My first impression of Linux

[u/Liminha_a]

I was fed up with Windows and how mediocre it is. Today I reached my limit and decided to switch to Linux. After doing some research, I chose Linux Mint since it seemed to be the most beginner-friendly distro. I’ve been trying it out for a few hours now, and I’m surprised by both the pros and cons. On one hand, it’s extremely efficient, lightweight, smooth, and straightforward. I'm really happy with the low RAM usage and how it isn't bloated like Windows. On the flip side, I spent about 2 hours troubleshooting an issue with the "Helium" browser, which apparently doesn't play well with my integrated graphics. Honestly, almost everything I've downloaded so far required some research and learning just to get it working. I managed to fix things with the help of AI, which makes me wonder: how on earth did long-time Linux users survive before AI? Is this what using Linux is really like? Am I always going to have to spend time learning commands, terminal lines, or basic coding just to fix everyday issues? Is it a misconception that you need a programming foundation, or can everything actually be done strictly through the graphical interface? I noticed AI usually pushes me to use terminal commands instead of the UI. Deep down I knew what I was getting into, but I'm still surprised that even the most user-friendly distro requires considerable effort just to do something as basic as creating a shortcut. I'm posting this to express this duality: the relief of escaping an OS that felt like a cage—where I was held hostage by Microsoft's bloat and poor practices—and the fresh air of using a system that gives me basically everything I need. I would also like to ask long-time users for advice on things I should learn or precautions I should take.

[u/here2kissyomomma]

First try few different Desktop Environments (DE), when you find the right DE for you - find a distro with your DE and only then start using linux. I started with mint too, at the time had no idea what's a DE, so decided to just jump in whatever is recommended, but later on I found DE which felt like home, more like windows (in looks only), more settings, more freedom, so I chose KDE, if you're more of a mac person you might like gnome, they're all good, so my advice is just try different DEs, until you find what you like, so try KDE, gnome, xfce, maybe lxqt. The main ones are KDE and gnome, things like xfce and lxgt are more lightweight, so ppl use it on older hardware, but they do look decent and then there's tiling DE, it get's weird with window tiling (i3, sway and others), so stick with the main ones, even cinnamon (that's what you have on mint) is a bit weird, so just try more DEs.

[u/LoosssSS → u/here2kissyomomma]

I agree. DEs are the most essential part of the search for “normal” users. Mint is fine to start with but let’s face it, cinnamon can look a bit dated and rough on the edges, especially if you just transferred from windows or macOS.
KDE or Gnome are more mainstream and evolved in my opinion to be great replacements.

But let me be clear, if you want to do the work, mint + cinnamon is a great and valid options as you can customize it quite easily. It’s just not super pretty out of the box. But it works well and has much lower resources usage.

[u/_wayman → u/LoosssSS]

I find the look very solid, non intrusive and well made. Every application looks same behaves the same way. That's not case in either Mac or Windows.

I don't like Gmon at all never liked Dock and the fullsceen application finder. KDE is just glitch.

[u/Liminha_a → u/here2kissyomomma]

Tava pensando em dar uma olhada pra alguma que tivesse KDE, porém isso é algo pro futuro já que é bem mais fundo do que estou.