What should I know about EndeavourOS as an ex Windows user?

Hiya, long time Windows 10 and shortly a Windows 11 user, I really want to know what I should be aware of as a previous Windows 10 user on EndeavourOS, stuff like common Windows concepts for EndeavourOS and Linux in general, and common program replacements, like Spectacle replacing ShareX. Feel free to also add stuff other users might want to see in the post, let’s make this a starting point for previous Windows users switching to EndeavourOS!

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Welcome to the community! :vulcan_salute: :enos_flag:

There are many videos online for stuff like this, including websites dedicated to alternatives, like https://alternativeto.net.

Are there any specific software that you have in mind?

Also, Spectacle is specific to KDE Plasma (the desktop environment you see when you log into your system).
→ A more universal screenshot utility I use is Flameshot, which works in most, if not all, Linux environments.

PS: You can also check out this thread for some apps that people on this forum are liking:

And for many of the apps that you used on Windows, they may already be available on Linux/Arch. You can check here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_of_applications

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welcome. parts of linux resemble windows (windows, files, apps, user interfaces, etc) but it’s really hard to describe the fundamental differences in mentalities. Most of linux users (I think) embrace the philosophy of FOSS which is opposite everything Win is about. That said, every, almost, linux users needs some proprietary program like zoom, etc. That’s a built-in tension, or conceit, if you will.

More on concepts: you can update yourself system anytime you want. stay timely. there will be no “please wait while linux updates” blue screens–go about your business. you should not be paying anyone for over-priced AV software anymore. It will take you a long time to stop looking over your shoulder with daily scans. You don’t need MS Office/365. FirewallD is furnished by Endeavour but not my cup of tea so because I like UFW better. You are not bound my a distro’s choices of default apps, but most of the times they are smart. I have terminal and notepad programs I prefer over a distro’s stock ones, so I change those out right way.

^^ So as for what apps are “equivalent” with WIN? You got overwhelming choice here. Forums exist so you can ask about apps straight up–some apps are buggy and some are superior. And people will explain their choosing what app for what. For instance, LibreOffice is the gold standard of Office Suites (word processor, powerpoint, etc) but there are other free Office Suites for different tastes.

this is over-simplifying imho, but I respect your idealism. it will take an average lifetime WIN user to get used a different mindset and way of doing things but they have to be open it. That’s always been the biggest hurdle for this transition out of WIN. You have to want it, though. The sob stories of people who could not accept something and ran back (“so long Endeavour” or other) are common in Forums. So this “starting point”, to me, would have to be open-ness—a distro can only do so much, the new user has to meet it halfway, fears and hurdles included.

You picked in Endeavour a wildly fun and dependable distro with such a fast support forum. Never stop asking questions.

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Whether it is Nano, Vi/VIM, or Emacs, I’d heavily suggest picking at least one terminal based text editor, and spending a decent amount of time learning some keyboard shortcuts for it. least one terminal based text editor. I think one of the paradigm shifts that is somewhat hard for windows & mac users taking the plunge is point & click muscle memory. Getting comfortable editing configuration files is so much easier if the text editor you use doesn’t take brain power away from what you are trying to accomplish.

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Explore and Own Your Endeavour: https://discovery.endeavouros.com/

About Endeavour: https://endeavouros.com/about-us/

EnOS not being essentially much different from Archlinux: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux

In your free time, go to this site and press Alt-Shift-X and start reading. When done, press the key combo again!

And last but not least, get yourself a copy of this, like the Rest of Us!

image

:wink:

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It is my personal belief that going with something like EOS is slightly better for beginners than using straight up Arch, but since it is based on Arch, it still isn’t very good for them. So, if you plan on using EOS, be prepared to have a lot of growing pains.

In general, one should be prepared for growing pains. Even if you pick a beginner friendly distro, you will face growing pains as you get used to how things work on Linux. Linux != Windows.

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All sound advice from people more knowledgeable than me, but I would like to add to keep your system up to date.

Updating on Linux is easy and does not take long.

Run

‘yay’

to update the system.

And every now and then update your mirrors.

Search for ‘idiot’s guide’ in this forum for info about maintaining your system.

Experience with Linux is your teacher and way of learning things rather than trying to memorize things and that also means you don’t have to know everything at once because there is too much to know it all.

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I made the same switch a couple of months ago and can echo basically all of the above :smile:

KDE is the most Windows-like DE as far as I’ve seen and provided you’re not averse to rolling up your sleeves and digging into things on the occasion anything goes pear-shaped it’s a pretty painless switch from that perspective.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many things I used to run on Windows actually had linux builds available already, my first port of call when I think “Oh I need (whatever)” now is to just open up a terminal window and run ‘yay (whatever)’ to see what comes up and I’d say at least 75% of the time it’s right there just waiting to be installed.

The main thing to be aware of is that Linux is not Windows. Its not a better version of Windows. It is in fact freedom. The freedom to choose what to have and what not to have. The freedom to change things to your specific needs.

What You should know.
Linux systems break just like Windows Systems. The big difference is 99.9% of Linux issues can be FIXED withOUT the need for a reinstall.

Rolling Release Distro’s have daily updates. There is something always getting updated and everyone has their own way of dealing with them. EnOS does not automatically update your system like Windows and so other systems may do. You will need to discover and implement your own schedules as you grow and learn. One more thing ALWAYS ALWAYS BACKUP.

Welcome to the forum :enos_flag:

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Welcome to Linux. :penguin_face:

The first thing you need to know is that choosing EndeavourOS as your first distro means you might have to make your hands dirty for a bit - it’s rolling and some things might break on the road. But generally, most things, when they break, are easily fixable and if not, remember to make regular backups - not only of your personal data, but also system files.
This being said, you might want to install Timeshift since it’s arguably the best application to make system snapshots.

For easy steps on how to maintain EOS and Arch, there’s been several great tutorials which were helpful for me when I started my EOS adventure a couple of months ago:

And as for replacements for popular Windows apps - I hope no-one will @ me for that, but folks from Linux Lite created a nice list. Just bear in mind that some of them are desktop-specific tools, so it might be a good idea to do a more detailed research:

My other thought is not to be afraid of terminal. Terminal is your friend, even if there goes some confusion about what to type - just read the documentation or consult the forum.

Have fun!

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First of all welcome @xNefas to the wonderful world of Linux and the most wonderful and amazing world of EndeavourOS.

To start, I have been on Linux since 2000 and never looked back.
Generally Linux is much more stable and reliable than Windows.
It works on really old hardware, I have laptops like 10 years old and running the latest Linux releases and getting updates and working as brand new.

The most important advice, don’t ever think or ask how can I install MicroSoft Office on Linux, or Excell… think the function, an office app, a spreadsheet app.
To find Linux apps alternative to Windows apps you can use https://alternativeto.net/ to search for apps.

When you need to install an app on EndeavourOS you can use the command line. It is very simple and easy. But as you are new to Linux and Endeavour I would suggest you come here and post a question how to install, what is the command to install. You can search the forums, the web and read on how to install what.

My last word, as I have been on Linux for a quarter of a century, I was distro hopping like crazy since early 2021 but no matter how I distro hop I always come back to EndeavourOS.

I am sure you will enjoy the distro and above all the community here.
Welcome and enjoy and feel free to ask whatever comes up in your mind about anything, absolutely anything, even what movie to watch or what laptop to buy, or even a good restaurant!