That excitement is real π Switching can be refreshing, but I always tell people to try it on a spare drive first. The best OS is the one that actually fits your workflow.
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
1414 points (98.8% liked)
linuxmemes
30052 readers
2374 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Switched to linux this year and I would NEVER go back to windows.
Me when my friend started talking about how he wanted to buy a steam machine as his first entry into pc gaming, and considered installing linux on his laptop cause windows ran like ass on it.
sauce
I don't know the context of the pic, but that's Elizabeth Olsen.
That picture is so unsettling and idk why
Mouth to face ratio, and eye to face ratio. It hits a kind of uncanny valley
Because it is a perfect 50% cute and 50% scary af
That's an analog horror face without the filter
Because you never had someone look at you like that IRL.
Are they sitting on the loo??
that particular combination of face expression and the top-down yellow lighting being the first thing I see when I open lemmy, I got jumpscared.
I got something else. It seems that psychotic looking conventionally attractive women are my thing.
I can fix her.
Me after years in IT and decades of Linux:
If you need help, bother somebody else
I use Mac btw (more to the point, I use whatever you do not use).
I mentioned to my dad how much windows 11 sucks to use and he agreed that he can't stand it
So naturally, I told him about Linux, which he literally had never heard of before. I told him I'll show him how to restore one of his old laptops with it, and he can go from there. Knowing him, I can't wait to see "how cool" he thinks it is that he can just "fix" his own computer
And I've already converted my wife, instead of buying a new MacBook cause hers is showing it's age. She keeps her Mac for backup, but the main computer is Linux Mint. She's even started to understand the terminal a little, even though she doesn't really have to
Slowly converting family and friends, simply because computers are expensive and windows sucks so hard now
You're doing the Lord's work. And by "the Lord" I mean Tux the penguin.
Blessed be His webby feet and adorable flippers.
Is there a program or way to check what parts are covered by Linux? I have an old laptop I want to try Linux on beforehand.
For some hardware you might have to install drivers or firmware yourself. Not all are included in all Linux distributions for complex reason.
As another person had suggested, test with a live image first before installing it to an SSD/HDD, however Linux is very well maintained by the community and even if there arenβt native drivers from your hardwares manufacturer, for example Corsair Keyboard Drivers, there usually is Open Sourced alternatives for these things like CKB-Next.
I say this to everyone, once you get a grasp on BASH (Bourne Again Shell) and package managers & repositories (edit: and the filesystem structure) youβll essentially be able to use any Linux distro, it just comes down to the nitty gritty of things.
edit: and the filesystem structure
This is what I've definitely struggled the most with mint so far. It's extremely difficult to find anything and I've needed to manually search for the file paths multiple times already, since I always manage to do something I need them for, and I haven't gotten locate to work etc... Though this is probably just me being stoopid since I never find anything on windows either lmao
I'd say that downloading drivers from the manufacturer is the absolute outlier and things working better with integrated open source drivers out of the box is the norm.
Try before you ~~buy~~ download proprietary cruft.
Yes. In general - it's called live cd. Some distros ship with that in their installed image. {K,X,}ubuntu come to mind. Mint might do as well. You can boot into it and look around, see if basic stuff - network, audio, etc - works.
And you can do this with a USB, it doesn't need to be a CD/DVD.
Internally: "YESYESYESYESYESYESYES"
Externally: "Cool, let me know if you need any help"
"my friend recommended I use Ubuntu"
me (screaming internally, about canonical, about snaps, about bloat): "That... that's good. Good choice."
load more comments
(16 replies)
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Itβs gonna be so much fun! We can do each others hair and talk about our favourite distros!
load more comments
(5 replies)
If only there were a distro as lazy as using an Android device.
Every time I mention this, someone comes along and mentions one or another distro, and then the caveats that keep it from being as lazy as using an Android device.
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next βΊ