How does one go about learning to use PureOS, especially when one has never used alternative operating systems? Asking for a friend.
I think the best way is to just start using it and search everything you want to do that you don’t know how to do. Once you’ve looked something up enough, you’ll remember it.
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I’m only two weeks ahead of you and come from Win and Mac OSs.
I’ve read a lot in books and online but I learn the most by tinkering and trying to overcome my issues. I think it’s hard to break the system and even if I do, I can do a fresh install fairly easily (probably).
A lot of the fun for me is in the learning.
I don’t mind trying pureOS because it’s advertised as security/privacy focused, but I may take a run at Mint or even Debian eventually.
Have fun!
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(Replying for a friend.) The desktop is the realm of Gnome. Install the “dash to panel” extension (and perhaps other tweaks) to make Gnome work like Windows. The browser is Firefox, once removed. There is a tweak detailed in the wiki (https://tracker.pureos.net/w/troubleshooting/firefox_compat_mode/) that allows installing any Firefox extension, but be careful, you can easily disable PureOS privacy protections with badly behaving extensions. I wanted uBlock Origin.
I wanted Gnucash. I should be able to install a working Gnucash. Not so. Gnucash is the worst behaving Linux app across similar distributions. PureOS is a Debian variant.
Repositories are what the Linux app store is called. If you can find an app in the PureOS repository that fits your needs, use that. Installation and updates are handled very like your smartphone. KMyMoney is a great alternative to Gnucash and is in the PureOS repository. Problem solved.
Updates cannot be rolled back. Grit your teeth and trust that Purism folk will not propagate Debian mistakes down to us.
It can be a steep learning curve, but my friend says that keeping these things in mind will aid your ascent to PureOS expert user.
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