Navigating Linux

This is meant as a follow-up for the previous post on start using Linux so I assume you have a fully functional Linux (preferably openSUSE) installation running. I'll go over some key components of *using* your newfound OS as a daily driver so you can ditch Windows with which you had a toxic relationship anyways.

Navigating Linux

If you followed my advice previously to install KDE Plasma as your desktop environment, you probably find yourself in a very familiar place - the Plasma UI is very similar to Windows. Of course, you can customise it to your liking just by right clicking on the desktop.

Because you just installed openSUSE, you probably want to tweak some settings to suit your own preferences, especially for things like mouse sensitivity. A quick mention that, on Windows, you have practically a dozen different settings applications dating back 20+ years. Linux is much more straightforward; you have the settings app, and you have the command line.

Updating Linux

Your Linux installation is made of different packages, all intertwined to make a functional operating system. openSUSE comes with Zypper, a package manager. Using zypper, you can install new packages, upgrade existing ones, and remove unused ones.

If you try running these commands, you'll see that you get yelled at by your computer, saying you need "root privileges". On a Linux machine your user is not the most privileged user, in fact it is root. In order to run these "admin-level" commands, you need to prefix them with "sudo" so, for example, "sudo zypper dup".

The Linux App Store

On Windows, you're probably familiar with the Windows Store where you can buy and download software. Linux has a similar concept, though the name can vary. On distributions running Plasma, you have the Discover app, also called the Software Center to find apps and install them with a single click. Things like GIMP, Steam, VLC, Telegram and many other popular apps are available there.
An alternative to the software center is your plain terminal utility zypper. So you can also install Steam through "zypper in steam".

Windows Compatibility

Windows runs apps with the .exe format, which is different to the Linux way of doing things. However, there are a lot of alternatives and compatibility layers which le you run your Windows software on Linux. But, before that, consider Free and Open Source alternatives.
For example, rather than looking for Adobe tools, you can use GIMP or Krita, and Inkscape to replace Illustrator. For the Microsoft Office suite, you can easily replace it with LibreOffice which probably came pre-installed with your openSUSE installation. LibreOffice has alternatives to every MS Office program, and also works in the same file formats - docx, xlsx, pptx and so on. Though if you want, LibreOffice also saves in the open document formats - odt, ods, odp and so on.

For other applications from Windows, when you get the .exe file, you may be able to use Wine to run them. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows applications on Linux. To run a .exe file with wine, simply open the command line and run "wine <file>.exe"

For gaming purposes, Steam made a huge effort (also the Steam Deck runs Linux) with Proton, built on top of Wine. Through the Steam UI, you can navigate to "compatibility" and enable Proton for the games which don't have a native Linux build. You can also check ProtonDB to hear from other players about the best Proton version to use, and if the game supports Linux. Some games such as Apex Legends, Destiny 2 and Fortnite block Linux, at the discretion of the developers/publisher.

For other launchers such as GOG, Epic Games, and such, you can simply install Heroic Launcher, which is an all-in-one for all your game libraries, with the same ease of use with Proton. This means you can install games from the Epic launcher without needing to install the Epic Games Launcher separately, as sometimes the Launcher may not have a native build for Linux.