Switching from Windows to Linux Mint
- Thread starter Noip
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Learn to use the terminal. Seriously.
Note that I am not saying that you must use the terminal for everything and GUIs are bad, I mostly ignore the terminal myself in Mint but still learning how to use it and basic commands is a good skill to have for those instances where you have to use it.
Depending on what you used Windows for, expect to have to find alternative programs for what you ran on Windows.
Note that I am not saying that you must use the terminal for everything and GUIs are bad, I mostly ignore the terminal myself in Mint but still learning how to use it and basic commands is a good skill to have for those instances where you have to use it.
Depending on what you used Windows for, expect to have to find alternative programs for what you ran on Windows.
From my experience... Expect little to no help. They will give you a huge ass command to type in terminal, not tell you what the command actually does, or why you are doing it.... just that you should kneel at the alter of Linux.
I feel like I've learned more from old Xenix manuals than from modern Linux resources. The information isn't completely applicable to Linux but at least those old manuals have a Chapter 1. Nobody wants to write Chapter 1 anymore, but new users do actually need it.
I didn't recall having too bad a time back when I fiddled with Red Hat (pre-Fedora) Linux in college. But that was with a dedicated book, and its been a hot couple decades (with a half dozen medical issues and a couple brushes with death) since I messed with Linux so I'm pretty much starting over at this point. I think part of the issue is that it IS hard to write a "Chapter 1" without some context of where your audience is coming from. Are they from Windows? Mac? Smartphone? There's enough variation that I think most resources assume a higher level of technical expertise based simply on the act of seeking out a "non-mainstream" OS alternative.
Which wouldn't be a problem except you got a half dozen "permutations" of Linux, each with their own quirks and eccentricities and capability concerns and design focus. That's why Linux will NEVER get mainstream until somebody "standardizes" the experience...which is kind of counter to the perceived appeal to the OS to begin with.
That's why I was looking at a Raspberry Pi 500 starter kit, it comes with all the pieces as well as documentation. For its faults, the Pi is pretty much the only "vertically structured" Linux entry point out there. I'm on an M-series Macbook Pro as a primary device, with Windows as secondary/gaming thing on another laptop which is only a year old. The Windows 10 issue is not a concern for me, but I'm still looking into Linux to "cast off" the increasingly draconian policies Apple and Microsoft are becoming cozy to. I lose out on some gaming, but Valve has made AMAZING progress on its translation layer, and besides...I'm a Mac guy
Plus, I got a Switch and PS5, I got more gaming than I could probably ever get around to playing.
I bet that Red Hat manual was a behemoth, if they're anything like IBM proper.