaks).

It's really hard to go wrong with it.

If you're worried about old hardware, use Xubuntu. It's just Ubuntu with a lighter desktop environment, so it works better on older machines.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just checked it out, It's an I5 6500, a little older than I thought, but ubuntu recommended specs are pretty low: CPU: 1 gigahertz or better RAM: 1 gigabyte or more Disk: a minimum of 2.5 gigabytes

no uefi so I'm good to go. probably

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

My daily PC is an i5-3570k and it's very quick in Kubuntu (that's Ubuntu with KDE as a graphical environment). I think I have "only" 8 GB RAM and it's quite enough for my use.