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Introduction to Linux

Linux Penguin Logo , Transparent Cartoon, Free Cliparts & Silhouettes - NetClipart
You gotta agree, if there was a battle of operating system mascots, Tux would easily defeat a window and an apple.

So, before I start, I gotta say, Windows and MacOS are honestly great operating systems, I haven't used MacOS (too broke) but Windows has been pretty good to me so far. I see many people who initalliy switch to Linux complain about how much Windows telemetry and forced updates are ruining their lives. Nothing of the sort has ever happened to me, and I'm thankful for that. 

From what I hear, MacOS is an amazing operating system being bogged down by limited hardware Apple provides. Plus, it's also UNIX-based, so it's a lot closer to Linux than Windows.

Also, I should probably do a brief introduction to Linux for those of you who who have no idea what I'm talking about. The techies among you can skip this if you want. Or you can read this and tell me how wrong I'm in the comments or something.

GNU/Linux is the operating system that many people refer to as 'Linux'. Linux is the kernel and GNU is the software that is built on top of that kernel.

It's just another operating system like Windows and MacOS. But what separates Linux is it's freedom. Most of the code that goes into Linux is completely open-source and free for anyone to use. This means that you could theoretically change fundamental software stuff in your operating system if you were inclined to do so without having to do anything illegal. And this is why Linux is so widely used among computer hobbyists and CS students. When you know what you're doing, the freedom Linux offers is refreshing.

Another user group that prefers Linux over other operating systems are the privacy warriors. You know, those guys who want to ensure that all user data is kept off the hands of corporations. These are the people that get disgusted by stuff like Windows telemetry data collection and switch to Linux or MacOS. I am of the impession that MacOS is much more focused on user privacy and security compared to Windows but I have no experience with the OS itself.

Within Linux there are many different distributions. These distributions or 'distros' are kinda like different flavors of the same thing. Some of the more popular distros you might've heard about are Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian etc.

These distros further add to the freedom that Linux offers by allowing you to mix and match and choose the distro that best suits your needs. Stuff like Ubuntu are for the normal people who just want a working system. Arch Linux gives you the entire 'DIY build-your-own-operating-system' experience so its mostly prefered by advanced users. Debian is preferred by those who want top-notch stability and Fedora, well, I don't know enough about Fedora yet to make comment on it. I think it's like the 'professional-office' distro or something.

There are literally hundreds of distros out there today. Most of them are forks or modified versions of the popular ones, but every distro has its own niche loyal usergroup.

Based on update schedules, there are two types of distros, Rolling release and Standard release.

Rolling release distros update whenever new versions are available whereas standard release distros accumulate all the updates and update based on a fixed schedule. Most people see rolling release distros as unstable and that's true to some extent. Since these updates are rolled out (heh, rolled out) whenever they're available, all the bugs in the code may not have been properly ironed out yet.

On top of the multiple distro choice you're offered, you're also offered the choice between Desktop Environments. Desktop environments essentially dictate how you're system will look and be accessed.

If distros are the backend, then desktop environments are kinda like the front end. That's a horrible example but it serves as a close-enough analogy.

Some of the popular desktop environments (DE) are GNOME, KDE Plasma, XFCE, MATE etc. etc.

On top of these choices, there are some Linux users who forego the entire DE experience and choose to stick with minimalist Window Managers (WM). 

DEs come packed with a lot of programs like file managers, browsers and WMs. Those who prefer to run WM-based OS generally prefer to manually install the other stuff so they can choose the programs they're more comfortable with.

Now that a whole lotta exposition dump has been cleared, let's start talking about my experiences.

I'm categorizing things in posts, so the next post will detail on my first distro: 'Kubuntu'.

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