I have no idea what I'm doing, help!

Every other forum has rules about these posts because there's such a glut of them, and yes, I could go read a stickied thread elsewhere, but here I am not doing that.

How would someone with no computer skills get acquainted with the OS? What version would you recommend to the hopeless novice? Can I keep windows on my PC and run the new OS or a practice version of it in a partitioned space while I learn? Can someone with minimal skills/time/patience be happy with a unix-like OS?

9 comments

If you're really not sure and don't want to break anything, I'd suggest installing some different OSes in virtual machines and try on that first. That might be a learning curve by itself, but you won't take your computer as hostage for your beginner's errors.

There are more user friendly OSes than others. I'd go with a Ubuntu or *buntu flavor just for the fact that there's a lot of beginner friendly websites, tutorials and forums.

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- That's two votes for ubuntu. I like the idea of a virtual machine protecting me from myself. I've got desktop and a laptop, but need them both active. I've also got an old desktop in a closet somewhere, wonder if the hardware would still be functional enough to learn on. CPU is probably a 7th gen I5, to give you an idea of the datedness.
  
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  Make that 3 votes for Ubuntu. It's one of the most user-friendly distros (and a lot of other user friendly ones are just Ubuntu with some tweaks).
  
  It's really hard to go wrong with it.
  
  If you're worried about old hardware, use Xubuntu. It's just Ubuntu with a lighter desktop environment, so it works better on older machines.
  
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Consider this another vote for Ubuntu or any of its variants. They're beginner friendly, and established enough that you'll find plenty of resources written specifically for them. Linux Mint is another one I'd recommend for beginners, it's designed to "just work" out of the box and be an easy transition for Windows users.

Then it's just down to using it some. First and foremost, leave Windows installed until you're comfortable with whatever else you end up trying. Whether you partition, or make a bootable USB drive, or even just a VM, use some kind of temporary space for practice. The terminal is a lot less intimidating when you aren't learning in your main environment, you can go break things and see what happens.

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- Is there a difference between making a partition and dual booting? Like could you install for dual boot without creating a partition in the process?
  
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I learned how to use Linux from Youtube videos and Raspberry Pi tutorials.

I personally like Linux Mint, though I would suggest trying out a few to see what you like better. A lot of your choice will come down to Desktop Environment choice, rather than Distro choice, and at first those will feel like one in the same. If this starts a "well actually" subthread below this comment, it won't be the first time ;)

You can indeed keep Windows on your PC and run Linux in several ways:

You can run Linux in a virtual machine. Using something like VirtualBox, you can basically store the operating system in a file, and it runs the Linux OS in a window on your PC desktop. This is great for trying them out, practicing, or just keeping a spare environment around.

You can use the Live Environment. If you've ever installed Windows before, you know how the installer isn't "Windows?" It's this kind of empty feeling weird thing? You can't just boot the Windows installer up and run Windows apps, you have to actually install it on the machine. Yeah, not Linux. Most Linux distros nowadays can be burned to a DVD or written to a thumb stick, you boot to that disc or stick, and it boots to the desktop, and you can use it right there. It'll have an "Install" icon on the desktop, but you can just...not install it and use it from the USB stick. Some distros are designed specifically to be used that way, for niche applications.

You can dual boot. Linux's bootloader, GRUB, includes a menu system to choose multiple operating systems from. It's possible to shove Windows aside and install Linux next to it, so every time you boot the computer, you can choose which OS to run on it. I did that for years.

Ultimately I suggest you do all three. Try out a few distros in VirtualBox, pick one or two you like best. Put those on some thumb drives, and then run them in the live environment to make sure they run well on your computer. When you finally decide you want to permanently install one, I recommend dual booting for awhile. Reason being, you'll probably find those little moments where you need to get something done, and you know how to do it in Windows, and you're just struggling to figure out how in Linux...don't get spooled up. Boot into Windows, get it done, turn it in. Once that time pressure to get it done RIGHT NOW is gone, learn how to do that task in Linux, without that pressure it will be easier to find the information. Eventually you'll stop booting to Windows.

Oh, and Welcome to the Linux community!
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Try Ubuntu or Linux mint in a VM

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