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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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Which distro is the right one for me? (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey guys, I'm an entry-level IT professional and tech enthusiast.

I'm getting a bit sick of windows for a multitude of reasons and want to try out some Linux distros.

I use my pc for web browsing, university (which uses office 365) where I study software design, software development (vs code, visual studio, jetbrains stuff) and gaming (99% of the time via steam).

My main concerns for switching are that I'll have a hard time with university work because we mostly use teams for video conferences and work together with word, and other office stuff. We also are required to do some virtual machine stuff where we use virtualbox.

Also I'm a bit worried that some games on uplay, epic and other platforms aren't available anymore.

For distros I've been mainly looking at Manjaro, Linux Mint or plain old Ubuntu. Can you recommend anything that might fit for me or will I maybe run into any issues with my chosen three?

Edit: Thanks a lot for all the replies. I've read through all of them even if I didn't reply and it was very helpful. I will test most of your suggestions in a VM before I jump into completely changing my OS. And I'll probably try booting from a USB Drive first. What I didn't mention is that I've already worked with Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS, so I'm not scared about having to use a CLI.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Consider using the old VM switcheroo. On windows. try some distros out in VMs (I vote Fedora, perhaps KDE spin to ease transition, which gets you ready for RHEL, an enterprise standard server distro). Once you find what you like, get it set up and live in it as much as possible and isolate what you need WinBlows for, e.g. Visual Studio. When you're ready, install your distro on the metal and spin up a win VM for the stuff you need.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I disagree, playing around in VMs is not giving you much experience. Rather boot from livemedia and play around with the different preshipped DEs/WMs. After you know which desktop environment is to your liking, you are free to chose whatever distro you want. The only real important part of a distro is its packet manager and documentation. Everything else can be exchanged.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, live media is an worthy option, and more realistic, and one should have one on the keychain ideally (OP look Ventoy), but it's bog slow and not everyone has multiple machines to learn on...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Why would livemedia be slower than virtualbox? Just get a proper stick and its probably even faster.