Hello all!
I’m kinda finally done with windows, but I have a lot of small, maybe dumb questions.
I guess my first question is whether Linux knowledge in general is interchangeable between distros?
And second, more importantly, what are the good resources for learning basic things? Like if I want to play games I bought on steam, how can I expect that process to be different? If I want to manage files and folders and extensions and such how does that differ if at all from Windows. I’m coming from specifically windows, but I assume for people coming from Mac OS as well what are the do’s and don’ts that you wouldn’t necessarily think of when switching?
Are there any particularly well made and comprehensive instructional/introductory podcasts/YouTube video series/what have you that you would point me towards?
For the first question, sort of?
Many things are the same or very similar on most/all distros, like working with files and drives from the command line. Different distros can come with different (or no) graphical interfaces for everything, so sometimes things change visually but not under the hood. The ways you can learn more and/or troubleshoot are generally the same, though, so even moving from your first distro to a very different one you’d likely be much quicker to adapt.
Some things will be very different depending on distro tho, like installing or updating your software. Two unrelated distros can have very different syntax for doing this, though the tools usually follow the same general idea. There’s app stores some distros include that’re intended to paper over these differences so the end user doesn’t experience them so much, tho, so if you’re using the same app store (ie discover, on distros using plasma) you may not notice these differences so much.
Mostly, though, the differences between Linux distros are much smaller than the difference between Linux and windows and the FOSS software ecosystem will be a one-time adjustment for most users. I don’t follow podcasts or videos so I don’t have anything helpful to share there, but imo the most useful Linux resource is the arch wiki regardless of whether or not you’re actually using arch. A video specific to your distro will probably be the quickest and easiest way to learn things, but if you ever want a comprehensive look at something so that you really understand it, go there.
Welcome to Linux!