i would like help to find the right linux software for my requirements and help to install if possible please.
i am completely new here to all this stuff.
thank you
Before you commit to installing anything on your computer, you should look into a creating a bootable USB so that you can run any of the many Linux distributions from an external USB drive. This way, you can test drive and see how you like it, and when you are done just shutdown your computer, unplug the USB and it would be as if nothing ever happened. Keep in mind that the performance won’t be as good as it would be when installed in your hard drive. The main goal of doing this is testing.
I think that a good candidate to spark your interest is Linux Mint. Make sure to checkout the installation instructions to read more about what the different versions mean (if in doubt, go for Cinnamon) and how to create this bootable live image on a USB.
Other options that you may want to try are Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Zorin OS or MX Linux.
Welcome to the forum!
Before you even try anything, see if you can get used to alternative programs. If you are using Photoshop, move to GIMP. If you use MS Office, move to LibreOffice and so on. If you are comfortable with them, then you can try and move away from your current OS.
Linux Mint is a fine contender for beginners, along with Pop!_OS. The former has the default shell similar to Windows-style layouts, so it should be easy to get into.
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I would follow the advise of @ThatGuyB. When I made the move from Windows to Linux I started with Ubuntu before finding Pop_OS (which I wish I had started with as it was and is a great distro for those coming from Windows).
Now I mostly use straight Debian (Ubuntu is based off of Debian and Pop_OS is based on Ubuntu) and then have my own selection of packages now that I add or remove from Debian to make things how I want but that is the great thing about Linux you can choose how custom and how involved you want to be in setting up your system.
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All the suggestions here are really good for plug and play usage. I am currently a Pop_OS user and I love it. I’m certainly not advocating for this, but the very first distro that I installed was Arch linux. It was before there was an install script and it forced me to learn a lot of the way that linux works. If you are not in a hurry and are willing to go through a lot of frustration, trial and error, and system breakage, then this a great way to learn. Jay has a great video on how to install arch.
This method is not for the faint of heart. The arch package manager syntax is not as straight forward. I would only recommend doing this if you want to get deep in the weeds.
thank you guys. I have decided to go for POP OS, after watching and learning a little about it. I want to use POP OS for heavy work, but I also want to use windows separately for gaming soon. I heard this can be done.
I would be grateful if anyone can point me the best way to install pop os side by side with windows. I have so far deleted nearly all data from my D and C drive (1tb each), and using an external 2tb Samsung SSD for my data and working on my laptop from that.
I have a new 32GB Philips usb flash drive to download an operating system and this is where I am at now.
I would like to get this done come this sunday so I would be grateful if anyone can point me the right direction.
thank you again guys