I think it depends on what you plan to use it for.
If it’s just browsing the web or basic usage (email, watching videos, etc.) it’s perfect for a tech illiterate person. You have distros that just work, like Mint, or Pop!_Os (compared to distros like Debian that can require a bit of tinkering, or Arch/Gentoo where you need to tinker a lot more). I’m not certain but I think these distros work well for gaming as well.
If you have specific needs for software like the Adobe suite, Excel or audio/video software, it’s still possible but definitely less accessible.
As far as the difference between Linux and Windows, I’m not sure you’d notice much if you stay at the surface. The main difference is the fact that you actually own your system and you can literally do what you want with it (even irreversibly break it).
This is pretty much my take. For tech newbies that essentially only need a browser, linux mint is great. On the other extreme, if you want to tinker, get your hands dirty, then you probably already know what distro you want.
It’s toughest for the people in between who need some more advanced os functionality or need programs that aren’t natively supported, but otherwise don’t want to know more about their os than they have to. Not because Linux doesn’t have that advanced functionality (and more!) or because there aren’t alternatives and workarounds for those programs, but because of the learning curve.
For someone already tech illiterate, the learning curve is almost a moot point. For the tinkerer, it’s practically a feature. But for the people in between, it can a real obstacle.
I’ve been using Wayland daily for a few years (2020 at least?) on intel and AMD graphics and have had few complaints:
Some games didn’t work right a few years ago. (Under Proton or otherwise. Haven’t had issues for a while)
RenderDoc, a vital bit of graphics debugging software, works poorly on Wayland. (Easy fix is to force X11 for QT via QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb)
Had some issues with mixed integrated/NVidia graphics on a laptop I was using for a demo once.
Covering or otherwise hiding a Wayland window blocks a program’s graphics thread. This is sometimes problematic.
VR development had issues a while ago? (This was for work. It just… stopped working at some point. Dunno if it was a Linux, SteamVR, or Unity3D issue. My work machine mostly runs Windows 10 now as a result. Oh well.)
Screen recording didn’t work well a while ago… (continued)
Overall, it’s just worked great though!
My anti-complaints:
Mixed refresh rates on monitors “just works” now. (I have a 1080@144 for gaming, and a 4k@60 for work)
Video frames don’t have half drawn content. (ex: when resizing windows), except on XWayland stuff
Video tearing has basically disappeared.
Video timing issues seem to be improved.
Input handling for keyboard layouts has improved.
Screen recording in Wayland is way better than it ever was on X11 now. I do this a lot to share gamedev stuff I’m working on.
At 80 I would urge you to consider wired again or save up. Otherwise I would look for the cheapest amazon / ali headset you can find a decent review online (off amazon) for.
In windows, save the recovery key (to an external USB key for instance), it is a text file. Then in Linux double click the partition in Thunar or your file manager and it will ask you for the key.
In fairness, I frequently forgot my steamdeck root password, because the need to use it was so few and far between. If you’re always in game mode, then there’s almost 0 reason that I’d need my password.
I used arch for a couple years, then crux for over 10 years, so I though Void would be a great distro when the systemd drama occured. Tried that, and noped the hell out of it…
creating/maintaining packages is a pain
the dev team was awful with newcomers
system couldn’t handle more than a couple weeks without updates
it’s an arch wannabe that doesn’t admit it, making it a worse alternative
The hardest part will probably be the installation, but if you can follow a youtube guide you’ll be fine. Go for a distro like PopOS or Fedora that have polished out of the box experiences.
I’ve been a Gentoo user since 2004 or so and used to crosscompile binaries in like 2006 for all of my systems including some sparc and ppc builds on my main servers. It was glorious. I adore Gentoo for portage and the ability to dream up a set of OS decisions and then actually do it, dog food and all. I’ll probably never not have some form of a Gentoo system within reach but mostly for nostalgic reasons but VMs and containers now fill my needs.
I’m enthralled by this. It really makes it easier to support other people’s gentoo installations while allowing one to still optimise the ever last drop of life blood out of one’s own packages! Love to see it!
Love this change. I wonder if I can install a binary-based Gentoo distro and gradually progress from there, if I wanted to, with locally compiled packages that partially replace the binaries. I hope this is not an all-or-nothing situation, so better read the announcement.
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