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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Just go ahead and try. You don't really need our permission to do that. Most distros support "live install" direct from the installation media, without making changes to your system. If you don't like it, reboot and you're back to whatever you had before
Have fun!
And to answer your double negation questions, yes and yes.
Linux users would post their problems on various forums, but very rarely post their success story. Linux desktop is actually pretty good at this point. Just pick a distro and try it yourself.
Hehe, you got your answer. You're lokking at the places where 0.05% of the users are discussing their problems and some others share their crazy customizations that aren't possible with anything else. And it seems like 95% of users having issues to you.
I'd argue Linux is way more stable than Windows. If that's your perspective. (Unless you do silly stuff.) But less stable than for example MacOS. It depends on which Linux Distro we're talking about. I'd say it's MacOS > Linux > Windows. With the biggest step down from Linux to Windows.
MacOS > Linux ?
Honestly I'm not too sure, some distros (like debian) are much more stable IMO. We also have immutables distros which are more annoying to work with but hey let's compare apples to apples here.
You're right. It's an oversimplification I made there. I recently tried MacOS in a VM and I talked a bit to people. You usually get a really smooth desktop experience. Apps are sandboxed, there is a fine permission system, they keep their stuff together and don't spread them across the filesystem. I think(?) the software brings their libraries along? Usually a used Macbook Pro is still fine and runs fast after 6 years. I think MacOS really shines on the desktop.
On Linux it's a bit more diverse. I mean we have the XDG specification file locations. But there's also lots of 'grown' stuff. We're still working on the sandboxing. And you get a different experience depending on the distro you're trying. And I'd prefer Linux on a server every time. It really excels for that use case and on the server we have Linux > everything else. And as a matter of fact I personally also prefer Linux on the desktop. And my Debian is also still running perfectly 6 years after I initially installed it. Had some minor issues with NVidia during the times, but that's to be expected and it wasn't that hard to fix. I wouldn't have had issues had I not mixed in testing and unstable, but there are lots of guides and tutorials around for the common woes. Which makes my argument a full circle.
Been using fedora for a few years now and the most recent issue I had was it wouldn't update because of Google Chrome for some reason. Uninstalled that and it works just fine
Car enthusiasts spend a lot more time under the hood than normal drivers. You'll find a similar effect here.
Install something like Linux Mint, maybe chase down a few quirks with your particular hardware (for instance, I installed a surround sound system with a fairly hot amplifier, so every time the motherboard turns the sound chip on and off there's a loud pop, so I had to change a couple settings in some config files from 1 to 0 and Y to N, and it's been fine ever since) and you're pretty much golden until you decide to start messing with something.
There are extremely stable Linux distros, there are Linux distros that aren't so stable, but come with newer packages. Which one you choose depends on what you want.
Not using Windows except for work, I use Linux mostly because of Microsoft's design decisions. I guess depending on your use case, Windows can be a perfectly fine OS. Personally, I think their behavior is unprofessional (trying to force Microsoft accounts on users, ads in the start menu, integration of AI into the system which means transmitting data to their servers etc) so I'm willing to accept tradeoffs for systems which do not come with these downsides.
In the end, OSs are inherently complex.
There are a lot of help posts on the MS and other windows forums too. Computers and OSes will always have issues because of complexity and incompatibilities between hardware and software. No matter if you install Windows, Linux, or MacOS. The machines that are least buggy because each manufacturer is doing extensive tests, are the mobile OSes, iOS and (most) Android. It's not as possible to do the same on a desktop OS. So cut your losses, and install Linux Mint, which is I believe it's the best for newbies.
Yes, it is stable.
Linux Mint (I'd recomment Debian edition, LMDE) is basically what you want to try out. I've set up a PC with it for my stepfather that hasn't used Linux at all and he's happy with it. It's designed to be as newbie-friendly as possible. You won't have more issues with it than you'll already have using Windows.
Then if you feel unsatisfied with anything about it, you can go looking for other linux distributions (distros) because you have a general idea what's happening.
You won't have more issues with it than you'll already have using Windows.
You absolutely will, and the ones you get will be harder to solve. It's far more useable than it used to be, but the overall experience with Windows is still easier.
BUT it probably is quite usable for you overall. Just don't go into it expecting nothing but smooth sailing.
IMO and maybe a wrong one, issues tend to happen for four reasons:
I'll say that the third one is very rarely occurring in Mint, and I wouldn't say it's not happening in Windows.
The first one is in my experience the most common, though less frequent than it was some time ago.
The last one is the reason you see many posts around here :)
Depends on what you want to do. For most general uses, Linux is stable af.
Unlike Windows, Linux doesn't really try to stop you from doing much when it comes to customization, scripting and tinkering, the only limitations are your abilities and how well you can find proper information on the internet. The more exotic sort of thing you try to do the more likely you may inadvertently break something. That said, have fun with it, try the live distro, then dual booting first, and if you do break something you can easily reinstall, until you're ready to move fully.
The thing is that people use Linux and than find it so good that they try to find problems in order to spend time playing with it. It's like a hobby, or a game... But you can also use it without making it a hobby. Ubuntu was born for this, but for that I would honestly suggest something like Manjaro
Unless you have very niche needs or choose to tinker, everything just works.
There's a common joke that it's not linux, it's gnu linux and this is followed by a long copy pasta about how linux is only the kernel which is the code that handles managing how your machine is used
In this case this is important, linux can be a stable os (notible examples include android os, linux mint, debian stable, as well as the server distributions) these generally update slower in order to make sure bugs get squashed. On the other hand there are linux operating systems that are difficult to use for a beginner such as arch, void, and gentoo. There are also distrobutions that have a bad habit of breaking manjaro, gentoo, come to mind. If you want a linux experience that is set it up once and have no more problems than anyone might expect to have on windows you can do that (sometimes you'll run into a situation where you have a device that doesn't play well with linux like an algato streamdeck or a device that doesn't have a driver yet like my sister's laptop webcam (thanks acer much appreciated) but in general you can have a stable easy experience as long as you aren't trying to do anything crazy
Here's my recommendation, make a linux mint thumbdrive boot off it, play around with it, and test varius hardware you have (ie bluetooth, webcam, that one usb dingle doop that no one else has but you use every day). Maybe don't install it (or do chances are it'll be just fine) but boot off it often, and once you've learnt the os pretty well, back up everything you care about and install linux mint
As an, aside i love your username, very clever
You absolutely can. I set up my Debian server to automatically stay updated and restart regularly and don't have to touch it if I don't want to. Yesterday, air had to spend like 30 min getting kde 6 setup on tumbleweed because it's a roll in ng distro. The nice thing about linux is it allows you to make trade offs depending on what your priorities are.
Linux has different flavors, some with bleeding edge updates like Arch, some rock-stable and built on FOSS like Debian, some that force you to compile nearly everything on your end to save fractions of seconds in compute time like Gentoo, and some meant to be as beginner friendly as possible like Cinammon/Mint.
Linux "fans" are likely to use something like Arch and break something, then fix it. People who use Linux will use Fedora or something and call it a day. You don't have to go down the rabbit hole and play with all of the shiny new tools as they release.
The biggest issues I've had were either because of hardware (native drivers not supported by manufacturer) or because I was manually editing config files.
Yeah it's stable, as long as you aren't messing with the core of things you'll be good. Gaming isn't the worst on most systems but it can still be a challenge. And if you have a laptop trying to set up your GPU so it won't destroy your battery can be a challenge. Those are really your only pitfalls though. If you just want to install it browse the Internet, code, do office stuff it will work perfectly. If you start trying to do anything too fancy there is a possibility of running into unstableness from misconfiguration
Until one of the RAM sticks went bad, my parents, who are in their 60s ran Ubuntu Linux for years without an issue. I set it up in 2016, as a dual boot with Windows. They almost never booted into Windows, and told me they preferred Linux.
From my experience having used Linux for years: Here is the full list of problems I encountered that I'd say are not the result of me tinkering:
Those are fairly common issues afaik, and they are caused by using a slightly more complex setup (dual-booting Windows, extra repos in the package manager) and notoriously troublesome Nvidia hardware. For all but the last there is a one-line command you can run to fix it, and it took maybe 2 min to find it on my phone.
Apart from these issues it's been rock solid, so I'd say you're good as long as you avoid those known causes for problems (No Nvidia, no Windows, no extra repos), or you are able to find solutions to the most common problems and run simple commands on the terminal.
Most problems I run into with Linux are caused by me doing weird things. Linux doesn’t prevent you from messing with things you don’t understand but if you just want to use it as a standard desktop then you shouldn’t have many issues aside from finding replacement applications for things you are used to using.
If you decide to start tinkering, just keep a backup of your home directory since it contains all your settings and files.
Look, programs always have issues, always have bugs. The best model on linux dostro is "rolling release", which is explicit about constantly fixing the issues.