this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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What exactly are you looking for? "Home Server" and "NAS" are both terms used to describe computers running server software and basically nothing else. Their purpose is to run webservers (the infrastructure behind lemmy.world), game servers (the thing you can connect to in Minecraft, for instance), E-Mail servers (like GMail - not the App on your phone, but what it connects to to get your E-Mails from) and so on. Essentially, they exist just so that other computers can talk to them.
Nearly every server is headless (no mouse and keyboard, no screen). To interface with it, you connect over the internet. You rarely see them run a graphical interface (to save resources) - people use the terminal to administrate them.
Do you want a PC (as in: personal computer) instead? PCs (including laptops and smartphones) run (mostly) graphical applications and end-user applications, such as web browsers, E-Mail clients, office programs, games, etc. In this case, try usual PC hardware. Most will work on Linux (it might be adequate to point out that there are PCs available built specifically to run Linux). General hardware compatibility is pretty good for standard peripherals such as keyboards, mouses, speakers, monitors and cameras (exception for all of them: MacBooks and newer NVIDIA graphics cards). In the Laptop world, many seem to enjoy ThinkPads. Pick a distro (https://distrowiz.pages.dev/, I use Fedora btw), pick a Desktop Environment if you're allowed to choose (technically you can always install another DE, it might just become messy) (the big ones are all great, the Deck's desktop mode uses KDE Plasma) and off you go. Tip: Test your distro in a VM.
As for the Terminal: You won't need it unless you go with Arch. Most of the time. The terminal is just very fast and way more standardized than GUIs. Therefore, Tutorials will use it all of the time. In rare occasions, GUI tools are not available. Good news: Learning the terminal is not as hard as learning to code. Once you feel ready, do try to learn how to use it. It's a good QOL improvement.
thank you for your explanation, It seems i made a lot of people confused. After a bit of explanation it seems like 'multiseat' is the term for what i had in mind.
i'll check those distros and hopefully i will be able to use linux full time