Serious Reasons why you should use Linux and how to get started

The market share is pretty dire for Linux, despite it being free and open-source, and generally good software. People are under the impression that Linux is for programmers, hackers, and tech-savvy people, but that claim is complete bunk. There are Linux distributions (Operating systems) that are well-tailored to complete novices for use. There have already been many videos on Why you should use Linux, but most of these are things that people who aren't well versed in computers will care about.

All it takes is a flashdrive to boot up Linux.

Now, why *should* you use Linux?

1. It's free. Nothing beats free.
   
   
2. It's constantly being updated by the community, so updates are only accepted if the people agree.
   
   
3. You seldom need an antivirus for it. Linux is generally secure for the average user because you have to authenticate and allow everything that happens in your system before it happens. It's more cumbersome, but it's your first and best layer of protection.
   
   
4. Linux gaming has been on the rise. Steam is on maximum overdrive when it comes to supporting Linux. You can even a list of some 13 thousand games that work fine with Proton. Games that work with Steam Proton.Linus Tech tips on Linux Gaming More on Gaming on Linux here.
   
   
5. The only downside being the multiplayer games that have invasive anti-cheat which also happens to ban or disallow Linux players from playing, but that's more of a fault on devs over the actual Linux kernel. However, many multiplayer games work just fine, like DOTA 2, CSGO, and if you're a *rEaL* gAmEr, Minecraft works beautifully.
   
   
6. It'll run on a toaster. Many Distributions like Zorin OS Lite, MX Linux, Bodhi Linux, can run on hardware as old as from 2000, so for the average use who doesn't really do much besides web browsing, and word processing, this is perfectly acceptable. And for people in the third world, it's far easier to supply people in need with cheap working laptops for work and educational purposes.
   
   
7. Many of the software is pay-what-you-want and libre software. The community is mostly driven through donations and company backing.
   
   
8. Microsoft, Oracle, hell, even military organizations from Korea, US, Russia, among the many others back the Linux project, so you can be sure that Linux isn't going to be dying any time soon.
   
   
9. As a software developer that creates applications, it's easier for you to distribute your applications because of the package managing systems in each distro.
   
   
10. You can make your system look exactly how you want it to, depending on your technical skill. That said, many have already done the hard work for you, and all you have to do is pick the theme you want and follow the author's instructions. See:https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/
    
    
11. Most of the Linux community is more than happy to help you with your technical problems, should they ever arise, as long as you're willing to put in work yourself; but if all you're doing is browsing the internet and writing documents, those shouldn't be regular occurrences.
    
    
12. The more people start supporting Linux, the more software companies, (Looking at you, Adobe), will start supporting Linux too, because as it stand. Linux has a desktop(normal user) market share of 2.35% as of November 2020, which is up from 1.3% from July 2020 (Source), and it's on an upward trend. This might seem insignificant compared to Windows's 87.6%, but keep in mind that Linux runs almost 96% of the world's servers (Source)
    
    
13. By using any Linux distribution, you are already supporting it by increasing the market share. The more people use Linux, the better support for it will get!
    
    

I can already hear you ask, "This sounds neat! How do I get started?"

All you need is a flashdrive, and an hour of your time--10 minutes if you're used to it. And watch this video from Chris Titus Tech, which may be a bit dated, but the process hasn't changed much. Other distributions will commonly have their installation process written down, or someone will have made a video on it on YouTube. $searchengine is key here.

Which distro do I get started with?

Honestly, it doesn't really matter. The big daddies are Debian, Arch, and Fedora, which have thousands of different distributions. The biggest difference in distributions is how user-friendly (system is already set up for you) and user-centric (you set up your system) it is, and how it handles package installations. If you want to just get a taste of Linux to boot up and start working, you can go for Ubuntu download or Ubuntu based distros like PopOS! which is touted as a Linux distro for gamers, Zorin OS, Linux Mint, MX Linux, etc.

So, have fun trying out Linux, if you want to, and do some of your own research. If you have any questions, just post them here, and if I ever come back to this forum, I'll see if I can't help you.


Please like the post if you think it's been helpful so that everyone else can see it too. I don't know how the algorithm works, but I assume liked posts get bumped.





Edit 1: I know there are formatting problems. I don't know why. It looked fine when i was writing this post, but when I posted it, the post generated a lot of new lines. I tried to remove them and repost, but it didn't work. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Edit 2: Fixed the excessive lines. I got a few good questions that got me thinking, so Part 2 about the limitations of Linux, and Part 3 about how Linux compares with the app installation process of Windows and Mac coming soon.

Edit 3: I have been consistently answering questions from other users, so if you have a question, I have probably answered it in the next few posts. If I haven't, ask away!