So, I was told you can take any distro, pair it with any desktop environment, and badda bing, badda boom, unique linux in the room!
And a few years ago I tried getting into linux, and it didn't work. I didn't like ubuntu. I want something that's basically like Windows 98.
Closest thing I found was TwisterOS. Well, I had some issue with one program, and I'm an idiot on linux. Have no clue what I'm doing. So the guides tell me to update the thing. So I do that, and the fan in my case stops working. Aye-yi-yi!
I never got it to start working again, and I just said screw it, I'm not dealing with this. Put it in a drawer, and haven't touched it in about a year.
Well, now I'm think I'll just start fresh. Install a new distro, and since Ubuntu seems to be the one with the most support, I'll use that. Then I find out that LXDE visually is more in line with what I want.
So I figure I'll slap on ubuntu, slap on LXDE, and then install retropie. And hopefully the fan will work again. So I start researching this LXDE, and the home page wants you to download the desktop environment already baked into a DIFFERENT distro! Wait, hold on. Am I wrong in thinging you can just download a desktop environment, and slap it on any distro? Because it might be me. I have no clue what I'm doing. And even though this is lemmy, when I searched for "Ubuntu Help", there's no community named that. There's also no community named "Linux help". Which I find very very odd. Lemmy of all places you'd think would have a linux help community! This place loves linux. Does everyone just always know what they're doing at all all times? Or am I just going crazy? I feel like I'm walking blind into a forest and bear traps line the ground. I have no idea how to even start this process....
Hey, welcome, fellow noob!
I hopped on the Linux train maybe 20 years ago and haven't had any non unix system in maybe 15 years.
Also, I don't know anything much. I can do basic tasks with a Terminal, but I don't think for example I could install Arch from scratch. Or if I'd accidentally opened VIM, I'd have to kill power to get out again. But I like to tinker. If you like to tinker it's a big plus, otherwise things, that don't work instantly, might get frustrating.
As others said, use a pre built distro + DE environment, especially if you don't really know what you do. Another thing that I'd recommend: a distro that be backed up easily. So you can tinker and start over, if necessary.
If I don't know, how to fix a thing, I usually look up my question online. The problem with that is: I'll find solutions containing commands that I don't know, what they do. I have "fixed" my OS to death before, so it's always nice to have a recent backup.
Ubuntu is the biggest, although it's not old-school like win98 and comes with idealistic problems for many people. If you didn't really enjoy it, I wouldn't go back, just because it has the biggest community. Community isn't only about size.
Mint is rock solid, I've run that a long time with different DEs.
Another distro, I can't really recommend (as I haven't used it further than live USB yet), but might be very interesting for you, is MX Linux. It comes with simple DEs and more importantly: a ton of GUI tools (including a back up tool where you can back up the entire OS including apps and settings as a flash USB).
I don't know, if I was able to help anything. I just wanted to reassure, that there are (maybe even many) Linux users that don't really know what they do.
As with many skills in life, I believe, the best way to learn is by just doing it. There will be failures. And each failure is a big opportunity to learn something.
:q!
The first vim command anybody should memorize. Quit without saving.
Emphasize on "should"? Thank you! I've looked this up several times just to have in forgotten when needed. So for me, VIM only, when I have internet access.
homer simpson voice Ooooooo! Expain how!
Hopefully, if I keep my installation small, and my game roms on a different partition, I can just stick a USB stick in, and backup before I do anything stupid. Then if I break it, I can reflash the first partition from my USB backup, and my rom files partition won't be affected, since they were never the problem.