I’m considering installing Linux on my laptop but I’m unsure if I should start with a virtual machine first. My main use cases are gaming and coding, so I want to make sure it’s the right fit.
What are the pros and cons of using Linux for someone like me? Would starting with VirtualBox be a good idea before going all in?
You mean getting a dual boot is easier and less time consuming than setting up a VM?
IDK much about these. Probably I’ll binge linux vids on YT for a while to get more info. After reading this comment section, i feel like i should try it because coding is just better in linux and i usually play single player offline games so even gaming would be fine there
You’ll find a little RTFM (read the friendly manual) much more time/result effective than watching videos. Want to go backward and forward to find an exact piece of information? Get precisely what the original developer meant? Ask for help on a forum? RTFM. RTFM. RTFM.
It may seem slower initially. It’s a skill to develop. For me, it typically means 5 things (in order, where applicable).
tldr <command>. This you need to install. IIRC on Arch it’s tealdeer. This gives you common examples of the command. Common commands will have an entry, but it’s hit or miss for more obscure ones. It’s crowd sourced so contribute when you can!
-h or --help This gives you usage, subcommands, flags, and options. It is exhaustive for common commands, but less common ones will not always give you the usage for everything or you need to do <command> -h or --help <subcommand> And sometimes a command only has -h or --help. If one doesn’t work, try the other
man <command> If a command has a man page, it is tue “single source of truth” (quotes because that not what ssot actually is but it is a good descriptor) man pages are exhaustive. They have everything a program can do. If you want a deep dive for fun or need to find something very specific, it is almost always there. I suggest if you want to get good at Linux RTFM often
Arch Wiki. It’s the wikipedia of Arch. User maintained and to the point. Again, reading is a skill. Learning to use the Arch Wiki effectively takes time, but it is well worth it. It is most useful if you run Arch (I can’t think of a time it references a package manager other than pacman). Following the pages in the wiki is almost exclusively why I use Arch Linux, btw. And don’t let people scare you away from it. They are arrogant pricks. Most aren’t. If you don’t want to do a custom install of Arch, it’s as easy as using the arch install TUI. And if you have issues, because you run into problems use the wiki!
Web search. You probably have this one down, but a few suggestions. Don’t ask a question. (Unless you know you are specifically searching for that question) your query should only contain the words for what it is you are searching for. And make things singular not plural. Singular is inclusive of plural. The other way around isn’t true. When you want to search a particular site, include that in your query string. Last. Don’t use google. They want to show you ads, and I’ve recently seen they don’t care about quality (anymore or potentially ever) The first result, which is typically what people go to, is almost always the one with the most ads. I suggest Duck Duck Go (opinions will vary) for the specific reason you can use what they call bangs to search on a particular site and go directly to the first (non ad optimized…yet) search result as am example !w cats takes you directly to the cats page on wikipedia. !aw virtual box. Arch wiki virtual box.
I would suggest (and typically do) use those in order repeating websearch (I’ve probably done this for up to an hour at least a few times this week) before I do the next 2. Write a forum post. Now you are getting to the point that if you can’t find the answer, it probably doesn’t exist. Again their are strategies and in this case, ettiquette you need to follow. You’ll annoy or even piss people off if you don’t. READ THE RULES OF THE FORUM. When you explain the problem, not what you are doing to do to solve it. There might be another way to solve it. Then explain what you have tried in terms of what you have read and tried so far.
Then and only then watch a video.
Dual booting is easy to do if you have a spare hard drive. Even just installing linux to a flash drive can at least give you a good idea of how it will run though it might be a bit slow. I wouldn’t recommend partitioning your hard drive to dual boot off of it for beginners though. You’ll risk data loss.