On Navigating the Many Linux Distros

To say there are a few Linux flavors out there is a gross underestimation. There's way too many. But, I have tried a few already.

Linux Mint is perhaps the most like Windows. It's useful to get you into Linux if you are a long time MS Window user. It is the one I am using on this machine I am writing this up on.

Pop_OS from System76 I have running on an old Bonobo laptop from the same company. The previous owner had dropped Mint onto it, but there were some hardware issues that installing Pop_OS rectified.

I also tried Elementary OS. I thought I would like it because of it's similarities to MacOS in aesthetics... I was wrong. It did look clean, and ran well... but it didn't really inspire me. I am not sure why an OS needs to inspire me, but it's kind of nice to have options.

What I began doing is buying cheap 32 GB thumb drives (they're seriously only $6 at Best Buy) and flashing them with different distros. This will let me throw it in, reboot and run off the drive, take it for a test drive and see if I like the feel before I install.

If you have an older machine, try it out.