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new_to_linux

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New to Linux!

So you're wondering if you might want to start using Linux?

What can it do, how is it different from Operating Systems, how do you go about trying it, what are distributions?

Personally, I almost always recommend that folks start with Linux Mint. It's a little older and more stable than some other distributions, but it supports a huge amount of hardware from the initial install, and has a good support community as well.

You can try to learn Linux from a Windows machine, but it's a lot simpler to get an old laptop, or a desktop PC, and load Mint or Fedora. Use it for a few months, or from then on. With the exception of some games, I haven't found much that I can't do with an old machine and a fast OS.

One thing I strongly recommend, immediately after install of any distribution, install etckeeper, git, and tig;

In the lines below, the curly-braces {} mean you have a choice, use one of the commands in the braces, depending on what distribution you pick.

sudo {dnf apt} install etckeeper git tig 
# In the case of Debian/Mint/Ubuntu, you're good, go ahead and run updates

# For Red Hat/Rocky/Alma and similar, you need to;
cd /etc/  ;  sudo etckeeper init  ;  sudo etckeeper commit "Fresh Install"

sudo {dnf apt} update && sudo {dnf apt} upgrade

# Then, to see what etckeeper does;
cd /etc/  ;  sudo tig

https://www.tecmint.com/tig-a-commandline-browser-for-git-repositories/

Learn how to use rsync to keep a backup of your personal files, and write scripts with the intention of being used on different distributions.

Don't fear breaking things, the chances of damaging hardware are slim, and you can almost always recover a Linux machine, but, heed the advice above, learn how to use rsync and backup yout home (~) directory.

Until you have some idea what you're doing, don't play with files out-side of your home folder. There are folks that will tell you about the cool things that happen when you run 'sudo rm -rf /', but they lie.

new_to_linux.1782410707.txt.gz · Last modified: by steve