ITT: Linux newfags unite

I see quite a few made the switch in the last couple days. What are you using and how was your experience so far?

Other urls found in this thread:

linuxzoo.net/
distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=Linux&category=Beginners&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&status=All#simple
bintray.com/probono/AppImages
mobile-stream.com/easytether/drivers.html
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/android_tethering
mobile-stream.com/beta/ubuntu/16.04/easytether_0.8.7-1_amd64.deb
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

>I see quite a few made the switch in the last couple days.
All me

Mint+KDE.
i3 3220, 16GB ram, runs buttery smooth and the bootup is about the same as it was with my W7 so I don't give a shit about bloat. I love the blurred transparency and smooth fading faggotry and I'm willing to sacrifice some ram for that shit.

Luckily I even got one of my favorite windows programs to run perfectly with Playonlinux and the latest Wine version, which I didn't expect to work at all since it's 100% 3D based.

I was at first really annoyed how silent the sound volume seemed and I didn't want to go over 100% since this means distortion. Then I found out that over in the alsamixer the volume was at like -31db, pulled it all up to 0 and the volume was just like in Windows.
Then I noticed that the sound was kinda flat, so I took a closer look at my sound config and switching to 5.1 brought back all the missing frequencies. I guess the old config just cut away shit for the subwoof but I only run two speakers to my stereo.

Overall I'm totally pleased. Yes, you need to tinker to get it all set up PERFECTLY, so if you're bothered by that stay with Windows.
Setting all up (installation included) took like 6 hours on my end.

I installed angergos with cinnamon. Pretty fast in comparison to windows 8.1. The software store is pretty dope.'

>angergos

I read that as Anger OS

It's working out much better than expected. I used Arch Anywhere on both my laptop and desktop. I really can't complain. Thanks NSA/WannaCry!

Just to let you know, there's a general for you newbies.

Just to let you know, there's a general for you newbies. 2

Have you tried "Antergos"?

Friendly list of software for winrefugees.

Chat, Voip (skype and others): Pidgin
RSS Feeds and Youtube channel organizer and viewer: Liferea
IRC: HexChat
Image Viewer/Organizer (and video previewer): GThumb
System monitor: Conky, GKrellM or HardInfo
Music Tags and metadata: Easytag
Batch renamer: GPRename
Search files: ANGRYsearch
Duplicate files removal: dupeGuru
File manager featured in Jurassic Park: fsv (File System Visualizer)
Virtual Machine: Virtualbox
To launch photoshop and play gaymes: WINE, with winetricks and playonlinux
Download Manager (download videos from youtube, other sites, any file from file sharing sites, with autologin and captcha solver): JDownloader
Torrent: Transmission-gtk
Backup (file synchronization): Unison
Backup: Bison
Drawing: Krita
Image Editing (a.k.a. "photoshoping"): Inkscape
Ebook Viewer: Okular
Music Player: DeaDBeeF
Media Center (online radio,watch and download tv shows and movies): Kodi (XBMC)
Video Player: VLC, or MPV
Video editing: Cinelerra-cv or OpenShot
Video Transcoding: Handbrake
Video compositing: Natron
Screencasting: Open Broadcaster Studio
Password manager: KeePassX
Graphing calculator: GraphMonkey
Laptop powersaving: PowerTOP and TLP
Office Suite: LibreOffice
Desktop publishing (like a pro): Scribus
Document processor (academic papers): LyX
Flashcards: Anki
Counter RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury): Workrave
Typing training: Klavaro
Burning CD/DVD: Xfburn
File Manager: PCManFM

fuck yes, I love those lists.
thank you!

That should be updated with isousb. All new users tempt to distro hopping.

>Image Editing (a.k.a. "photoshoping"): Inkscape

A lot of good advice in that post but on that one you went full retard

The possibility to have a 5.25" floppy as start button pleases my autism greatly!

Ubuntu Mate after having troubles with regular Ubuntu.
Using it for browsing stuff and tinkering with linux in general on another pc before I start using it on my main one.

That's how I did it, too.
First tinkered around with Linux on my laptop and when I got used to it, put it on my main PC.
Much more relaxed than having to dualboot or do a cold turkey switch.

there is no foobar?

np

>isousb
do you mean a live USB or is a tool I am not familiar?

is because for the most basic editing like cropping inkscape got it easier at the moment, I'll check the new UI from gimp and may update the list

you can run that with WINE as it is the case with phososhop, but seriously, deadbeef is for that

Cropping images is quite quickly done in Xnview which is also a great imageviewer

Getting the hang of it

lord jebus

So can gThumb, and is a better imageviewer

Ubuntu on a phone?!

ubuntu touch has been a thing for a while now

will give it a try, thx

2 weeks with Mint in a x220
Not bad.
Not fucking bad.

HEY, ARE YOU NEO

You can have debian too

>Luckily I even got one of my favorite windows programs to run perfectly with Playonlinux and the latest Wine version, which I didn't expect to work at all since it's 100% 3D based.
what program?

Not him but will try on my personal laptop.

I've been using Arch on my company's laptop because I can't stand Windows' boot time and its aftermath of Windows Defender screwing itself by scanning its own exe as suspicious.

Sculptris, lol.
Sounds silly but it's like the Notepad of the 3D world. Super fast 3d sketching of ideas, only a handful of features but all you need to sketch out things. It also starts up in like 1 second and runs actually faster than it did in my w7.
Everything works, even the hotkeys.

I don't think Antergos has a software centre

They do. It's basically GUI for their repo+the AUR

What? I'm on Antergos right now and I don't have one

>most basic editing like cropping
Just use Pinta, bruh. It's like a paint.net (which I consider to be the best laymen image editing software) but for GNU/Linux.

Doesn't Pidgin store passwords in clear text? Wouldn't use it for anything sensitive

Lubuntu user here, how the fuck to change DPI scaling? I'm on 49in w/ 4k res TV and everything looks fucking smol.

It's your update manager

using 10SE under WinD0VV5 Kernel

New to both the Thinkpad and Linux meme. Picked up a t430s for $95 and I've started with Ubuntu. I've been using both for about 9 days and I really enjoy it. The laptop is excellent, considering what I paid. Linux is a bit frustrating, but the terminal alone has made it worth the switch.

What are some beginner friendly resource for Linux and computers in general?

>What are some beginner friendly resource for Linux and computers in general?
Sup Forums

How do you install shit in Linux? Every time i download something i get a .tar.gz meme that contains a bunch of random crap(no installer), jewgle search for help only finds 7 year old forum threads with commands that don't work anymore.

I was thinking more like books or videos that would give me a general run about of Linux. I'm kind of tired of asking question and waiting too long for an answer. I could just search some random books up, but was thinking somebody had some solid recommendations.

>tfw you realize that Pinta is an anagram of Paint

>downloading programs from a website on Linux
You realize the entire point of a package manager is to remove the need to go to a website, download an executable and run it, correct?

Here's how you install things on Linux:
Depending on your distro, you may or may not have a graphical interface for your package manager. If you do, then it will be similar to what Apple calls an "app store", where you simply click on existing programs and install them after giving proper permission.

If you don't have a graphical interface, that's okay. The terminal can run package managers too.

Depending on which distro you have, you may have a different package manager.

On Debian and its derivatives such as Ubuntu and Mint, the package manager is called "apt". So using the terminal, you can write "sudo (do this with superuser permission) apt (the package manager) install (an argument which says to install) (the package's name).

For instance, sudo apt install vim will install Vim, a text editor.

If you are on Arch, Antergos, or Manjaro, the package manager is pacman.

Pacman's install argument is -S, so to install a package, it would be sudo pacman -S vim

Yet other distros use other package managers. The main lesson to learn here is that the terminal will open a program when that programs name is entered (entering "firefox" opens firefox), so when you type apt, you are actually running a program called apt, and any further arguments after apt will specify what apt should do (for instance, the argument "autoremove" will uninstall a package and its associates.)

I made the switch from W7 to Ubuntu. Well, actually, I dualboot W7 and Ubuntu. W7 for gaymin, and Ubuntu for everything else.
I'm afraid to try any of the other linux distros because I like Ubuntu so much, even though it's the only one I've tried so far.

I'm open to trying other distros. I was thinking maybe Arch or Debian, maybe. Idk, it's just that, Ubuntu is really nice.
I don't do a whole lot on the compy other than write code and occasionally play games. I use my windows 7 OS maybe like, two or three times every few weeks, just for games.

I currently run Linux mint and am considering switching to gentoo. My observation is that Linux mint has issues with WiFi connectivity, but I've adapted to that. Is Gentoo better? Also, when I'm at home, I dont have WiFi (long story) so I need to tether my cellphone to my laptop for internet. I have never been able to do this on mint. Not saying its impossible, I'm saying I can't (usually) keep my laptop in a hotspot long enough to install everything it needs to make this work. Meaning I need to be able to download packages on my phone, transfer them to the laptop, and go from there. I can do this with clockworkmod for tethering, but it will not configure because it needs to install other shit directly through CLI which can't happen because I never have WiFi. See my problem? Does anyone have a solution or am I trying to spin straw into gold here?

Ubuntu is a well-known sinkhole for inexperienced users which traps them, data-mines, and runs all kinds of non-free software and blobs. It's a watered down Linux experience which detracts from what makes Linux superior to proprietary operating systems like MacOS and Windows.

The main thing about distros you need to know is that what makes a distro special is not how it looks, but what is running under the hood. How does it manage packages? Which repositories do the developers support compatibility for? How quickly does my system update- as soon as possible, or only every once in a while for maximum stability and fewest broken programs?

These are the kinds of questions you should be asking. If you like a certain desktop environment, there is nothing preventing you from swapping one out for another, on any distribution. A desktop environment has essentially nothing to do with what gives a distro its identity. Very superficial stuff like that is so customizable that from distro to distro its not different at all ultimately.

An ubuntu-based distro that comes with only free-software is Trisquel. If you are considering Arch, an overall better choice is Antergos. My distro of choice is Devuan, which is a fork of Debian. Fedora is a gratis, faster-updating/experimental version of Red Hat.

There's even more out-there stuff like Void Linux and Alpine Linux which offer their own quirks. Point is, choosing a distribution has very little to do with the surface experience.

Let me stop you. Install Gentoo is a meme.

Gentoo is a very customizable and very advanced distribution. It's designed to be a blank slate that you shove everything into manually from source. Going from Linux Mint to Gentoo is the equivalent of going from a tricycle to competing in the tour-de-France.

Linux Mint is a pretty bad distribution. I would suggest going to a more professionally maintained distribution like Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora.

Understanding the assembly language is important, right?

pinta also literally means paint in spanish

I heard Ubuntu is just as problematic as mint?

Don't know the name off the top of my head, but I think its "learn the Linux command line" from no scratch press. That's a pretty good book, and you can get the PDF free online

Ubuntu and mint are the same shit.

Try Fedora or maybe Antergos if you want the Arch experience without the autism.

Not as. Ubuntu has upsetting features, but Mint is downright unprofessional and incompetent these days. Ubuntu is good at being meh. Mint is meh at being good.

Only if you're writing Unix-like kernels in the early 90s. ;)

So DE is just out of the question, whereas I should consider how the OS operates?

Yeah. Forget about the DE. All that can be changed post-installation. What you should be concerned about is how the developer keeps things updated, how much of the work is done for you, how flexible it is, how much space it takes, etc.

There are reasons to use a distro that are very obscure. For instance, you might want a distro that can easily be launched from a USB stick on any computer and then forgotten once you leave. In that case, you'd use Tails.

You might want a distro to be very flexible for use in a computer in a shop or something rather than used as a desktop. In that case, you'd want Gentoo.

You might want a distro that's very lightweight so you can run it on an older PC.

You have to think "What are my needs when I use my computer?" and choose a distro that suits those needs.

>You have to think "What are my needs when I use my computer?"
Games, MS Office and the Adobe Suite :^)

Great advice man

>Going from Linux Mint to Gentoo is the equivalent of going from a tricycle to competing in the tour-de-France.
Gonna steal this analogy senpai

Welp, I was hoping to check Mint but I guess I'll give Antergos a shot.

Using Centos 6 on my VPS because it's cheap and came pre-installed. Got major problems now because 6 is ancient. Not looking forward to a reinstall to 7.

Can't compile .net core binaries because only 0.5G RAM, thus using nodejs

Check here The first torrent contains near 10GB of compressed video tutorials in order of experience, you can select anyone you want

The second is a book collection or over 170GB, among that is a folder on informatics, and inside that there is an entire folder for GNU/Linux

linuxzoo.net/

I made the switch a few days ago to Arch, but I'll have you know. I am no newfag!

Is isousb any better than dd or Rufus?

Is pcmanfm any better than thunar?

Well, sometimes there is no package with the program you want, and that happens
If so, it was still usually built sanely and you can configure, build and install the program yourself, although it isn't recommended.
Untar the archive
Read the fucking README or install guide provided in it
Then usually run the configure script, make, then sudo make install.
Try finding a package for scheme...

I just installed Antergos on my new PC. But now I'm having second thoughts about dual booting because >>>>overwatch.

Well of course you'll dual boot. I need my games. Just don't put windows 10. Go 8.1 or some shit.

im gay

Tried Solus. It's pretty nice and I didn't have installation errors or incompatibilities with my specs like on ubuntu.
I'm using the gnome version and so far my only regrets are random lag when playing tf2 (can't tell if linux or tf2 fault) and inconsistencies in the topbar design
Something I'm having troubles with is that using non-common distro I always struggle to solve issues whenever they show themselves

is simpler and more intuitive, if you look for one more customizable check spacefm

I'm thinking about trying GNU/linux, which distro should I use?

Before deciding do a distro search in distrowatch distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=Linux&category=Beginners&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&status=All#simple

Daily Appimages reminder:

>Linux apps that run anywhere. Download an application, make it executable, and run!

bintray.com/probono/AppImages

I use both

see

The future indeed, I hope source based distros survive though

I like the idea of having distro related system tools, like DE, sound, networking etc.managed by the package manager and programs used by the users as appimages in Applications (or whatever called) folder.
Checkout gobolinux

I bet is exactly that what mainstream distros are aiming to, good eye user

>Try finding a package for scheme...
Literally apt-get install scm on Debian

That's what i did it too. Someone gifted me an old 2010 Toshiba satelite with bad battery that needs to connect to power all the time to work, so i decided it would be ideal vessel to start getting into linux. I wanted to at least try it without fucking around with my desktop.
I tried Ubuntu mate(first distro and i liked it the most for some reasons), mint, manjaro, antergos, xubuntu, lubuntu changing desktop environments and experimenting.
I all cases except mint i had problems with reset and shutting down lap top. Something to do with soft reset message. After tinkering with mate i made it work but was frustrating so i went back to mint cuz as i said its the only distro i didn't had said problem.
Went to Ubuntu forums and no one had decisive answer about the fix, some say its my hardware some say it's kernel problem.
So i said fuck it kept mint and put win7 dual boot. All in all im happy im still turbo linux noob but i learned couple of new things and changed my way back f thinking, witch is biggest advantage of Linux imo. Expanding knowledge and learning new stuff about computers.

Stackexchange. When you encounter a problem just keyword bruteforce it with your search engine of choice.

We already knew that

Ubuntu Mate

Mint is mint m8

If I didn't have Google to search for fucking every little issue in Linux I would really just give up on it.

I have absolutely no Linux experience, how would I go around installing Easytether drivers on Elementary OS 0.4?

Drivers here
mobile-stream.com/easytether/drivers.html

elementary O's 0.4 is based on ubuntu 16.04.2, so this one will probably work;
Ubuntu 17.04/16.10/16.04, Mint 18 (notes apply): amd64 / arm64 / armhf / i386 / powerpc / ppc64el
(note: 32bit version is "i386", 64bit version is "amd64" (yes, even if you use an intel cpu))

I tried that earlier and got a "Failed to install file" with and unknown error code. Some user over in /fglt/ told me to check out wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/android_tethering but I'm pretty lost.

Have you downloaded mobile-stream.com/beta/ubuntu/16.04/easytether_0.8.7-1_amd64.deb

Yea, got the same error as above. More specifically it says
Failed to install file
Failed with unknown error code.

out of curiosity, what are you using it for?
android already has tethering support built in

pic related
and in lsusb;
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 04e8:6864 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9070 (network tethering, USB debugging enabled)

this should just werk, functions like a standard/generic usb ethernet device which most OS's support

A picture is worth a thousand words, good job.

I'm leaving on a pretty long trip soon, so I wanted to have a semi-reliable internet source for my laptop. I used to use Easytether with Windows because it was super simple. Bit more involved with Eos tho

And does that shit actually just work? Enabling a setting in Developer options? The fuck did I buy this app years ago for then?

I've used *nixes forever mostly on servers, workstations and low-end systems like netbooks where I felt a tiler would make better use of the screen real estate, but I've never daily driven it really and set up another system to mess around with the other week.
>finally managed to mostly imitate the feel of my cozy Slowlaris 10 CDE setup in KDE
>finally have a nice Alpine configuration I can use with multiple accounts
>finally have a decent development system I don't need to SSH into university computers to access
>finally have a mobile terminal server I can set up with applications and hang my legacy boxes off of via serial
>finally have a system I can trust for secure transactions

But I still like my commercial staples, the occasional niche piece of software and most importantly a Steam client that isn't a slow, literally unusable piece of shit so I can talk to friends who don't want to juggle multiple clients, so it's staying a companion system for now.

>The fuck did I buy this app years ago for then?
welcome to the world of open source