Looking to get into linux?

So for the past few years I’ve been looking to get into linux. The version I’m looking to get is based off debain. What do I need to know before starting this? I’m planning on running it on a dell precision m4500 laptop with a quad core i7 and 16gb of ram with a 256gb ssd.

The only problem is I don’t know sh** about it. It will be used for web browsing and learning for the most part.

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Looking to get into linux?

ohh that’s like everyone’s wet dream here on the forum.

Since you’re brand new I’d reccomend giving Pop!_OS a try.

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To start? Read some documentation and learn terms before you really install anything. Learn about Bash, how drivers work, systemd vs openrc, vi vs emacs vs nano and why nano is actually modern, learn about DE’s (and especially right now wayland and X11), and then if you have anything fuck up and go wrong in the process of doing shit you’ll be familiar enough with the tools in whatever OS you’re using that you can easily get help on IRC or on here when you need it. You’ll also learn some of the bugs and problems you could possibly run in to if something breaks. I recommend the archwiki to learn all of this stuff.

Then, yeah I agree with @Dynamic_Gravity, POP_OS is A grade material. I can also recommend base Ubuntu 17.10 as it has some very similar stuff in it.

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Just remember, Linux is not Windows. Linux is nothing like Windows and what works in for Windows may not work for Linux. Get used to doing things differently, it WILL take a while but you’ll get the hang of it eventually.

If you have problems, ask someone. What you don’t want to is give up and switch back to Windows because you can’t figure out how to do something.

You WILL break things if you play around with it and that’s OK because then you’ll learn how to fix it.

Good luck and have fun!

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Debian is a good choice in general, but Ubuntu is probably the most tested from a userbase perspective. Usually I’d recommend Ubuntu for a first linux, but until the next LTS release, we’re kind-of in limbo.

Sounds like a good system. The one thing I’d recommend is do you early Linux tinkering on a separate system (or even a VM) so that you have your ‘main’ computer to fall back on.

if I have said it once I have said it a million times. if you want to learn linux Slackware is the way to go. if you just want to install linux… then it really doesn’t matter what distro. I have been using Slackware off and on for a while now… and I still have lots to learn.

You trollin’, next you will suggest gentoo.

Nah man, never tried gentoo. I started on slackware when it was 7.1 , tried some red hat and mandrake back then… didn’t really much care for them much. I used turbo linux for a short while, it was fast. Went back to Slackware. Oh yeah i tried Slamd64 for quite a while too. it was pretty nice.

OP could just use Debian. It is the base for Ubuntu and has less of the “Ubuntu Quirks”. Plus Debian is the universal OS and has a larger user base.

My recommendation is, if you want to install and use Gnu/Linux, then look at Deb, RPM, or SuSe based distros. If you want to learn Gnu/Linux, the slack, gentoo, or arch based distros are the way to go.

I personally use Debian unstable as my Daily, and Arch for bleeding edge gaming and testing.

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Well I got it installed it took a few min to figure a way around it not wanting to detect the usb, but i got it figured out. I also had to figure out how to install wifi and sound drivers, it didn’t take long. I’m still hammering along.

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which did you install? It sounds like you are getting you way along quite well.