Linux

48397 readers

927 users here now

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.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

482

New to Linux? Ubuntu Isn’t Your Only Option (www.howtogeek.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

218 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ubuntu's popularity often makes it the default choice for new Linux users. But there are tons of other Linux operating systems that deserve your attention. As such, I've highlighted some Ubuntu alternatives so you can choose based on your needs and requirements—because conformity is boring.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

on a laptop with both the Ethernet and Wi-Fi unsupported

You're right, it didn't use to be beginner friendly. The installer has definitely gotten a lot better, and now they're offering non-free-firmware in it; that avoids that whole issue..

On top of which, it had an nVidia GPU

Nouveau comes packaged. Most people that ditch nouveau do so because it doesn't give them high performance metrics they expected out of their GPU, or it didn't support multimonitor, or played poorly with RDP or any other issue which goes outside of my "watch youtube on my laptop" use case. That is, once again, deviating outside of "average user" territory. If you had problems getting any display or DE to work, that's different, but you may find it sucks less now.

So, it’s beginner friendly as long as someone helps you out with the installation after checking up on all the stuff you will need to run.

Once again overestimating beginners. Any OS installation is inherently not beginner friendly, and requires helping them, regardless of Debian/Arch/Nix/windows/Big Sierra Lion Yosemite III, Esq. Jr. MD or whatever Apple's calling it nowadays.

I find Debians defaults during installation very beginner friendly, set and forget type stuff. It won't use the hardware to full potential, but that's up to advanced users to decided after they're comfortable with the training wheels.