I currently use Windows 10 and I’d like to try out Linux. My plan is to set up a dual boot with OpenSUSE tumbleweed and KDE Plasma. I’ve read so many different opinions about choosing a distro, compatibility with gaming and Nvidia drivers, and personal issues with the ethos of different companies like Canonical. I value privacy and I’d rather avoid a Linux distro that’s implementing something like ads or telemetry…if that’s even a thing that’s happening?

As a complete beginner, what sort of advice would you all have for me? Should I avoid OpenSUSE or KDE Plasma for some reason? Are there any ‘10 things to do first when installing Linux for the first time’ recommendations?

Despite all the ‘beginner friendly’ guides and tutorials around, I still feel a little lost and like I’m going into this blind.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who’s offered advice, I really appreciate all the help and the patience with my dumb questions! There’s a lot to look through and it’s been a busy day for me, but I’ll get back to reading through everything and replying as soon as I can!

    • Nokinori@pawb.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      Is a home directory similar to the users folder in windows, or like the program files folder? Is it ‘everything but the OS’? I’m still trying to get a grasp on how the OS operates conceptually.

        • Nokinori@pawb.socialOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          Thanks, that’s a lot of really helpful info.

          What do you mean by this though?

          If you’re curious where a command lives you can use which cmd or type cmd from the command-line and it will show you (something I often wish Windows had).

          A command can ‘live’ in different places? And this might be a dumb question…but what is a command in this context?

          • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzM
            3·
            1 year ago

            This is the actually the thing same as Windows - in Linux you’ve got the which command, and it’s equivalent is where in Windows. Both do the same thing - find out where a program lives.

            OP meant a “program” in this context. Both Linux and Windows have specific paths where programs typically lives. For example, in Windows, if you type “notepad” in a command prompt or the ‘Run’ dialog, it’ll search for it in known system paths such as C:\Windows, C:\Windows\system32 etc. These paths are declared in the PATH environment variable - which you may have encountered when certain applications try to (or ask you to) add their program folder to the PATH, such as say Java or Python. If a program is added to the PATH, typing ‘java’ or ‘python’ from anywhere will automatically launch it, so you don’t need to specify the full path or the program.

            Now whilst this is convenient, sometimes it can cause unwanted issues. For example, say you installed some other program that uses a specific version of Java or Python, and it installed that version in your system, and added that folder to the PATH - now when you type java or python in a command prompt, you wouldn’t know which version you’re executing. This is what OP meant by a program living in multiple places. As you can imagine, this can now cause issues, and can even break some scripts expecting a particular version of Java/Python etc and some other version is being picked up. This is where the where command in Windows comes in handy, as it tells you where exactly that program is located. And it’s Linux equivalent is which.

            So at least in this department, the behavior of Windows and Linux is virtually identical. :)

      • WildlyCanadian@lemmy.ca
        2·
        1 year ago

        Essentially, yeah. Most programs will install to your root directory, but all your personal configs and personal files will be in your home directory.

        What I’d personally recommend is using Timeshift to automatically keep backups if your home directory on a separate partition, then if you want to switch distros or if you need to reinstall for whatever reason you can use Timeshift to restore your home directory pretty easily, as long as your new install uses the same file system.

        • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Timeshift was designed for system snapshots not home files. You can force it to cover home but it’s better to use BackInTime which was designed specifically for home snapshots.

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        The home directory is like the Windows users directory, yes.
        In the shell/terminal it’s represented by ~ or $HOME, it’s path is likely /home/$USER/
        First / = Root
        $USER = current user account you’re using.

        You should check out this Arch Wiki page & this Arch man page.
        Don’t worry it’s pretty distro agnostic.