I Thought Linux Was Hard Too

For the longest time, I thought Linux was something only “really technical” people used.

You know the type.

Someone opens a terminal, types a command that looks like it belongs in a spaceship control room, and suddenly they're installing an operating system from scratch.

Then you see screenshots of someone's desktop.

Transparent terminal. Custom bars. Animated windows. Weird fonts. A wallpaper that somehow matches every single element on the screen.

And you're sitting there thinking:

“Yeah, I'm definitely not doing all that.”

I thought the same thing.

Then I started using Linux.

And honestly, the funny part is that Linux itself wasn't the hard part.

I was.

My first mistake: thinking I needed the “perfect” distro

One of the first things you'll discover when you look into Linux is that there isn't just Linux.

There's Ubuntu.

Fedora.

Arch.

Linux Mint.

Debian.

openSUSE.

Pop!_OS.

And then approximately seventeen thousand conversations about which one you should use.

You start reading Reddit posts.

Someone says Ubuntu is beginner-friendly.

Someone else says Fedora is better.

Then an Arch user appears and tells you that you should install Arch because “you'll learn more.”

So naturally, you start distro hopping.

And this is where what I call distro hell begins.

You install one distro.

Use it for a while.

Find something you don't like.

Install another.

Then another.

Eventually you aren't even using Linux anymore.

You're just installing Linux distributions.

I went through that phase too.

And eventually I realized something pretty important:

The distro matters much less than you think it does when you're starting out.

So what distro should you actually use?

If you're completely new to Linux, I'd start with Linux Mint or Fedora.

Not because they're magically better than everything else, but because you don't need to make your first Linux experience unnecessarily complicated.

You want to learn Linux.

You don't want your first objective to be:

“Successfully reproduce a three-year-old Arch installation guide written for a completely different hardware configuration.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Arch. It's a fantastic distribution for people who specifically want that experience.

But you don't have to start there.

You don't get bonus points for suffering through your installation.

Start somewhere comfortable.

Learn how Linux works.

Then, if you eventually want something different, move.

That's a much better way to learn.

Then I discovered ricing

This was another rabbit hole.

If you've never heard the term, ricing is basically customizing your Linux desktop.

And I mean customizing.

Not:

“I'll change my wallpaper.”

I'm talking about changing your entire desktop environment until it looks like the computer from your favorite cyberpunk movie.

Terminal?

Customized.

Window manager?

Customized.

Status bar?

Customized.

Fonts?

Customized.

Colors?

Customized.

Keyboard shortcuts?

Customized.

Wallpaper?

Obviously customized.

You eventually reach the point where you spend three hours adjusting the spacing between two icons that nobody else will ever notice.

And somehow, that's fun.

My own Linux setup has gone through this phase too.

I've played around with different window managers, terminals, bars, themes, fonts and configurations.

And this is probably one of the things that made Linux click for me.

Because you start realizing that the computer isn't this sealed box where you are only allowed to use the options the manufacturer gave you.

You can change things.

You can break things.

You can fix them.

You can make the system feel like yours.

But you don't have to rice Linux

This is probably the biggest misconception I had.

You look at Linux online and most of what you see is someone's completely customized desktop.

So you assume that's what using Linux means.

It isn't.

You can install Linux, choose a normal desktop environment, install your applications and use your computer exactly like you normally would.

You don't need a tiling window manager.

You don't need a custom shell.

You don't need a terminal that looks like it came from a hacker movie.

You don't need to memorize 400 commands.

You don't even need to know what half the Linux terminology means.

At least, not yet.

And that's the thing I wish someone had told me earlier.

Linux lets you go as deep as you want. It doesn't force you to.

The terminal isn't as scary as it looks

The terminal was probably one of the things that intimidated me the most initially.

Then I actually started using it.

And most commands aren't mysterious.

They're just very direct.

Want to see files?

ls

Want to move somewhere?

cd

Want to install something?

On Fedora, for example:

sudo dnf install <package>

That's basically it.

The commands look strange because you're not used to them.

Once you've used them twenty times, they stop looking strange.

That's true for almost everything in Linux.

The first time you see /home, /etc, /var, permissions, package managers or system services, it can look like you've accidentally opened the operating system's source code.

You haven't.

You're just seeing things that other operating systems tend to hide from you.

And yes, sometimes you will break something

This is probably the most honest part of using Linux.

You will eventually do something stupid.

You will change a configuration file.

You will install something you shouldn't have.

You will copy a command from the internet without fully understanding it.

And something will stop working.

Congratulations.

You've started learning Linux.

The important skill isn't memorizing every command.

It's learning how to figure out why something broke.

Read the error.

Search the exact error.

Check the documentation.

Look at the logs.

Undo what you changed.

Try again.

That process teaches you much more than blindly following a tutorial ever will.

Linux became easier when I stopped trying to understand everything

This was probably the biggest shift for me.

I used to think I needed to understand Linux before I could use Linux.

It's actually the opposite.

You use it.

You run into something you don't understand.

You learn that one thing.

Then you run into something else.

Then you learn that.

Eventually, all those little pieces start connecting.

You don't suddenly wake up one morning with the entire Linux kernel downloaded into your brain.

You just stop being confused by the things that used to confuse you.

And that's when Linux starts feeling easy.

You don't need to be a Linux person

That's the weird thing.

When people say:

“I'd use Linux, but I'm not technical enough.”

I think they're looking at the wrong part of Linux.

They're looking at the people who spend their weekends writing custom window manager configurations and assume that's the entry requirement.

It isn't.

You can start with Linux Mint.

You can start with Fedora.

You can install a normal desktop.

You can use a graphical app store.

You can browse the web, watch YouTube, write code, play games and do normal computer things.

Then, if you get curious, you can open the terminal.

Then you can start customizing things.

Then maybe you start ricing.

Then maybe you start caring about how your system works underneath.

Or maybe you don't.

That's the beauty of it.

I thought Linux was hard too

Looking back, Linux wasn't really difficult.

It was just unfamiliar.

I confused having more control with having more work.

I confused being able to go deep with having to go deep.

And I confused people showing off their completely customized Arch setups online with the actual experience of simply using Linux.

You don't need to start with Arch.

You don't need to rice your desktop.

You don't need to live in the terminal.

You don't need to know everything.

Just install a distro, use it for a while, and let yourself be confused by things.

Eventually, you'll start figuring them out.

And somewhere along the way, your computer stops feeling like a machine you're operating and starts feeling like something you actually understand.

That's when Linux gets interesting.