User:CornRedCoffee/sandbox

= How to get started with Linux - A beginner's guide to Linux =

What this wiki is all about ?
It's an attempt to make your Linux journey simple. My aim is to provide a simple and easy to understand guide to the beginners that they can understand. It is focussed towards beginners who come from different backgrounds hoping to learn about linux out of curiosity or simply because of privacy and security. But since they are used to Windows and Mac, they face a wall. Or, because of unprepared transition, they find themselves in a difficult position. This guide is my attempt to make linux just a little easier.

Have fun, hope it helps to whoever it concerns.

What this wiki is not ?
This is not a linux user manual

Phase 1 - Research
You should never go head first in not only Linux but any OS. You should do your research first. And in general it is smart to know about your PC. But what will you research ? I am listing some of the key things that you should look for.

1. What is your processor - Intel, Ryzen etc. ?
What is the version of your processor ?

For example - pentium, celeron, i3, i5, Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5 etc.

2.1 What is the version of your graphic card ?
Depending on the type of graphic card you have on your computer or laptop your installation might be different. To drive your graphic card, your operating system, Linux in this case, needs drivers.

This is a list of top 10 graphic cards manufacturers


 * 1) Nvidia
 * 2) AMD
 * 3) Asus
 * 4) Intel
 * 5) EVGA
 * 6) Gigabyte
 * 7) Sapphire
 * 8) Zotac
 * 9) Via
 * 10) Power VR

If you have Nvidia, you have to keep it hardwired in your mind that you will have to choose proprietary drivers in installation. This is very important

3.1 What is the name ?
You will probably need to download drivers for it later, in that case knowing about your wireless network card will save you so much time.

4. What is your BIOS type ?
4.1 UEFI or Legacy BIOS ? If you have a Mac then skip it, Mac never uses BIOS.

4.1.1 If UEFI, then MBR or GPT ?

5. What is the key/button for accessing BIOS on Your PC ?
Different laptops have different keys. You have to know it, you'll need it.

6. What is the key for accessing bootloader menu ?
You will need it if you use dualboot.

7. What is your system architecture - 64 bit or 32 bit ?
Choose Distro or even apps according to that. A 64 bit computer should install 64 bit OS and same goes for 32 bit. And not just for OS, it is important for installing softwares as well. Don't try to interchange. These days mostly 64 bit computers are in the market. Still, never hurts to check.

1. Do you already use a computer ?
Then chances are your computer already has an OS, unless your laptop came without any OS or you simply built your own desktop. Chances are it is running on WIndows or Mac. Virtualbox or Virtual machine is a very good way to use any operating system not only Linux on your already running operating system, windows or mac in your case.

Linux has many version/OS, they are called Distros. You should start with any linux Distro in a virtualbox or Virtual Machine in your current system, before you try Linux on your PC/Mac. You can try an OS and decide whether you want to use it or try something different.

1.1 What is a virtualbox or a Virtual Machine ?
It is a software that creates a virtual computer on your computer. Anything happens inside of it, stays inside of it. If you messed up, simply delete that particular OS from your Virtual Machine/virtualbox. With the help of it, you can install any OS in it and use it. The downside of it is that they can be really slow.

2. Never leave your current OS completely, in the beginning
You should not leave your current operating system completely in the beginning. Do you know you can actually have linux alongside your current operating system i.e., Windows or Mac ? You have to use dualboot method to be able to do that. You should use linux in dualboot in the beginning months or years. You never know what you might need, that is not easily accessible on linux or simply doesn't exist. You would want to have your original OS that you are accustomed to. And to use linux and your OS this way, you will need bootloader menu key as I mentioned earlier.

True story
It was about 3 days after I installed LMDE 5. My father called me on phone and asked me to send my photo and an identity card over whatsapp. He was at the shoplet. I did not want him to wait. I keep my photos and documents in image form and pdf form on my computer. So all I had to do was to use whatsapp web on my laptop and send those 2 items. But when I opened Whatsapp web and browsed the items, I realised that unlike whatsapp on windows, images were not showing preview easily and tiles and large/small icon option was not visible to me on my LMDE 5. It could be that me being a beginner at that time got confused. My father was in a hurry, he called me several times. I did not want him to wait any longer. I immediately switched off my linux OS, and switched on my Windows 10. And then sent my photo and ID.

3. Start with a stable distros.
Choose any Distro which requires least updates. If you use internet on a metered connection, don’t choose a distro that uses too much updates. You should especially avoid arch based distros like Manjaro. In just maybe a week or two, if your didn’t update or simply use your linux OS, it will accumulate heavy update and even for installing a small browser, you’ll end up updating a whole lot of different programs.

You should go distros like Linux Mint, or Linux Mint Debian Edition 5, or Ubuntu. Though, Ubuntu still uses updates, it is at least user friendly.

4. Expect it to be different
If you're a Windows user, have you ever used your friend's Macbook ? Did you feel it different from windows ? Or, If you're a Mac user, have you ever used your friend's Windows computer ? Did you feel it different from Mac ? Linux is just like that. It is different. Just don't be intimidated. Expect the difference in everything.

5. You should not ask linux users for help.
Don't ask Linux users coz they want to feel special and will troll you on your lack of knowledge. Or, they will simply fail to understand how beginner feels. Not all Linux users are like that though, but you'll have to face arrogant linux users eventually. That’s just the way it is.

6. Learn the installation process, as well as how to use Linux from Youtube.
Follow the installation procedure from YouTube. Just follow step by step. Also, you should learn how to use linux from Youtube. Having seen the command behaves in a live environment is a far better way to learn than to read it from text based sources like websites or forums.

Pro Tip
Watch tutorial on a separate device, like a phone or a separate laptop/computer. This is what I do. I watch tutorial on my phone while installing on laptop.

Phase 3 - After Installation
Once you have installed your first linux distro, unless you simply want to have it for keeping your computer on and simply surf the web, play video, audio and basic day to day work like creating documents, you will need to learn how to use linux.

1. Don't bother about terminal in the beginning.
Modern Distros are made very simple and user friendly and give you clicking method. For simple day to day task, you will not need to use terminal much.

If you are interested into terminal, learn it from YouTube/internet, preferably on Youtube, as you will see exactly how the command behaves. If you are not interested, leave it.

Though you should learn it. It will be handy in many cases. If possible try them on VM. Believe it or not Linux is actually easy, just different from

Windows or Mac.

2. There are awesome websites that will teach you how to use the terminal !
Here are some of them

https://linuxjourney.com/

3. There wiki pages dedicated to specific OSes.
You should pick one for your OS and learn manual pages of commands. It's not easy to understand, but sparing it a glance can save you some trouble (and bothering linux veterans).

Here is one of them.

https://ubuntuforums.org/

5. Learn to provide infos !
There are adequate tools for each usecase.

You can see examples of that in the "issues" tab on github projects or on bugzilla.

But try to keep it simple and goal oriented.