Linux in 1 minute. If you speed read.

Linux is an operating system, like macOS or Windows, the main difference being that it’s open source and free, meaning you can download the source code and check or alter it however you wish.

It can do whatever you want, or look however you want. If you want to change something, and you have the (technical) skills, go make it, and preferably contribute it back to the community.

Linux is actually the kernel, the core, released 25 years ago as a hobby project by everybody’s favorite coder-on-a-treadmill Linus Torvalds.

Linus Torvalds on his treadmill-workstation. Tread that mill, Linus. Tread it good.

This core gets combined with software, desktop environments and other tools to form distributions or distros for short. Some famous ones are Debian, SuSE, Red Hat, Arch, Mint, Gentoo, Antergos, and many more.

Logo galore! A few old ones, but I’m so not making a new graphic. ಠ_ಠ

Other versions are completely stripped of everything deemed unnecessary, like visual interfaces or irrelevant software, to increase performance (to run on, for example, servers). All you get is a command line. Superhackerman.

Linux is everywhere:

Powers most of the internet , servers and super-computers

, servers and super-computers 85% of smart phones today — Android is Linux

— Android is Linux From satellites to IoT devices , mini computers like the Raspberry Pi

to , mini computers like the Raspberry Pi Smart and/or connected devices, like fridges, TV’s, consoles, you name it

And increasingly on desktops for every day use, I’m quite happy to report.

Check out this Wired article from 08/25/2016, the eight of whatever the 25th month is (February but two years later?) in 2016:

Neeerds

Because of the performance-oriented approach, command line wizardry and maybe not the most modern of user interfaces, Linux has always been a bit in the domain of the nerd and tinkerer, all the way up to hardcore power users who write their own drivers because why the hell not.

I want to see if Desktop Linux is usable for a non-dev professional without having to go full-on super 1337 hacker at it every five minutes.

Linux and I

I’ve been dabbling with Linux since some wise people introduced me to Debian in I think around 1998. After installing a dual-boot setup on my main computer, I wanted to know more and took a Red Hat course.

Over the course of the years, I find myself still very much interested in the goings on, installing various distros on laptops and virtual machines to tinker with. And loving it. I was even in a Linux User Group, or Lug, on SuSE, holding meetings and install parties when I was 16 or 17. Yuuup.

So I know my way around Linux, the terminal, but don’t consider myself a connoisseur or power user. I have seen those.

Still with me? Good, let’s get down to it.

Trying Linux

It used to take a lot of sweat and tears to get a proper Linux desktop environment up and running (and that was actually part of the fun. Yes, fun.).

Right now, in a few seconds you can boot a live distro from a thumb drive, or a CD, try out the entire thing without even installing it on your computer. Pretty amazing, and also very useful for troubleshooting.

Like it and decide to install it? It took me about nine minutes. Nine. Minutes.

Fully functional operating system, browser(s), media player(s), office suite, the works. Ready to go. Swoosh. You can install it dual-boot with your other operating system, or just choose to dive in head-first and erase everything.

Which I did.

On separate hardware, though.

Hello and Goodbye Ubuntu

Ubuntu has rapidly become somewhat top-of-mind and a default choice for a noob-friendly Linux desktop. It installs quickly, has everything set up very friendly, you rarely even need the command line. Well done, there.