Finally ready to move from Windoze to Unix, suggestions of flavor of Unix to use

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 3/15/2018 2:16 PM, Adonay Felipe Nogueira wrote:
>> As you can see, such a question can generate more suggestions than
>> people responding.
> +1 (I agree), this is mostly because there is no single "Linux", every
> GNU+Linux system distribution has different goals, different community
> rules, views, software freedom status, and so on. It's like
> clothing, some fit and some don't.
Perhaps even more to the point for somebody totally new to a 'nix.

With the various Windows OS's and with the Mac OS's the "operating 
system" you get ONE "windows manager". When the users of that Windows OS 
or Mac OS interact with their computer they see (interact with) that 
"windows manager" and so see THAT as their operating system. But the 
actual operating system is underneath that.

The typical linux (or unix) distribution offers a CHOICE of "windows 
manager" (what you as the user interact with). I am not going to go into 
how these differ except to point out that they all have their adherents, 
sometimes fiercely partisan in favor of their preference (KDE, Gnome, 
etc.). The distro you choose MAY come with one of these "as default" but 
you shouldn't decide "I don't like linux" (should that be the case) 
based upon JUST experiencing it through the mediation of that windows 
manager. Before giving up on your linux install, try switching to a 
different windows manager.

Likewise, when working at the command line (if you do) you also usually 
get a choice of "shell language". Any of these, combined with the 
standard 'nix library, constitute a powerful "string processing 
language" << a computer language where the fundamental data type is 
"string" >>  Again, if you don't like the first you get, you can try 
another << eg: I preferred "bash" >>

Michael D Novack

PS: I can't help with your linux. Been more than ten years since I last 
used a 'nix (before the house fire)