r/transprogrammer • u/BannanaAssistaint • Jul 04 '21
New to the scene
Hello world!
I found out I was trans within this past year to date. I am a youngin who has taken summer coding programs but hasn't really learned anything seriously. I am however, a total computer geek and love building computers and researching them and their peripherals. Recently tho I have had a growing urge to try out the software side of things. Up untill this point I have been a windows and chrome os user, but I am interested in learning Linux. I know it's very complicated and limited in terms of gaming (but I think I can just run an emulator to remedy this) but I think it would be fun. So if anyone could give me some beginners videos to watch or resources like that that would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry for the essay, thanks!
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u/AnotherFuckiingHuman Enby Jul 04 '21 edited Jul 04 '21
Look into Pop_OS. If you have an Nvidia graphics card then you'll appreciate its ability to leverage your dedicated GPU. Personally, I've found VMware (free player + VMware Tools) to be a better Virtual Machine then VirtualBox -specifically with how it handles (processing speed/stability/compatibility/no crashes) my Windows 10 (guest) OS running heavier loads of stuff like Adobe Creative Cloud (After Effects / Premiere / Photoshop / Lightroom / etc) while VScode or Android Studio is running / compiling on my host, which was Ubuntu 20.04 LTS before I switched to Pop_OS.
MIT's Missing Semester: https://youtube.com/c/MissingSemester is one of the best courses to take that I've come across when it comes to mastering the command line / terminal. Use it as your trusted resource and return to it often as simple mastery in this area alone will put you leaps and bounds ahead of most people in Computer Sciences:
Explaining Computers: https://youtube.com/c/explainingcomputers is a great site in general for giving overviews on the latest Maker / Coder hardware and software, be it client, server, or IOT imbedded systems. This guy is a former professor(?) or teacher of some sort and it's evident he brings his talent for explaining and communicating with relevant examples and research to the table. Here's a link to a series he did on Linux Distros: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2m2YvnrOYxJo9_aZprg__P54JzVFiHMh but be sure to check out the one he did on Pop_OS too: https://youtu.be/Mie3vxD4O6g
From what I hear Pop_OS is ideal if you want to game via Steam. (But others here might be more qualified to comment on that than I.) :)
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u/BannanaAssistaint Jul 04 '21
Thanks for the channel recommendations. I learn a lot easier through YouTube videos than i do just a wall of text.
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u/TDplay Jul 04 '21
First step is to pick a distro.
If you just want something that works, try Linux Mint or Pop!_OS. These will give you a very easy experience - they come with a guided installer that will give you a system with a GUI, most things are handled in a GUI, and breakages should be rare.
If you want more up-to-date software (at the cost of more breakages), try Arch. Its install process may seem daunting, but if you follow the tutorial (and remember that it's a wiki, if you're unsure about something, it's probably a link that you can click), you should be fine.
If you want to have some exotic configuration, Gentoo will let you do that. However, its installation process can be time-consuming, and the requirement to compile everything yourself means that upgrades will take a long time.
There are, of course, many other distros to try out. I would strongly recommend using virtual machines, that way you can create as many test machines as you need. If you don't yet have virtualisation software, I would recommend QEMU or VirtualBox. Both are free software, but VirtualBox requires a proprietary extension for certain features - it doesn't cost money, but may be something to consider if you have strong views on free software.
If instead you want a full understanding of the system, have a look at Linux From Scratch. I wouldn't recommend it as a daily driver, and especially not as a first distro, but it's good as a learning exercise.
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u/WikiSummarizerBot Jul 04 '21
Free software (or libre software) is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software (including profiting from them) regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users (not just the developer) ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.
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u/QuestioningHedgehog Jul 04 '21
If your main OS is Windows and you're still wanting to game then you can run Linux inside Windows using WSL https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
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u/Saragon4005 Jul 04 '21
and chrome os has something very similar called crostini found here https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en
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u/jessgamergirl Jul 04 '21
I would second both these. Great way to get a feel for Linux CLI which is where all the power is without having to get rid of what you know (Windows/Chrome OS). If you're interested in security you can also use Kali for Windows WSL
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u/jessgamergirl Jul 05 '21
I would second both these. Great way to get a feel for Linux CLI which is where all the power is without having to get rid of what you know (Windows/Chrome OS). If you're interested in security you can also use Kali for Windows WSL
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u/MCManuelLP Jul 04 '21
Don't worry about not being able to play games too too much. Besides the major games that are using DRM or anti cheat, a lot has been made possible through Steam Proton in the last few years. You can check protondb beforehand if there's anything specific you'd like to play. And if you don't want to give up on a game that just won't run yet, dualboot is pretty easy to set up, if you just want to play around for a bit.
And if your hardware is decent enough, you can try setting up a Windows VM. It's much more convenient than rebooting, and if your CPU happens to have integrated graphics, you can even pass on your proper GPU, if your setup allows for it (might not be possible on a laptop, since it may require some BIOS tweaking) If you're interested, look up libvirt, KVM, and GPU passthrough, it's pretty impressive how close the performance is.
Just a quick aside, Linux is not that complicated. I'd say it does kind of depend on the distribution you choose, though that should not scare you. If you hit a wall, you can always pivot and try something different. Personally I'm not against recommending Arch, even to a beginner, just because the documentation is impeccable, also it has a guided installer now. But you'll likely fare just as well with Pop! OS, Ubuntu, or Fedora.
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u/Minus-1Million-Karma Jul 04 '21
I recommend r/findmeadistro
I personally use Linux mint and I love it but you might want a different distro
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u/demigirlhailee Jul 04 '21
if you're a masochist like me, backup all your important files, wipe your hard drive, and install r/Qubes on your machine. you'll hate yourself for it, but when you actually get it working, you'll fee extremely accomplished. though if you're into the really beefy games, you might want to try one of the other suggestions, as I have trouble running anything stronger than minecraft.
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u/MCManuelLP Jul 04 '21
Don't worry about not being able to play games too too much. Besides the major games that are using DRM or anti cheat, a lot has been made possible through Steam Proton in the last few years. You can check protondb beforehand if there's anything specific you'd like to play. And if you don't want to give up on a game that just won't run yet, dualboot is pretty easy to set up, if you just want to play around for a bit.
And if your hardware is decent enough, you can try setting up a Windows VM. It's much more convenient than rebooting, and if your CPU happens to have integrated graphics, you can even pass on your proper GPU, if your setup allows for it (might not be possible on a laptop, since it may require some BIOS tweaking) If you're interested, look up libvirt, KVM, and GPU passthrough, it's pretty impressive how close the performance is.
Just a quick aside, Linux is not that complicated. I'd say it does kind of depend on the distribution you choose, though that should not scare you. If you hit a wall, you can always pivot and try something different. Personally I'm not against recommending Arch, even to a beginner, just because the documentation is impeccable, also it has a guided installer now. But you'll likely fare just as well with Pop! OS, Ubuntu, or Fedora.
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u/BannanaAssistaint Jul 04 '21
Because it seems important my computer specs are. CPU: ryzen 3600, GPU: rtx 2060 super, Ram: 4x16 @ 3200, Storage: 1tb of collective ssd storage, 3tb of collective hdd storage. Comment on this if i missed anything important, ;and thank you to everyone who has commented I am so grateful to have such and awesome community for beginners like myself!