this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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You're not screwed. Depends on how much you enjoy tinkering and troubleshooting.
My main advice would be to keep your data backed up and completely disconnected from the PC. And make sure your machine is not critical (i.e. for working from home or something). Other than that you do what you want. If you want to dive deep in Arch then that's fine.
One thing to know is that the important part relevant to you is: the desktop environment (KDE) and the Linux distro (Arch) are different things. The far more important thing for you is to have KDE.... the distro underneath just needs to not get in the way.
If you've got Arch up and running then stick with it until it gives you trouble. I naturally ended up distro hopping in the beginning because I would catastrophically break something I couldn't repair and could change distros naturally when reinstalling.
Good options for easy distros with KDE would be:
Tuxedo OS (or Kubuntu) - easiest and there's lots of support online.
Fredora - rock solid and highly recommend. Although I would recommend OpenSUSE Tumbleweed instead, this got me hooked on Linux and was the least problematic for a bleeding edge updated distro, where I happily used Discover for installing and updating.
CachyOS - good option for sticking with Arch.
this pc is mostly for gaming and entertainment so not much is lost if its wiped or broke.
i do love tinkering, just that software tinker is a bit out of my depth
thank you for your input. after a lot of other input and consideration i'll keep playing with arch until it broke then ill decide later if i want to retry it or go with bazzite. or maybe see other enticing distro too. there is so much..