Linux 101:
- Part 1 – (this article) Why you should switch to Linux.
- Part 2 – [Guide] Switching from Windows to Linux.
20 Reasons for “Why I moved to Linux?”
- Free as in no cost, most programs are also no cost.
- Free as in freedom
- No ads. Operating Systems should never, ever have ads
- More privacy-conscious. Windows unashamedly doesn’t care about your privacy
- More secure because you have more control over every part of the OS
- Infinitely customizable
- Multiple flavors of Linux means there’s a distro for everyone to enjoy:
- Debian-based (Debian, Ubuntu, MX Linux, Deepin, Sparky Linux)
- Ubuntu-based (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, elementary OS, KDE Neon, Zorin OS)
- Arch-based (Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Artix)
- Red Hat-based (RHEL, CentOS)
- Their own flavor (Fedora, Solus, openSUSE, Slackware, Void, Gentoo, Mageia, NixOS, React OS)
- Not actually Linux but are still Unix-based (Linux is based on Unix as well): FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD
- Here’s a Timeline of Linux distros and where they came from: Linux Distro Timeline
- It’s not as hard as you think to understand Linux or the terminal (command line interface)
- You don’t need the terminal anymore, but believe it or not, it’s easier, faster, and more powerful than using the GUI (like cmd or PowerShell for Windows)
- You don’t really need anti-virus/anti-malware, although they do exist for Linux like ClamAV (ClamTK is the GUI version)
- It runs really fast on it’s own, but especially older hardware
- Linux runs on anything – x86, ARM (Chromebooks, phones, raspberry pi), embedded SoC, PowerPC, RISC. Have you heard of that “Doom can run on anything” meme? It’s because it was coded for running on Linux, and Linux can run on nearly everything. Doom can run on:
- Printers
- graphing calculators
- ultrasound machines
- ATMs
- Apple watch
- tiny displays on keyboards & digital cameras
- infotainment displays in cars
- electronic pregnancy tests
- Most drivers are already a part of the Linux kernel, unlike windows. Remember running on older hardware? Linux has old drivers built into it’s kernel. Newer kernels only run on 64-bit machines, but older Linux Live CDs still exist for 32-bit architectures. As an example, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS was the last Ubuntu distro to still include the 32-bit libraries, but their “old releases” repository still includes older versions. My favorite old version is Ubuntu 10.04.4 – it runs on everything!
- Linux includes a central software center to find all the apps you want. Different distros call these different things, Arch also uses the Arch User Repository (AUR) which is a community-driven software repo that has (as of this writing) more than 66,000 packages available!
- Updates don’t brick your computer, delete files, interrupt your work, or force you to restart and update before you can use it. Most updates take less than a minute and it does so in the background; You can choose to reboot whenever you want to. On top of that, it updates all your apps too in one go, again, usually in less than a minute. As an example, I get these cyber bulletins from work that contains a bunch of different articles. Over the last 3 years, “Windows update does something bad” has become the bulk of those articles. Here’s the commands to update/upgrade your Linux distros:
- Debian/Ubuntu-based: sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade && sudo apt -y autoremove
- Arch-based: sudo pacman -Syy && yes | sudo pacman -Syu
- Note: People won’t like the “yes” command piped into pacman. I get that, but my last two system updates has had problems with updating GPG keys where it would never accept ‘yes’ in any form (‘y’, ‘Y’, ‘yes’, ‘YES’, etc…) in order to download the new author’s GPG keys. Instead, it just repeats “do you want to download XXXXXX GPG key?” ad-nauseam. This hangs the update procedure and if you exit (CTRL-C), you will then have half a kernel installed. This is solely a workaround for new Linux users to not deal with a one-off bug. Dont @ me.
- If you really want to, you don’t have to update anything at all. You can keep everything the same forever. Why would this be a good thing? An example would be for standalone machines that do not connect to the internet and therefore do not require updates or security patches. Another example would be creating images for hard-drive recovery or custom Linux Live CDs that can be rapidly deployed if needed.
- Linux has a big community to help you out! Regardless of the forum, Linux gurus love to help newbies.
- Open-Source Kernel/Distros, as in, anyone can view the source code. With a bunch of eyes looking at the code, there’s less chances for bugs, vulnerabilities, or malware.
- Linux leaves you alone. Remember Navi from Ocarina of Time? Yeah that’s Windows.
- “Are you sure you want to do that?”
- “Hi, I’ve noticed you’re using Chrome/Firefox, would you like to use Edge?”
- “You should really get a Microsoft account”
- “We think you’re missing important updates”
- “Windows Defender is turned off and another AV is installed, but Defender is a better AV”
- As a poweruser and Windows sysadmin, I got really, really, really tired of Window’s garbage. I really liked Windows 95, 98 SE, XP, & 7, and Microsoft was going to make a Windows 9 that was just like Windows 7 but with current updates. They instead moved to a “Windows on everything” model and created Windows 10 instead. Windows 10 is a “jack of all trades but master of none”. Yes, it’s on phones, tablets, desktops, laptops, etc… but it is horrible at all of those things. They decided ads needed to be put on an OS, an always-connected “voice assistant” that’s always listening, updates that have bricked a large amount of computers running Win10, removing programs remotely from the OS just because Microsoft wants to (mspaint, snipping tool, IE for older program compatibility), moving all system settings from a well-known comprehensive list to random places in the OS (some of which are hidden), the list goes on…. The other 19 reasons focused on the greatness that is Linux compared to Windows, while #20 is just focused on Windows-specific problems. Ultimately, there are too many problems with Win10 to even list in this blog, so I’m not going to attempt it on here. Long story short, I got fed up and left Windows in about 2015 and I have never regretted it or looked back.
A quick rant & apps on Linux:
If you ever choose to move to Linux you’ll inevitably hear the phrase: “No one develops for Linux” or similar, but it’s a Catch-22. Developers know that there’s more market share for Windows and MacOS, and the oft-quoted “Only 1% of users use Linux” (which isn’t true btw) is generally thrown around. The problem is that many developers don’t develop for Linux, which in turn means some users can’t fully switch to Linux (or just don’t switch at all), which funnels into that “no one uses Linux” argument from before, which “justifies” the statement that “no one uses Linux”. The truth is, many, many people have switched over to a full Linux system and others switched to dual-booting. Windows 10 has certainly helped the switch, and I’m grateful that people are wising-up to its plethora of issues.
The good news is that there are TONS of programs available on Linux which have counterparts to Windows/MacOS. I’ll list some below:
Windows/MacOS App | Linux App |
---|---|
Photoshop | GIMP |
MS Paint | Kolourpaint |
MS Office Suite | LibreOffice |
Windows Live Movie Maker | OpenShot |
Adobe Illustrator | Inkscape |
SmartFTP | Filezilla |
Windows Firewall | gufw |
Notepad++ | Notepadqq |
CCleaner | BleachBit |
VLC |
OBS |
Steam |
Discord |
Kodi |
Plex |
Blender |
Handbrake |
Virtualbox |
Dropbox |
Google Drive |
MEGA |
Skype |
Audacity |
Which distro should I pick?
That’s a difficult question. Everyone (generally) starts out on Ubuntu and then moves to another distro from there. I moved from Ubuntu to Linux Mint, to Xubuntu for a few years, messed with a few others, but then onto EndeavourOS where I’m very happy to stay. If you’re a Linux gamer, or just want to tinker with the OS, then I’d suggest the following distros below. Each category is in the order of my preference for new Linux users:
- Rolling-release schedule (bleeding-edge drivers, patches, updates, etc):
- Manjaro
- EndeavourOS
- Fedora
- Traditional release schedule (drivers, patches, non-security updates per release cycle = every 6 months):
- Pop!_OS
- Ubuntu (or derivative – Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu)
- KDE Neon
- Linux Mint (it’s lowest on this list as I’ve seen dumb errors/glitches/programs not working correctly on Mint whereas on Ubuntu [that Mint is based off on] worked fine. YMMV).
These recommendations were based on my own observations/experiences over the last 3+ years, plus multiple surveys that I conducted, and the Steam HW/SW Survey.
Results from my latest Linux Gaming survey (June 2020), 2792 sample size
- 23% Arch (I don’t recommend for newbies!)
- 20% Manjaro
- 15% Pop!_OS
- 14% Ubuntu
Results from the latest (Nov 2020) Steam HW/SW Survey (This link chooses “Linux Only” as the OS of choice):
- 29.64% Ubuntu
- 12.29% Manjaro
- 11.11% Arch
- 06.71% Linux Mint
- 40.24% “Other” Linux (“junk drawer” category w/ no understanding of Steam’s metrics)
- Pop!_OS ?
- EndeavourOS ?
- Fedora ?
- openSUSE ?
- Debian ?
- MX Linux ?
- Slackware ?
- Gentoo ?
Ways to game on Linux:
- Steam’s SteamPlay/Proton is based on Wine
- protonDB.com → to see how your game runs on Proton
- Proton’s Github page to submit any issues you have
- PlayonLinux is based on wine
- Lutris which is like a front-end manager to run games
- GOG, Steam, Battle.net, Origin, Uplay, etc…
Where to find help for Linux or for gaming on Linux:
- Linux4Noobs Subreddit
- Linux Questions Subreddit
- Linux Gaming Subreddit
- Linux Masterrace Subreddit
- Each distro has their own forums for questions:
- Ubuntu Forums & Ask Ubuntu
- Linux Mint Forums
- Arch Wiki (always check here first!) & Arch Forums
- Manjaro Forums
- EndeavourOS Forums
- Pop!_OS Support
- Fedora Forums
- Unix & Linux Stackexchange
- Gaming on Linux Wiki
Conclusion:
I hope this article helped explain why you should try out Linux and see if you love it just as much as we do.
Thanks,
– Ben
<Original work by BenBRockN. Feel free to reblog, ONLY if you give credit to the original author (me). Thanks!>