I currently use Windows 10 and I’d like to try out Linux. My plan is to set up a dual boot with OpenSUSE tumbleweed and KDE Plasma. I’ve read so many different opinions about choosing a distro, compatibility with gaming and Nvidia drivers, and personal issues with the ethos of different companies like Canonical. I value privacy and I’d rather avoid a Linux distro that’s implementing something like ads or telemetry…if that’s even a thing that’s happening?
As a complete beginner, what sort of advice would you all have for me? Should I avoid OpenSUSE or KDE Plasma for some reason? Are there any ‘10 things to do first when installing Linux for the first time’ recommendations?
Despite all the ‘beginner friendly’ guides and tutorials around, I still feel a little lost and like I’m going into this blind.
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who’s offered advice, I really appreciate all the help and the patience with my dumb questions! There’s a lot to look through and it’s been a busy day for me, but I’ll get back to reading through everything and replying as soon as I can!
you wont be able to use ms office, so either use alternatives or the web version(or through a vm)
for most software you want to use the packages provided by your distribution maintainers, as that removes the need to deal with conflicts, often provides some sane defaults and makes it so that for the most part you only have to trust the team of maintainers rather than every software developer in the world.
also you wont be able to play valo and some other shooters, though eac and battleye are both supported and besides native and wine/proton support u can play most games on kvm passthrough vms with little performance loss