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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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I have used Windows all my life, and I have some questions. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Basically the forced shift to the enshittified Windows 11 in october has me eyeing the fence a lot. But all I know about Linux is 1: it's a cantankerous beast that can smell your fear and lack of computer skills and 2: that's apparently not true any more? Making the change has slowly become a more real possibility for me, though I'm pretty much a fairly casual PC-user, I don't do much more than play games. So I wrote down some questions I had about Linux.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a "Linux Update" program like what Windows has?

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

And also, what distro might be best for me?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (30 children)

I disagree. Obviously the most ideal solution would be the have immutable Mint, but beginners need stability more than they do immutability. I've used mint and my only issue with Mint was that I didn't like how it looked. I'm currently on Bazzite and these are the issues I've ran into:

Every time I start Firefox it asks to be made into the default browser. Even if I click yes it will still ask again next time I start Firefox.

When using the default audio sometimes the audio signal to my monitor cuts off which means I no audio comes from the speakers. If I tell the system to send the audio to my other monitor and back to the one I have hooked on the speakers then it instantly works again. It's almost like the system forgets it has to send out audio. I don't remember what I did to fix it but it definitely wasn't beginner friendly.

Sometimes one of the monitors freezes and only one. The second monitor keeps working just fine. So far haven't found a permanent solution for this issue.

There have also been some minor artifacting that I personally don't consider an issue but someone else might.

Overall I can put up with the issues because I've pretty much conceded that I'm going to have issues. But I don't think new users should be using a system where they're going to run into problems they're most likely not equipped to fix. That why I recommend Mint to newcomers because all the fancy bells and whistles don't matter if the system doesn't work. Mint doesn't have bells and whistles, but it just works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I agree I honestly don't like immutable distro's at all because you can't install packages the way everyone else does: via package managers. You either have to use the gui software center and if that doesn't have to app your looking for you have to use distrobox or box buddy which still doesn't work half the time. That's just been my experience with bazzite as a person fairly knew to linux.

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

I agree I honestly don’t like immutable distro’s at all because you can’t install packages the way everyone else does: via package managers.

this is false, rpm-ostree exists and works for this exactly. There's nothing you can't do on bazzite that you can do on a non-immutable distro.

Even if that wasn't true... package management is just done through flatpak, there's no real fundamental difference, it's just an abstraction layer, I don't see why that would be important to you at all, and comes with numerous benefits:

You cannot break your system with these, ever.
Significantly less burden on package maintainers
You can have many versions of software installed
These applications are sandboxed and thus more secure.
This enables complete graphical management of software, no longer requiring the terminal.

It not having packages you may need applies to any package management solution, other distros do not package everything either. In fact, the distro with the most packages is an immutable one, nixos.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe should have looked into how immutable distros work before using one. Is ostree just a package manager for immutable distros instead of using dnf or apt?

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

rpm-ostree is fedora specific, but essentially, yes, it applies a layer ontop of the base immutable system with the package changes you want.

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