#or an actual no-bullshit useable-without-any-fucking-with-it distro

[girlwarlock]

i want to switch to linux--windows 10 is nearing end-of-support, windows 11 sucks, if i'm switching OS i'd just as soon switch to linux.

i see people online being like "switch to linux!!" which is great, but the same people have like... no suggestions for distro (even in terms of "if you do X, try 1, 2, 3; if you do Y, try 3, 4, 5" or something) and no instructions for *how* to start setting up the new OS that you'd be switching to. fucking--ten or fifteen years ago, "no suggestions from other people" would be workable, because search engines worked. but now between google enshittifying their search engine to force people to run more searches and computer-generated clickbait articles outnumbering real ones i can't fucking find recommendations i can trust.

Both of the "try this distro if you're new from windows and just want an OS to run your little programs in" distros I tried [running off a flash drive, bc i only have the one SSD and i can't fucking figure out how to make a new fucking volume/partition/whatever on it with the tools that windows+google give me and i don't want to wipe my fucking C drive just to try out a distro that i might not use], ZorinOS and Linux Mint, had things that I just couldn't figure out how to do. I looked up guides, but every single guide i found just had instructions of "enter "sudo bongle bleeplorp choochoo" in the terminal" with no insight as to wtf those commands mean, or wtf you're supposed to do if you get any kind of error from trying to run them. (the terminal also wouldn't accept ctrl+V pasting which made putting these unfamiliar commands in super inconvenient as i had to make a lot more keyboard/mouse switches; that's a much lower-tier complaint but it is a complaint) and

i just have this general frustration that so many of the instructions for things that you're likely to want to do because you're new to linux from windows just presume this high degree of familiarity with linux systems. i just want an actual honest-to-fuck Beginner's Guide, and if that is Too Fucking Much, then I want an actual no-fucking-around out-of-the-box useable-as-is operating system. one or the other.

@girlwarlock [mentioning myself so i can reblog if more thoughts happen]