The Linux Desktop (once installed) is ready for “normal” users and has been so for years
As someone who supports many novice GNU/Linux users, i think this is true, but there’s many papercuts along the way. Every desktop environment is broken in subtle ways: the closest to a stable/consistent whole i GNOME but even it sometimes has services eating up resources unexpectedly, and is hard for users to tweak (too much reliance on extensions for what should be basic settings which are much easier to discover for users).
I’m not saying Windows is better: on Windows the “basic” experience works well but as soon as you start installing software, stuff will break in random ways until you have to reinstall from scratch.
Since you say you support new linux users, presumably in learning how to use it, do you have any links or books you could point me to on how to begin? Even where to begin? I don’t even know what the hell a sudo is or why I would bash it, know what I mean lol? Point is I am tired of windows and want something secure and private that can run handbrake, torrent shit, use gimp, onionshare, and some other odds and ends, all of which I am preeeeeeety sure whonix can do, but I don’t know enough about linux to feel comfortable making the jump just yet. I want to install say, mint or something, on a FD with persistence like tails so I can dip my feet, but I am told it doesn’t work, so I am at a standstill currently and would appreciate any input, advice, or resources you could point me to, thank you in advance!
I personally recommend to get started with a distro like Debian/Ubuntu which has a big user base and solid foundations (and is newcomer friendly, not like Archlinux). I’ve also heard good things about Pop!OS lately but haven’t tried it. The Debian admin handbook (although not updated for the latest version) is very complete documentation although not exactly beginner-friendly. For beginner material unfortunately there’s so many things to untangle i wouldn’t know a good resource: just like for Windows/Mac the common pattern is to be introduced to the UX by someone more knowledgeable who can answer your question and guide you around.
All in all it’s very easy to get started but some specific things may be confusing or require more research. In particular, knowing what terms to search for can be the hard part. Don’t hesitate to ask around on here or other forums, people are usually very helpful :)
Oh also, Tails is a wonderful distro and for reading/writing stuff is perfect, but it’s not intended to be customized with any and all apps. Yes making a persistent storage is easy, but having everything setup for persistence (eg. apps) is much harder, and the fact that there are routing rules to prevent UDP trafic and route all TCP through tor doesn’t help, just like that “custom” apps have to be reinstalled on every login (usually automatically, but only for the happy case).
As someone who supports many novice GNU/Linux users, i think this is true, but there’s many papercuts along the way. Every desktop environment is broken in subtle ways: the closest to a stable/consistent whole i GNOME but even it sometimes has services eating up resources unexpectedly, and is hard for users to tweak (too much reliance on extensions for what should be basic settings which are much easier to discover for users).
I’m not saying Windows is better: on Windows the “basic” experience works well but as soon as you start installing software, stuff will break in random ways until you have to reinstall from scratch.
Since you say you support new linux users, presumably in learning how to use it, do you have any links or books you could point me to on how to begin? Even where to begin? I don’t even know what the hell a sudo is or why I would bash it, know what I mean lol? Point is I am tired of windows and want something secure and private that can run handbrake, torrent shit, use gimp, onionshare, and some other odds and ends, all of which I am preeeeeeety sure whonix can do, but I don’t know enough about linux to feel comfortable making the jump just yet. I want to install say, mint or something, on a FD with persistence like tails so I can dip my feet, but I am told it doesn’t work, so I am at a standstill currently and would appreciate any input, advice, or resources you could point me to, thank you in advance!
I personally recommend to get started with a distro like Debian/Ubuntu which has a big user base and solid foundations (and is newcomer friendly, not like Archlinux). I’ve also heard good things about Pop!OS lately but haven’t tried it. The Debian admin handbook (although not updated for the latest version) is very complete documentation although not exactly beginner-friendly. For beginner material unfortunately there’s so many things to untangle i wouldn’t know a good resource: just like for Windows/Mac the common pattern is to be introduced to the UX by someone more knowledgeable who can answer your question and guide you around.
All in all it’s very easy to get started but some specific things may be confusing or require more research. In particular, knowing what terms to search for can be the hard part. Don’t hesitate to ask around on here or other forums, people are usually very helpful :)
Oh also, Tails is a wonderful distro and for reading/writing stuff is perfect, but it’s not intended to be customized with any and all apps. Yes making a persistent storage is easy, but having everything setup for persistence (eg. apps) is much harder, and the fact that there are routing rules to prevent UDP trafic and route all TCP through tor doesn’t help, just like that “custom” apps have to be reinstalled on every login (usually automatically, but only for the happy case).