Hello!

I’m interested in moving my personal computer to running Linux but I’m not sure where to even begin. As background, I am a casual user and have a desktop with hardware from around 2014 running Windows. I am hoping to setup a NAS drive as a media server in the next year or so, offloading all of the files currently on the Windows desktop and have been interested in open source software such as Jellyfin. I also mostly game on an Xbox and Nintendo Switch, but have used the desktop in the past for gaming such as with an Oculus Rift Headset and some Steam games so not huge on getting games working on the computer. But, I do sometimes torrent using the computer so don’t want to lose that capability (especially with upkeep for the media server).

With all of that said, I didn’t know how to get started with choosing what Linux OS to use, setting it up, backing up my files to make sure I can use them with the new OS, etc. Making the switch seems to have great options for customization and “choosing a distro that works for you”, but I don’t know what would work for me or what will be user friendly for a beginner.

Any tips or pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

  • @WR5OP
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    19 months ago

    So if I wanted two users for instance, then I’d have to download an extra copy of each piece of software (one per user) to be able to access (if I wanted tk store them on the drive and not on the network?)

    • @glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      Sorry, I have to correct/specify myself: By installing a programm it is by default installed on every user account. The only things that are user specific are the config and personal files. So you can make the programm look and behave in every way you want, independent from other users.

      So the program files are only once on the system, independent from the number of users. There are ways to make a program accessible for only one specific user, but I never tried that.

      • @WR5OP
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        29 months ago

        Okay I see. Thanks for the clarification!