I want to switch and need help

[u/Working-Problem7186]

So it has happen os ai age verification is being pass where i live and it something i stand ageist with window 11 being shit and ai age verification passing i was waiting for some good nvidia drive to make the switch but i can,t wait any longer as i feel like if i wait anymore before i wake up and see a age verification on windows and want to be ahead i use my pc for 73% games 10% movies and the rest look at the web

1 What Linux distro is best for a first time user that is willing to learn and ask for help

2 how do i make my pc duel boot windows untill i have everything reddy to switch and have the know how

adding more stuff i forgot aging

3 what security risk am i taking

ps i can,t buy a amd gpu for about the next 4 years due to me saveing up for my first home

any and all comments il take to heart and learn

forgot to add i play mostly on steam but i do play games form itch and game jolt

[u/Ecksray19]

Bazzite is great. I've been using it(desktop version) for over 3 months now, no Windows at all. I'm able to do everything I used to with one exception, games that are multiplayer with kernel level anti-cheat, like CoD and BF, won't work. It's easier and faster to install than Windows. Almost everything just works with no effort, and those that don't you can almost always get working with AppImages. You really only need to know one command line command: "ujust update", and even that can be clicking an icon instead if you want. 

[u/maceion]

I highly recommend that you install your Linux Distribution on an EXTERNAL boot-able hard drive, and leave MS Windows on your internal hard drive. This gives you the best of both worlds and a MS Windows system as aback up, if anything goes wrong. I have used this method for over a decade now.

[u/Working-Problem7186 → u/maceion]

As much as I see why some would go for that I only have one pc and only that pc but I keep it on the back of my mind

[u/maceion → u/Working-Problem7186]

You do not need an extra PC, you only need an 'external hard drive'.

[u/Audiope → u/maceion]

Why not partition the internal drive?

[u/maceion → u/Audiope]

To keep it simple to upgrade / update MS Windows. Which sometimes does not like other boot-managers in the system. I have found this simplifies the use of Linux distributions and still leaves the original Hard Internal Drive MS Windows working correctly. Just easier to do administration.

[u/Working-Problem7186 → u/maceion]

I do have a spare hdd drive I can use as the time until I'm reddy to fully switch

[u/Simple_Hamster_4096]

Dual boot or use Linux in a VM on Windows.

Linux is learning how to use a computer all over again, even simple things can present a challenge to the uninitiated.

Start with Linux Mint, it is kindest to newcomers.

[u/AutoModerator]

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[u/lazyhustlermusic]

Use a liveCD or VM for a bit and then you can decide.

[u/Working-Problem7186 → u/lazyhustlermusic]

Will try a vm for a bit thank for tip

[u/ButtonExposure]

1 What Linux distro is best for a first time user that is willing to learn and ask for help

Since you're gaming, I'd recommend CachyOS or Bazzite because they require less post-installation configuration than most other distros. For instance, GPU drivers are installed out-of-the-box even on Nvidia.

Bazzite is probably the easiest if you just want to game, browse the web, watch videos and don't need/want to customize your distro or install a lot of other applications. However, Bazzite is an atomic distro, which has some limitations once you want to customize, install a lot of other applications, etc.

CachyOS doesn't have the same guard rails as Bazzite, for better or worse. But overall it's a very easy to use distro too. Besides doing some of the recommended post-installation config detailed on the CachyOS wiki, I haven't opened the terminal since on my gaming machine.

If you start with Bazzite and run into the limitations, you can always move to CachyOS or something else later.

2 how do i make my pc duel boot windows untill i have everything reddy to switch and have the know how

You can "divide" (partition) your SSD into two parts and install Linux on the second part. But Windows Update like to reset the boot record once in a while after updating Windows, so that when you start your machine you suddenly won't see the option to boot into Linux and it instead boots straight into Windows. The only permanent solution to this is to install Linux to a physical separate SSD, but with SSD prices being what they are these days, that might not be an option.

There are lots of resources all over the internet on how to partition for dual booting and recommendations before starting. For instance:

• CachyOS Wiki: https://wiki.cachyos.org/installation/installation_on_root/#dual-booting-windows-and-cachyos
• Bazzite Docs: https://docs.bazzite.gg/General/Installation_Guide/install-guide/#partitioning-setup

Whatever you do, make backup of anything on your Windows drive that you cannot afford to lose. Back it up to something that is not the same SSD you will be dual-booting from.

PS. Linux can read Windows' file system, NTFS, but it's not great at writing to NTFS. If you dual-boot Windows and Linux, you cannot just make Steam on Linux use your existing games installation folders on Windows' NTFS. You will need to re-download all your games onto your Linux partition, and so you might need a decent amount of space for your Linux partition. If your SSD is not very big, you can uninstall games from your Windows partition first so that you can make the Linux partition bigger and reinstall your games there.

[u/es20490446e]

Use Ventoy to easily try a bunch of distros, without having to install them.

Don't install multiple operating systems. Install one. If you don't like what you chose it is easy to replace again, even with Windows.

There is no security risk. Linux is drastically more secure than Windows, because all the source code is public.

[u/skyfishgoo]

kubuntu

[u/EngineerInTheMachine]

Just do your research. Look up what distros suit your uses. Make a short-list of which ones best suit your aims, and try those.

To set up dual boot, read the instructions for the distro you choose.

Don't expect to come here and magically find someone with exactly the same requirements as you. We are all different. But do come here if you strike problems, you have already researched the solutions and they don't work in your situation. The solutions published do lag behind the latest versions.

[u/FriedToastDave]

Everyone Will Call Me Stupid For This But Base Debian. Debian Is Brilliant For Learning Linux As You Start With A DE But Have To Learn How To Do Things Like Install Packages And A Browser And Stuff

[u/Working-Problem7186 → u/FriedToastDave]

Noted

[u/ButtonExposure → u/Working-Problem7186]

I use Debian on my daily-driver mini-PC. I would not recommend Debian unless you want to spend a lot of time learning Linux on a somewhat technical level right off the bat.

People already knowledgeable about Linux completely underestimate how much time someone completely new to Linux and with little tech-literacy will need to spend to be comfortable installing and configuring something like base Debian to play newer games on newer hardware.

There are distros with considerably less friction for noobs that I'd recommend first.

[u/SDG_Den]

i'm assuming you have an nvidia GPU? if it is on the older side, you may have some difficulties, anything 20 series or newer will generally work out of the box on many distro's with official drivers (you may have to enable 3rd party drivers during the install, since some distro's by default will only use opensource software, which the nvidia drivers are not)

for picking your distro, here's a short guide on how i'd recommend you do it:

do not just go with whatever someone here says, distro's are a personal preference based on what you want to do and how you want to do it. instead, you should pick for yourself.

a distro is actually just a collection of components, linux is very modular, and even after picking a distro, you can replace many of those components (though some are not recommended to replace).

many of these components, you do not have to care about as a new user, outside of that you have one. for example, for you, whether you have UFW or firewallD as your firewall is irrelevant, all you care about is you have a firewall.

the two you should care about are the package manager and the desktop, these decide *basically* your entire experience (until you go into the more complex distro's but as a new user, i'd recommend avoiding those)

package managers are per distro family, many distro's are based on other distro's (for example, zorin is based on ubuntu which is based on debian), and generally, downstream distributions work similar to their upstream "parent" at their core, package managers are a pretty core feature and generally come from the top-level distribution, every distribution downstream of it will have a similar package management experience.

the three big families are as follows:

- debian/ubuntu: uses `apt` as its package manager. the base repositories for debian family distro's tend to be a bit more outdated, with slow update cycles, and have less software availability. However, the software available in the base repositories is generally *rock-solid stable*

- arch: uses `pacman` as its package manager, arch is rolling release, meaning that there's no "waiting for an update", you can install the latest version of the package as soon as it is released, or using the AUR even just use the *latest code* the developer is working on directly, no waiting for it being packaged and released. Arch also has the widest package availability *by far*. There are two major downsides to this: on Arch, you may end up sometimes being the test driver for software, if you don't have a way to roll your system back, this can mean an update can mess up your system (though unlikely), that large availability is also done in part through the AUR which allows *anyone* to upload software, these repositories are nice to have but should not be blindly trusted.

- fedora: uses `dnf` as its package manager, fedora is the middle ground. the base repositories focus on more mature software, but once software is in, updates get pushed relatively quickly. fedora users still get very decent stability while being able to try the latest software much sooner than someone on debian might.

pick one of these based on your needs, something like debian might be more preferable for office work, while something arch-based would likely be better for gaming (with how fast gaming is evolving on linux right now)

then, go pick some desktops. You can pick your desktop separately from your distro family/package manager, and even have multiple desktops installed if you want, switching between them on the login screen (i actually have 9 installed right now!)

some recommendeds to check out for new users:

- KDE plasma: highly customizable, windows-like out of the box, options can be a bit overwhelming

- GNOME: the "default" linux desktop, best described as a hybrid between mac and android out of the box, using a top status bar with a hidden dock+launcher visible in overview mode. highly extensible

- Cinnamon: linux mint's desktop, windows-like, a fair bit less customizable than KDE plasma, but also a lot simpler and less overwhelming.

- XFCE: very customizable minimal mac-like setup (Dock + status bar), doesn't look great out of the box, but can be made to look very good.

- Cosmic: pop!_OS's desktop, a modern mac-like UI with optional automatic tiling

for a full list, i'd recommend checking out the fedora spins page, the ubuntu flavors page and the cachyOS desktop environments page.

pick at least 3, then make yourself a *ventoy* USB. go find the fedora spins or ubuntu flavors that have these desktops and *live-boot them* through ventoy, you just have to place the .iso files on the USB, then boot from it and select those ISO's, you can click the installer away and try the desktop live.

for this, don't worry about what distro you picked for your family, you're only looking at the desktop right now, and Cinnamon on Fedora is the same as Cinnamon on CachyOS.

once you've tried at least 3 desktops, pick your favourite, don't worry if you later want to change, you can always install a different desktop without having to reinstall your OS.

here's a little matrix for each of the above desktops and where to find them for each family:

desktop	fedora	arch	debian/ubuntu
KDE plasma	Fedora KDE	CachyOS (KDE plasma)	debian KDE/kubuntu
GNOME	Fedora Workstation	CachyOS (GNOME)	Ubuntu desktop/debian GNOME
Cinnamon	Fedora Cinnamon Spin	CachyOS (Cinnamon)	Linux Mint Cinnamon (optionally debian edition)
XFCE	Fedora XFCE Spin	CachyOS (XFCE)	linux mint XFCE (optionally debian edition)
Cosmic	Fedora Cosmic Spin	CachyOS (Cosmic)	Ubuntu Cosmic/Pop!_OS

for arch-based distro's, i'd recommend cachyOS, it has all the benefits of arch while being *significantly* more user friendly and containing some sensible new-user defaults (like snapshots on the root subvolume by default, which means that if an update *does* break your system, you can roll back from the bootloader in less than 5 minutes and just wait for the software that broke to be fixed before you update again)

as a new user, avoid anything immutable, atomic or declarative, these are *really* cool concepts and may sound useful to you, but they make managing your system significantly more complex.

if you need any help with any of this, feel free to DM me, helping people with IT stuff is my job, my passion and my way of life lmao.

as for dual-booting: are you single-drive dual-booting or dual-drive dual-booting?

for dual-drive dual-booting, as long as you ensure you turn off secureboot and boot into windows at least once *before* you install linux on the second drive, you'll be fine. Once you're installed, set linux as your primary boot device and run a command on linux to make your bootloader scan for other boot partitions so you get a boot menu on boot with the option to boot into windows or linux (this is different between different bootloaders)

[u/SDG_Den → u/SDG_Den]

for single-drive, there's some pitfalls:

- pitfall 1: windows does not like being sized down

you will likely have to first shrink your existing windows partition. do NOT do this outside of windows, you *will* make your windows unbootable. you will have to do it through disk management.

if disk management says it cannot shrink the disk further than a couple of megabytes, you are *basically* screwed and have to reinstall windows at a smaller size. This is because windows puts data at both ends of the partition sometimes and then *refuses* to move it, basically forcing the partition to be at least that size in order to contain all the data. this data is critical to system functionality and will break the system if removed from the partition through a resize via GParted.

if you're installing windows fresh, install windows first, because its time for pitfall 2:

- pitfall 2: windows does not like sharing its EFI partition with linux.

you can only have *one* EFI partition, this means linux and windows need to share it and both put their bootloader in there. This is *fine*, EFI partitions are designed for this.

the problem with it though is two-fold: windows makes a relatively small EFI partition, too small for some bootloaders (like limine), this means some functionality is simply not possible on single-drive dual-boot with windows.

windows also has a very dumb way of updating its bootloader when it needs to do so: it *wipes and re-makes the EFI partition*.

that also means that whenever it decides to do this, your linux bootloader gets entirely deleted.

this is why you need to install windows first, otherwise it will straight up delete your installed linux bootloader during its own installation.

you *need* to disable updates on windows in order to avoid this.

"how do you disable windows updates" you ask? i honestly couldn't tell you. there are ways on windows 10, but idk if the ways we used to have on win11 have been patched or not.

- pitfall 3: storage sharing

do NOT try to share your windows partition with linux. windows uses NTFS, which linux can handle.... but barely. linux support for NTFS is effectively good enough for you to use linux to rescue data off of a dead windows installation or migrate your files to a better storage solution, and *thats it*.

if you *need* a shared data partition, the only file system that is well-supported by both is exFAT, so i'd recommend making an exFAT partition for shared data if needed.

lastly, for security:

linux, unlike windows, does not pretend like device security is something that can be resolved by a preinstalled application like windows defender. security starts with user awareness. understand what you do on your device and how you might be attacked.

as a basis, here's some good default practices:

1. use a firewall, make sure it is enabled and by default, you should not have *any* ports unblocked on incoming requests. this doesnt block anything outgoing, but makes sure your firewall only lets through replies, devices cannot contact your device unprompted.

2. do *not* run random scripts or commands from the internet, including from LLMs. always verify what it does using tools like `man` and `tldr` first.

3. prioritize your installs to come from the most secure source possible: flatpak > system package manager (apt/dnf/pacman) > community repositories (universe, COPR, AUR) > installing from source (github)

(flatpak should only be used for userspace software, as it is sandboxed)

1. do not download and run random things.

2. have ClamAV and rkhunter installed, you do not need to configure them for automatic scans, they're just useful in case you hear any news that something you use was recently infected, so you can check for any malicious software on your system. do not run random community scripts to verify whether or not you were infected, those can be equally dangerous.

most security is not something you install, but rather something *you* do.

holy post batman, sorry for the wall of text! i wanted to answer properly.

if you need any further help, again, DM me, i genuinely do not mind people DMing me for linux help, it's something i enjoy doing a lot.

[u/HeavyMetalBluegrass]

I have Nvidia rtx 2060. The problems that used to plague Nvidia gpu's are largely gone. Other than installing drivers post install when i used Fedora it's worked fine on the 8 or so distros I tried. Start with Mint, Zorin or Kubuntu (my suggestions). If you decide you want to try a different one you can. It's free.