I have an old Subnotebook (at least 10 years old I think) which runs Windows 7 atm. I would like to run Linux on it. Iâm a Linux noob, but would like to try and learn a few things. Any recommendations?
There is no such thing as a âbeginner distroâ. There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain. Arch needs you to read and follow instructions. It is a myth that it is impossible for beginners to use Arch. There are several good installations instructions in the wiki, select one and follow it till the end.
There are also plenty of Arch derivates that preconfigure the system for you.
I beg to differ and say, even when the Arch wiki is a great source of knowledge, setting up own Arch system and maintaining it requires keeping on track with updates, to understand what is wrong with your system to look up the right keywords and so on. In my opinion it is better to stay on a stable, periodically released distro with tested repos like Debian, Mint or Ubuntu at first. Afterwards, you can still switch to Arch.
Youâre way too deep in the linux world lol.
There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain.
One might call that⊠suited for beginners.
Youâre way too deep in the linux world
Yep.
beginners
Beginners need to learn anyways, why not skip the ânot-for-beginners stuffâ and go all in? :)
I tried a couple distros on VMs (mint xfce, Manjaro i3âŠ) because I want to eventually resurrect my old laptop and I was trying stuff out.
Tried installing Arch in another VM this year. The regular instructions were complicated and I didnât follow them because too much work. Tried using arch installer and couldnât. Had to install arch installer (???) from the boot command line. But it gave me a keyring error as well. Idk how I solved that but eventually got through.
Then I had it functioning for some days. One day I try to turn the VM back on and it just doesnât boot. Iâm sorry arch, I love you but it wasnât meant to be.
There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain
Itâs not a matter of intelligence but prior knowledge, Arch wiki is the best thing ever for everyone, even if you donât use Arch, BUT you need some Linux knowledge - at least Linux âlingoâ - to be able to understand it.
Thatâs something a Linux newbie doesnât have yet, exactly the reason why Arch is not recommended for newbies.
