Beside DE and terminal commands , is there anything else I should try in a linux distro ?
If you’ve no prior experience with Linux, I’d say just try using it. For the average computer user, the overall experience will be very similar to Windows or Mac.
Go easy on yourself, and don’t try to do/learn everything all at once. Just use the system like you would any other. Once you’re comfortable with the overall experience, you can then tackle more complex stuff if/when you feel the need.
Edit: Just wanted to add that Fedora, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu are all solid choices for beginners.
As in part of a review process?
Things like:
- Software update process
- Installing software which isn’t in a repository
- Seeing how the community is for support ?
Installing software which isn’t in a repository
This is a massive one that’s often overlooked. For example, I love Bazzite, but it’s nigh impossible to install Private Internet Access’s client on it. On the other hand, installing the VPN my work requires is trivially easy, but you’d have to build it manually for any non-RPM-based distro.
It depends on your goals with linux.
If your goals are on devops, you may find a good idea learn about docker, ansible and other tools to make your life easier. If you’re a home user, maybe it’s a good idea try flatpaks, for example. And there is much more, but you need to define your goals.
“If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
First and foremost, that my hardware peripherals work with it (wifi card, camera, bt stuff if you have it…) - if not (and hope you don’t nor would be frustrated by it happens), that there’s a way to make it work
things that differ between distros, because everyone thinks they can do it better than others: multimedia and sound, firewall config, service management, different init systems, switching default when multiple packages provide the same feature and are installed in parallel, config file migration during updates, making and installing your own custom kernel, selection of free games available.