I currently use Windows 10 and I’d like to try out Linux. My plan is to set up a dual boot with OpenSUSE tumbleweed and KDE Plasma. I’ve read so many different opinions about choosing a distro, compatibility with gaming and Nvidia drivers, and personal issues with the ethos of different companies like Canonical. I value privacy and I’d rather avoid a Linux distro that’s implementing something like ads or telemetry…if that’s even a thing that’s happening?

As a complete beginner, what sort of advice would you all have for me? Should I avoid OpenSUSE or KDE Plasma for some reason? Are there any ‘10 things to do first when installing Linux for the first time’ recommendations?

Despite all the ‘beginner friendly’ guides and tutorials around, I still feel a little lost and like I’m going into this blind.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who’s offered advice, I really appreciate all the help and the patience with my dumb questions! There’s a lot to look through and it’s been a busy day for me, but I’ll get back to reading through everything and replying as soon as I can!

  • Ultimatenab@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    After contemplating for 3-4 years about switching my main rig to Linux, I did it on Friday just gone.

    Note for the below, I have a full AMD system.

    • I went with Garuda Dragonized distro as it is gaming focused and has all the game related stuff included.
    • took me less than 30mins going from gaming on Win11 to Linux, but I did the research before.
    • there are a few tweaks if you use Steam but you have Lutris to help you.
    • of the 35 ish games installed, all of them work without issues, but they need updating once you enable compatibility to Proton.
    • the default theme is too flashy but you can select to bring it down a few notches

    Technical

    • if you have secondary SSD or HDD, dedicated to games or files like I did, it is advisable to have them backed up to an external drive as you will need to re-partition them from NTFS to use them properly in Linux
    • with Garuda Dragonized Gaming, all drivers are installed but follow the Wizard at the beginning and check all that apply to you. It will save you time.

    Good luck and looking forward to having you on Linux!

  • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 years ago

    OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is an awesome distro with up to date packages. KDE is also a great choice, especially with Plasma 6.0 around the corner.

    I wouldn’t worry too much about Nvidia drivers, just follow OpenSUSE’s guide [1]. The remaining issues of Nvidia with KDE Wayland are getting fixed over the coming months.

    Edit: OpenSUSE can’t ship some codecs by default for legal reasons (like RedHat, Fedora), but makes it simple to enable them (optionally through graphical YaST) [2].

    [1] https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

    [2] https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Installing_codecs_from_Packman_repositories

  • Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    My big question would be why are you starting with a dual boot? I would recommend trying each one with a liveUSB or in a virtual machine and simply do a single boot with the one you like better. There’s likely little need for you to actually maintain two distros unless you have a very niche use case that one distro can’t solve.

    My advice would be to just relax and realize that the underlying OS is 90% the same regardless of what distro you choose. All the discussion you see on different distros, package managers, snaps, wayland, etc. are all the other 10%. It really doesn’t matter what distro you start on as long as it’s a general purpose distro (both of the ones in your OP are): once you learn the first 90% of linux, you’ll develop your own tastes, and then you’ll be able to decide on the remaining 10%.