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Today, we're going to cover a few mistakes that people make when moving to Linux for the first time. You're all happy about making the switch, you want to do everything at once, discover this whole new world of computing, and then you ruin it all by making THESE beginner mistakes.



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00:00 Intro
01:33 Thinking Linux is Windows/macOS
03:29 Getting stuck on distros
05:27 Getting stuck on defaults
7:08 Not using the Live USB
08:20 Expecting previous software to work
09:56 Following CLI tutorials without thinking
11:34 Giving up too easily

Trying to apply existing concepts to Linux

The first mistake that people make is generally trying to apply concepts from other operating systems to their Linux experience.

All of these preexisting concepts are different on Linux: if you're moving to another system, you have to be willing to accept that things don't work in the exact same way, and be willing to learn how things work. Your preexisting knowledge won't be totally useless, but it won't immediately give you superpowers.

Getting stuck on distros instead of desktops

The second mistake people make is getting hung up on distributions. A distribution is just a specific way to package a kernel, some system tools, some programs, and a desktop. While distributions will serve different purposes, what users ultimately tend to settle on is a look and feel, and that has nothing to do with the distro.

What users should really look for, is desktop environments: if you find that a distribution looks really pleasing to the eye, find out what desktop environment it uses: KDE, GNOME, Pantheon, Cinnamon, XFCE...

Then, you pick a distro that's beginner friendly, like Linux Mint, Kubuntu, Zorin OS, or Fedora, and you install the desktop environment that you want, and you change the theme and layout to match what you liked.

Thinking you're stuck with the defaults

This goes nicely with mistake number 3.
I often get comments from people telling me "I used distribution X", or "I used this desktop", but then I couldn't do THAT thing, and so I installed another distribution.

That all comes from the fact that proprietary OSes that people are used to, generally aren't customizable out of the box: you're pretty much stuck with the default, unless you're willing to use third party tools.

Installing without testing

The 4th mistake beginners make is installing Linux without trying it out. There is a reason why Linux has LiveUSB sessions: you can use them to try and make sure that all your peripherals and all your computer's components work well.

Trying to stick to your programs

5the mistake is expecting to keep all your programs. Linux doesn't run windows or mac applications. It can run some windows apps, with Wine, but it's hit or miss, apart from a lot of Games, these tend to work really well.


Following command line tutorials blindly

The 6th mistake people generally make is following tutorials online, blindly, without trying to understand what they do.
Most tutorials for Linux are written using the command line, even though you could do the same thing graphically in most cases. This is for convenience purposes, for the tutorial's writer, so they don't have to make graphical tutorials for every desktop environment there is.

As practical as it may be for the tutorial's writer, it also means that beginners will just blindly copy/paste terminal commands without understanding what they do.

When you're thinking about following a tutorial, try and look up the commands, and see what they actually do to your system.