Calling Linux Long Beards: What are things you wish you knew when you first started using Linux?
I find myself reading lots and lots of posts from new users thinking the same sorts of things and I was just wondering if other long beards (I've been using Linux exclusively since the mid-2000's but was dabbling all the way back in the late 90's) had bits of advice that every new user should know.
My first one would be the distribution doesn't matter nearly as much as you'd think. Because you've got choice and customizability, just about ANY desktop Linux distribution can be made to look and feel like any other desktop Linux distribution. Distro hopping is only really letting you explore a few default settings whereas installing a different desktop environment and having a go at making it work the way *YOU* want to operate gives you experience (Funnily, this opinion got me banned from r/linuxsucks. It really doesn't take much). A friend of mine went as far as to say "All linux desktop distributions are the same" which is to say that the aim, to run the same applications - Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice, the same media players etc. Any perceived performance gain from using one distribution over another is usually marginal. Get comfortable with a distribution and go for it.
If you stick with it, there will come a time when you expect more from Linux than you ever did from Windows. You'll look back and think "Well that's just silly". For me, I was whinging about having to configure XFree86 manually to get a GUI going from a fresh install (definitely not a problem now). At the time, accelerated GPUs were in their infancy. And you couldn't do a Windows install using one of those GPUs. Instead you had to open the machine, take out the GPU, throw in a non-accelerated video card, do the install, install the drivers for the GPU, and then put the GPU back in. But that's just how things were at the time and any Windows tech just kind of accepted it as normal. The same way that everyone accepts the way that Windows does updates when you're trying to shut down the machine. Or the way you have to find drivers for Windows while most of the time, drivers are just part of the Linux kernel (although admittedly, aren't the greatest for newer hardware. BUT drivers tend to get better over time in Linux whereas the same can't necessarily be said for Windows where vendors just stop supporting the hardware).
Linux is not Windows. There's going to be a learning curve. You're going to find yourself frustrated crying out "Why can't Linux just do it like Windows?".
Don't be scared of the terminal. There's a couple of really good reasons to use it. When I'm offering people help, it's easier for me to give them terminal commands rather than trying to remember and describe a GUI interface ("Click on the button, I think it's on the bottom right? Or have you got a more uptodate version where it's been moved to the top right? It says "Configure". The icon looks like .... " etc.). It's WAY easier to automate things when you can do it in the terminal. The more you use it, the more friendlier it becomes. I think most long term Linux users would be frustrated if you couldn't do something in the terminal.