this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
135 points (97.2% liked)
Linux
47237 readers
3343 users here now
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I would get comfortable with the idea of breaking things. Make regular backups of your data. The best that I'm aware of for making it easy to work backwards from breaking things is NixOS, but I wouldn't consider it beginner friendly.
You learn a lot from trying to bring a system back online. But it depends if you're trying Linux to learn it more or just to take advance of privacy.
I don't want to break my system drastically if i were to learn along the way using it without any knowledge. I want a stable os while also doing stuff I'd normally do on Windows.
It shouldn't break if you just install packages from the main app installer. It's more of a concern if you're trying to install anything from source.
Also make sure to try a live cd or live USB to make sure the OS is compatible with your hardware. VM is not sufficient for this last one. This is usually only an issue if you have very new hardware.