this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Linux
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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.
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The choice of distro isn't too important, you can usually run any software on any distro. The installation process varies a bit by distro because they use different package managers, but they generally all have all the software you need
The most important choice for the start is your desktop environment. I'm partial to KDE and can highly recommend it for linux beginners because it's a lot like windows by default and extremely customizable. There are also XFCE (very light and fast, not too many features), Gnome (some people swear by it but it doesn't let you customize much), cinnamon (no bullshit, fast and windows-like) and a bunch of others.
Then pick a distro based on that. The popular ones are usually also the best ones to start with, with one notable exception (in my opinion): Ubuntu.
It uses snaps, which are an alternative way to install software that's made by canonical (the makers of ubuntu) and generally disliked among the linux community because it slows down application startup and causes very weird issues that are hard to figure out. Ubuntu will install some applications via snap instead of the package manager (which is apt for ubuntu) even if you specifically invoke apt instead of snap.
You can sti use it and probably be fine, but you'll have to endure snap problems or go out of your way to avoid using it. Picking a different distro from the start is easier than that.