I just fucking can’t with windows anymore. I’d preach about it but I imagine you’ve heard it all. I have minimal computer expertise.
I use my PC mainly for streaming, downloading torrent files who’s copyright you don’t need to worry about, and light gaming. Usually just messing with New Vegas mods.
If some of know of a good YouTube channel or guide or something written for and elder millennial caveman I would be grateful.
Some people aren’t gonna like me saying this. But when used responsibly chatgpt is the absolute linux mvp.
I stopped being a windows user a month after getting access to gpt4, its been amazing. I learned so much in general and it would not have been feasible for me without there-are-no-dumb-questions-ai
Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend this option. Maybe for some basic question, but don’t follow its directions for anything technical and absolutely don’t enter any commands it gives you unless you know what they do. It makes stuff up all the time. It’ll sound confident, but if you’re a new user you don’t know enough to know what it’s telling you to do.
For that matter, don’t enter any commands you see online without looking at it first. You can’t trust everyone.
“don’t enter any commands you see online without looking at it first. You can’t trust everyone”
This has somewhat become a staple idea of mine. People trust others online way too easily. Ai isn’t all that different in this but its more obvious to us that there is something to be scared about the uncanny valley.
What it tends to come down to is capacity for personal critical thinking which we should aim to foster more in future generations.
Maybe i assume too much that programmer-minded people naturally come with such skills for troubleshooting and will be capable of responsible ai interactions?
Can’t recommend channels or guides of the top of my head, but maybe search Linux Mint beginner guide or something. Linux Mint is recommended everywhere for people who are new to Linux and should have plenty of guides and answers
Linux mint, alright I’ll give it a go
If you need extra help for mint feel free to DM me
User name checks out. Have fun with Linux Mint!
Lol right!? It’s been ordained
Are we related?
You’re yesterday grandpa(ma?)!! Gotta keep it fresh yo!
Ty!
Mint is my go to Linux desktop distribution. There’s plenty of solid choices, but it’s served me well ever since Crunchbag Linux closed up shop.
Oh man, I loved Crunchbang! It was my last distro before I switched to Arch when they discontinued it.
I miss their friendly
#!wallpaper
Mint used to be my go to recommendation, these days I might offer up Pop!_OS, its unfortunate name is the only reason I might not, but when I’ve used it, it was a really nice experience.
Typically recommended guides:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/1.html
Have a good transition and if you stick with Mint, I’d recommend the official forums for any questions: https://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
I have minimal computer expertise.
This is the source of your problem. Unless you learn more about computers and how to use them, you’re guaranteed to have more problems on Linux than you’ve had on Windows.
The majority of the Windows gripes this community complains about are unlikely to ever be encountered by people with minimal expertise. Windows is fantastic as a layperson’s operating system (and many Linux distros are, as well), so your problems are probably user-caused.
This might be cliche, but the For Dummy’s books by Wiley were how I started learning about both Windows and Linux when I was a teenager. In fact, they were how I learned that Linux existed and sparked a curiosity in IT that is culminating in my graduation with an IT degree in July.
I think it’s easier to fix issues on Linux than Windows at least. It’s not as obscured by Settings, Control Panel, Advanced Settings, Properties, and Registry in the worst case
No problems that a person with “minimal computer expertise” has are likely to require editing the registry, and if they struggle with the Settings app in Windows, they will be completely befuddled by the vast array of configuration files they will have to search through for making changes on Linux.
I’m struggling with the constant enshittififcation of widows, not the settings menu.
Yeah, Microsoft is always trying to monetize things that shouldn’t be monetized. Linux won’t necessarily be easier, but it definitely won’t force you to watch ads in your application menu.
Congratulations on the degree!
Thanks!
You learn by using it.
Which means you want to do something on Linux. You don’t know how to do it, then you ask or search for the answer and then you know.
Just be patient and it will come naturally.
Yeah, just jump in.
To get started it is best to keep Windows around, then if you need to get something done urgently you can go back to what you know then figure out how to do it in Linux later. Dual-booting is probably the best option if you are gaming as GPU passthrough can be difficult to get great performance. That is the approach I took a long time ago and then at some point I realized that I hadn’t booted into Windows for months and just deleted the partition.
@Iapar @MintyFresh I think to add to that. The more you use it the more you realize how much control you have over a system.
Hallelujah, another soul saved!
Personally I’d recommend Mint. It’s intuitive and things tend to work out of the box. There are many others that’ll do just as fine, but the large Mint userbase makes it easy to google any problems you might stumble into.
I’ve been primarily a linux user for almost two decades now, and I still run mint, simply because I sometimes just want something simple that does its job without much hazzle.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for. I don’t need much out of it. I just can’t take widows shit anymore. The latest update broke me
Then Mint is for you. No nagging, no AI search. It just… works.
The only thing I have to do after first install is to get nvidia drivers running, which isn’t as awful as some linux enthusiasts might have you believe.
Since you chose Linux Mint—good choice btw—something to keep in mind is that Mint is based on Ubuntu. While you’re learning and searching the interwebs for how to do x, y, and z, if you don’t find an article or guide specifically about Mint, try searching the same phrase replacing “mint” with “ubuntu.” There’s far more content out there about Ubuntu than Mint, but since Mint is based on Ubuntu, 9 times out of 10 the same solution on an Ubuntu forum works in Mint.
Good luck!
Ty, great advice
if you use obs for streaming i’ve had better stability out of it on linux than on mac or windows. probably says more about obs than those oses though.
new vegas is gold support listed on protondb, so it probably works fine
do a dual boot install so you can go back when you need to. that means before you install inux, chkdisk, defrag and turn off bitlocker.
make a backup.
I see you got your answer, but I’m adding on for anyone else that comes across this.
For me, I learned the most when I had a disposable and replaceable system. When I was dual booted I was too scared to touch anything in case it fucked everything up. Once I started poking round on a Pi, LiveUSB, etc it was a lot easier to learn because I could always restart.
Id start there with something like Mint or Ubuntu. Then set it up in a way where you can easily replace your OS so you can reset it often and fuck around. Then just learn as you go.
Hey, friend. I just wanted to let you know that I couldn’t get New Vegas to run on my (up to date) Linux PC until I installed the custom Proton version called “Proton GE.” The GE stands for Glorious Eggroll, which is the username of the developer. There’s guides on how to install it on the GitHub’s readme. I know it may sound complicated to someone new, but you can do it!
Here’s a link to the read me: https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom?tab=readme-ov-file#manual
Scroll down to the “native” install instructions.
Of course, you can ignore this if New Vegas just works for you as it seems to for many others. My system is MX Linux, not Mint.
Good to know ty! I’ve heard of proton but don’t know a lot about it. I’ll definitely be looking into it. I have a crappy Nvidia card. We’ll see how that goes
Thankfully, nvidia actually released open source drivers for their cards a couple years ago or so. Nvidia cards are much more compatible with Linux now than they used to be.
Proton is a Windows compatibility layer for games developed by Valve for Steam. It’s based on Wine. Wine originally stood for WINdows Emulator, but it now stands for “Wine Is Not (an) Emulator,” which I always found funny. Technically, it is translation layer for system calls, I think. It’s very good these days!
But really, the only thing to know about Proton is that for any game in Steam, you can go into the “compatibility” preferences and enable Proton for that game. This can allow Windows games that Valve doesn’t support to work in Linux. It’s not perfect, however. ProtonDB (database) is a website full of user reviews of how well Proton works with games. They will tell you what tweaks they used to get games working!
Welcome to the club! I hope you find Mint to your liking!
Bazzite, it is already tweaked to contain what is meeded for gaming, and has isos ready built based on your hardware type. https://bazzite.gg/
While I love Bazzite and have been using it as my primary OS on my only computer which is a Steam Deck, I’m not sure I can agree that a non-tinkerer should go with it. I’d probably follow along the Linux Mint train honestly. It’s an honest project with their heart in the right place and makes usability a breeze and with a wider community than rpm-ostree based Fedora it’s probably gonna be more minor issues and annoyances in the long run.
Another one sees the light. :)
I’ve found Ubuntu and steam to just work with very little need to ever open the terminal (aside from setting up mic noise canceling w/ speakers). Most stuff that you install via terminal has its own guide. GPT / stack overflow can fill in most other gaps.
explainingcomputers on youtube.
But really he just shows how there’s nothing to it these days.
Probably easier than a windows install.
Especially if you try to force your brain to read the windows user agreement - I tried to do a micrsoft virtual machine install recently, and got stuck at the EUA. My mouse just refused to click yes.The mention of the EULA brought back bad memories.
That was not a joke. I’m the guy that reads the Terms of Service and especially the Privacy Policy. I’m not a lawyer, but the more of these you read, the easier it gets to weed out the good ones from the standard (read: terrible) ones, and the absolutely monstrous ones. The Windows EULA is among the worst ones I’ve read (though I admittedly did a skim read of that one). As I was writing this, I decided to actually read the EULA and found a grammatical error in it lol.
