Thinking of switching to linux. Are all the software categories there for a STEM major? Figure all I need is a browser...

Thinking of switching to linux. Are all the software categories there for a STEM major? Figure all I need is a browser, office, terminal, pdf viewer besides my phone. Maybe use wine for a few things if I have to.

thinking of switching too, but I don't trust /g/ to give a good distro rec for STEM majors (they mostly major in ricing and anime)

Yes those are all avalable, and much more. Come to the botnet free land.

I like neither of those, and I like xubuntu. It's fast and easy to use. Also there is some science specific fedora distro but I never used fedore so dunno

I unironically use Gentoo
(I'm a math student)
Here is a screenshot with some random software open.

I'm You almost certainly don't need wine.
firefox, libreoffice, urxvt, mupdf fit your bill.
There are of course millions of alternatives.

Switch to linux, test the distro before you install using a live CD. Find one thats right for you. If you're just switching, then yes, something like xubuntu is good. Mint(and other Ubuntu/Debian based distros) have good support for some steam games if you're into that.
Don't get advice for a distro, find one that suits your needs. Read what the distro is about, don't take others advice for what YOU need.
>Botnet free
Not neccessarily, while there are less virus/rootkits etc for GNU/Linux based systems, they are still abundant, and actually much harder to detect. Especially the rootkits. Also, read about systemd.
>Fedora
Fedora wont be good for someone whos just switching, but thats my opinion.
Don't jump into gentoo, this user probably had some experience in using linux before switching to gentoo.
Get your feet wet before you jump in the pool.

Honestly it is really hard to pick a 'bad' distro. If you go with one of the top 10 most popular ones, you will have everything you need at your disposal, and will probably be completely happy.

I agree with most of this. In general if you are sane about security (don't run random stuff as root or trust shady software that isn't in your repos), I'd argue that it's MUCH more secure than Windows.

I also wouldn't suggest Gentoo for a complete beginner (I only mentioned it because it's a /g/ favourite). I started learning with Debian about 10 or so years ago.

I would personally avoid Ubuntu but that's due to politics more than anything else.

Dual boot, don't use wine it sucks.

Are you a patient person? If you said yes, slap your own face 15 times once every minute on the minute and ask yourself if you're patient. If you are still saying yes, then you are free to install nearly any distro of Linux but I will still suggest you get Ubuntu if this is your first time. You can always change later, but you'll have more support WHEN things break.

I should really explain my statement here a bit clearer:

What I'm trying to say is that if you are normie-tier and just want to use a computer for basic functions like browser, text editor, reg expressions, pdf, imageviewer, libreoffice, vlc, etc. Literally any distro will be an upgrade from windows in my opinion, and if you for the most part don't care or don't understand all the politics/security/licensing/systemd/ricing/pack manager/window manager discussions, that is fine, and you will be fine picking basically any of the top 10. As you go along and pick up more understanding of the various politics/difference between pack managers/every other thing you can choose to customize, you will slowly build a distro configuration that fits with all of your preferences as you realize them overtime.

I think Ubuntu is bad, but literally if someone just wants to browse the internet and read pdfs, xubuntu is perfectly fine starting out.

I hate when people try to come to these threads recommending extremely difficult to use/install distributions to people who are not technical, the reason we aren't winning more people over is because of technical elitism. My grandma has debian on her computer now, and all she does is browse the web, and it works out perfectly fine for her, I even coached her through the install. I could not have done that probably with arch/gentoo.

Install Gentoo.

what's wrong with ubuntu you edgelords

nothing desu, although most people on this board probably won't be a fan of Unity, bazaar, upstart, Mir, or most of Canonical's worthless NIH pursuits

As a graduate student with considerable experience i have to admit that linux is a piece of shit compared to windows, don't fall for the meme. If you want to spend hours getting mad manually installing programs then be my guest.

literally every single piece of software worthy of an installation has tons of step-by-step tutorials or even ppa's

Ubuntu is very corporate. They're the Apple of the GNU/Linux world. They don't stick to any standards or help develop them. They tell everyone to fuck off and break compatibility on purpose by designing their own bullshit. This is a strategy to make Ubuntu software only work on Ubuntu and, in turn, to trap users into its ecosystem.

This is false. Most widely used software is made very easy to install and configure. There are guides written by devs or the distro/package maintainers.

I did. See Do you have anything meaningful to add?

I always like to see people interested in using GNU/Linux so let me know if you have any other questions

What's a better option than Ubuntu that holds the same advantages then?

If you don't mind "stable" (old) software, Debian would be a good fit
Ubuntu is based on debian so there's a lot of overlap and you can follow most guides for Ubuntu as well.

debian user here, do it faggot. Just learn how to use the command line / terminal, don't become dependent on GUI

And XFCE ftw

Yep!
Best setup would be some minimal OS like Arch/Slackware/whatever and just use some Window Manager (I prefer a Tiling WM).
Arch is nice because of the Arch wiki and all the documentation from everyone who has probably already had the same problems you might have in the future.
I don't know about "office", but there are plenty of file editors for Linux and Google has "Google Drive"/whatever. Firefox comes with a pdf viewer. I really see no reason one would need to Wine anything.

Only reason people complain about Arch is because there is a lot of configurations you can do, but let us be honest, it'll take a like an hour or two tops. Just make sure you aren't using any harware any of the core drivers/whatever don't support.
So before you fuck everything you love up, I suggest getting a CD + USB and practice setting up your configurations and OS on the USB before you do it to any fully-functioning computer.

linux mint