Hey, what really helps is to follow bloggers about Linux with RSS. There are some nice free RSS programs for all the distorts. In those blogs they explain how things work and what is new to Linux. Just reading them will every 2 days will slowly expose you to the world of Linux and its distributions.

OMG Ubuntu! Its Foss

there are more, see if your district has blogs available with RSS

I guess my first question is whether Linux knowledge in general is interchangeable between distros?

Most distros are made up of the same components/building-blocks. Hence, learning to interact with the component/building-block on distro X will benefit you whenever you stumble upon it on distro Y.

And second, more importantly, what are the good resources for learning basic things?

“Basic things” is a broad descriptor 😅. I suppose Linux Journey is pretty neat for learning the ropes. But you’re probably best served by resources/documentation that have purposely been created by the maintainers of your chosen distro.

Like if I want to play games I bought on steam, how can I expect that process to be different?

That depends entirely on the game. For some games, it goes as smooth as butter. For others, you need some tweaking before you get there. For yet others, it’s simply unsalvageable. See https://www.protondb.com/ and https://areweanticheatyet.com/ for more details.

If I want to manage files and folders and extensions and such how does that differ if at all from Windows.

Your Linux experience will mostly be dictated by the so-called Desktop Environment. Hence, the above question can only be meaningfully answered after you’ve decided on that.

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?

Shortlist:

• Don’t download your apps/software/programs/drivers (or what have you) from the internet browser like you’re used to on Windows. Instead, get it from the repositories of your distro. This is commonly accessed from an app store (or something).

PT: Peertube, OD: Odyse, YT: Youtube

English?

• LearnLinuxTV (YT)
• Veronica explains (PT)
• NapoleonTech (OD)
• Linux Guides (OD) (german but also english)
• TechHut (OD)

Lots of content but not learning

• Niccolo Ve / NiccoLovesLinux (PT, OD)
• Brodie Robertson (OD)
• Nick / The Linux Experiment (PT, OD)
• Trafotin (OD, a bit on PT)

Most channels are also on Youtube but these are the google-free platforms. I use grayjay.app for subscribing to all of them. These are just the (few) ones on alternative platforms, there are loads more on googles locked down hell.

Podcasts idk, learning Linux is kind of hands on and visual, but about linux there are a ton

• tech over tea
• linux user space
• linux unplugged (mostly advanced and selfhosting stuff)
• lots more german stuff for me
• lots more that I subscribe to but cant recommend yet XD

My favorite, the most comprehensive course I have seen this this one: https://professionallinuxusersgroup.github.io/course-books/lac/syllabus/

Most knowledge is transferable to most distros. Some distros deviate by using alternate init systems (the part responsible for booting the system and managing services), but most distros use the same underlying suite of software to manage it.

On diference between distros is the package manager, but although the commands may be different, the underlying operations of installing, searching for, and removing software packages are all the same.

Yes it carries over. I don’t think people really need to learn elementary basics, or rather it’s similar for any computer. Can’t really recommend anything in that regard.

But yes, if you’ve used Debian and switch to a Fedora PC, things will be very similar.

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!

You ask a lot of questions as if they are connected XD dont worry but separate them more.

Steam is “the good side of Linux gaming” I suppose. I am struggling manually outside of steam, but if you use Steam, just use a modern distro with recent-ish packages and best the KDE Plasma Desktop (or others, but KDE works well), install the native steam client (not flatpak) and it should just work.

File extensions are the same lol. You can just copy them over. Linux can read NTFS and HFS+ which are the current filesystems used by macOS and Windows. Dont expect to use them long, but copying stuff over works. On the other hand, Windows, macOS (as well as Android and iOS) pretend as if there are only like 3 filesystems out there.

On Linux you dont even need extensions, you could remove them and they still work. Useful when downloading files from somewhere without an extension, like scraping a PHP website.

In my opinion there are two major differences between Windows and most Linux distros.

1. Capitalization matters to file names and such in Linux whereas in Windows it does not.

2. Linux thinks about permissions different programs and users have at a much more explicit level. It is a bit confusing at first why you have to keep interfacing with that part of the operating system, but it makes way more sense for programs to have permission to act in specific places for security and stability reasons.

Some other responses to your questions…

Steam can run windows games for the most part fine, just go into game properties and change the compatability setting to “proton hotfix”. I play Winspww2, an oldddd DOS game on Linux and it runs better than it does on Windows. I have also been able to install mods to Windows games on Linux by adding the mod installer to Steam and running it in Proton and then adjusting where the install folder is located.

You can pretty much have any kind of file system GUI set up you want in Linux. There are many file explorers and ways to do basic stuff like that, frame your questions by asking for Linux equivalents of Windows software you particularly liked and you will get good recommendations.