Don’t wait. Experiment now in a VM to learn the basics.
If I go this route, is there a way to take that VM I’ve created and just roll straight into it? Just install it on the boot drive?
I’ve got a Pop!_OS VM going already.
I think there is a way technically with something like trueimage or clonezilla, but I’ve never used it. Always thought of my VM as a learning tool, and then used what I learnt to fresh install on real hardware
Oh I never though of running those!
Clonezilla inside the VM to clone the “drive” and then clone that to the actual SSD
Or alternatively, make a live USB and boot it natively.
If you do not have a friend to help you along the way, use the Linux Mint Cinnamon edition first. Download it now and use it in a VM to get used to it.
If you’re feeling confident and would like to explore further, install Debian with GNOME or KDE. I suggest Debian because it’s a large and independent distribution, community-built, rock solid stability, convenient or powerful as needed, and stays true to “the standards” (like the stock GNOME) and free software, but doesn’t prevent you from installing proprietary software as needed. I moved all my friends who were willing to switch to Linux with zero experience to Debian (3 in total), but they had me to help and I didn’t have to do anything after assisting the installation and the first day configuration. Now they’re all independent, using it daily and never ask me for help.
Fedora is also a good option, but every release has only 1 year of support while Debian has at least 3 years and Mint has 5.
Please see username
Sorry. Now my breath is fresh, which version of Linux should I use?
“Tips Fedora”
MintLinux and Pop!OS are normally the two front-runners for new users. Basically, if you use Steam and you don’t play online-only games with bad implementations of anti-cheat software, you are good to game on either.
Make a USB that you can “live boot” from, so you can test out how they work with your hardware. Generally spearking, Mint works better with AMD, and Pop! works better with Nvidea.
Here’s the official basic guide for Mint:
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/And here’s the official basic guide for Pop!:
https://support.system76.com/articles/install-pop/Do Pop!_OS AND Linux Mint have KDE Plasma variants, for newcomers who don’t know how to swap desktop environments?
I don’t think they do. But once you’ve already started looking into swapping the desktop environment from whichever is the default, I don’t think you can call yourself a newcomer anymore.
Well, yes, that’s why I asked. Some newcomers to linux find Plasma more familiar than GNOME et al. Having it preinstalled can help them get comfortable faster, with less effort.
Wanting a windows-like environment makes sense. It’s not specifically Plasma, but Mint has Cinamon which is very Windows-like.
I was a Win XP/7 user that bought a laptop with Windows 8.1, emigrated to Linux, and found that Cinnamon felt more like Windows to me than Windows did.
No; Linux Mint used to offer a KDE variant but have stopped; Linux Mint is the showcase distro for the Cinnamon DE, so obviously they have that, it is my understanding that Clem is active with the MATE team as well, so Mint MATE edition is a thing, and they also offer xfce as their lightweight offering.
Pop!_OS has their (IMO) godawful Gnome fork that they’re turning into their own thing, and that’s IT. They offer instructions on installing other DEs, which I tried once. I managed to install a very unpolished, ugly and feature incomplete version of Mint that broke flatpak somehow.
So if you really want KDE, just install a distro that ships it, like KDE Neon, Kubuntu or Fedora KDE Spin.
