So I’m building a new computer before the end of the year and lemmy is obviously pushing me towards Linux.
I am not computer savvy, I have a family member that will help me set up my PC, but I do not want to be calling/messaging them every day when I want to open a program.
Basically my question comes down to: can I operate a Linux PC these days without needing to troubleshoot or type code.
I use my computer about once a week for a few hours I would say, so any time spent troubleshooting is time wasted.
Thanks!
EDIT: since a lot of people are asking what programs I typically use, I’ll just list my most used programs.
Word, Excel, ect(I’m fine with alternatives)
Spotify
Gimp (would have been a make or break, so I’m glad it’s supported)
Brave browser (browser is a browser)
Steam
Discord
I would say that while I could figure out how the kernels work, I’m at a point with computers these days where I don’t have the time. My priorities fall with a seamless daily experience. If I have the time to figure something out I can, but ideally my day to day usage being unbotherd is what I’m after.
A lot of the comments so far have been helpful! I’m definitely going to give Linux a fair shot with my new build, probably start with Mint.
Most of that sounds pretty easy to pull off. I have a few thoughts, though:
- What games do you run in Steam?
- Just a bit of a warning: Discord is annoying about updates, at least with the Debian version. I can’t remember what the Flatpak does.
- For MS Office, most distros should come with LibreOffice. If you have problems with LibreOffice, then Google Docs should be fine.
- You’ll have to run Spotify from the browser, but I imagine that won’t be a problem, as you’re probably not an audiophile
- Run GIMP as a Flatpak, as distro versions tend to have weird bugs with the resynthesizer plugin.
On Fedora AFAIK you can have Spotify app.
It’s on Arch and Debian as well which means it’s on basically every distro
I had no idea there was even a native Spotify port for Linux.
Re: Discord
You can edit a text file to get it to stop checking for updates. IDK if this is viable on Debian but on Fedora it was never more than 1 update behind so I never had an issue in years
I think it’s on the Archwiki, but it applies to any Linux
I added an apt repo someone had created. I’ve checked how it works, and it’s just a CI routine pulling the latest Discord package for the website and throwing it in a repo.
That sounds like another good solution!
