I’ve wanted to go over to Linux for a long time but I have no idea how to go about it. I hear about incompatibility problems with hardware and all the different options for different Linux OS’s and that’s it, I forget about it for a while to avoid the headache.
So where do I start? I don’t even know how to choose hardware or what to look for. The number of options with Linux makes things a little confusing.
And although others here have answered the question before, I’m unsure what I have to do to stay ‘safe’ on Linux. Are there extra steps or is it just the standard, don’t open dodgy links and turn off Java script in the PDF viewer kind of thing? Does Linux come with a trustworthy firewall/antivirus/malware detection? Is there a chance of Linux e.g. sending my passwords, etc, to someone or just letting someone into my harddrive? I hear that ‘open source’ means people can check the code but how do I know if someone has checked the code—I wouldn’t know what to look for myself.
I followed the Linux subreddit but the users the can be rather… enthusiastic, which is great, but I need something far more basic to get started lol.
Is there a good step-by-step guide somewhere? Or can anyone give me some pointers/tips/advice?
I mainly browse, type, and read pdfs and other text files. No gaming, although I wouldn’t be opposed to it. No need to be mobile; laptops are terrible for my back so I always use an external monitor, anyway, so I won’t be using it ‘on the go’.
Edit: Thanks for all the advice. I got a machine up and running from a bootable USB.
Any others who read the comments here because they’re interested in trying out Linux – if you have Windows installed and want to keep it on your HDD/SSD, partition your drive within Windows. Then boot from the USB. You can partition your drive (and keep Windows) from the bootable USB but it’s a bit more complicated and it makes it harder to create a swap partition and a storage partition. I had to go back and forth a few times to figure this out.
I switched to linux less than a year ago after using winblows for most of my life. I found Fedora to be really easy to start with. It’s a good mix of stability access to new versions of stuff. KDE plasma is a really good all around desktop environment and easy to adjust to if coming from windows. I’m sure others will chime in with other distro/DE suggestions.
I’d give you more advice, but I still have a lot to learn about linux. I won’t be much help with hardware either because I only know about hardware leading up to when I build a PC; I forget most of it shortly afterward.
The fact that you’ve jumped ship and don’t want to go back is advice enough! I think I’m going to give it a go.
It’s amazing how much we can learn about something for a specific task and then forgetb almost all of it almost immediately after. I recently did some tiling and I got quite good and quite quick by the end. If I ever come to do any more tiling, I’ll have completely forgotten all the little tricks and the first few tiles will go down wonky and slow.
Linux Introduction
Hardware Support
The situation regarding hardware support has improved massively in the last decade. The only components you may find don’t work on a regular basis in a device are the WiFi, Bluetooth, and RGB controls (though these circumstances have also improved massively). I’d recommend installing it on an old computer instead of buying new hardware, as it will most likely work out of the box without you needlessly spending more money. Anything with more than 2GB of ram will likely run fine.
Security and Privacy
There is relatively little to due regarding security. It goes according to the standard don’t open dodgy links and the like you previously stated. Furthermore, not only do you not need to install an anti-virus, I don’t think any exist for desktop use. Most Linux distributions come with a decent built-in firewall. There is little to no chance of a Linux distribution sending passwords or other credentials anywhere, or granting access to your HDD contents. Most mainstream Linux distributions are regularly checked by various auditing teams, so that is of little concern.
Distributions
A distribution is mostly just the array of software installed around the base system. Some may be better suited to certain needs than others, though (almost) all may be modified to meet a given need. For those not familiar with Linux, I usually recommend Linux Mint for its Windows-like interface, abundance of pre-installed tools/applications, stability, and ease of use.
Applications
Browsing the web:
- Firefox - Often installed by default, it is compatible with all major web standards (existing and planned.)
- Chromium - The base for google chrome, for those unable to give it up.
Document Editing:
- LibreOffice - Supports all major document formats, is preinstalled, and powerful in what it does. May mangle complex formatting on Microsoft Office documents.
- Google Office - If your already in the ecosystem, it’s one less thing to change.
PDFs:
- Whatever is preinstalled - They are all fine.
Modifying Text Files:
- Whatever is preinstalled - They are all fine.
Installation
A decent YouTube Guide on it’s installation.
Incompatibility problems with hardware? Nvidia isn’t great but it still works. What hardware do you have?
Have you used a virtual machine?
I would recommend Ubuntu because there is the most help for it available online. Googling questions with “Ubuntu” at the end of it will yield better results than other distributions but your mileage may vary. There are plenty of other options but Ubuntu is the most straightforward, and if you don’t like it you can try something else.
If you want to install it on your hardware you should look up “How to make linux live USB”
I don’t want to be rude but I feel like you’re overthinking the whole thing. If you want to play around with it just look up “how to make a linux virtual machine” and that will show you how to make one without losing your files.
If you want to use it as your main operating system you should make a backup of all your files first. Just throwing them on an external hard drive should be sufficient in most use cases.
Let me know if you have more specific questions, I know I didn’t answer everything in your post but feel free to let me know. I’m not a Linux power user or someone who works with it for a living but someone who made the switch 10+ years ago and has gotten by as a regular user pretty well.
I might have a 2010 MacBook Pro somewhere if that turns on. Otherwise, I’d either look at buying a machine or I might be able to get my hands on an all-in-1 computer that will probably ‘break’ with the next Windows update.
I don’t rely have old machines as I mainly use work computers. If I have anything in the proverbial attic, it would be ooold. Circa 2003. I had two machines between then and 2010 but one inexplicably fried itself and the other was stolen.
I’ve not used a virtual machine. The bootable USB might be more straightforward for me?
You’re not being rude. I accept that I’m overthinking it. It’s partly because my main strategy for staying safe online has been to distrust everything lol. And partly because I don’t want to fork out for a machine that doesn’t work. Tbh I’d be willing to buy something cheap-ish to use to play with before I commit to a faster machine as I could give it away to someone who needs it for school once I’ve done.
But my impression was that Linux only works on certain hardware and with factory-sold setups being what they are nowadays, it’s not been clear how I would resolve an issue if one component didn’t work. You did say that I was over thinking this!
Thanks for your advice.
Okay a 2010 MacBook does make it more complicated. That’s pre retina though so it might be okay, but on a laptop Linux gets harder.
I never received a notification for this message, I apologize. You should definitely be able to use a USB yourself, https://etcher.balena.io/ is the software to make it when you choose your operating system.
I would look into a virtual machine first to try it out. It will be shockingly boring once it’s up and running and it’ll be slower than if you installed it on your hardware. Try out https://www.virtualbox.org/
You should do what’s within your budget for buying a computer, I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy something they can’t justify. It helps to know what hardware you have instead of using an all in one setup but there are other people who have used those setups and you may be able to find help more easily. It can be a toss up.
I’ll give you a more proper response in the morning, sorry I missed this! Still learning Lemmy
I hear about incompatibility problems with hardware
This only gets better with time. When Windows Vista was released, Linux actually supported more hardware than Windows did, because it never had a comparable break in driver compatibility. Nowadays, unless you are buying bleeding edge hardware which just hit the market within the past month, just about everything works. Typically, once a piece of hardware is supported by Linux, it will remain supported until everybody who knows how it works dies. Linux may suffer with bleeding edge / niche hardware, but it shines above all others in keeping that hardware useful, even when there is no market incentive for the manufacturer to continue support.
You will run into problems here and there, but the grass isn’t much greener on Windows where I have also experienced problems with oddball hardware. The only saving grace for Windows is if you buy a computer that ships with Windows, all the drivers will be installed. If you download the installation media directly from Microsoft, you end up in the same boat of having most of the hardware working, but having to tie up loose ends yourself.
So where do I start? I don’t even know how to choose hardware or what to look for.
I’d look in your closet for some old computer that you stopped using. Try it there first. Nothing to lose. If you don’t have a heap of e-waste lying around, start with something inexpensive to learn the ropes, or try installing it on a virtual machine like VirtualBox. In general, just about any computer in the world will run Linux. You might just run into issues with oddball things like fingerprint scanners or wierd sensors (i.e. some laptops use accelerometers to stop spinning the hard drive if you drop it).
I’m unsure what I have to do to stay ‘safe’ on Linux.
This is easier to do than anywhere else. Linux comes in the form of “distributions.” The distributor hosts a package repository, and you get all (well, 98%) of your software from that repository. This is different from Windows, where it is typical to download individual applications from all corners of the internet. As long as you trust your distributor, you are generally solid as far as safety goes. The only risks come from installing third-party software - but even then - you just apply the same logic as on Windows. Where is this program coming from? Do I trust this person / organization? etc.
The default settings are intended to be as safe as practical, and the various manuals and tutorials out there will warn you about doing stupid things. It usually requires manual intervention to make things unsafe.
Does Linux come with a trustworthy firewall/antivirus/malware detection?
It is rather uncommon to run antivirus software on Linux. This is typically only done on servers (for instance, a mail server screening attachments before forwarding them along to end users). You can install ClamAV, but this is redundant if you are getting all of your software straight from the distributor. In my humble opinion, antivirus software is a poor approach to security. Once a computer is infected, nothing on it should be trusted, including the antivirus software. Antivirus software is more appropriate as a data recovery tool than a prophylactic.
There is a firewall is built in to the kernel in the form of iptables or nftables, and there are some GUI programs for adjusting them. Again, a firewall isn’t typically necessary unless you are running servers which listen for incoming connections. Typically, having your computer behind a router is sufficient. Unless your router is configured to forward incoming connections to your computer, those packets will be dropped there. Firewalls are more useful as a redundant method of making sure something like a database server, which is also configured only to accept connections from local processes, doesn’t accidentally get misconfigured and accept connections from the open Internet.
I hear that ‘open source’ means people can check the code but how do I know if someone has checked the code—I wouldn’t know what to look for myself.
This is a valid critique. There certainly have been times where this assumption has turned out poorly. Still, it is a better situation than completely unverifiable proprietary software. At the very least, contributors to the individual pieces of software are looking at it, as well as the distributors which need to build and package it. There are a few layers of review taking place, even if they don’t quite reach the level of a full audit.
TL;DR: If you are just using your computer for casual web browsing and shit, try out Fedora or Ubuntu. The installation media boots to a functioning desktop, and you can try things out and see if they work before committing to installing (this is not true for all distributions though).
Tl;dr: when you get into it, you will change distros like you change clothes, so it doesn’t really matter.
Theres no much to go wrong by picking popular choices (Ubuntu) and figuring out how to change it later.
I was going to continue, but I explicitly wanted to write the shortest post in the thread.
Thanks for this reply. With this and others’ comments, I’m much less concerned about security now. I was previously under the impression that Linux was a lot more bare bones and a lot less ‘finished’ than it is. That’s a lifetime of Apple and Microsoft marketing propaganda for you.
linux mint is a good choice for beginners…it’s pretty compatible with everything windows is, later you can “distrohop” to find something more to your personality
