Linux

61501 readers

562 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml

nooter692@lemmy.ml

MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml

cypherpunks@lemmy.ml

cyclohexane@lemmy.ml

d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz

Reccommending a Linux distro for a friend (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago by muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

96 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A friend is due for a gaming PC build. But he’s super pissed it needs to run windows 11. I told him just run something else. He said his job needs something that runs windows-only and on the odd occasions where he needs a desktop to do something he’s not buying a second computer just to run windows.

Dual booting exists but Microsoft likes to clobber boot loaders. So I reminded him he could just run windows 11 in a VM when he needs to, everything else in bare metal Linux.

He’s now sold on moving to Linux.

The question is where should he start? It used to be as simple as “if you aren’t sure, use Ubuntu.” But his use case kinda seems like what everyone has been crowing about using bazzite for.

I have zero experience with bazzite but the page does describe something built for his use case. There are 3 concerns I have though.

Is it common enough that he can Google an answer?
it’s an atomic distro, so classic Linux answers he might find online won’t always be applicable here.
selinux, ugh.

What’s a good gamer Linux distro? He’s not super into tinkering. He just wants it to do the thing without Microsoft’s invasive bullshit.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sounds weird they are mixing work and pleasure on the same machine, but anyways +1 for dual boot.

VMs haven't been a great experience for me if you need to get real work done.

I've been dual booting on one drive for years, never experienced any issues. Heard doing it on separate drives is even better though.

Probably extra points if your linux partitions are encrypted.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, I have heard that windows likes to be on its own drive. I've also never had any problems with it erasing grub unless I was installing windows after Linux.

I would recommend setting windows to the UTC timezone so it doesn't fuck with the PC's system clock.

I still recommend dual booting over VM if you have to interface with any peripherals.

Dual booting sometimes can result in other hardware interface problems, or solve them. They're not common, but keep an eye out. For instance I had a laptop once where the wifi kill switch only worked in windows, and if you pressed it in Linux, you'd have to reboot into windows to toggle it back on.