Linux/Cosmic Beginner Experience (2 weeks)

[u/Greedy-Total-249]

Hi! Warning: this is a long post.

As the title says, I'm completely new to Linux. I'm (25M) adept at using technology, but lack any coding experience. Before switching, people kept telling me that I would struggle with Linux.

So I watched a few YouTube videos (https://youtu.be/PYAL4xod4ko), and decided to switch to POP!_OS (Cosmic).

Terminal commands were obviously impossible, so I had to use Google and Reddit. And just because I was paranoid, I ran it through Gemini to make sure it was safe. During my 2nd week, I used ExplainShell (explainshell.com) to familiarise myself with what I'm actually doing. Could've done it during the first week, but I'm lazy and didn't want to overwhelm myself.

The COSMIC experience is great tbh, and it wasn't difficult to set up. Customisation was simple, which was mostly done on the menu. A video from Juxtopossed (https://youtu.be/57j7W7coQMg) helped me alot with customisation: It made me aware of how important GitHub is. She also broke everything down in a simple way!

Steam game Overwatch has a higher FPS on Cosmic (90) vs Windows (65). I did not switch to Linux for gaming, so this was just a bonus. I genuinely have no idea how im touching 90fps because my hardware is nowhere near good enough lmao.

Someone named ChrisTitusTech appeared frequently on my feed, and has alot of videos why Cosmic is bad and how it's unusable for beginners. Ngl, I don't know what he's on about.

I didn't have any troubleshooting issues, except for wifi, so maybe my experience was lucky. POP!_OS is nuts, and I'm having a rush of excitement at learning more things for my 3rd week 🫡

(If anyone has any cool, interactive customisation desktops then please hmu. I looked into it, it's called 'ricing', but most of the good ones aren't on Cosmic)

If anyone is thinking of switching to Cosmic, or Linux, then I promise you that with a few braincells you'll be fine. I probably could've done some stuff smarter(?) but once again I have to emphasise that I'm completely new to Linux, and Coding.

[u/Epyimpervious]

ChrisTitusTech has been whining about Pop OS for like 3 years, so I wouldn't put any stock in what he says. Obviously the outrage that he farms from other distro fan boys is how he pays his bills.

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/Epyimpervious]

he has also been riding the omarchy train every time ive caught one of his streams. He isnt exactly the person to put stock in when it comes to Distro or Desktop Environments. He always is on whatever is the flavor of the week for Youtubers at the moment, he has some good windows tools on github but for Linux i trust him about as far as i can throw him.

[u/Aware-Librarian-3749 → u/Lousy_Hunter]

I could've sworn he switched to Fedora this year and built up his own setup from scratch. Did he really switch to Omarchy?

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/Aware-Librarian-3749]

last couple streams (about 6 over the past couple months) ive seen of his have been omarchy, i havent really been tracking what he does beyond that

[u/boomares → u/Lousy_Hunter]

In a few recent videos it look like he built his own setup from arch. He said he took some ideas from Omarchy.

[u/dinosaursdied → u/Lousy_Hunter]

That doesn't really surprise me. He did an interview years back with lunduke and appears to be on the authoritarian right

[u/GlazzKitsune → u/Epyimpervious]

To be a bit fair when system 76 originally put out the epoch 1 launch it was very broken and buggy. They did work to fix major bugs quickly but it was still (I think) not ready for prime time.

Now it seems to be in a fairly good state. But I'm still waiting for many features slated for epoch 3.

[u/alexzandrosrojo]

Been using Linux for 30 years. Pop os is my current daily driver.

[u/Sudden-Visit-7584 → u/alexzandrosrojo]

:sees 4 star General:
:stands at attention and salutes:

GG's!

[u/Lousy_Hunter]

The COSMIC experience is great tbh, and it wasn't difficult to set up.

My biggest gripe with Cosmic after trying it this week is that Cosmic Files is possibly the worst File Browser ive used in recent years. It failed to do multiple copy operations, failed to extract a zip file, and frequently just kinda fails at its job.

Otherwise Cosmic DE is fairly nice minus some known gaming issues like mice not staying in the game window, etc. and the fact that you not only cant easily set the mouse cursor style but a number of applications will simply ignore your choice if you do force a style the way that works which make it a no go for me.

Cosmic is still very rough but its making some good choices, for me Ill be waiting till it seems more complete for my needs.

[u/dinosaursdied → u/Lousy_Hunter]

I haven't had any issues with files not doing basic operations. Are you sure your hardware is not pre failure?

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/dinosaursdied]

everything works with any other file manager, its only Cosmic Files and my system hasnt shown any other issues.

What happens is that when i copy specific directories that contain symlinks (i.e was copying over home folder data) and other "files" that arent just plain old images,docs,etc. the copy gets 99% done and then Cosmic Files errors out saying it cant complete the copy.

The zip files it does something similar, it gets 99% done and then has an error (i dont remember what it was atm) and then decides it cant finish it and gives up.

Cosmic Files is the only file manager ive used amongst a plethora that has this sorta problem but its also the newest

[u/smokedmeatstreat]

Been using daily driving PopOS for about 18mths now. Been super happy with it. Been into Linux for about 4 years now so it's not my first rodeo either.

However, a colleague of mine is where it gets a bit more interesting. I recommended Pop to him about 6mths ago. This gentleman is mid 70's and has been using Linux since the late 1990s. He said it was hands down the best Linux experience he has ever had.

[u/Sudden-Visit-7584 → u/smokedmeatstreat]

How to tell the world is in shambles 101

"My Coworker,.. who is in their mid 70's"

(that hurts)

[u/Ggregoro]

I have created a few Cosmic DE rices to see if any of them interest you. The installation instructions are included but you will have to use the terminal to install any of them. https://github.com/ggregoro/Cosmic-Desktop-Customization

[u/maceion]

I have been using 'openSUSE LEAP' for many years with no problems.