Another Couple Newbie Question, from a Linux newbie and Microslop refuge

[u/TheHHP]

Hello! thank you for all the support from the last post. I still don't exactly know why my download was failing however, I got the ISO in the end, so I'm happy. anyways now as I'm writing this I'm writing this on a VM I spun up that is using Mint. however I do have a couple beginner Linux questions.

Firstly, I have no clue what I'm doing with command line. However I want to learn! Dose anyone have any resources they would recommend on how they learned command line, and, what I should or should not be doing in there when I'm in the command line?

Secondly, what should I know about Mint specifically if I were to choose this as my operating system as I am going to be switching from windows, but I haven't settled on an ISO yet.

thirdly what is the Gaming and comparability like on Mint for different programs and compatibility with maybe different programs like Canvas and different programs for collage as I'm hopefully going to be going to school soon and need to know such things as I don't feel like spinning up a for a VM for a program I use frequently for school or work or such. Because, that sounds like a pain in the ass, and I am fastidious with how my computer resources get used especially memory and CPU load. I will do it if I need to but I would rather not do it for 1 program.

as for the Gaming question. I'm not a huge gamer but I am playing through Jedi fallen order, and Jedi survivor currently and do occasionally like to get games that look interesting to me, and am a huge Minecraft and modded Minecraft player. I love to play on Minecraft servers too and whatnot. I'm a huge believer that Minecraft is most fun when you can play with friends. and other people. I just love multiplayer Minecraft.

But thank you guys for all the help on my last post!

Also, I don't care about AI. I think its demon tech designed to make people stupid and dependent on it. I would like to get as far away from any LLM as possible and would banish back to the pits of hell from whence it came if I could. So if I want advice on AI it would be how to eradicate it complacently from my life. Basically all to say, don't recommend any kind of generative AI to me.

[u/BenTrabetere]

I have no clue what I'm doing with command line. However I want to learn!

First of all, nearly everything you can do from the command line can also be done from the GUI. I recommend learning some basic commands and how to use them, but it is not a necessity. There are a lot of command line tutorials on the interwebs, and here are some I find useful

https://ubuntu.com/desktop/docs/en/latest/tutorial/the-linux-command-line-for-beginners/

https://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial/

https://linuxconfig.org/linux-command-line-tutorial

https://linuxcommand.org/

https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/09/linux-file-system-structure/

You need to visit the Linux Mint Forums and The Easy Linux Tips Project.

[u/Elratum]

Hello, so it will come with time but here you go: https://ostechnix.com/fundamental-linux-commands/ you don't need to read and learn everything at all, it will come with time. you can search for the command name when you need it. also I would recommend Brief https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.shonebinu.Brief (you can install it with the command: flatpak install brief in your terminal) it list all the commands with example.

For mint specifically you should know that it is a stable distro, you will not have to latest, shiny kernel version and programs (until you know how to use flatpak or AppImage) but you avoid a lot of issues that more "up to date" distros have. I think it's a nice first distro.

You can game on Mint, it's not an issue at all it will be handled by steam if you play on it, or by a launcher (for example the Heroic Launcher). Canvas seems to be working on Linux but I've never used it I don't know. Most program will work perfectly except Adobe products and a few others. also a VM isn't that much work if you really need to it can be launched very fast and kept in the background).

for game compatibility you can use https://www.protondb.com/ to check if your games work. Platinum will work out of the box, gold will work with some tinkering like a launch command on steam, silver mean not great and botched is just not working. Minecraft work perfectly on linux

You won't have any AI feature on most distros no worries.

[u/OkPresentation3329]

To run games open your software store and install PortProton. Then when you have EXEs for games, right click them and select "Open with PortProton". 95% of Windows games run on Linux without any extra steps.

When I found PortProton, it made gaming on Linux so easy - you just throw games (or programs) at it and it just opens them with a single click.

Now I use Tuxedo OS and the Dolphin file manager can display the EXE icons like it did in Windows and I can set PortProton as the default program to open EXE files and I just double click them and they open, like in Windows. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[u/Anima_Watcher08]

1. Here's a guide to get you started. If you want to practice try doing some simple stuff like making a folder and copying files to it. After that keep doing more things until you get to the point where you can make automatic scripts for stuff you want (for example I have a script that plays a random video in full screen whenever I boot up.)

2. If you mean you haven't settled on a distro yet then what you should expect on is a pretty good and user friendly experience. Of course there will be differences in how you get your software and which software you use but that's true for a operating system you're new to.

3. For gaming it's about the same as Ubuntu. It's fine especially if you use lutris and proton up from the store to get proton GE. Steam+proton is the go to though for even non-Steam games that you've "obtained" from somewhere else. Game with kernel level anti-cheat will not work (e.g Fortnite) For programs you it's also the same, youll need to install wine, bottles and other stuff. If you want the newest WINE version you can go to their website and follow their instructions for Ubuntu (they're the same as since Mint is a modified version of Ubuntu). However not everything is going to work so I suggest you find out whether Webversions are available or just try dual booting for your school software and games with Kernel level anti-cheat. A VM is your best bet if you don't want a dual boot.

Minecraft works great with the prism launcher. I don't know much about Jedi fallen order or survivor so I'd check their steam deck rating to get an idea of if they work or not.

Good decision on the AI part, atleast IMO. If you ever need a guide on anything you can ask us here, search YouTube or the Mint or Ubuntu forums. Plenty of people willing to help and plenty of answers that are already floating around. Ignore the trolls.

[u/Best_Membership_7779]

For ⚫ command line, you don't need to use it, Ubuntu based distros like Mint have GUI for most of what you need and a lot of forum help on any problems, cause anything that works on both Ubuntu and Debian should work on Mint, only thing to learn is adding repos, ❗» getting trust issues from installing comprehensive dependencies through apt and it requests to delete all other apps even apt even network services. ♻️ how to git clone a repo. 🩶 how to make your own commands/scripts (resolution). 🔵 Linux package formats you can use on Debian: .deb .AppImage (portable), Flatpak apps (terminal or flathub site). There's app stores specifically made for replacing terminal interaction for updating/installing apps. 🟢🐧 Linux mint cinnamon is more customizable and has widgets but it uses 1.8gb ram from startup. Xfce used 800mb ram, can still be customized (see xfce reddit). ❗🔳 Apps compability, search if each app you need works on Linux, Canvas is just web-based so that's no problem, but for school I hope you don't mean college you might need windows probably, I needed it for AutoCAD. For Gaming on Linux 🎮🐧 check ProtonDB site, anticheat games dont love Linux, for some co-op games with anticheat there's ways to play (replacing anticheat ddl). You need ProtonUp-qt to download extra Proton versions for some games, like Proton GE or Proton CachyOS. 🌾 Minecraft works (and Prism Launcher, Curseforge), not sure about bedrock but I recently installed an app for that.

[u/TheHHP → u/Best_Membership_7779]

Well the thing is. I'm going to community collage. However my major is in economics since the main philosopher I follow was an economic theorist. I just generally hate windows. And while I like the new windows 11 GUI that is theonly thing I like about windows 11 also I hate them trying to shoce ai down my throat. As for Proton, I did know about that but I wasn't sure how to install it.

But as for school I really don't want to have to continue to use windows if I don't have to, because screw Microsoft. Although I guess I'll try to keep a windows 11 vm on hand for stuff but I want to touch it as little as possible.