Great! When Windows gets awful enough, it will actually be the year of Linux Desktop.
Edit: To clarify, r-base-dev is a .deb package, not an R package.
I haven't actually used R much, but this might be less error prone than downloading the packages from the web. TeX packages from CTAN can also be installed in a similar way which I know works pretty well.
Dont buy the hype that arch is hard, its a really simple system imo.
But yeah, once it's set up, and you've figured out how things typically work in Arch (e.g. you install a package first, but nothing is enabled by default - you have to decide how you want it to start), it's a great system. You'll learn how to actually use systemd, and will generally have a better feel for how everything is supposed to function, which will make you better at investigating things when they break, or when they don't work out of the box, even on other systems.
Also the Arch wiki is an amazing resource regardless of what you're running.
I don't necessarily have any reservations about recommending Arch to a beginner, but you do have to be curious and willing to learn. People who tried Linux and then got frustrated because some piece of software didn't work quite right out of the box probably wouldn't enjoy using Arch.
I'm a fan of linux and used it as my primary OS for over a decade. Now Windows 10 is good enough and is less hassle.
1. Ugly UIs: Of all the distros I've tried, the only one that doesn't make me wanna gouge my eyes out is Ubuntu. Most Linux users seem to have accustomed to ugly UIs to the point that they don't notice their ugliness anymore.
2. Bad UX: I've been using Gnome shell for 2 years and I still don't understand it. I never remember if ALT+TAB switches between groups of windows or between windows, or between windows in the same group. Or was that ALT+ESC?. I've never had such issues on Windows. Am I just too stupid for Gnome?
Also, why do I have to edit 2 obscure files (from the POV of a regular user) in order to have a simple 'show desktop' button in my taskbar?
Also, why do I have to install an external application (Gnome tweak tool) to disable mouse acceleration? And if you're not on Gnome, good luck trying to use libinput (used by Linux Mint and Ubuntu Mate) directly, because for some bizarre reason the "flat acceleration profile" setting is ignored if you're using a touchpad.
Also, why do I have to install an external plugin and edit an obscure file to have audio compression/normalization when Windows has a single checkbox that reads "Enable audio normalization"
Also, why does PulseAudio start to crackle each time I open reader mode on Firefox?
* Note: You can choose a desktop environment with decent UX, but it will look ugly (xfce). Or you can choose a DE that looks good but has bad UX (Gnome Shell with Ubuntu customizations)
3. If the app you want isn't in your distro repos, you have 2 choices:
a) Install a ppa whose server doesn't work anymore, so now each time you update your repos, there'll be ugly warnings about the dead server. Now you have to Google "how to remove ppa" and choose between 5 articles telling you 5 different ways to do it.
b) download a .tar.gz and spend 1 hour installing the right dependencies the right way, and then 'make'ing and 'make install'ing only to find that there's some obscure error.
After all of this, I still use Linux because I think Windows is slightly worse overall. But would totally understand why some people still choose Windows.
Ubuntu is hardly manageable. It breaks once you tweak. I've switched to Arch:
* no Gnome, use simple DE
* ALSA, no audio normalization, no cracks
* AUR https://aur.archlinux.org/ - it has everything, if not building package is simple with PKGBUILD
It is beautiful under skin.
Baring games with anticheat you can play pretty much any game release within the last 20+ years with Wine + Proton + DXVK/D9VK. Usually with minimal fussing. You can check out ProtonDB[1] to see if you favorite game works.
Linux guys, I love you, I really do, but please spare a thought for those of us whose jobs and personal commitments don’t permit us to tweak our set-ups ad infinitum before you recommend the switch. Computers are fun, but we also need to get work done.
I can fix _that_ issue with a script that disables and re-enables the USB hub it's part of, but that script, in turn, causes the kernel-mode uvcvideo driver to crash with a null pointer exception about 40% of the time I run it. Once I get in this state, a reboot is the only way I can find to fix the issue.
Not a distro thing -- it happens in both Ubuntu and Fedora as well as with a stock kernel built from the latest git source.
Webcam is working 100% fine with no issues on Windows.
OTOH Windows 10 is determined to force its updates on me at the most inconvenient times. Once I left Windows 10 to update over night, to be greeted with grub rescue screen in the morning. Took me most of the next day to fix things.
Linux isn't perfect but at least it doesn't break everything and I'm the one in control of things.
How is it possible to ship OS without tens of thousands of packages? Programming languages, libraries, utilities. Everything works, installs without dialogs, EULAs, automatically updates.
It is not consumer OS, it is mega IDE. It has special place for /include and /lib, logs and man(). It boots if UI broken. It stores everything valuable in $HOME so one can easily move to a new host.
It just happens Ubuntu paper decorations can't protect users from factory floor they are covering. You'd better either don't touch them or move them away.
PS: I'm certainly not against improvements. But home decoration differs from factory organization, and truck is not family car.
I'm starting to look into a Valve Index setup on a Linux gaming PC. But I'm unclear about what kind of VR goodness I'd miss by avoiding Windows 10.
This leads to two classes of major problems: total failure (crashing outright) and stuttering (low framerate, high latency, or occasional "hiccups"). These are equally unacceptable (stuttering ruins VR and can make you feel ill).
It is difficult enough to avoid these issues on Windows where the OS vendor, the graphics card vendor, the motherboard vendor, the game developer, and the VR rendering API developer are focusing their attention and releasing frequent patches to fix VR issues. There seems to be a general opinion that an Nvidia GPU on Windows 10 is the standard VR development target. If VR doesn't work perfectly for you on Linux, it's going to be a pain to sort it out, assuming that's even possible without hoping a third party releases an updated binary blob in the future.
Valve does pay attention to Linux and provide SteamVR support, but they haven't officially released Half-Life: Alyx for Linux yet. They will probably release more information about compatibility when they do.
Pretty convenient, has a ribbon interface same as MS Office. Honestly I can't even tell the difference.
Except for one thing: It doesn't take as long to start, and doesn't require a supercomputer to run with a decent performance.
Lotus 1-2-3 or Quattro Pro on a 286 feels faster than Excel.
LibreOffice, Caligra Office (formerly KOffice) and Gnome Office (Abiword, Gnumeric) are not quite there yet.