6 Things to Know When Switching to Linux from Windows

in this video I'm going over the things that I wish I knew earlier before switching in Linux as a lifetime Windows user [Music] so there's gonna be six main points that I'm gonna make in this video the first being Linux is fundamentally different than Windows the best example of this is when I first came on Linux I was constantly going to the website of the software that I wanted in seeing if I could download a package from then to install it on Linux it's such a simple thing but every Linux distribution as a package manager built in and that package manager is just as simple hey install XYZ package and then it installs it simple fast secure just so much better than how it's done on Windows but it takes a little bit of retweeting your mindset to really grasp this idea another thing where it's fundamentally different is everything can be customized you don't like the file explorer in your Linux install no problem change it you don't like the way your desktop works change it you don't like your browser and all these other things you just change it we're in Windows you're pretty much stuck with how those menus operate how the system settings and everything appears all these things are already baked into Windows or a very static you can't change them well pretty much everything in Linux is dynamic and you can change at will so that brings us to point to the distribution doesn't matter the only thing a distribution is is different package managers different ways to installing those apps I mentioned in the first point and it's a starting place of how your desktop environment operates so sometimes you get like a KDE version of you know Manjaro it's an arch based system and all these other things well that just operates differently than let's say an Ubuntu or a Linux Mint those things just look different and feel different out-of-the-box however I can make both function almost identical to each other the only thing that's different is how you install packages and the out of box look and feel so again it kind of brings us back to point one you can customize Linux however it is it's just sometimes it's a little more effort that goes into that customization so when I say Linux distributions don't matter well they really don't it's just a matter of how much work do you want to put in to get it to where you fit as a user as me as a user it it just doesn't matter I customized my Linux install there's no distribution out there I'm like oh I have to have this or that I'm just like hey I understand it but as someone new coming into the environment I highly recommend like Linux Mint it has more of that Windows look and feel out of the box so you won't be quite as lost but just know it is the customization of Linux that makes it so powerful and don't think that you're stuck on some specific distribution because every distribution has its limits and there's things about every distribution I like and dislike so don't think that one distribution is king and you have to install that one and that's the best one because there's a distribution out there for everybody number three there's a lot of misinformation about Linux in the community and just in general one in any old forms there's a lot of bad how-to guides just because many of those steps have changed over the years and they're just badly explained a lot of times I've noticed on many guides that I follow that experts or people that put together those guides just omit certain basic features because they figure everyone should know that if they're using Linux so just understand if you're looking at basic forms and other things like that that are outside of the mainstream some of those guides if they're two three or more years old they're not going to be very relevant any more point four there are some great communities in Linux however you can't just go post on any old forum otherwise you may be ridiculed so I highly recommend getting on reddit there's some great subreddits out there and I'm gonna put in the link description below that you can click on and check out Linux for noobs links questions and then I also have my own chris titus tech that you can check out and ask any question you want it's a safe space so to speak to where if you're new don't feel like hey I can't ask this question because it's too much of a noob question because pretty much any of these sub reddits you can ask anything you want and get a good answer point five clinics has some unique personalities and I mean this as a way of saying there's some experts out there that just feel like everyone should know everything about Linux when they first get to it and that's kind of the feeling I got when I first came to Linux desktop I was like this is different and this is a very vocal minor minority mind you but it's just something that kind of turns off a lot of newbie Linux users and it's uh you know you'll get trolled you'll see this command up here you'll also get some people that'll ridicule you because you don't understand how to pronounce e8 certain terms like gun ohm or instead of saying Nome or Debian and you say Debian you say open Susie instead of openSUSE there's the hey I use Linux therefore I'm better than you and I know it all these things kind of play into that whole obscure or unique personalities of Linux you get that every once in a while but it's as more of the masses move to Linux this is becoming less and less of a thing just know you still run into little pockets where I see this type of thing but overall and just be prepared for a little little taste of that when you get into the Linux community as a whole however a lot of these people have moved on or have become drowned out by the masses and people that have come into Linux I know I'm a vocal majority I'd say that ridicule these people just because there's no place for them they're discouraging people from adopting Linux and just overall just the bad personality is that you know I wish they just disappear from public life as far as Linux goes and as a most part they have become far less prevalent than they were five years ago like I did try and jump on Linux desktop five years ago and it's not nearly the place it was today and they were just everywhere it seemed anytime I asked a question there was always some kind of snarky response but a lot of that has disappeared and we've seen so much of these communities pop up that supports new users so that's why I kind of brought up in the prior point don't worry about those users stick to these subreddits and also the main forums like Ubuntu's main forums linux mint forums those are some great forms where you pretty much can ask anything as well and the last and probably the best point about Linux is everything is free and open so on Windows when I first came here I was like oh man oh this is cool I got a bunch of freeware and then immediately I almost got a response from about ten people saying this isn't freeware it's free and open it's called Foss free and open software what that means is on Windows when someone gave something free they basically give out a taste of their free software and then once everyone got hooked to it they'd switch to more of a commercialized product now charging for it because they never released the source code or the thing that made that product what it is well on Linux everything starts open source and free for the most part and if someone tries to do that will they just say ok well no problem and someone Forks that project and it just keeps being open and free so as far as products coming into the space and charging a whole bunch of money like you see in like max ecosystem or Windows ecosystem it just doesn't really happen that much in Linux word because almost everything I do on a day to day basis whether it's video editing photo editing any of these things can be done on Linux using free and open software and everything else that I want to do on Linux the only thing I've really been paying for in the last five months of Linux desktop usage is games there are certain games that I've been playing and most of them are actually Windows based games that I'm playing on Linux so I guess you can't even knock them for that either so this is probably the most empowering thing is being able to just say hey I want to learn something I want to go do this I don't have any of the software well no problem there's freeware equivalents or I caught myself again and see I still haven't broken myself of some of these happens there's free and open software to do that specific thing which is just incredible you know that's the greatest thing about Linux and those were my six things I wish I knew before coming to Linux because it would have saved me some heartache some issues as far as common conceptions I really didn't know what I was getting into even with these six things there's about 20 different things probably I forgot to mention this video let me know in the comments what I missed and if you'd like to support videos like this one consider visiting me on patreon and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Chris Titus Tech

Views: 536,862

Keywords: chris titus tech, linux, switching to linux, windows, linux mint, switching to linux from windows, windows 10, how to remove linux from dual boot in windows 10, windows to linux, windows vs linux, switched to linux, linux vs windows, switching from windows to linux, switching from windows 10 to linux, how to switch to linux from windows, switch to linux, 6 things to know when switching to linux, switching to linux from windows 10, linux tutorial

Id: wcdquhB6hT8

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2019