this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Linux

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Shit, just linux.

Use this community for anything related to linux for now, if it gets too huge maybe there will be some sort of meme/gaming/shitpost spinoff. Currently though… go nuts

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Hey everyone, right now, I’m mostly Mac-based. I also have an older PC, a Raspberry Pi, micro PC and a mac laptop.

Now that I’m retired and have more time on my hands, I really want to dive deep into Linux and break away from the monopoly.

I’ll definitely do my own research, but there’s so much information out there—it feels like drinking from a firehose. It’s overwhelming!

Do you have any tips or websites to help me get started, step by step? I know I’ll make plenty of mistakes along the way (that’s how ya learn), but I’d appreciate any advice you can share. Thanks!

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[–] azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Well, if you actually want to invest some time in learning, Arch is great for that, while also being awesome distro. Some say that you should NEVER use it for your first time with Linux, but I disagree. You should never use it if you have short attention span and unable to read, but if that’s not the case, you’re good to go.

My recommendation is to not try to learn everything at once. Burn archiso on USB stick, boot into it, use archinstall to get in set up easily, and then search ArchWiki for topics of your interest, for instance the installer won’t install printing support, but if you google “archwiki printing” the very first result you get is CUPS page with basically all that you need to get printing up and running.

During the installation there might be some choices that aren’t entirely clear. For example which graphics drivers to use - it depends on your hardware, if you’re on Intel or AMD graphics, simply select “all open-source” and for nvidia there different choices. If you get to choose option for audio, Pipewire is the best choice. For profile choose desktop and select the one you want. If you don’t know, I highly recommend KDE Plasma, but you might also like GNOME if MacOS is your thing. For networking use NetworkManager for easy integration with your desktop.

I also recommend installing Flatpak and use it as primary source for installing apps, rather than defaulting to system packages.

It might take more effort with Arch to get something functional, but it is more rewarding as you can get exactly the setup you want and can learn a lot.

[–] UniversalMonk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago

Thanks for this detailed post. I love this community!