this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Pro: You own your computer.
Con: You own your computer (and you have to work on maintaining it).
I'm mostly joking. Generally if you have a problem with Linux, you can get help on it. The myth that there are more Windows users, so therefore it's easier to get help with Windows is problematic for a few reasons. One, the number of Windows users who are actually passionate about it are comparable to the number of passionate Linux users, or Mac users. I'm not sure which one leads the others in power users who are happy to help, but I feel like it's Linux. Nobody has Linux because of the computer they bought (or, almost nobody). Windows and Mac have a lot of users who just use the computer they bought with the software that came with it. Virtually no one has Linux who didn't choose it, and they chose it for reason that are important to them, and it's in their best interests to help you learn it, too.
The other myth is the command line. Windows, Mac, and Linux all have a command line/terminal. It's not needed on any of them, but on all of them, there are a couple things you can do that are not easy to do in the GUI.
Honestly if you have Windows, get a live distro and run it. You can run it inside Windows. The performance won't be the same as running it on bare metal, but you can see how it handles your hardware. For most distros you shouldn't have a problem.
(Disclosure: I'm a happy Mac user. I've used Linux off and on (mostly off though) for over 20 years. My favourites have been Red Hat (when it was a home OS; it's called Fedora now) and Ubuntu. I prefer the GNOME interface. I'm comfortable with the command line. I understand that macOS is UNIX, and I also understand that it's not and why it's not.)