So all I know that the Linux mascot is a penguin and Arch users meme about using Arch. Jokes aside I’m planning on making to the jump to Linux as I’m planning on getting a tower PC. I recently got a steam deck and that kinda demystified the (unrealistic) expectation I had of Linux was all command line stuff and techno babble. This all very future oriented questions* as I haven’t even picked out hardware (probably gonna go prebuilt since I do not trust me) and there’s also the matter of saving up the money for a new PC.
As for my use case (cus I know some software is wonky on Linux compared to windows) it’s mostly between games running on steam, which most of my games play fine on the steam deck, and essays and note taking for my college classes, which I use libre office and obsidian (with excalidraw to hand write my notes) saved to my proton drive and also sync those documents between my surface laptop and home laptop
My ideal OS would be plug it in, let it do… things… and it’s ready to be a PC to install steam and stuff
But first question, as someone who isn’t tech inclined and tinkering is pretty much just a few VERY basic settings in the settings app on windows, so is there a Linux… idk what to call it, type? OS? Thing??? that runs out of the box without me having to install additional software manually or at least automatic setup wizards because like hardware, I do not trust me with setting it up. As for installing it after I wipe whatever computer I choose I assume I’m gonna have some OS installer on a USB and let it work its magic.
Second question, is there any specific hardware that works easier with Linux, I can’t really think of any examples cus with installers and updaters I just the computer handle it, like updating Nvidia stuff in the GeForce app for all I know it’s genuinely performing dark magic during the automated updates
Anyways I probably have way more questions that I have no idea I had, but to wrap up I’m not super tech inclined since I let automated stuff do its thang on windows (if the computer can manage and install it I’m gonna let it do that) and my pc mostly just plays games and do documents on libre office and obsidian
A whole bunch of software goes into making a distro a distro, and the desktop environment is a major component.
If you were to compare, say, Kubuntu to Fedora KDE edition, they would look fairly similar because both are using the KDE Plasma desktop environment. On Kubuntu you’d have the APT package manager, on Fedora you have the DNF package manager.
In a lot of cases, a distro will have their underlying tech, “We use this package manager and this feature and that feature, and we publish versions with the Gnome desktop, KDE desktop, xfce desktop and i3 window manager.” Or some combination thereof. Linux Mint for example offers their own Cinnamon desktop, MATE, and xfce.
If you’ve ever used an Android phone and swapped out the launcher, it’s kinda that.
As for you android analogy I’m locked on iPhone since I’m not the one paying the phone bill lol
As for the rest of the stuff I feel like that’s gonna make more sense once I actually use Linux cus I see the concept of ideas here lol
Once you get into the ecosystem it probably will, yeah.
If you think of the Linux ecosystem as a whole, it’s like a big salad bar. There’s a bunch of stuff to choose from, several kinds of each thing. An individual distro is a salad made from that salad bar, you might have romaine lettuce, tomato slices, onion, green pepper and thousand island dressing and that’s Fedora KDE, change the thousand island to ranch and that’s Fedora GNOME. Switch out the romaine lettuce for spinach, switch the onion for cucumber and go with raspberry vinaigrette dressing and you’ve got Mint Cinnamon.
Ah i like that analogy, basically a lot of interchangeability with each part so you can make your perfect system that works for you
To further the analogy, most distros are pre-packaged salads. Somebody figured up a salad recipe they like and they put it in to go bowls. You know what’s in it so you can grab it and go. Some distros like Arch hand you a empty bowl and invite you to fill it yourself, so each copy of Arch is at least somewhat unique. Gentoo expects you to slice your own veggies.
A lot of the choices basically don’t matter to you at this point; like the process manager. There are people who are irritated with Systemd, the de facto standard one, and prefer some other. They’ll all work fine for desktop use, you’ll probably never notice let alone form an opinion. The main things you will experience as meaningful differences between distros are the Desktop Environments and Package Managers. The GUI and the app store.
Thanks for the explanation