Advice

Install Gentoo

>>62333836
I know you're meme*ing , but I was thinking of mint because it looks more newfag friendly, no?

>>62333817
First install Ubuntu. It's not a meme, it will work for you and you will be able to use it. Now when you download it, make sure it comes with the Unity desktop. People will fight me on this but you want Unity because it's way different from Windows and MacOs. This makes your brain have to figure out how to use the OS to do what you want, which is good for your problem solving skills.

While you try to figure out how to use it just to do the normal things you do(browsing the web, making documents) learn how to use bash. Bash is basically the command line and it that will slowly allow you to do things faster and you'll learn a lot doing it. Just learn the basics like making folders, moving files, using sudo to get higher privileges, using apt to install packages.

Another good way to learn your way around linux is installing different DE(desktop environments) which you might want to do quickly if you don't like Unity. Then you can learn how to customise the DE to make it more specific to you.

>>62333872
It is quite newfag friendly. Some /g/entoomen will call you a child and a fag for using it, but this is your first baby-step. You have my blessing, Anon-kun.

>>62334048
What distro did you first start with?

>>62333928
Is that how you started? Didn't you watch some YouTube videos or read something?

>>62334152
That's pretty much how I started but I fell off and went back to Windows many times. I think I first used Ubuntu back during the 8.XX or 9.XX versions and I was a teenager that knew nothing about computers other than XP. It was hard and I gave up but Ubuntu has become way more user friendly. Also they include many applications that will allow you to have a fully functional operating system right out of the box. I actually moved like 95% to Linux almost a year ago and was on Peppermint 7. I'm using Peppermint 8 on my desktop right now. I still used Windows for a very specific program but recently it got a Linux port so here I am using Linux as my daily driver.

As for me, yeah I pretty much read up on problems I had and watched youtube videos if I needed step-by-step guidance. The nice thing about Ubuntu is that it's been around for so long that someone probably had the problem you did and there are forum posts about it with an answer to it. If you practice what you learn a few times, you'll learn it very quickly.

>>62334270
Was it worth it, did you get any advantages that Windows didn't have?

>>62334300
I think, for me, there were some big advantages:
>free
It helped my conscious knowing that I didn't have to pirate Windows and activate it illegally. And activators can be scary since you don't know if there is a secret botnet sending your data somewhere else. It costs you no money at all to try any Linux distro and if you don't like it, delete it and you lost nothing.
>installing programs
This one is weird but I didn't realize it until I used Linux for awhile but using the command line to install programs that I wanted was way easier than navigating to a web page and going through it to find the download I wanted. Each distro has a repository of programs that can be installed and can be installed with a few simple words. For example:

sudo apt-get install gimp

Then put in your password, pres Y and Ubuntu will automatically install GIMP for you and set everything up. And you can install multiple programs if you use

&&

>better resource management
I've noticed that all of my computers use less RAM and CPU when doing things compared to Windows. That meant that my desktop wasn't as loud or as hot. Also I didn't have as many hang ups from really intensive tasks. I like to edit video, audio and photographs and Windows would make my entire room hot sometimes but it handles those tasks with a bit less resources but practically just as fast.

>>62334425
Lol that piracy thing was funny

But what about privacy, what if I wanted to make sure the nsa doesn't spy on me , is there something you can install or should should I get a specific distro like openbsd?

>>62334515
Most distros are better about privacy than Windows 10 is for sure. Almost anything is a step in the right direction. If you really care about that, getting a VPN and probably a specific Linux would help. If anything your web browser and activity have more to do with invasion of privacy than the actual distro. Also there are hardware back doors into many modern computers so you'll have to go old school to get 100% no back doors.

>>62334125
Xubuntu is the best start point.

>>62333872
Mint is good or ubuntu... I like mint with the Cinnamon DE

>>62333817
Why would you want to install an OS you can't do anything with? You probably already have Linux installed on your phone. Leave it at that.

>>62333928
the kernel commands that terminal emulator allow you to use are one beast and bash is another beast.

Bash is a programming language on its own and pretty much the most important thing to learn.

But on Linux what's the biggest deal it's not the basic commands to manipulate the terminal, it's understanding the core components of your distro and able to read the entire config file and tweak it as you please on spot, fixing problems, adding features and so on.

When you are 100% comfortable doing that and efficient you're a complete Linux desktop user.

Otherwise you could just everything already configured and be a bash God script everything you wanted, do magic tricks and be a complete idiot when it comes to your desktop - literally have your shit break and have to call a friend.

Both scenarios requires the same amount of time investment, I would go with bash route tho and you can start learning it from windows with either virtual machine or linux subsystem which runs natively but that feature will be out of beta only around 20 - 30 September with fall update.

With Linux you avoid using your computer resources to be spied on by Microsoft.

>>62333928
>While you try to figure out how to use it just to do the normal things you do(browsing the web, making documents) learn how to use bash. Bash is basically the command line and it that will slowly allow you to do things faster and you'll learn a lot doing it. Just learn the basics like making folders, moving files, using sudo to get higher privileges, using apt to install packages.

This is good advice OP... Try learning how to get around on the command line, at first it looks cumbersome, but in reality it's a super way to do stuff.

>>62334300
I used to dualboot with linux and windows. Eventually I figured out that I did not use windows at all so I just got a 100% linux machine. Now I am on windows again because forced by the job, but Linux is more comfy and you can really make the computer experience fit you EXACTLY like you want it.

>>62334425
>This one is weird but I didn't realize it until I used Linux for awhile but using the command line to install programs that I wanted was way easier than navigating to a web page

Yeah, installing from the command line is the easiest way to do it. Nearly all Linux distributions come with a kind of "app store" (It first turned up on Linux before any mobile phones used it) but installing with the command line is less of a hassle. In the beginning I just copypasted what I found on the net, but you can easily learn it with some effort and it's worth the effort.

>>62334515
>what if I wanted to make sure the nsa doesn't spy on me
Move to the forest and liver under a rock. There is no way to stop the NSA from spying on you.