hey nerds, I’m getting myself a new personal laptop as a treat, but I very much do not want windows 11 shitting it up. Is there a linux distro with caveman-compatible instructions for installation and use? I want to think about my OS as little as possible while actually using it.

I’ve got one friend who uses mint, but I’ve also seen memes dunking on it so who knows. I actually really only know what I’ve seen from you all shitposting in other communities

  • HipsterTenZero@dormi.zoneOP
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    2 days ago

    Thanks for the input ya nerds. Much love from the geek side of lemmy. I’ll be taking the advice of poking around with multiple distros before committing to one, because it sounds a whole lot less painful than I was imagining.

    Quick question though, what the hell is a gnome? Or a KDE for that matter?

    • nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br
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      1 day ago

      In windows, we get the entire os as a single product, and we don’t have a choice in anything. On linux, it’s the contrary. The os if formed by several software distributed separately and joined together like lego pieces. Each linux distro is a compilation of software, a particular combination of lego pieces created and maintained by some group.

      So, even the system graphical interface is a lego piece like any other, and each distro comes with one by default. Kde and gnome are some of the most popular interfaces. You can also replace almost any lego piece from the system by another of your choice, unlike on windows.

      I hope I helped you understand linux a bit better. It all will become much more simple to you with a little more time. Be welcome to the community.

    • Ulrich@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      These are “desktop environments”. They are essentially the graphical elements you interface with the operating system. icons, windows, buttons, those sort of things.

      The two most common are KDE and GNOME. KDE has a very Windows-like appearance and functionality. GNOME is the same but for MacOS.

    • merci3@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      About Gnome and KDE, they are simply different Desktop Enviroments (DE).On Linux, DE’s are a software category, much like how browsers are a category with many different alternatives (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, …) on Linux we got DE’s such as: Gnome (a more tablet-like DE. You either love it or hate it) KDE Plasma (by default it’s windows-like, but it is very customizeable but can be kinda overwhelming to some) Cinnamon (the one that comes with Mint, very simple, very light, very user friendly and has a familiar layout for Windows users) And many more, Cosmic, Pantheon, XFCE, Sway and so on…

      • drspod@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Stop recommending Ventoy! It’s a huge security risk and the author has not responded in 8 months.

        • merci3@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Just looked a bit into the issue, and it’s surely weird… Thanks for informing! Already edited my original comment

      • Tower@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        I discovered Ventoy a week ago and it’s fucking amazing. So much time and hassle saved. it seemed amazing, but I had no idea about the security concerns others have pointed out. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

    • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      GNOME and KDE are different desktop environments. Basically they are the software that provides you a graphical user interface. Gnome is more simple, but KDE is more customizable and windows-like. There are more options to choose from than these 2

    • zipsglacier@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Gnome and KDE are two different “desktop environments”. Each distro has a default desktop environment (DE for short), but it’s like a regular application that you can swap out for a different one that does the same thing. The DE is (roughly, I think) the graphical interface to the operating system. So it can feel like the DE is the operating system (especially on Windows or Mac, which don’t have options to change the DE).

      Most Linux distros, and certainly all of the beginner friendly ones, make it relatively easy to switch to a different DE. (Or, so I’ve heard. I’ve been using Linux as my daily driver for I’ve a decade, and I barely understand what’s involve in installing a new DE.)