This is for the One year of Linux badge.
TL;DR
Linux is ready for you, jump in, all you are doing is coping until your back breaks. Dont go crazy, KISS it. I would recommend Arch but any distro is ok. Do XFCE, light and minimal but familiar and will let you see the power of choice without overwhelming. I’m never going back, I already wiped my windows drive and have no access to it or osx.
I’ve used linux for a long time but more as a fun side thing rather than going all in. My dad went full time years ago as windows was to confusing and buggy for him (funny thats the cope many have for not switching.) I didn’t want to switch do to gaming, however after the windows 8 force updating… then the windows 8.1 force updating I was done with windows and started duel booting in 2014. Gaming still held me, and as time went on I found myself using windows more and more… and then it happened… windows 10 force updated, even though I clicked do not update I do not want it, and hide all my files. I had to call tech support and they fixed it but that was it. I removed all files other than gaming from windows and put them on my ubuntu and started searching the web for linux content.
I found this man and tried many arch easy button distros, finally landing on manjaro. Luke’s ideas on Linux and computers is what I wanted, his content was and is king to this day on Linux and how one can maximize their computing experience imo. I still went back and forth for school work, and even used chromeOS as the college way all in for google.
I was still all over and turning and burning distros having to go back to windows once and awhile. I decided to go back to manjaro and use Luke’s LARBS script and learned fully what fun and easy it can be truly without a mouse while doing my writing heavy courses. I made this post to lock myself in
I loved it for a time but I was finding that Larbs did limit me at times and I was just not in the right mindset to jump that deep. It was like learning 7 new things all at once and just being overwhelmed. Plus manjaro was getting bloated and weird, I wanted simple and less windows like when it comes to control and tracking.
I’m now on pure arch and xfce, arch imo is the beginners distro as you do have to learn some basics. Now with the built in installer is a no brainier. XFCE is nice as its pretty basic and you can make it look like anything. I just keep it stock.
I am still just going along, got so many things at work and hobbies that I haven’t come back to rice my stuff all the way. I want to do this over the next two years and document it as I know I will break a ton of stuff and need to redo it couple of times. But thats me, you can roll out XFCE and never break it by just using it as is. Hell same with Linux Mint or the other ready to go distros. I like to tinker, push it, and try random things.
Never going back, linux is king for now. As it grows and bloated with tracking or too much proprietary core functions, may have to find a new home. For now it worth the small learning curve.