Linux to a lifetime Windows User

Microsoft Windows was the first operating system that I had ever used. My first computer was a hand-me-down Windows XP desktop from my parents. I had never had the chance to try an Apple computer until middle school. The school district there had used all Apple products. Not until graduating High School and teaching myself to code did I ever install my own Linux distro.

What the heck is a Linux and who makes it?

I do not remember the first time that I heard about Linux, but the concept seemed very different from what I had expected about computers at the time. I did not understand how a free piece of software could be distributed. How can people work together to create something that is not maintained by one company, calling all the shots. How could something distributed and developed by hundreds of people work in an "open source" environment. And if there are more than one distribution, how could they all call themselves "Linux".

Not until recently had I decided to give it a try. I started first with Linux Mint, as it was designed to feel very familiar to a Windows user.

Mint Logo

The terminal is not so scary

I was enjoyed Linux Mint for the time I used it. I am somewhat familiar with the command line interface from Windows, so the terminal felt right at home for me. It is true that Linux expects you to use the terminal. That sounds scary, but it is not as bad as it sounds. It started for me as using Google or DuckDuckGo to find anything I needed to do. Then simply copying and pasting.

After getting the hang of it, the terminal becomes a very helpful and intuitive tool. Creating files, editing text, and running programs in the command line should feel right at home for developers.

Distro Hopping

Although I had enjoyed Mint, I ran into problems with my Nvidia drivers, and the whole thing became too much of a headache to worry about, so I decided to try out another distribution, Pop!_os, (or just Pop! for short).

Pop! is my currently installed distribution, and I like it because it works almost right out of the box for games thanks to the elimination of that pesky driver problem mentioned earlier. Pop! is not so much geared towards mimicking Windows like Mint is, but it is very easy to understand. Almost anyone could easily get started with Pop! in minutes.

Linux is as hard as you want it to be these days. I really think Linux is something that anyone can do, and it is well worth the effort to understand it. I personally am just getting started to learning Linux, and understand that there is a deep underbelly to Linux to explore, and some parts are pretty scary to beginners. Linux is really is as hard as you want it to be.