Recently, I looked back at some of my articles and realized that it’s only been a little over two months since I wrote about trying Linux for the first time. In that short span of time, I’ve become a certified Linux fan, and I now find it funny to think about how I was so scared of using it before. I truly believed that using Linux would just be harder and too difficult to get used to.
I suspect that’s the case for a lot of Windows users. Everyone just assumes Linux is too hard and requires you to be some kind of IT specialist who does nothing but look at computers all day. But really, it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right choices, Linux can be very easy to use, and it doesn’t require that long to get used to.
You don’t need to be in the terminal all the time (or at all)
This is the big one
When you picture Linux, there’s a good chance you picture the command line terminal. The fact that the Windows Subsystem for Linux is based entirely around the terminal probably doesn’t help with that perception. Linux is sometimes perceived as such a niche operating system for experts that it’s hard to imagine otherwise, and I certainly thought the same. In reality, though, how much time you spend in the terminal is up to your own choices and preferences.
Linux comes in many different flavors, and sure, if you install something like Arch Linux, you’re going to need to be comfortable in the command line. But the most popular distros, like Ubuntu? Those are just as easy to get started with as Windows, and there are other great examples of this. Aurora and Bazzite are other excellent choices that don’t really require you to use the terminal at all. The entire setup process is guided with a nice UI, and once you’re on the desktop itself, everything works pretty much like it would on a Windows PC. You have an application launcher, a desktop, a file manager, and a web browser to do all the basic tasks you’d need to do on a computer.
And even if you do have something that requires you to use the terminal, it’s not like you need to do it on a daily basis. When I set up Arch Linux, I needed to have the Flatpak package manager so I could find apps through the Discover store. All it takes is one command after installing the OS, and then Flatpak is on my system forever. Now I can install all the apps I want using the app store instead of opening the terminal again.
There may be a couple of other things that require you to use the terminal to properly set up the first time, but the same principle holds up. I do it once, and then I’m good to go. I don’t need to spend a lot of time in the terminal, even in one of the more difficult Linux variants like Arch.
There are plenty of apps
It’s not a desolate wasteland
Another big thing that kept me from using Linux was the fear that I would have to find subpar alternatives to my favorite apps, and maybe that was true in the past, but today, it really isn’t. For me (and most people, I imagine), the most important app on my computer is my web browser, where I do all my work and most of my time-wasting. I use Vivaldi, which isn’t exactly a niche browser, but it’s not one of the major players, either, so I didn’t think I’d be able to use it. Turns out I was, and in fact, almost every browser you can think of has a perfectly functional Linux version. Google Chrome? Check. Mozilla Firefox? Check. Even Microsoft Edge? Yes, it’s there. Opera, Brave, Zen, Tor — all these browsers and more are on Linux, with only a handful of exceptions like Opera GX or Opera Air.
And the same holds true for a lot of other essential apps. Slack has a Linux app that works perfectly fine, so I can keep talking to my colleagues. Even Beeper, which I thought would be far too small of a platform to have a dedicated Linux version, is here. I can still use all my messaging services in one app, and it works pretty much flawlessly.
There are exceptions, of course, but many of them are paid software that you probably already need a replacement for. Microsoft Office is a good example. I already didn’t want to pay for it, so I needed an alternative and used WPS Office instead, which is also available on Linux (albeit it’s admittedly not very well supported). And there are other well-known options like LibreOffice or OnlyOffice. Likewise, if you don’t want to pay for Photoshop, you probably use GIMP, and this is also available on Linux.
Many Windows features are already on Linux
Clipboard history, emoji picker, and even FancyZones
Another fear I had with switching to Linux was that not only would I be missing some third-party apps, but some of the features I love on Windows 11, too. One of my favorites is the clipboard history, which lets me see multiple items I’ve copied in the past so I can use them again, even after I’ve copied other items into the clipboard. As it turns out, some Linux distros already include this. The KDE Plasma desktop environment already has a clipboard history, and it’s even more customizable than Windows, since I can choose how many entries I want to keep and how long they should be kept. Ubuntu may not come with one out of the box, but thanks to GNOME extensions, you can easily add one that, again, works better than the one in Windows. The exact same things can be said of the emoji picker, which I also love.
Even things that aren’t exactly part of Windows can be added. One of the most important tools I have on Windows is FancyZones, which is part of the PowerToys suite. I thought I would have to miss out on it with Linux, but GNOME extensions also bring this exact feature to Linux PCs with GNOME (such as Ubuntu). And on KDE? Well, a FancyZones-like window manager is built right into the desktop environment, no extras needed. Once again, Linux does what Windows won’t.
There’s still a learning curve
But you don’t have to learn it all at once
As great as Linux is, I don’t want to oversell it as an extremely breezy experience where you’ll be completely at home as soon as you set it up. Linux isn’t Windows, and some things will be different and take some time to get used to. Some distros may use a very different app launcher, like Ubuntu, and not every distro uses the same package manager out of the box, so you may need to install Flatpak or another package manager that makes things easier for you. Plus, not every distro will have the same features I mentioned above, or the best implementation of them, and you may have to do some digging.
But the great thing is you don’t need to deal with all of these problems at once. If you want a really well-balanced operating system with a lot of these features out of the box, Aurora is a fantastic entry point. It has a good app store, easy system updates, and it uses KDE Plasma so you have the features I just mentioned, like the clipboard history and an emoji panel. All the basics will just work out of the box, and it has a very similar look and feel to Windows. Then, on your own time, you can try to learn to find even better tools and options.
Another great option is AnduinOS. This distro is based on Ubuntu and uses the GNOME desktop environment, but it comes preloaded with a bunch of GNOME extensions that really mimic the look and feel of Windows 11, and it’s fantastic. It includes features like the clipboard and emoji picker, too, and it has a great Start menu equivalent that you can customize in ways Windows would never let you. But you also don’t have to, because it feels familiar by default.
Linux isn’t the boogeyman
For the longest time, I thought I would have to sacrifice a ton of my workflow to switch to Linux. Whether it was the supposed lack of apps or a fear that I would have to do everything in the terminal, I was not keen on the idea of switching over. But now, unless you have a specific use case with an app that isn’t on Linux, I strongly encourage people to give it a shot. It’s not as big of a sacrifice as you may think.