Made the decision and ditched Windows today. Installed Fedora. I know nothing about Linux. First timer. To sum up my experience so far.. I have less hair now than I did when I got out of bed this morning.
Yep. That just about sums it up. There's a reason why Linux Mint is the go-to for Windows refugees: because you won't succumb to male pattern baldness before you turn 50.
I daily drive Fedora, I can give you some tips, but I don't blame you for abandoning ship and seeking refuge in Linux Mint if you take that route. If you're willing to give Fedora another chance, allow me to give you a rundown. My recommendation is based on a hunch about what's throwing you off, but I don't wanna get lost in the weeds of technobabble. I'll answer any questions if you have them.
a) Avoid Fedora Workstation and Fedora KDE like the plague. GNOME Shell is "Mac-like," KDE Plasma is "Windows-like," but current versions are... less than optimal, to avoid a giant screed about technobabble and questions about development ethos. Instead, hop over to the
Fedora Spins page, get yourself an ISO of Fedora Cinnamon. Cinnamon is the desktop environment that Linux Mint ships with. Very Windows-like, easy to get the hang of, insert praise here.
b) Rufus is perfectly adequate, I used it when I first got started. If you don't like how ugly it is,
Fedora Media Writer gets the job done too. It's all ultimately the same shit since you're flashing an image onto a USB stick, use whatever floats your boat. Either way, flash the ISO to your USB stick.
c) Boot into the live USB environment, get a feel for whether or not you like it better than what you had before. If you do, full speed ahead with a fresh install. Reboot after finishing the install process.
d) Once you log in for the first time, and assuming you have internet connectivity running without incident, open up a terminal window (bear with me), and type in one single command (you can do this graphically, but I encourage you to follow along like this because you can just copy/paste):
* sudo = superuser do. This lets you invoke admin (root) privileges for one command
* dnf = the "package manager." Don't worry about what "dnf" stands for right now, just know that this is the tool you use to manage software. Updates, installs, removals, the whole nine yards. Think Windows Update, Add/Remove Programs, and Windows Store merged into the same tool.
* update = self-explanatory. Update your "repositories" (the catalogue of software that Fedora pulls from)
and the system's packages together.
* -y = automatically answer "yes" when prompted. You wanna include this so the entire update is handled all in one shot without any additional itnervention on your part.
e) Reboot your system after finishing the update (note: you're rebooting because you will update your kernel to the current one instead of the outdated one that the ISO ships with and installs; I know it's fucking stupid that Fedora doesn't autoupdate as you install it, but this is the world we live in).
f) Log back in when you're able to, open up Firefox, and circle over to
RPM Fusion. Think of it like additional software catalogues that are meant to plug in the gaps Fedora leaves open. Without getting into the weeds, Fedora wants to uphold freely licensed, open-source software as much as possible but
also doesn't wanna infringe on software patents, deal with proprietary licensing headaches, or legally cannot ship because of legal issues. Lots of stuff is gated behind RPM Fusion, so you'll want to set it up as quickly (and safely) as possible.
g) You can install RPM Fusion graphically, the website does outline the instructions clearly on how to do such a thing, but if you're willing to entertain terminal usage, execute these two commands in sequence. Both of them are taken from the RPM Fusion website.
* Install the RPM Fusion repositories.
Code:
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm -y
* Update the graphical software store in Fedora Cinnamon to include stuff from RPM Fusion
h) Circle over to the
NVIDIA tutorial on RPM Fusion. I do not know your specific hardware configuration, I don't want to prescribe specific commands, this really is one of those situations where you should read the entire page and apply the instructions for your hardware.
Now, assuming you're running a desktop PC with a discrete and fairly current NVIDIA GPU (i.e. within the last 5-6 years), your monitor cables are plugged into the NVIDIA GPU itself, and you're not touching any type of integrated graphics whatsoever... I
can give you the "default" commands.
Seriously though, this is the one time I would encourage you to double check before you copy/paste. Double check, please, for the love of God, double-check.
* Update your system (if you haven't already done so). Even if your software doesn't change, you still added RPM Fusion repos that need to be synced up.
* Install the NVIDIA kernel modules (i.e. the low-level firmware that directly interfaces the hardware with Fedora Cinnamon)
Code:
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia -y
* Install the actual graphics drivers.
Code:
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia -y
* Reboot your system after the install's completed. The RPM Fusion notes say that you should wait until "the kmod has been built," without getting lost in the weeds here: it's the kernel modules you installed earlier. Shouldn't take any longer than 5 minutes.
i) Once you log back in again, you should be running the official NVIDIA binary drivers and
not the open-source NVIDIA driver that just exists to get you off the ground. If you're able to successfully open the NVIDIA control panel, you should be good as gold.
EDIT FORGOT ABOUT MULTIMEDIA
j) Circle over to the
Multimedia section so you can install the libraries, codecs, DVD playback, and miscellaneous firmware. Just follow the NVIDIA instructions and skip AMD/Intel for hardware acceleration.
