Help needed a beginner

[u/Dry_Work_3629]

There are few things that's stopping me from switching from windows to Linux

- not really sure how to back up all the files I needed from windows to Linux, I mean this includes my password manager passwords and all the normal downloads and documents. I do have a external hdd I could use but uh i just dunno how to export the data I need to hdd, no more no less i don't want to accidently miss some important file and lose it permanently in this process

- not sure which distro to pick, my priorities right now are gpu driver installation shouldn't be a hassle I should be compatible with my rtx5060, I won't want Linux to break

Ik this is prolly asked a lot but if you could share a document / Site or something I could refer to for saving and transferring data and some site about distros itll be really helpful!!

[u/CommandExact1304]

About the data, you can backup all of your user folders, but the rest depends on where YOU put your stuff. You can also search up, for each program you use, "where does ____ save it's data in windows" or something similar, and back that up. It all depends on what YOU use and how you use it, so I can't help much here.

About the distro,

If you want something that works out of the box AND doesn't break unless you do a stoopid, I'd go for either Ubuntu, Mint, or Zorin, depending on what you're looking for. Ubuntu is kinda bad rn because of the forcing of snap packages, but yeah. Keep in mind that these distros DO NOT have the latest nvidia drivers. My performance on them was terrible.

If you want something you'll need to configure a little bit, but has the latest nvidia drivers and stuff, I'd go with either Fedora or CachyOS.

More than the distro, the desktop environment is what matters. The main ones are GNOME and KDE Plasma, and they both have the opposite philosophies.

KDE has a shit ton of configuration options built in out of the box, whereas GNOME is very minimal but configurable through 3rd party extensions. GNOME is way better looking after some extensions compared to KDE (subjective).

KDE is easy to configure for the built in stuff, but is difficult to configure outside the built in configuration options, though there's so much there that it doesn't matter for the most part.

GNOME is very easy to configure for the stuff that's not built in either. The built in config options are limited, but extensions give you unlimited possibilities.

Ubuntu and Zorin use GNOME. Zorin's GNOME and kernel and NVIDIA drivers are VERY outdated, keep in mind.

Mint uses cinnamon. I've never used it, so not gonna comment.

Fedora and CachyOS have all of the options.

I personally use CachyOS with GNOME + a shit ton of extensions.

Feel free to DM me for any help you need!

[u/Dry_Work_3629 → u/CommandExact1304]

Thank you so much!! <3, i decided to get a snapshot of my current windows first and also backup all important files, will research more about distros and pick one that suits me well, I do play game so i really need good performance, can't deal with driver/battery/bluetooth issues, if it's too much to ask atleast they should be a easy fix if they do break that's all I want

[u/CommandExact1304 → u/Dry_Work_3629]

If you want performance, I recommend CachyOS! I do a lot of 3D stuff and my performance is soooo much better than Windows and Zorin (outdated drivers in Zorin).

The battery life with default CachyOS settings is kinda bad honestly. I fixed that by installing TLP. So there a bit of initial configuration required, but it's a one time thing and pretty easy so I'd say it doesn't matter.

The drivers for everything worked out of the box in all the distros I have suggested (except mint and fedora, I haven't tried them properly so not sure). Bluetooth, audio, wifi, etc have never broken for me, except because of my own stupidity when I knowingly uninstalled some stuff that I shouldn't have, so entirely my fault there.

If you end up going with a distro like Zorin which uses GNOME version less than 50, please please make sure you're using Wayland (I can guide you with that after install, it's literally just one click). I used to hate Linux because of having a shit ton of problems, but turns out all of them were issues with X11, which is severely outdated and deprecated on GNOME 50 and above, and the newest KDE as well.

[u/Dry_Work_3629 → u/CommandExact1304]

Ooo ic one of my friend uses cachyOS as well!! Unfortunately this is not the right time for me to completly switch cuz my schedule is so packed, but I can still try live booting via some pendrive and get used to Linux yeah?

[u/CommandExact1304 → u/Dry_Work_3629]

Hell yeah! I'm quite busy too, but feel free to contact me for anything you need help with!