#sorry linux is like. a special interest of mine and i would talk anyone's ear off

[transelliotalderson]

btw with this whole Internet crackdown thing. I think it's important for people to know that Microsoft Windows is essentially spyware at this point and everyone should be learning to switch to Linux. just do a search for Linux for beginners, there are many tutorials, and on Youtube I'm sure there are a lot of tutorial videos.

It's privacy-respecting, a really great skill to have, you get access to so much fantastic free open source software as good as or better than proprietary software, no subscription models, and you don't have to deal with Apple or Microsoft. And there are so many thriving communities.

If you can follow a guide and sort of know what you're doing I'd recommend starting with Ubuntu or PopOS! for user-friendly guides.

One cool thing about Linux is that you can run it off a USB stick. You can try it out easily without having to abandon Windows or Mac and familiarize yourself before committing.

Here are some distributions good for beginners IMO. For Pop!OS, follow the same instructions and the tutorials linked here for Ubuntu and Mint - just using the Pop!OS iso.

Ubuntu

Linux Mint

Pop!OS

Some distributions are finicky about the hardware they're running on, so if one doesn't work try another. I started for fun over a decade ago and it is hard to figure out at first. Ubuntu and Linux Mint helped me grasp the basics and now I'm running an Arch-based system and while I still have so much to learn, I am so glad I put the work in.