Switching to Linux: Quickguide

A friend recently dismissed the possibility of switching to linux with a self-deprecating flourish: “I’m not smart enough for that.” The remark was nonsense, but it pointed to something worth discussing. Linux has acquired a reputation as the province of the technically sophisticated, a system that demands expertise merely to operate. But in reality, linux is often more straightforward than windows or mac, once you move past the initial friction of unfamiliarity.

Many who might benefit from linux find themselves paralyzed at the threshold, confronted by an overwhelming catalog of distributions, configuration options, and contradictory advice proliferating across forums and tutorial videos, precisely the conditions under which the paradox of choice asserts itself with particular force.

People tend to adopt linux more readily when they encounter it through work, where the distribution and configuration have been decided for them. Freed from the burden of initial choices, they simply use the system and discover, often to their surprise, that the experience is not materially different from what they knew before. I myself came across linux in uni where fedora was the default os, and we basically needed it for programming with C. I wasn’t enticed by it initially, because it basically felt like a dull version of windows.

I began with Windows, as most do. Even in primary school I found myself drawn to customization, installing Rainmeter on Windows XP to reshape the desktop into something that felt more mine. Years later, soon after university, I stumbled across a subreddit dedicated to Linux desktop customization, and what I saw there fundamentally altered my understanding of what an operating system could be, and it was then that windows/mac felt pale in comparison.

I moved to Arch Linux soon after, choosing it as my first serious distribution despite its reputation for difficulty. Lacking the skill at the time to resolve many faults, I would reinstall and begin again, and each pass revealed more of how an operating system is put together and how its parts work in concert. Some regard the hours spent configuring and debugging Linux as wasted time, though I took the learning as worthwhile and found it valuable to justify the effort. I came to build an environment that feels personal, kept to essentials and clear of the bloat common to commercial systems, and the workflow has proved efficient for development while remaining visually aesthetic.

[Back your files up on an external HDD; installation process wipes out the drive you install the distro on.]

Step 1: Distro

A distro (distribution) is like a bundle of Linux packaged with certain software and configurations. It’s not an operating system in itself; Linux is simply a kernel (the core of the OS that manages hardware and processes). The distro is what makes it functional.

Picking a distro:

  • If you want a system that works out of the box, with minimal effort:

    • Fedora: gets the latest software faster, is well-supported, and doesn’t add unnecessary extras.
    • Mint: feels like Windows, is beginner-friendly, and focuses on stability over cutting-edge features.

  • You want full control and understand how Linux works: Arch Linux.

    • You install everything manually, and at the surface this might sound tedious, but it’s well worth it if you really want to learn about what installing a distro actually entails.
    • Rolling release (always up to date, no waiting for major upgrades).

Why not Ubuntu? It adds unnecessary software, forces Snap (a package format many dislike), and isn’t as clean as Fedora.

No Debian? ISO is a mission to obtain.

Step 2: The Interface - DE vs. WM

Your Linux system needs a graphical interface; this is what the user interacts with. It comes in two forms:

1. Desktop Environment (DE) – A Full, Pre-Built Experience

A DE is a complete interface with a file manager (windows explorer, basically), settings menu, and system utilities. It’s what Windows and macOS have by default.

Within the linux community, 3 desktop environments hold particular prominence, recurring with notable frequency in discourse.

GNOME (Default on Fedora)

  • Favored for its modern, minimal design; may evoke macOS familiarity via the dash dock (vertical launcher for pinned applications) and Activities Overview (full-screen viewer for switching apps and workspaces).

KDE Plasma

  • Favored for its Windows-esque workflow, replicating the Start menu and taskbar paradigm while affording granular customization of themes, effects, and virtual desktops through the System Settings interface,

KDE boasts exhaustive configurability, predicated upon a modular architecture that permits the reconfiguration of every element—from panel geometries to widget behaviors. Gnome on the other hand, imposes a more prescriptive minimalism, wherein defaults brook scant alteration without extensions, prioritizing gestural navigation and spatial coherence.

You want something lightweight but still traditional?

XFCE

  • Presents a conventional panel-oriented interface, featuring a top-mounted bar with an application menu, task manager, and system tray for clock and volume controls.
  • Straightforward customization via the Settings Manager for themes and compositing, unburdened by the gestural demands of GNOME or the configurative depth of Plasma.
  • Uses fewer system resources by avoiding fancy animations and unnecessary background services.

I list these different desktop environments because on Arch, you can choose which one to install—it doesn’t come with a default; should you wish to go this route (albeit with a more hands-on installation process). This doesn’t apply to distros like Fedora, Mint, or PopOS, which come pre-installed with GNOME, Cinnamon, and COSMIC, respectively. If you want to try KDE, you can get the Kubuntu distro. With Mint, you can choose between Cinnamon (recommended) or XFCE when downloading the ISO.

But, software isn’t tied to a specific distro or desktop environment. While a distro may come preinstalled with a particular DE (like GNOME on Fedora or Cinnamon on Mint), you can install and use any DE or software on any distro. That means you can install KDE on Mint, for example, through its package manager. However, since Mint isn’t built around KDE, it may not integrate as cleanly as it would on a KDE-focused distro like Kubuntu. The same principle applies to most Linux software—if it exists for Linux, you can usually install it on any distro.

2. Window Manager (WM) – Minimal, DIY Approach

A WM doesn’t come with a full desktop—it’s basically just software that manages how windows appear and behave. Everything else is up to you, i.e., you install rest of the components one-by-one, by yourself (unless you use it alongside a desktop environment).

  • Uses keybindings for everything (spawning windows, moving windows, etc.); i.e., minimal mouse usage so you don’t waste time switching between keyboard and mouse.
  • Keybinds set up via custom configuration file.
  • A lot more efficient and productive than Desktop Environments, but requires some setup.

“Tiling window managers” is also another term that pops up often when people talk about linux. There are different types of tiling WMs but the only important one is “Static tiling” WM; other WMs defeat the purpose of using tiling window managers. Tiling window managers automatically arrange application windows in a non-overlapping, grid-like fashion under a pre-defined layout/manner. They optimize screen real estate and workflow efficiency by emphasizing keyboard-centric navigation, hotkeys for window manipulation (think ctrl-c/v, but taken to a whole another level of convenience), and minimal visual clutter.

My recommendations:

If you’re running xorg: dwm (Luke Smith build) over i3

If you’re running wayland, then, Hyprland is a very popular, modern alternative to dwm/i3 with a cosmetic flair—border radii, blur shaders, and interpolated transitions and animations.

How is a WM different from a DE? A DE gives you a full interface out of the box. A WM is just window management—you have to install a file manager, app launcher, and system utilities separately.

Can I install both? Yes. You can install GNOME and dwm side by side and switch between them at login.

Understanding Software Management

Desktop Environments generally come with a “software center” that lists applications you can install with one click. These work as frontends for the package manager, so instead of using the terminal, you can browse and install software using this graphical interface.

If you run a WM, you won’t have any of this, and will have to use the terminal and the distro’s package manager to install the software (known as “package”) you want. Unlike Windows/macOS, Linux doesn’t use .exe or .dmg files to install software. It uses package managers that handle installations, updates, and dependencies. Different distros use different package managers:

  • Fedora: dnf install package_name
  • Arch: pacman -S package_name
  • Mint: apt install package_name

I genuinely recommend Arch; but looking back on my experience, I went through multiple installs, running into issues when I messed something up, had trouble configuring things the way I wanted, or ended up with a bloated system after experimenting with random software, different window managers, and various settings. Some things were frustrating to set up, but I enjoyed having full control over what went on my system. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate—the learning process was worth it, and it’s what made me enjoy computers again.

That said, most people might find it overwhelming, and Linux can be learned gradually on a more traditional distro, and some people just don’t care about their system or PCs like I do. I had tried Fedora on uni machines, and ubuntu/mint on vm for from uni projects, but never go into them, at all. I made a full switch from Windows to Arch, with Arch being my first proper distro, after browsing this subreddit and seeing what you can do with your system, because I had always liked making things look good and customizing things to my needs. So while the old me would have pushed Arch as the only real option, I won’t dismiss everything else right away, because people have different tastes and priorities.

[Installation]

  1. Download ISO from distro’s official website. I recommend having qbitorrent installed for faster downloads via BitTorrent.
  2. Flash the ISO to a USB using usbimager (linux+windows; follow instructions on their repo).
  3. Enter BIOS and boot from USB.

When searching for Linux help, prioritise results from the Arch Wiki, even if you’re not using Arch.

[If you don’t know where to start, follow this order: Mint >Fedora > Kubuntu > PopOS. This can apply to your distro hopping journey too, but by that time, you’ll know what you want next. Don’t be afraid to break things, reinstall, and try again.]

Post Install

[Basic Shell Commands]

Files are organized differently than Windows.

  • Personal files are in /home/<account-name>.
  • System files are under /etc, /usr, /var

Navigation

  • ls: List files
  • cd <foldername>: Change directory

File Operations

  • cp file1 file2: Copy file
  • mv file1 file2: Move/rename file
  • rm file: Delete file (rm -r foldername for directories)

Get familiar with the concept “dotfiles”/“dots” . These are configuration files used to customize your Linux environment, stored in your home directory (~):

  • .config: where applications store their settings/configurations.
  • .zshrc/.bashrc: shell configuration (aliases, environment variables, custom prompts)
  • .icons: used to store icons. Can be applied in your DE via Settings → Appearances.
  • .themes: used to store GTK themes, which change the appearance of window decorations, buttons, menus, UI elements. Can look and try out various themes from the KDE or Gnome Store. Usually applied via settings or lxappearance package.
  • .local/bin/: place for user scripts and executables; direct invocation without full paths require ~/.local/bin to be in $PATH (defined in bashrc/zshrc). bin denotes binary (executable files, similar to .exe or .bat on windows).