Start Using Linux

I have been a Linux evangelical for a long time now and been using Linux daily for my desktop and laptops and servers for even longer. So, I figured I'd write a short blogpost on how to get started and maybe even daily-drive Linux. With the end of Windows 10 coming up, and Windows 11 being a hot pile of steaming garbage, now is the best time to start with Linux.

First of all, you need to decide on a Linux distribution. They are mostly the same and infinitely customisable anyways so it's not that deep. You have three main "sects" of Linux - Debian, Red Hat, and Arch. Arch does its own thing in its corner and since you're just getting started, it's a distro you should worry about. In the Debian family, you have popular distros like Ubuntu and Linxu Mint which are often recommended for new Linux users. In the RedHat family, you have the commercial RedHat as well as OpenSUSE. Given that I am involved in the openSUSE project, I will gladly recommend it. The main difference to keep in mind is that config files may not be kept in the same place as in Debian-like distros and the package manager for openSUSE is zypper, while the other side of the aisle uses apt.

For the sake of this introduction, I will assume you chose openSUSE (which is the best choice imo). You now have a choice of Tumbleweed or Leap. Tumbleweed always has the latest updates applied incrementally while Leap has an upgrade cycle, kind of how you would upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 and then 10 to 11. Both are very good, just you may want to use Leap in servers due to its stability. For your usecase, I'd totally recommend Tumbleweed because you have all the new things delivered to you straight away.

Surprisingly the hardest part about moving to Linux is probably the step of choosing a distribution. And even well-established Linux users enjoy distro-hopping from time to time.

With the hard work done, you just need a machine to install Linux to. Of course you can use a VM, but that's no fun. I would recommend an old laptop or desktop which you don't use anymore. In some cases, you can even dual-boot with both Windows and Linux existing on the same hard drive though Windows has not played nicely with Linux in the past. Oh, and if you have none of those, you can get a cheap Chromebook (or better yet, a Thinkpad) on ebay.

With your sacrificial device ready, you can prepare the installation media. You probably don't know this because you've only known Windows which came preinstalled, but you need a laptop with an OS to install an OS on another laptop. To prepare the installation media, you can download the ISO file.
You can get it at get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed and download the iso for your laptop - probably the x86_64 architecture.

Now download Balena Etcher and flash the freshly downloaded iso file to your USB. When that's done, you will have your installation media ready. Go ahead and insert it into the PC you want to install openSUSE to. And then start up the PC, rapid-firing the button to enter the BIOS. From there, you'll select to boot from the USB instead of the internal SSD or HDD. This may take a minute till the GUI opens up. If you have the live image, you can try out openSUSE tumbleweed for a bit before committing to installing it.

Installing openSUSE

When you're ready, you can start the installation process. For those with the live iso, this is started by the "Installation" icon on the desktop.

Installation itself is super simple, for the most part you only need to click next and "yes" whenever prompted.
Eventually, you'll be asked to choose the role of this Linux installation - be it server or desktop. I would recommend Desktop with KDE Plasma as the UI for Plasma is very similar to Windows so you'll have no issues navigating it. Additionally, the openSUSE people put a lot of effort into a really close integration between Plasma and the operating system itself.

The next menu needing a bit of attention is choosing the disk to install openSUSE to. You can make a really thoroughly customised arrangement of partitions, but it's probably not necessary for your sacrificial laptop anyways. I would still recommend going through the "guided setup".
An option given is to enable disk encryption. This is nice to have as it prevents someone from yanking your disk and stealing your data so that can be enabled and your disk can be password-protected. For disk type, I recommend sticking to Btrfs, and enabling the swap partition. For the latter, you should tick both boxes relating to Swap.

Afterwards, select your timezone, and create your user. You have a final chance to review what is going to be installed, and when you're satisfied, you can click on the daunting "Install" button.
When the installation is finished, you will restart your machine without the USB stick and it will boot straight into Tumbleweed. Congratulations!