Start looking at the desktop environments and use a virtual machine/live usb to try them out. For something similar to Windows I’d recommend KDE plasma or Cinnamon, both can be tried out using KDE Neon or Linux Mint.
Personally, I think your choice of desktop environment have more impact to your day-to-day experience than your distro choice. If you feel at home with windows-like UI, try KDE Plasma. If you like minimalistic mac-like interface, then try Gnome.
You can install them all on any distro I believe. I use Arch and installing Plasma is just a single command, same with Gnome and the others. After install you can pick which desktop to use after the graphical login screen loads.
There are some annoyances, like for example if you have both Gnome and Plasma installed, and you type Files to open a file app, you get the Gnome file app even in Plasma since it’s named Files. To use the Plasma file app, you have to type Dolphin instead.
Same with settings app, I often open the Gnome settings app instead of the Plasma settings app by mistake since it’s called Settings.
But these are not bugs per se, it’s just because I’m used to typing something…
Bazzite. It’s based on Fedora uBlue so it’s technically Fedora, but being an immutable OS, it works quite differently enough that it counts as its own distro. For instance, you don’t use dnf or yum to install stuff, you’d use Flatpak/Distrobox/Nix. Updates are done using the rpm-ostree command, and it’s effectively a rolling release model, but atomic in nature so you get none of the instability that you’d get in a typical rolling release.
We don’t have a consistent convention as to what changes qualify for a version increment rather than update increment. A new kernel? A new interface convention? New icons for the mini-apps?
Windows 10 has more plug-and-play drivers than Win7 and Win8. It can recognize newer hardware and it can be installed natively from thumb drives. So a lot of features that were third party are now offical… long after I had access to the third-party libraries.
But then it combines the metro and the start menu. I never found a use for the metro.
Win11 is less operability and more DRM and more spyware.
For Apple and Microsoft, a new version is a new marketing season. It’s the same as the new iPhone, the new Subaru.
I assume Linux builds increment with significant operability additions, especially if they’re not fully backwards compatible. Since they’re released without charge the capacity to do more stuff is the only reason to upgrade to a new increment rather than preserving a stable version.
Which only adds bas relief to the point. Linus has no personal or commercial motivation to get people to get the hot new trendy thing. Linux isn’t motivated by built-in obsolescence the way Windows and iOS are.
In fact, their higher iteration indicators are a symptom of a disadvantage of the operating system, not an advantage.
At my current job, our department (DevOps), uses Linux (arch). A couple of devs too (Ubuntu), the rest use a mix of Macs and Windows. The Online versions of Office work just fine, there is Teams, Azure login and even Intune for Linux now.
At my previous job, most of the company used Windows, but the devs were using 90% Linux (Ubuntu), some of them with 2 machines (laptop and workstation with GPU, point cloud stuff). Ah, the good ole days of Ubuntu 16 and Nvidia drivers 🥲
The job before that, a very small company, mostly devs, we were using half Windows, half Linux (mint).
I mean, it still wants edge, which is okay for the online office stuff (SSO), but it’s pretty bare, when compared to Windows. No policies and stuff. Install it and forget it situation, mostly used for reporting. Ah, we also use defender for endpoint, on all 3 oses, which is rather decent.
That was me about 22 years ago already. I’ve had a Linux desktop for 22 years and anytime I see a windows desktop I’m just wondering why anyone would accept such trash…
From what I’ve heard, it’s more common in Europe and parts of Asia. I’ve personally never seen significant Linux use of any kind in the IT environments I work in, sadly.
It’s all Microsoft product stacks, the servers, the endpoints, the cloud environment, all MS. Sometimes their Hypervisor would be VMWare, and their NAS was a Synology. But other than that, basically all Microsoft garbage.
I did work at one place that had a fair bit of Linux infrastructure. The lead network architect was a hardcore Linux/FOSS grognard. Really smart guy and was fantastic at his job, I learned a lot from him. But the only reason that company had Linux servers and a few FOSS implementations was because that guy insisted on it and managed all of it himself.
I also worked at another place where one of the older IT guys had installed a handful of SUSE thin clients at various locations for employees to clock in with. But right after I started there, management wanted me to switch them out for Windows thin clients. I pushed back but they insisted, so there went the tiny bit of Linux at that company.
linux
Top
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.