imo its not that hard, but if its your first time with linux i’d suggest starting with a linux mint/fedora vm or install it on a spare laptop if you have one. this way you could learn it a bit before making the switch
Most Linux distributions are free (free as in beer and free as in free speech and freedom to modify). Some are backed by big corporations with questionable activities (e.g., Ubuntu owned by Canonical adding ads and data tracking by default).
Federation is a different concept (relating to the interconnecting of content platforms, such as email or Lemmy).
Linux itself is the underlying kernel code which programs talk to act as a mediator between software and hardware. Each Linux distribution is basically a software suite built on-top.
Arch is specifically notable for having a very fast software update cycle.
In contrast, Debian is a distribution with the “slow and stable” mantra. Software officially supported and distributed for it only receives updates every few years after extensive stability testing. The goal is to never have a random update break anything. This also means it is slow to receive support for new hardware unless you manually install it. It often supports running newer software but it won’t be nicely managed by the OS and you’ll be doing manual work to maintain it. The consequence? I have a new graphics card, and booting into Debian just gives me a black screen. I needed to use the terminal to download and install Nvidia’s driver myself.
Arch isn’t so concerned with stability. It’s still tested, but their goal is to make sure new hardware and software advances can be used right away. Think weeks instead of years. This means it will support newer hardware and any news about Linux advancements will be on your machine before long. It also means that sometimes things slip through the cracks and one piece of software might break, or break another one. You might need to pay attention to Arch news before updating to see if there are any incompatibilities before updating.
There are different distributions building on top of these. Arch itself must be installed from scratch, a tricky process. Debian is more streamlined. Ubuntu is built on Debian, having lots of stability, but has alternative software repositories to keep things a bit more up to date. Arch has variations that make it easier to install.
Arch gives more flexibility in what you install and more control of your system. Debian has lots of flexibility as well. Ubuntu has a bit less. Mint is a popular choice, built on Ubuntu, and it removes some of the “chaff” people complain about being added into Ubuntu.
Linux distributions can run on basically anything. A smart toaster might run Linux. If it can run Windows, it will probably run a Linux distribution with a quarter of the memory usage at double the speed because Windows hogs resources with unnecessary and unkillable software in the background.
wdym by free and federated? i just use arch because i like it, but mint for say is also free. i personally have an ACER laptop running EndevourOS, but Tuxedo Computers is a German company that ships their machines with linux pre-installed
Is arch Linux now the “new” free/federated version?
Not sure to understand the question. There are many non-corporate owned distributions, starting with Debian, not just Arch.
And on what non-US laptop can I run it?
Any non-US laptop is supposed to run just fine. One needs to set the correct locale (generally it will be the first question asked by the install assistant: what country are you in and what keyboard layout do you want to use)?
I run Mint and prior to it I was running Debian (and prior to that it was Arch) on my French Azerty layout laptop without any issue (the same with the desktop and it’s azerty keyboard)
The only potential issue will be disk encryption at boot but I can say it works flawlessly with Mint (and did so with Debian too, as far as I can remember)
You could also start with a dual boot windows-linux, and then slowly slowly transition to Linux.
That’s how I started and I never booted windows after.
I don’t want to say it’s hard but it also feels disingenuous just simply calling it easy. honestly depends on the person and what they want to do with the computer
Installing it isn’t hard so long as you’re comfortable following some instructions to load a file onto a flash drive and hitting a couple buttons when your computer turns on
For usability, If you absolutely need specific programs that don’t work on Linux, like anything from Adobe, MS Office, CAD software, a lot of music production software, stuff like that, and an alternative just won’t work in your situation (such as if you need it for work) then unfortunately there’s not really a proper solution there. TONS of programs have a Linux equivalent that’s open source and free, many of them work fantastic, but also there’s many that aren’t ideal. For gaming though, it’s gotten REALLY good. With the exception of certain huge multiplayer games with anti-cheat, almost everything will just work if you use Steam, and most other things you can make work by adding them to Steam as a non-Steam game and clicking a couple buttons
As for cost? It costs no money but will cost you some time when you’re first setting it up and learning the ways it differs from Windows
If installing it doesn’t intimidate you and you don’t need any of the software that’s not supported, then it’s honestly not hard overall but there will be some adjustments
A bit off topic, but since you mentioned music production software I just wanted to quickly say I was surprised by how much easier it is to set up compared to Windows. Since Pipewire became a thing, it’s really dead simple. No need to mess around with ASIO, virtual cables, applications using an exclusive lock on interfaces, etc.
Ardour and REAPER are solid pieces of free (half-free for REAPER) software, and the commercial Bitwig (made by ex-Ableton staff) also has a native Linux build which works great.
That’s awesome to hear actually, I’m not as familiar with music production stuff and don’t have any personal experience with it on Linux, it’s just something I’d heard was an obstacle before
It’s crazy to me how much better and more viable Linux as a whole has been getting over the past several years
Bottles work for almost every windows application nowadays. You will notice a slight performance hit, but for most desktop software on a halfway decent rig that’s completely irrelevant!
That really depends on what you use your PC for. Are you deep into Microsoft Office suite? Do you play games such as PUBG, Battlefield 6 or other multiplayer games with a particular infringing anti-cheat? Maybe you use software from Adobe? Then no.
Otherwise, installing Linux is easy, if you know how to create a bootable USB-stick.
Usability is the same or better, but this is incredibly subjective. The plus is there is probably a solution specifically what you prefer. If you’re coming from Windows, KDE is probably the best starting point. “Desktop environment” is the key word of you want to see options.
Features are a bit more “it depends”, generally more user friendly. But depends on the software we’re talking about and can vary wildly.
There is no cost.
The only limiting factor for this endeavors in my eyes is that you might need some software that is Windows only. Many windows programs do run fine on Linux, which a lot of people don’t realize. You can basically just install them using the compatibility tool “wine”. You don’t need to do anything for this to work on modern Linux. For games there is “proton”, essentially a specialized version of wone. BUT there’s software that will not run, or only after a lot of tinkering, or just not well (enough). If that’s you, Linux isn’t ideal.
If you’re not in need of specialized software, just try it. Most Linux can not from a “live DVD”. No need to install. Just use it directly. I’ve you want to keep your stuff (settings and such), install on a 2nd SSD for like 25 bucks.
depends on what you use your computer for. for video editing, you propably should learn davinci resolve sind adobe doesnt
work, which could take a while.
For me, i use my pc for software development and gaming, and the switch was practically “instant”, anf i have been using arch (btw) for half a year now. it took maybe a week to get used to the terminal and after then it has been getting better and better.
i suppose the “getting used to it” period is faster on something like mint
I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade. Modern Linux is quite easy to start, compared to the old stereotype.
I highly recommend an easy way: for the daily softwares you use, you try to replace them with cross-platform ones, like libreoffice, thunderbird… when you want to try Linux someday, the migration path could be more smooth than you expected
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How easy is it to switch completely from windows to Linux? Usability, feautures, costs?
imo its not that hard, but if its your first time with linux i’d suggest starting with a linux mint/fedora vm or install it on a spare laptop if you have one. this way you could learn it a bit before making the switch
I used it 20+ years ago. Is arch Linux now the “new” free/federated version? And on what non-US laptop can I run it?
Most Linux distributions are free (free as in beer and free as in free speech and freedom to modify). Some are backed by big corporations with questionable activities (e.g., Ubuntu owned by Canonical adding ads and data tracking by default).
Federation is a different concept (relating to the interconnecting of content platforms, such as email or Lemmy).
Linux itself is the underlying kernel code which programs talk to act as a mediator between software and hardware. Each Linux distribution is basically a software suite built on-top.
Arch is specifically notable for having a very fast software update cycle.
In contrast, Debian is a distribution with the “slow and stable” mantra. Software officially supported and distributed for it only receives updates every few years after extensive stability testing. The goal is to never have a random update break anything. This also means it is slow to receive support for new hardware unless you manually install it. It often supports running newer software but it won’t be nicely managed by the OS and you’ll be doing manual work to maintain it. The consequence? I have a new graphics card, and booting into Debian just gives me a black screen. I needed to use the terminal to download and install Nvidia’s driver myself.
Arch isn’t so concerned with stability. It’s still tested, but their goal is to make sure new hardware and software advances can be used right away. Think weeks instead of years. This means it will support newer hardware and any news about Linux advancements will be on your machine before long. It also means that sometimes things slip through the cracks and one piece of software might break, or break another one. You might need to pay attention to Arch news before updating to see if there are any incompatibilities before updating.
There are different distributions building on top of these. Arch itself must be installed from scratch, a tricky process. Debian is more streamlined. Ubuntu is built on Debian, having lots of stability, but has alternative software repositories to keep things a bit more up to date. Arch has variations that make it easier to install.
Arch gives more flexibility in what you install and more control of your system. Debian has lots of flexibility as well. Ubuntu has a bit less. Mint is a popular choice, built on Ubuntu, and it removes some of the “chaff” people complain about being added into Ubuntu.
Linux distributions can run on basically anything. A smart toaster might run Linux. If it can run Windows, it will probably run a Linux distribution with a quarter of the memory usage at double the speed because Windows hogs resources with unnecessary and unkillable software in the background.
wdym by free and federated? i just use arch because i like it, but mint for say is also free. i personally have an ACER laptop running EndevourOS, but Tuxedo Computers is a German company that ships their machines with linux pre-installed
Not sure to understand the question. There are many non-corporate owned distributions, starting with Debian, not just Arch.
Any non-US laptop is supposed to run just fine. One needs to set the correct locale (generally it will be the first question asked by the install assistant: what country are you in and what keyboard layout do you want to use)?
I run Mint and prior to it I was running Debian (and prior to that it was Arch) on my French Azerty layout laptop without any issue (the same with the desktop and it’s azerty keyboard)
The only potential issue will be disk encryption at boot but I can say it works flawlessly with Mint (and did so with Debian too, as far as I can remember)
You could also start with a dual boot windows-linux, and then slowly slowly transition to Linux. That’s how I started and I never booted windows after.
I don’t want to say it’s hard but it also feels disingenuous just simply calling it easy. honestly depends on the person and what they want to do with the computer
Installing it isn’t hard so long as you’re comfortable following some instructions to load a file onto a flash drive and hitting a couple buttons when your computer turns on
For usability, If you absolutely need specific programs that don’t work on Linux, like anything from Adobe, MS Office, CAD software, a lot of music production software, stuff like that, and an alternative just won’t work in your situation (such as if you need it for work) then unfortunately there’s not really a proper solution there. TONS of programs have a Linux equivalent that’s open source and free, many of them work fantastic, but also there’s many that aren’t ideal. For gaming though, it’s gotten REALLY good. With the exception of certain huge multiplayer games with anti-cheat, almost everything will just work if you use Steam, and most other things you can make work by adding them to Steam as a non-Steam game and clicking a couple buttons
As for cost? It costs no money but will cost you some time when you’re first setting it up and learning the ways it differs from Windows
If installing it doesn’t intimidate you and you don’t need any of the software that’s not supported, then it’s honestly not hard overall but there will be some adjustments
A bit off topic, but since you mentioned music production software I just wanted to quickly say I was surprised by how much easier it is to set up compared to Windows. Since Pipewire became a thing, it’s really dead simple. No need to mess around with ASIO, virtual cables, applications using an exclusive lock on interfaces, etc. Ardour and REAPER are solid pieces of free (half-free for REAPER) software, and the commercial Bitwig (made by ex-Ableton staff) also has a native Linux build which works great.
That’s awesome to hear actually, I’m not as familiar with music production stuff and don’t have any personal experience with it on Linux, it’s just something I’d heard was an obstacle before
It’s crazy to me how much better and more viable Linux as a whole has been getting over the past several years
Bottles work for almost every windows application nowadays. You will notice a slight performance hit, but for most desktop software on a halfway decent rig that’s completely irrelevant!
That really depends on what you use your PC for. Are you deep into Microsoft Office suite? Do you play games such as PUBG, Battlefield 6 or other multiplayer games with a particular infringing anti-cheat? Maybe you use software from Adobe? Then no.
Otherwise, installing Linux is easy, if you know how to create a bootable USB-stick.
As a beginner, I would recommend Linux Mint.
Usability is the same or better, but this is incredibly subjective. The plus is there is probably a solution specifically what you prefer. If you’re coming from Windows, KDE is probably the best starting point. “Desktop environment” is the key word of you want to see options.
Features are a bit more “it depends”, generally more user friendly. But depends on the software we’re talking about and can vary wildly.
There is no cost.
The only limiting factor for this endeavors in my eyes is that you might need some software that is Windows only. Many windows programs do run fine on Linux, which a lot of people don’t realize. You can basically just install them using the compatibility tool “wine”. You don’t need to do anything for this to work on modern Linux. For games there is “proton”, essentially a specialized version of wone. BUT there’s software that will not run, or only after a lot of tinkering, or just not well (enough). If that’s you, Linux isn’t ideal.
If you’re not in need of specialized software, just try it. Most Linux can not from a “live DVD”. No need to install. Just use it directly. I’ve you want to keep your stuff (settings and such), install on a 2nd SSD for like 25 bucks.
*Desktop environment. The Window manager is KWin
Fixed, thx. I was very tried when I wrote that…
depends on what you use your computer for. for video editing, you propably should learn davinci resolve sind adobe doesnt work, which could take a while. For me, i use my pc for software development and gaming, and the switch was practically “instant”, anf i have been using arch (btw) for half a year now. it took maybe a week to get used to the terminal and after then it has been getting better and better. i suppose the “getting used to it” period is faster on something like mint
I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade. Modern Linux is quite easy to start, compared to the old stereotype.
I highly recommend an easy way: for the daily softwares you use, you try to replace them with cross-platform ones, like libreoffice, thunderbird… when you want to try Linux someday, the migration path could be more smooth than you expected