#should I install linux

[convivial-conniving]

I go on tumblr. There are 3 new posts in my following tab. I go to my for you page. I see some shit written by a 14 year old that I do not care about. I reblog a communist. I wish I could uninstall all social media forever. I leave. This repeats forever.

[sl33py-g4m3r]

some newbie questions I'm thinking about and trying to figure out~~ cause even though I've been a linux user off and on for a bit I still consider myself a newbie.

what is systemd? should I avoid it? why all the hate?

cause "it doesn't follow the unix philosophy/is bloated/etc"

should I find a distribution that doesn't use it and install it and give it a whirl?

or should I try to install freebsd and give that a shot? I've thought about that for a while too but worry I'm not smart enough to get it to work....

and scared I'll break something and not be able to fix it~~ :(

anxiety go brrr

surely there are linux distributions that don't use systemd~~ and hopefully they're just as easy to use as linux mint~~ but I've also tangled w fedora way back when..... so hopefully I'll get a handle on stuff and normalize it fast~~~

down the unix/linux/bsd rabbit hole~~~ lol

a very sleepy post

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[xwhitepolar]

Bodyshop on Linux let's goooooo 🤩

[beebfreeb]

have you heard of rain world

I have the game! I just haven't played very far into it at all, because I suck bad at it. ^.^

[pizzleyanked]

FEDORA INSTALLED ON MY SSD!!!! i'm still on my dad's laptop bc i want to chat w my wife uninterrupted on discord on the other but im starting to set things up

[girderednerve]

windows alt codes are soooo stupid, they don't support the full unicode character set & they don't work unless you have a numpad. i don't understand why these exist. just support unicode directly the way my linux desktop does!! i want to type the tag-friendly comma!!!!!

[glimpsesofeuterpe]

microsoft turned off their servers for russians therefore updates refuse to load / get fixed properly when/if broken sigh

[transmandrake]

Unexpected side effect of using Linux this past year is that, actually, computer tasks and Specific Programs are WAY easier to use, set up, install, and manage on Linux than on Windows.

Yknow, I assumed I just didn't have the texhnical know-how to do stuff with computers, but actually Windows is an outlier!

Previously where I had a whole folder of single-use programs I have specific setups for to do a specifc thing, now I just look it up on whatever store/package manager the distro uses and 90% of the time its a line or two in the terminal, or, rarely, a free open source program made for Linux that just... works. No fiddling or extra fluff or need to pirate a subscription-based software (errr, buy. I mean buy.)

It just works. It looks great. It feels great!

And at this point? It's harder to install Windows on something. Seriously.

[angsttronaut]

why oh why do i have to like programs that tie me to windows

[recreationaldivorce]

man i love the jetbrains ides but they take up soooo much memory i wish they would just rewrite their ides in a native language...

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[sl33py-g4m3r]

Linix-Unix-BSD Laptop Journey~~ (and some questions again)

yet another question~~ tho up to my own musings and uncertainty at this point~~

I'm too afraid to try to install FreeBSD cause I'm worried I won't be able to dig up some needed internet info and that makes me feel dumb~~ is the Domain Name not the Hostname or name of the wifi? or would it be my ISP's website or something?

I like tech but not knowing this makes me feel stupid lol even though I'm probably not~~~ and that's just anxiety lying to me~~~

also is there any point in moving from Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 to Debian 11 disks that I have burned?

the only one with the zoom feature (unless I install something if I can find it) is the Cinnamon Desktop, and at that point I see no point on dropping Mint for pure Debian in that case....

need accessibility for my blind butt (despite also being stubborn and not using it half the time anyway lol)

ALSO none of the debian live CDs that I tried saw my WIFI and idk why~~ and they're all debian 11...

might need to download newer versions and burn them to disk I guess~~

or maybe if I installed one of them anyway, and actually hooked it to ethernet, then installed updates whether it would see my wifi then? idk

found a distro that doesn't use SystemD called PCLinuxOS and thought about giving that a try, but idk if it's good for someone like me, but I got a handle sort of on fedora back in the day.

So currently stuck on linux mint debian edition cause I'm afraid to give freebsd a try due to maybe not having the network information requited and idk where to find it~~ and cause debian just straight up wouldn't see my wifi~~ tho I've also said before in this post that idk if it's a good idea or not to go from linux mint debian, to straight debian.... cause I'm going to be stuck with the Cinnamon desktop anyway~~

like yesterday I spent all morning booting into all the debian live CDs that I had; except for the standard which I think is GNOME, and none of them could even SEE my wifi or ANY wifi

now I hate that I seem like the person that just wants things to work instead of tinker w stuff to get it to work, cause that's part of the fun and frustration of being on linux I suppose~~~ and I really hope I'm smart enough to figure stuff out~~

would be happy to eventually jump to a more unix like OS cause I believe the backbone of the internet is UNIX anyway~~ :)

I like to think I'm a nerd and a techie but at the same time think I'm stupid and don't know anything~~ if I'm being brutally honest w myself~~ but I guess you got to be feeling stupid to learn huh?

tldr; and making the questions more easily found~~ my journey through linux/bsd computer systems so far, and where I'm at....

Is it worth it to install pure debian if I'm already using linux mint debian (and the wifi actually works), should I get away from SystemD and try to install PCLinuxOS? or FreeBSD? am I smart enough to install FreeBSD? What network information do I need and where can I find it?

and yet another random question at the bottom cause I remembered a linux youtube channel where they talked about a bunch of stuff way back in the 2010s I think called "Jupiter Broadcasting" what happened to them?

wanted to go eventually to FreeBSD cause it's more unix like than linux, and i think more cohesive as a whole as opposed to bits and pieces mossaic'd together in linux.... also if it is more unix based, unix as far as I'm aware is the backbone of the internet if I'm remembering correctly~~ and I'd be happy to use it~~~

so idk what I'm doing~~ lol, stay on linux mint debian cause it works? try to get FreeBSD installed, try to find out how to fix debian not seeing my WIFI (I'd hoped that if I installed it and connected it to ethernet that updates would fix that), or install PCLinuxOS that I found? cause it looks neat~~~

more history about myself~~ as dumb as it sounds, or maybe not, my dad was into tech, he'd built his first computer and if it wasn't for him pirating some version of windows, we never would've had it, lol. but ye he was a techie, and he showed me the 1995 movie "hackers". I watched that on repeat through my teenage years for some reason~~ the music was good, and now I learnt that that's not actually bow hacking works, lol it's a cheesy film.... but that sparked an interest in technology and eventually led me to finding linux to begin with. and Unix~~ cause I thought it was something that my dad and I could do together~~~ but we never did...... but the techie interest stuck~~~~ I need to rewatch that film and find the soundtrack CDs I have~~~ been a while~~~~

second guessing it am I even smart enough to run anything other than linux mint anyway? probably yes but I doubt my own intelligence, lol. especially I think anyone irl I've shown my writing to or talked to say that I'm "smart as a whip" but I don't see it.... :(

[pirefyrelight]

Im so tired all of a sudden. is it usually because I usually have caffeine at lunch but not today? the smaller lunch? Surely it's not the tiredness than comes from changing 2 lightbulbs, breaking down a few boxes, clearing off my dining room table to take inventory of computer parts, and ordering pants and bras online. like surely im standing and moving a lot more in that time during a regular working day.

I don't want to take a nap because that will throw absolutely everything off for this week I just know it. But there's nothing I want to Do that's obtainable. I just finished the show I was watching, I don't feel like reading. I guess I could take Out the boxes I just broke down, but hnng

[fierykitten2]

My phone’s battery is actually making shit up as it goes along. It was at 6% so I turned it off and an hour or two later I put it on the charger for about a minute and it was 12 maybe a minute after I took it off the charger and then I checked almost immediately afterwards and it had gone down to 10% and then I checked very soon after again and it was suddenly 7%. When I got home (and it had not been on the charger since I saw it at 7%) it was at 8% then I looked at the battery when it was put on the charger a few seconds later and it was at 4%. I mean I know I don’t trust low power mode but I thought the battery level would at least make sense when it was on that mode

[just-watch-and-calculate]

I had to (briefly) explain to a friend recently that linux does not run "on windows". it runs on what can run windows. it even runs on some stuff that can't run windows.

like microsoft and preinstalled windows keeps people super clueless and its so horrible. people don't even know they can be independent of microsoft. like ew how horrible is that shitty corporation

also to the people who want steamOS for desktop, that isnt how having more than just one distribution of an OS works :) you don't need steam to make steamOS for desktop you can try other distros, I hear bazzite is good for linux desktop gaming :)

and of in doubt you can try linux in a virtual machine

and for a more general purpose distro that has much if not all working right away theres Linux Mint and LMDE; and my time using opensuse has also been great

windows users love complaining about microsoft to me and when i suggest linux they're all like nooo installing it is too harddddd and when i offer helping them going through this process that is as easy as installing windows (while having none of the drawbacks) they're all like. but im scareddddd

of what? actually owning your computer???

[mothbaaalls]

looking longingly at a replacement battery for my laptop... i really wanna get it but i wonder whether it'd be worth it

[alongtidesoflight]

i'd also like to recommend Bread On Penguins's channel for when you've gotten the hang of your new distro a little and want to get into the nitty gritty of linux in general.

also, this post has started to attract a "(distro that ISN'T kde based) SUPREMACY!!!"-crowd (i'm only surprised it took this long) and i again wanna say that it all boils down to user preference. this post is geared towards freshly migrating linux beginners and so is kubuntu. don't come yapping to me about performance in the comments. whatever you want to say: i am aware, bro, trust me. this post isn't for you and you're being annoying. learn how to read. try it some time. i hear it's good for your soul.

in wake of yet another wave of people being turned off by windows, here's a guide on how to dual boot windows and 🐧 linux 🐧 (useful for when you're not sure if you wanna make the switch and just wanna experiment with the OS for a bit!)

if you look up followup guides online you're gonna see that people are telling you to use ubuntu but i am gonna show you how to do this using kubuntu instead because fuck GNOME. all my homies hate GNOME.

i'm just kidding, use whatever distro you like. my favorite's kubuntu (for a beginner home environment). read up on the others if you're curious. and don't let some rando on reddit tell you that you need pop! OS for gaming. gaming on linux is possible without it.

why kubuntu?

- it's very user friendly

- it comes with applications people might already be familiar with (VLC player and firefox for example)

- libreoffice already preinstalled

- no GNOME (sorry GNOME enthusiasts, let me old man yell at the clouds) (also i'm playing this up for the laughs. wholesome kde/gnome meme at the bottom of this post.)

for people who are interested in this beyond my tl;dr: read this

(if you're a linux user, don't expect any tech wizardry here. i know there's a billion other and arguably better ways to do x y and/or z. what i'm trying to do here is to keep these instructions previous windows user friendly. point and click. no CLI bro, it'll scare the less tech savvy hoes. no vim supremacy talk (although hell yeah vim supremacy). if they like the OS they'll figure out bash all by themselves in no time.)

first of all, there'll be a GUI. you don't need to type lines of code to get this all running. we're not going for the ✨hackerman aesthetics✨ today. grab a mouse and a keyboard and you're good to go.

what you need is a computer/laptop/etc with enough disk space to install both windows and linux on it. i'm recommending to reserve at least a 100gb for the both of them. in the process of this you'll learn how to re-allocate disk space either way and you'll learn how to give and take some, we'll do a bit of disk partitioning to fit them both on a single disk.

and that's enough babbling for now, let's get to the actual tutorial:

🚨IMPORTANT. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON A 32BIT SYSTEM. ONLY DO THIS IF YOU'RE WORKING WITH A 64BIT SYSTEM. 🚨 (win10 and win11: settings -> system -> about -> device specifications -> system type ) it should say 64bit operating system, x64-based processor.

step 1: install windows on your computer FIRST. my favorite way of doing this is by creating an installation media with rufus. you can either grab and prepare two usb sticks for each OS, or you can prepare them one after the other. (pro tip: get two usb sticks, that way you can label them and store them away in case you need to reinstall windows/linux or want to install it somewhere else)

in order to do this, you need to download three things:

rufus

win10 (listen. i know switching to win11 is difficult. not much of a fan of it either. but support's gonna end for good. you will run into hiccups. it'll be frustrating for everyone involved. hate to say it, but in this case i'd opt for installing its dreadful successor over there ->) or win11

kubuntu (the download at the top is always the latest, most up-to-date one)

when grabbing your windows installation of choice pick this option here, not the media creation tool option at the top of the page:

side note: there's also very legit key sellers out there who can hook you up with cheap keys. you're allowed to do that if you use those keys privately. don't do this in an enterprise environment though. and don't waste money on it if your ultimate goal is to switch to linux entirely at one point.

from here it's very easy sailing. plug your usb drive into your computer and fire up rufus (just double click it).

🚨two very important things though!!!!!!:🚨

triple check your usb device. whatever one you selected will get wiped entirely in order to make space for your installation media. if you want to be on the safe side only plug in the ONE usb stick you want to use. and back up any music, pictures or whatever else you had on there before or it'll be gone forever.

you can only install ONE OS on ONE usb drive. so you need to do this twice, once with your kubuntu iso and once with your windows iso, on a different drive each.

done. now you can dispense windows and linux left and right, whenever and wherever you feel like it. you could, for example, start with your designated dual boot device. installing windows is now as simple as plugging the usb device into your computer and booting it up. from there, click your way through the installation process and come back to this tutorial when you're ready.

step 2: preparing the disks for a dual boot setup

on your fresh install, find your disk partitions. in your search bar enter either "diskmgr" and hit enter or just type "partitions". the former opens your disk manager right away, the latter serves you up with this "create and format hard disk partitions" search result and that's what you're gonna be clicking.

you'll end up on a screen that looks more or less like in the screenshot below. depending on how many disks you've installed this might look different, but the basic gist is the same. we're going to snip a little bit off Disk 0 and make space for kubuntu on it. my screenshot isn't the best example because i'm using the whole disk and in order to practice what i preach i'd have to go against my own advice. that piece of advice is: if this screen intimidates you and you're not sure what you're doing here, hands off your (C:) drive, EFI system, and recovery partition. however, if you're feeling particularly fearless, go check out the amount of "free space" to the right. is there more than 30gb left available? if so, you're free to right click your (C:) drive and click "shrink volume"

this screen will pop up:

the minimum disk space required for kubuntu is 25gb. the recommended one is 50gb. for an installation like this, about 30gb are enough. in order to do that, simply change the value at

Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB: to 30000

and hit Shrink.

once that's done your partitions will have changed and unallocated space at about the size of 30gb should be visible under Disk 0 at the bottom like in the bottom left of this screenshot (courtesy of microsoft.com):

this is gonna be kubuntu's new home on your disk.

step 3: boot order, BIOS/UEFI changes

all you need to do now is plug the kubuntu-usb drive you prepared earlier with rufus into your computer again and reboot that bad boy.

the next step has no screenshots. we're heading into your UEFI/BIOS (by hitting a specific key (like ESC, F10, Enter) while your computer boots up) and that'll look different for everyone reading this. if this section has you completely lost, google how to do these steps for your machine.

a good search term would be: "[YOUR DEVICE (i.e Lenovo, your mainboard's name, etc.)] change boot order"

what you need to do is to tell your computer to boot your USB before it tries to boot up windows. otherwise you won't be able to install kubuntu.

this can be done by entering your BIOS/UEFI and navigating to a point called something along the lines of "boot". from "boot order" to "booting devices" to "startup configuration", it could be called anything.

what'll be a common point though is that it'll list all your bootable devices. the topmost one is usually the one that boots up first, so if your usb is anywhere below that, make sure to drag and drop or otherwise move it to the top.

when you're done navigate to Save & Exit. your computer will then boot up kubuntu's install wizard. you'll be greeted with this:

shocker, i know, but click "Install Kubuntu" on the right.

step 4: kubuntu installation

this is a guided installation. just like when you're installing windows you'll be prompted when you need to make changes. if i remember correctly it's going to ask you for your preferred keyboard layout, a network connection, additional software you might want to install, and all of that is up to you.

but once you reach the point where it asks you where you want to install kubuntu we'll have to make a couple of important choices.

🚨 another important note 🚨

do NOT pick any of the top three options. they will overwrite your already existing windows installation.

click manual instead. we're going to point it to our unallocated disk space. hit continue. you will be shown another disk partition screen.

what you're looking for are your 30gb of free space. just like with the USB drive when we were working with rufus, make sure you're picking the right one. triple check at the very least. the chosen disk will get wiped.

click it until the screen "create a new partition" pops up.

change the following settings to:

New partition size in megabytes: 512

Use as: EFI System Partition

hit OK.

click your free space again. same procedure.

change the following settings to:

New partition size in megabytes: 8000 (*this might be different in your case, read on.)

Use As: Swap Area

hit OK

click your free space a third time. we need one more partition.

change the following settings to:

don't change anything about the partition size this time. we're letting it use up the rest of the resources.

Use as: Ext4 journaling system

Mount Point: /

you're done here as well.

*about the 8000 megabytes in the second step: this is about your RAM size. if you have 4gb instead type 4000, and so on.

once you're sure your configuration is good and ready to go, hit "Install Now". up until here you can go back and make changes to your settings. once you've clicked the button, there's no going back.

finally, select your timezone and create a user account. then hit continue. the installation should finish up... and you'll be good to go.

you'll be told to remove the USB drive from your computer and reboot your machine.

now when your computer boots up, you should end up on a black screen with a little bit of text in the top left corner. ubuntu and windows boot manager should be mentioned there. naturally, when you click ubuntu you will boot into your kubuntu. likewise if you hit windows boot manager your windows login screen will come up.

and that's that folks. go ham on messing around with your linux distro. customize it to your liking. make yourself familiar with the shell (on kubuntu, when you're on your desktop, hit CTRL+ALT+T).

for starters, you could feed it the first commands i always punch into fresh Linux installs:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install vim

(you'll thank me for the vim one later)

turn your back on windows. taste freedom. nothing sexier than open source, baby.

sources (mainly for the pictures): 1, 2

further reading for the curious: 1, 2

linux basics (includes CLI commands)

kubuntu documentation (this is your new best friend. it'll tell you everything about kubuntu that you need to know.

and finally the promised kde/gnome meme: