DanLeal
Junior Member
What Linux for beginners? Which Linux distribution is best for beginners? For a computer with 4 GB of RAM, would Gnome or KDE have enough RAM to run a web browser, or is it better to choose the XFCE desktop or an even lighter one? Is the Cinnamon desktop lightweight or heavy? Is it a bad idea to choose lightweight but lesser-known desktops like LXDE? Are Linux programs written only for a specific Linux distribution, or for a specific KDE, Gnome, or XFCE desktop? Ubuntu has a policy of only using freely licensed packages; otherwise, they will lack codecs, and it has its own type of packages, which is also a drawback. Just because most pages on Google refer to Ubuntu doesn't mean it's the best distribution. I'm only considering two distributions. Linux Mint or Debian, and a graphical desktop that's as lightweight as possible, leaves some free RAM, but is also popular and has as few bugs as possible. XFCE seems like the obvious choice, regardless of which Linux distribution I choose. Linux Mint is much easier than Debian, but Debian is a much cleaner Linux than Linux Mint and much more stable. It has programs from the ESU version with long-term support, such as the Firefox web browser. I'm interested in a Linux that's easy to install and forget, so I don't have to deal with it. So what if Linux Mint is much easier than Debian, since Debian has many more developers, is much more polished, and is more stable? If something becomes more difficult to install, I can use ChataGPT. I've tested various Linux systems in a VMWare Workstation virtual machine. Linux Mint requires a lot of programs to be installed manually from the console using ChataGPT. Debian Linux also offers greater stability. Is it possible to configure Linux so that I don't need to enter a password during system startup, even to access the control panel and partition management, and so that the system console treats all commands as administrator, like in Windows? A separate computer with a dedicated disk is best for learning Linux; there's no fear of accidentally deleting Windows. I have Windows 10 22H2 64-bit installed on a hard drive and only 8GB of RAM. It's a terrible idea to burden a slow hard drive with a Linux installation on VMWare Workstation. In this configuration, Linux will be the most sluggish. If I decided to install Linux on a 2003 computer with a single-core processor that only supported 32-bit, would it be better to choose a recent Linux distribution, Debian or Mint, which still supported 32-bit, or a lesser-known but recent one that supports 32-bit? Would YouTube stutter on a single-core processor if the lightest possible graphical Linux was installed on such a computer? For Windows, to watch YouTube directly, the absolute minimum is two cores and two threads. Is Linux suitable for everyday use instead of Windows? Is macOS significantly better than Linux, and is Linux only an alternative to Windows because it's free and doesn't require special computers? If everyone were rich, would they only consider macOS if they gave up Windows? Is Linux for poor people and the difficult Linux terminal is a punishment for not wanting to work and earn more money to buy a better computer for the latest Linux or a computer with Mac OS?
