Wanting to try Linux

inflames · 2025-11-26T20:08:39+0000

I am seriously thinking of trying Linux not something I have used before. I am very familiar and fluent in both windows and Mac OS. But never tried Linux, just wanted to have a go and see what all the fuss is about.
Was thinking of doing a dual boot so I can still use windows 11. Admittedly if I was to every move over fully I would want something I can daily drive, mostly gaming, internet and the occasional office document. I don’t use office, I currently use Libra. Been told Ubuntu is a good place to start also been told that Bazzite is good for gaming.
Anyone got some good recommendations, or is best to dive in a learn hand on with it?

Rroff · 2025-11-26T20:20:37+0000

If you just want to mess about I'd probably use VirtualBox in Windows - I wouldn't start dual-booting unless/until you commit more to it.

jockery2 · 2025-11-26T20:31:27+0000

You can absolutely spin it up in VirtualBox first, but just keep in mind that gaming performance in a VM won’t really reflect what you’d get on a native install. If the goal is to see how Linux feels, virtualizing is fine. But if you want to test real gaming performance or hardware behavior, a simple dual-boot is usually smoother and lower-risk as long as you back up first.

Steveocee · 2025-11-26T20:37:02+0000

Zorin is a nice transitional OS. It’s underpinned by Debian which is what Ubuntu sits on. Well polished. Good apps for getting yourself used to Linux.

InkZ · 2025-11-26T20:41:19+0000

I would just stick it in a virtual machine to mess about with. If you want to take it further then set up a dual boot

inflames · 2025-11-26T20:55:04+0000

That’s a good idea a VB might the best first step. Thanks guys.

RobDogDog · 2025-11-27T08:30:48+0000

I've recently tried Ubuntu and Mint. Used Ubuntu for a while and then fancied a change. Really like Mint so far.

Throrik · 2025-11-27T09:38:09+0000

Ignoring any niche outliers such as LFS, Gentoo, Slackware and a few others - the majority of Distros are going to be mostly the same to every-day end users. Don't fall into the trap of distro-X is better than distro-Y - there are small differences here and there and some have pre-config done more for other things, but any of the big ones are going to be fine. The majority of them are just custom packaged Debian in reality.

Glanza · 2025-11-27T10:02:46+0000

Bazzite or Pop OS seem to the 'go to' for more of a gaming focused OS compared to other distros.

meandu229 · 2025-11-27T10:42:28+0000

Bazzite would probably be my first foray into linux nowadays. I do think that Linux would cover most peoples daily needs (assuming no need for kernel anti-cheat and some specific apps (adobe)).
However there are still many paper cuts and things work differently so I believe you have to actually want to use it (or just want to not use windows) in order to look past those papercuts.
Ive been almost exclusively Linux based (bar bf6) for a few years, use mac/chromeos and occasionally windows at work and vastly prefer my Linux desktop to all the others.
As for should you install on a VM or whatever, if you have all your docs in cloud or something Id just say go for it and wipe off windows, installing windows is pretty simple now if/when you want to go back.

inflames · 2025-11-27T21:13:34+0000

meandu229 said:
Bazzite would probably be my first foray into linux nowadays. I do think that Linux would cover most peoples daily needs (assuming no need for kernel anti-cheat and some specific apps (adobe)).
However there are still many paper cuts and things work differently so I believe you have to actually want to use it (or just want to not use windows) in order to look past those papercuts.
Ive been almost exclusively Linux based (bar bf6) for a few years, use mac/chromeos and occasionally windows at work and vastly prefer my Linux desktop to all the others.
As for should you install on a VM or whatever, if you have all your docs in cloud or something Id just say go for it and wipe off windows, installing windows is pretty simple now if/when you want to go back.

I am definitely more in the I don’t want to use windows / Microsoft camp, one of the reasons I use Libra office instead. I jumped over to mac years ago because I couldn’t stand windows 8. I liked 10 enough it come back and it was the best solution for my gaming PC I wanted to build as gaming on mac was a pain.

At the minute I am thinking of giving it a go in a virtual box and see how I get on with it. Gives me time to seriously think it over as, whilst I play BF6 and maybe change over once I get bored of it.

randal · 2025-11-27T21:42:27+0000

BF6 is the only thing keeping a Windows partition on my machine, else I'd be vanilla Debian all day long these days.

Fortunately Arc Raiders seems to have the attention of our gaming group and that runs tremendously well under Linux.

edit - AMD GPUs are far easier to get up and running, although Nvidia isn't insurmountable. There are plenty of guides out there. Also depending on your board you might have some compatibility issues to work around with various BIOS settings etc. Power states and USB devices have taken a little bit of tweaking to get stable, as well as RGB stuff (mainly so I can turn it all off) but again it's a fairly well trodden path.