Not only that, you can use the programs from one desktop environment in the other one. Really confused me the first time I used Linux because it had installed both Gnome and KDE and I was wondering why I had two of almost every type of app. But I really liked Gnome’s Solitaire.

Woohoo, some hacker kid is about to install Sober and Prism and will be the hero for everyone.

My kid’s elementary school has a computer club handling all the PCs. The other day they were surprised to hear that the PCs they were playing GCompris, Ktuberling, Pingus, Super Tux, Tuxpaint and Tux Kart on are running Linux.

Most of them should be able to handle that easily. Even those that come in “flavors” like Kubuntu. OpenSUSE certainly does. You just install them both or start with one and install the other later and in the login manager you can choose which one to start.

SteamOS is immutable. While you can unlock the root filesystem pacman needs a little bit more setup to work. And updating with pacman might break stuff. And everything you do with it will be lost on a proper SteamOS update.

What exactly do you want to achieve? Why do you not just use SteamOS’s own update mechanism?

It’s usually just one command to run.

Oh, also the biggest difference between Linux and Windows is that you don’t go to different websites to install new software. In general you use your distribution’s package manager. Think of it like a software center.

Going to a website to download software is a last ditch effort if your distribution doesn’t have what you are looking for.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

Many games with draconian anti cheat don’t work. You can check that on https://areweanticheatyet.com/ and https://www.protondb.com/.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

Do you mean creating or applying mods? Some of the tools might not run out of the box. But for most mods you actually just have to place the files in the correct folder.

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Wine is the program used to run Windows software. It is used by Steam together with some other tools under the name Proton or Steam Play. It is best to use Wine with a helper frontend like Bottles. That creates an encapsulated Windows environment for every program and helps you in keeping potentially conflicting workarounds separate from each other.

But you can also run Wine standalone. Then every program will be installed to the same fake-Windows environment.

Missing libraries like .Net or the Visual C++ Runtime are actually the most common pitfall when trying to run Windows software on Linux. Bottles, Steam and other helpers will aid in their installation.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?

Every distribution has an application repository that also contains the system files. In general you update everything at once through one interface.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

Open source makes it more safe. You have more eyes on the software. And something that is only safe because nobody knows how it works isn’t really safe.

Antivirus software’s is not necessary. Neither is it necessary on Windows. It makes a system less secure because it opens up more possibilities of something going wrong. There have been enough cases of anti virus software with security issues on Windows. Or even anti virus software attacking important system files directly.

That said, if you still want to install a virus scanner there is ClamAV.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux

AMD and Intel greatly, because they are open source. They are integrated and don’t need any configuration or installation.

Nvidia is worse. You have to install them yourself and sometimes they are unstable. But it’s not worse than on Windows.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Only if you really try and even then it’s probably impossible. Hardware nowadays has many safeguards.

And also, what distro might be best for me?

If you have friends or family already using Linux you should install what they use.

I like OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

Wait, does Disnep want to do the New Jedi Order? Or do you think OG fans think it’s bad?

I actually loved it. Was something new and not the same old Imperial Warlord with a Superweapon shtick. Guess why I didn’t like The Force Awakens.

Correct. The whole thing is lauded as this revolutionary new thing but in reality it’s just a bullshit VM isolated from the rest of the system. We have had that almost for as long as Android existed. Along with Termux and similar that actually can access everything.

Yeah, but that means that not the entire storage is available like the headline implies.

Press X to doubt.

The root filesystem will very likely still be locked down.

Click here for the NDA.

My first time trying out Linux was with a bootable CD from a PC gaming magazine. It was Corel Linux. If I recall correctly it booted into KDE.

Unfortunately on my system the mouse cursor was invisible. The mouse worked, I just couldn’t see where the cursor was. My brother who was using Linux full time couldn’t help me fix it.

It’s totally unproblematic to use an existing encrypted partition even without a separate home partition. You just unlock your drive and delete everything except for home. Never encountered a single installer that couldn’t handle it.

Already said it on the thread on !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone: Unreal Tournament 2003 came with a bootable DVD that would boot into Linux and launch the game.

Nice, free money!

I’m willing, but too disabled to actually do it.

With all the hidden content available in the game I’d say 100%ing it is almost impossible. Sure, not everything is accompanied by a nice “ding”. But I bet if you play completely different you should be able to find lots of new stuff.

Maybe try to get every inspiration for every background.

I really wish they would have released fixes more often with smaller patches. It’s always fascinating to find out what new bugs appear in the game and which regression they failed again to address.