Getting started with Linux

level:Beginner

Most "switch to Linux" guides drop you straight into a terminal and tell you to type commands you do not understand. This series does the opposite. It assumes you have never run Linux, that you are coming from Windows or macOS, and that you would like to actually understand the machine you end up using rather than copy-paste your way to a working desktop. By the end you will know why switching is worth it at all, what Linux really is, why there are hundreds of versions of it, what the graphical desktop actually is, and how your existing habits and tools map across — enough to pick a distribution and make the switch with your eyes open.

This is the understanding half of the journey. When you are ready to go deeper and build a system by hand, it has a companion: a separate, step-by-step guide to installing Arch Linux that picks up where this series leaves off. But you do not need to be heading for Arch to get value here — everything in these six parts applies to any Linux you choose.

Who this is for

You are the right reader if any of these sound like you. You are curious about Linux but have never committed to learning it. You are tired of an operating system making decisions on your behalf and want one you control. You are a developer or student who keeps hearing that most infrastructure runs on Linux and would like to know it first-hand instead of from a distance. Or you simply want to understand the machine in front of you a little more deeply.

You do not need to be a programmer, and you do not need to already know what a kernel or a package manager is — the series explains each the first time it matters. What you need is a willingness to read and to try a few real commands.

The shape of the series

The series opens with the case for switching at all: Why switch to Linux lays out the privacy, ownership, freedom, and cost reasons people leave Windows or macOS — with the honest trade-offs. Then three parts answer "what is this thing." What Linux actually is separates the kernel from the operating system and explains where Linux came from. Linux distributions explained answers the obvious follow-up — if Linux is one kernel, why are there hundreds of "Linuxes" to download — and helps you pick one. What a desktop environment is covers the part you actually look at and click, which on Linux is a separate, swappable layer rather than something welded to the system.

The next two parts are for migrants specifically. If you are coming from Windows or from macOS, each post maps the habits and tools you already have onto their Linux equivalents, and is honest about what you will gain and what you will miss.

Throughout, you will find short "what is X" explainers folded into the flow — what a kernel is, what open source means, what a package manager does — so no term ever shows up unexplained. If you already know one, skip it. If you do not, it is right there when you need it.

The whole path, at a glance: three parts that build understanding, two migration tracks you pick based on where you are coming from, and a bridge into the hands-on companion once you are ready to build a system yourself.

flowchart TD
    W["1. Why switch to Linux"] --> A["2. What Linux <i>actually</i> is"]
    A --> B["3. Distributions explained"]
    B --> C["4. What a desktop environment is"]
    C --> D["5. Migrating from <b>Windows</b>"]
    C --> E["6. Migrating from <b>macOS</b>"]
    D --> F["You pick a distribution"]
    E --> F
    F --> G["→ Installing Arch<br/><i>hands-on companion</i>"]

The six intro parts feed into a bridge: the Arch install companion, for when you want to build a system by hand.

Coming from Windows or macOS, the early parts double as a translation guide: each new concept is anchored to something you already know — a distribution is loosely like choosing between Windows editions, a desktop environment is the swappable equivalent of the Windows shell or the macOS Finder — so the unfamiliar always lands next to the familiar.

Where it leads next

Once you understand the pieces and have decided Linux is for you, the natural question is how to install one — and how much to install yourself. The deepest, most educational path is to assemble a system by hand, and that is exactly what the companion guide does. Installing Arch Linux: a companion to the Arch Wiki makes the case for the distribution that hides nothing, then walks you through a complete install: booting the medium, partitioning a disk, installing the base system, and ending on a usable desktop. It is a separate series because it is a different kind of reading — hands-on, version-sensitive, and meant to be read alongside the official wiki. Finish here first; it will make all of that make sense.

A note on the wider world of Unix-like systems, since the terms come up. Linux is one member of a family that shares a common heritage and a shared standard called POSIX, which is why skills transfer between Linux, macOS, and the BSDs. Some of the vocabulary you will meet — like the background processes called daemons — predates Linux by decades. Where that history is illuminating, the series links out to it.

The reading order

Read these in order. Each links to the next, and the navigation at the bottom of every page offers previous and next.

1. Why switch to Linux — the privacy, ownership, freedom, and cost case for leaving Windows or macOS, and the honest trade-offs.
2. What Linux actually is — the kernel versus the operating system, where Linux came from, and what "GNU/Linux" means.
3. Linux distributions explained — why there are hundreds of Linuxes, what actually differs between them, and which to pick.
4. What a desktop environment is — the graphical layer you click, why it is separate from the system, and the main choices.
5. Migrating from Windows to Linux — your Windows habits and apps translated, with the honest trade-offs.
6. Migrating from macOS to Linux — the same translation for Mac users, who often have the gentler transition.

Then, when you want to build one by hand: Installing Arch Linux — the hands-on companion guide.

A short close

💡 Tip — You can read this series as pure background and never install a thing, or go hands-on the moment you want to. Both work; pick the one that fits where you are right now.

You can read this series as pure background and never install a thing, and still come away understanding what people mean when they say "Linux." But it is also a runway: by the end you will know enough to choose a distribution and, if you want the deepest version of the experience, to follow the Arch install companion and boot a machine you assembled yourself. Start with what Linux actually is, and take it one step at a time.