Beside DE and terminal commands , is there anything else I should try in a linux distro ?
It sounds as you want to evaluate different Linux Distributions.
DE/GUI is a good one, terminal commands is a bit useless since the vast majority of Linux systems use Bash as default.
This is what I would look into on a new distro:
UI - What DE or WM is it using, what is the default config like, and try to learn from that. How is the terminal prompt configured (the default Ubuntu and Debian prompts are terrible, I allways change them)
Package Manager - how does it work, what software is available?
Unique software - Does the distribution include some tools, applications or games I haven't heard about? If so, what do they do, and how do they work.
This gives me a feel for the distribution and how to use it.
I disagree that the UI/DE/WM is a good way to evaluate a distro. One could make any distro look and feel like any other.
In my opinion one should look primarily at three factors:
- Package manager
- Release type
- Stability
From there just choose either Debian or Arch and install the UI you want with the DE/WM
Please notice that I spoke about the configuration of the DE/VM, I have learned a lot about DE/VM confug from looking at different distros
Naaah... you know enough by now. Just try to replace Windows from your friends' PCs with Linux. And tell them to do the same soon too.
Unfortunately it won't work , everybody I know run apps that isn't available on Linux. .. I know alternatives exist but it's not enough for everybody , especially college students who are training on important apps in their feilds.
It depends on your goals with linux.
If your goals are on devops, you may find a good idea learn about docker, ansible and other tools to make your life easier. If you're a home user, maybe it's a good idea try flatpaks, for example. And there is much more, but you need to define your goals.
“If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in WonderlandTerminal stuff. I change from bash to fish and love fish. Although I believe it's not posix compliant or something
It's a other shell, like zsh or bash. I like that by default, it comes with a lot of nice functionalities.
Spin up a VM in the distro of your choice and try to install everything you might need or want (like VPN clients, remote desktop software, gaming platforms, video production stuff, etc.). See if you can do everything you need, and highlight any problem areas to see if you need to explore alternatives or if there's things you can live without.
The DE is pretty surface level, these days, since they all work pretty well for most people, and the terminal apps are pretty standardized. Focus on how you might use your computer from day to day.
Try doing everything you would normally do with a computer and see how you would do it on linux.
If you mean for picking which distro you like, assuming you don't want something unique like qubes or nixos the only thing that really matters is DE and package manager, everything else you can install/uninstall as you see fit (if you really want to you can change the DE yourself too)
Every Debian based distro is the same operating system underneath with different stuff installed, every redhat based system is the same story
That said certain distros come with a lot more pre installed that you probably want (for example the zip command)
I just tried them to see if they worked, but I'm a casual.
Do you have a couple of machines or is your pc pretty good. Get into containerisation VMS, docker start running some self hosted services.
I would recommend against Manjaro for messing with the Arch packages & other weird decisions that anger that community, Fedora for not having LTS kernels, & sadly base Debian for desktop with the apps often being stable but way out of date.
Most distros operate about the same as far as software & will as a result likely feel more or less the same. The biggest exceptions are how GuixOS & NixOS do declarative, stateless config symlinking in config/executables from the store. If you wanna get into dev, these will force you into the right mindset & are worth checking eut, but will definitely be too cumbersome for someone that isn’t committing the steeper learning curve & ‘just wants to run things’.
