For a few months i was thinking to give myself a challenge with installing and dual-booting Linux from dedicated drive. And i was wondering which Linux distro would be right for me. So for a while i was looking at Linux Mint (which is a Ubuntu based distro). But right these days, when i was watching some videos on YouTube (how and what drivers to install, mostly advance power user stuff) and there is a distro which was popping in these videos and that is Linux Manjaro (an Arch based Linux).
And now i am wondering which one should i install, Minx or Manjaro (ofc i can change distros since i will not go with full migration from Win).
I kinda want to go away from Windows because i don't like what are they doing but there are games/software that they will not work on Linux (and i don't like using alternatives like Gimp or InkScape). The big problem will be Skype since my friends won't go to Discord.
What is your motivation in using linux? If gaming is a primary use case, I'd say steer clear barring your library being very narrow and e-sportsy.
If you aren't (very) dissatisfied with windows, and you aren't doing development, there isn't a lot of reason to switch outside of as a time-sink/hobby.
Both of these are terrible for beginners. I'll let others make better recommendations
Expect things to break, badly and often. You pretty much need a VM to hit a wide range of things, which defeats the purpose of dual booting.
Drivers are built in for the most part, the only thing that gets hairy (on some distros) is GPU stuff.
Best advice I can give you is:
Read (and re-read) your chosen distro's documentation, make a forum account on their site.
Know from the start that things will not function like windows, and aren't meant to.
There's a bunch of stuff you can only do on unix-like systems, but it's a venn diagram, not a concentric circle. There's no way to have it all in one OS without sacrifices.
It's going to be a time-sink. If you're not willing to spend a lot of time re-learning how to use your computer, don't bother.
My motivation is to try Linux for real without VMing. VM, for me, is bad because most of things won't work correctly because hardware emulation is bad in both VMPlayer as in VirtualBox (i was doing some VM for resting).
Minx ... i meant Mint.
All of those suggestions are good. I will read distros documentations. And yea i expect to be a huge time sink to learn everything. To learn new thing is also part of my motivation.
I meant having windows in a virtual machine for use with windows software, not linux in a VM. There are ways to make performance on VMs in linux near-native.
Wine is pretty Busted. A Virtual machine is often a better solution if you can't go without windows software.
I figured as much. Suggestion that you use something else stands.
Manjaro XFCE is running very solid for me on two machines. I had problems with the KDE version.
Mint is popular but I didn't like it that much.
When going for it, I would disconnect every drive that holds any data you don't want to destroy. Treat this like a lab experiment: you have no clue what will happen and you want to be free to try anything. Don't "try to be careful" but make it impossible to fuck yourself. Shit will explode!
I use Resolve and Natron, so my workflow just so happens to work on linux, but I use a windows VM for other things. Things that would never work in WINE.
I may have come off as harsh or negative, but I think that threads like this often lack level-headed perspective. People are less likely to drop linux forever if they go in with realistic expectations.
Although many would/will disagree, but starting out with an Arch-based distro is not something I would advice. Start with something like Mint or perhaps even Elementary. Yes, Manjaro makes installing (and using) Arch somewhat easier (although not according to the 'Arch way' as purist would tell you), but it will break sooner or later. Yes, you would learn a great deal from this, but could just as easily turn you 'off' LInux, or *nix in general. I've been using *nix for over 30 years and Linux/BSD around 20 and Arch(based), though it has many advantages, is just not worth the hassle. Start with something that 'just works' and stick with it for a while. It may not be as bleeding edge as Arch/Manjaro, but it will be a lot more stable. When you have enough experience (and still like a *nix based system), then try Arch(based) or even the real grownup version of Linux, Gentoo In case of the latter, you could also try Calculate, Gentoo based, with lots more stuff in binary format, but for stuff you want/need, you can do it the 'Gentoo way'. But also this is not really for a beginner.
Many suggestions here, thank you very much. I probably will stay with my original plan, installing Mint distro.
Thanks for that suggestions. I read some comments that people lost their data when installing Linux but that was on partitioned drive. I already make a backup image and dvd to avoid those problems.
Oh ok, i thought that WINE was good enough for most of the time.
Well, i do have expectations that a lot of things will not work at all that there might be a lot of frustrations and that is why my Linux experiment should take easy.
That will depend of my experience that i will get dealing with Linux.
I'm going to say mint for the sheer fact that it's Ubuntu based which means if you get stuck trying to get something to work you'll have all of the helpful tutorials that people make for Ubuntu to come to your rescue. Not that Manjaro doesn't have the same thing but with the size of Ubuntu and mints userbase, there's just more out there.
That, and if he wanted an arch based distro, Antergos is much more competently put together (and much more similar to an average user configured arch system)
if you game "hardcore", Linux is probably a shite choice. but if you're dead set on it, this video says pretty much what i've been saying for years. minus the FSF rhetoric.
some people believe the world is held up by elephants, some people believe using free software is the answer to life's woes. it's not for me to judge, doesn't mean i don't recognise the rhetoric.
In case of the latter, you could also try Calculate, Gentoo based, with lots more stuff in binary format, but for stuff you want/need, you can do it the 'Gentoo way'. But also this is not really for a beginner.