I definitely understand where you’re coming from, but at this point I’ve had so many JustWorks™️ Linux systems, including set up on my parents’ PC for well over 5 years without one single problem or breaking update, and they certainly are never opening up the terminal.

I’ll stick with my suggestion that Linux is not for anyone with a strong aversion to terminals.

My experience tells me that this is just objectively wrong, or I’d be getting calls from my parents, HOWEVER, I will concede that maybe this is only wrong if you just want a bulletproof system that works without messing around much.

If OP wants to mess around and get dirty in settings, then I’ll give it to you that they might need to be a bit more open minded about the terminal. I haven’t really tried much GUI configs or settings besides really common, typical stuff, like network config or power saving modes/settings, because I just go right to the terminal regardless.

But its just wrong to claim that someone who doesn’t want to use a terminal will have a problem on Linux, it just depends heavily on what you are trying to do. For the tasks that most people use a personal computer for, there won’t be anything holding you back.

In no way am I trying to defend the GOP, Musk, Trump, or dissuade voting for Harris, because Democrats are obviously the lesser of the 2 evils, and we are like days out from the election so nothing we can do about that now besides get energized for the next round of primaries.

BUT I’d say there are still plenty of valid arguments that the Democrats are a party of rich elites. It isn’t mutually exclusive, both the GOP and Democrats can be this at the same time, and I’m not saying “BoTh SiDeS aRe ThE sAmE” because literal fascists are worse than neoliberals or however you want to characterize Democrats.

Am I out of my mind?

Dude, reading comprehension

Mint isn’t based on Fedora either

Lol ironic. Where did you “comprehend” that I claimed it was?

So which GPU, and I’ll give you a leg up, don’t say “5700XT” because that one is notoriously broken for drivers, including on Windows…

Now I just want to know what commands you thought you needed to run that you found randomly on the internet lmao, like what, you had to chmod +x the installer??

I hate to say it, but… you sure about that? The Wikipedia article addresses this exact issue:

As AMDgpu is part of the monolithic Linux kernel, it is shipped by most Linux distributions directly. The package suite / install script amdgpu-pro, distributed by AMD directly from AMD Radeon Software, ships an AMDgpu kernel module somewhat reliably more up-to-date compared to that of kernels shipped in regular operating system distributions.

Yes, a version of the driver is included in the Linux kernel as part of Fedora, but it is likely slightly old and you can download the latest version from AMD… you should probably go do this right now, because that is exactly how it works for Mint, too.

Exactly like how they’re also already included with Windows, but you must go download from AMD to have the latest…

Next time you need a graphics update, please don’t wipe your machine and install a whole different distro with crossed fingers that that distro will happen to use a kernel with a newer version of the driver 🤣 completely unnecessary. Just search “AMD linux driver” it is literally the first result, you had to have scrolled past it to find these random sketchy commands you were scared to run. Your GPU will work just as perfectly with Fedora as it does with Mint or Windows. I also use an AMD GPU on Fedora

EDIT: Alright, I’ll admit that I was wrong about how updating it yourself is on specifically Fedora and that getting the driver direct from AMD website is going to be a huge pain if you’re not on the specific Ubuntu version they are supprting. That said, I’ve never seen a driver issue on Fedora with the included AMD driver, especially for 6XXX series AMD GPUs or later (5700 XT is a special case, AMD completely burned the people that bought that card, including my friend, and he only runs Windows)

OMG you’re not even talking about NVIDIA… 😳🤦

My friend, I have wonderful news. AMD, the manufacturer that you trust to write the closed source Windows drivers, is the same one that officially maintains the open source drivers for Linux…

You spent 2 whole days, yet never found that you can download them directly from the AMD website? What exactly were you doing for those 2 days??? https://www.amd.com/en/support/download/linux-drivers.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMDgpu_(Linux_kernel_module)

AMDgpu is an open source device driver for the Linux operating system developed by AMD

“Who the fuck knows what I just installed?”

This is honestly a great question; you’re on the right track here.

With closed source, the person that wrote the program decided that it should be impossible for you to answer that question.

With open source, the person that wrote the program wanted to make sure it is possible for you to answer that question.

Which of those 2 options is better and safer? I’ll stick with open source, personally, but install whatever you like on your own machine.

and on Mint

So it runs perfectly fine on Linux! That’s great news

Are we going to pretend that stuff being closed source prevents people from inserting bad shit in their code?

downloading home made drivers on GitHub

🙄 lol wut. Who hurt you?

Open source isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have to be because it is better than it’s only alternative.

There are literally only 2 options: open source or closed source. One option offers you and anyone the ability to see the code that you are running for yourself, the other option is “trust me bro, nothing bad is in here”. Which of those do you prefer? Which do you think ends up with more malware? You think computer viruses include a link to the code on GitHub? Lol

Was this within the last decade? Sounds like a faulty GPU.

You also have no idea what that file you downloaded from a website is doing, too. And we have AppImage now, so you CAN still download a file from a website on Linux!

There’s a reason people have been “fighting” for, like, 40 years over which terminal text editor is the superior one…

There is no contest or fight. The best is vim, obviously! 😝

I second the point to avoid dual-booting from a single hard drive. If you want both Windows and Linux, just get a 2nd hard drive and save yourself the inevitable headache. Windows doesn’t know how to share.

I think this reply was mostly true ~10 years ago, but is not accurate today. Not using the terminal is not a deal breaker anymore.

But you’re not going to be doing anything you’re going to consider interesting from the GUI.

They’re going to be able to do just as interesting stuff from a Linux GUI as they are already doing from the Windows GUI, so I’d say this is just not valid.

I DO NOT want to be forced to use a terminal just to get the most outta my operating system. I like having some kind of UI to use.

Hmm… I want to ask why you feel this way and if you have tried using a terminal at all, but it sounds like your mind is already made up on this. You can definitely use Linux without ever opening a terminal, by using modern desktop environments like KDE or GNOME (or many others). I think you’ll have the best experience if you keep an open mind and accept that there could be times when the terminal might be the easiest way to go. Disclaimer: I am biased towards using the terminal and prefer to use it instead of GUIs.

I’d encourage you to try a LiveUSB. The way this works: you copy a full, working Linux system to a USB flashdrive (this will overwrite all data on the drive) and boot directly from it, so that you can play around with it a bit like a trial without modifying anything on your computer. If you don’t know what distro to go with, personally I recommend starting here: https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/download This will have the KDE Plasma desktop environment which should feel pretty familiar to Windows. If you don’t instantly fall in love but still are curious, you can always overwrite the USB again and try a different distro or even Fedora with a dfferent desktop environment (the official “default” desktop environment for Fedora is GNOME, but PERSONALLY I am not a GNOME fan, and its workflow will be slightly different than what you are used to from Windows). One caveat to this is that running from a USB drive will likely be pretty slow, so keep that in mind and try not to worry about the performance/speed during this trial. Linux can be extremely performant, and is used to power the world’s fastest supercomputers. If you decide you want to stick with it and install Linux to your hard drive, it will be a lot snappier than running from USB.

There are a lot of distros out there, and that is understandably overwhelming. So basically what is going on here, with Linux there are many many options and choices for different software for everything from system tools, desktop environments, package managers, text editors, whatever. It’s like how you can choose from Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, etc for your web browser on Windows, except with Linux, there are potential choices for every single little piece of the system.

Each distro will have already made a lot of these choices for you, so that you can just get started using it out of the box. If you don’t know much about Linux, then you probably really don’t have an opinion or care about these choices yet, for example, which package manager the system is using. If you want to be making some choices now, I’d focus only on choosing a distro that comes with a desktop environment that appeals to you, as this will be the most visible difference between them to a new Linux user.

Some distros are geared for specific use-cases, like Kali Linux is for hacking/security testing, so comes pre-packaged with a lot of tools that hackers and security professionals would use. Some distros aim to be very stable and offer a system that you can rely on to JustWork™️. Others are cutting edge with the latest, brand new versions of software, but this is not as stable or reliable. Some require you to build much of your system and make most of these choices for yourself. More recently, there are some gaming focused distros. There is something for everyone and every use-case, from datacenter servers to embedded devices, personal desktop/laptop computers, mobile phone/tablet touch screen devices, gaming devices and handhelds, IoT and “smart” devices, routers/networking gear, virtual machines or containerized systems, the list goes on and on…

I linked Fedora Linux above, which is a good balance between stable and cutting edge IMO. Mint is another that is great for your first time trying Linux. A lot of people love Mint, but my personal opinion is that I do not like it as much as others, but I’d still take it over Windows.

Choice and freedom to do things in your own way is fundamental to Linux, and I’m sure you’ve noticed that with all these choices come strong opinions and heated arguments. Ignore it, most of it is trivial, and pretty much everyone arguing about this stuff would probably agree that its all better than Windows 😁

The only alternative is closed-source, which is just “trust me bro”. At least with open-source you have the option to check it for yourself. Doesn’t have to be a perfect system

That’s a lot better than closed source, which is just “trust me bro”.

You’re asking the right questions! @Splashy5928@lemmus.org has the right answer

LOVE jShelter. Use it on all my devices (woooo mobile firefox addon compatibility!!).

It is an EYE OPENER to see all the websites that will refuse to serve you when they can’t identity exactly who you are…

It’s dogwhistling