Hello

I know you can’t wait to finally throw your Windows under a bus and finally do the switch to Linux. Right? Ya, thought so; you would but it’s all konphusing af and you don’t know where to start. Orca told you to download and install Linux Mint, and she is kinda trustworthy. So far so good. But then you stumble at the next hurdle: What fukn desktop environment to use? And what is a desktop anyway?

Here, read this very very slow and boring article and then install Mint with the Cinnamon desktop, as it was intended for you by the Mint dev team anyhoo:

Dimitrios made at least 2 mistakes in his writeup: Mint isn’t just one of the best Linux distributions for beginners but it’s one of the best Linux distributions period! And secondly he forgot to include Mint’s LMDE version, which is Debian based and comes with the Cinnamon desktop excusively. If you want the Minty goodness but even more rock solid stability and speed you’d go for LMDE anyway. Like a kool kid. 😉

Whatev, this article doesn’t go into the nitty gritty of the details but stays very surfacey, which in then end means you gotta test the environments out for yourself, see what look n feel suits you best and which one let’s you best customize it to your taste. And then don’t forget the other big huge desktop of the Linux world: KDE. Mint doesn’t offer it, Orca doesn’t use it, which doesn’t say anything. It’s one of the most beloved desktops ever and everybody should at least try it out before you decide it’s not for you. 😉 I guess the best way to just check it out would be Kubuntu.

There are some more desktops, pretty modern one, most of them good looking and pretty but poor in functionality and customizability. I call those fashion desktops and flatout refuse to even look at ’em.

What you should take away from the It’s FOSS article is some peace of mind but also some curiosity. It’s FOSS, in typical fashion, doesn’t deliver much more than some commonly known facts and empty phrases but for when you’re right at the start of your Linux life it might be (more than) enough.