When Windows 10 dies, I am going to jump ship over to Linux. Which version would you recommend for someone with zero prior experience with Linux? **Edit: Linux Mint it shall be.**

Fat Tony@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 417 points –

Whom also likes to game every now and then ;)

Edit: Thank you all for your input and suggestions! Linux Mint shall be my next OS! Though, I think I'll give Pop!OS a look-see as well.

197

Linux Mint

+1

I personally started by playing around with Ubuntu, but it just didn't feel intuitive coming from windows.

Went over to Mint, and was very happy,especially with drivers and gaming. I even fully removed my windows installation during this period. Having gained a better understanding of Linux, I have now moved on again.

The only real drawback of Mint is not natively supporting KDE Plasma (as they did before). And yes, you can just install it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend a beginner who barely knows how to install Linux to attempt such an endevour.

One word of advice to OP: don't wait till you can't use Windows anymore. Start by dual booting and getting a hang of Linux, but with windows at the ready for any tasks you cannot yet do/feel comfortable doing on Linux. As you get a better hold of Linux, you should naturally begin to use Windows less.

The worst thing someone can do, is to jump OS without any backup or safety net. Learning to use Windows took a long time, getting a hang of new concepts and getting used to an alien environment. Now, already having a hang of "computers" (Windows), we have digital needs and expectations (E-Mail, gaming, etc.) which will need fulfilling, but many seem to forget that a different OS means different ways of doing our daily tasks and different challenges to handle.

And yes, "different", because Windows definitely also comes with it's own unique challenges, you just don't see them as much when having gotten used to them.

One word of advice to OP: don't wait till you can't use Windows anymore. Start by dual booting and getting a hang of Linux, but with windows at the ready for any tasks you cannot yet do/feel comfortable doing on Linux. As you get a better hold of Linux, you should naturally begin to use Windows less.

Good advice here OP.

Debian Edition*

What are its advantages compared to the regular one? Genuinely interested

Debian is Debian based and regular Mint is Ubuntu LTS based and use theirs respective repos (not a big difference for the average user). While currently the non Debian version is the main and recommended version, due some controversial changes in Ubuntu people want to move away from Ubuntu and the devs have considered making the Debian edition the main one.

Ubuntu is Debian based as well. But yes, it's 100% about avoiding the shoehorned in canonical shenanigans.

To each their own, but Ubuntu's repos are a bit fuller than Debian's.

Mint is great. It also works well out of the box in virtual machines. I like the MATE versions for my older machines.

There is a major shift happening right now, and mint is slower than many to adopt changes. I'd argue that's good for mint users, but it may be bad for you personally if you plan to learn about modern linux. Idgaf personally about X11 vs Wayland, because I just need to be able to use my programs.

I recently jumped to mint, and I have to say I’m very happy with it. I struggled with like two things but the OS is popular enough that there are walkthroughs for nearly everything. And I was able to get Linux-based or browser-based software for everything I did on my windows computer

How does Mint compares to Fedora? I decided to finally switch almost a month ago, and went with Fedora because it seemed like the best solution for general development, and I really like their Toolbox. However, I've been running into some issues mostly regarding gaming and NVIDIA drivers, and in general getting some applications to work on Fedora was more painful than apparently in most of the other systems.

So, should I switch, or will the Wine/Steam/Lutris experience be mostly the same on Mint as it is on Fedora?

Most problems I've seen between Nvidia and Linux were caused by Wayland. If you're using Fedora with Gnome (the default) then you can try hitting the gear icon when logging in and choosing "gnome on xorg" (screenshot). That might help with the drivers.

For any other issues, Mint might be easier just because it's based on Debian, which is immensely popular. It's more of a well beaten path, and there's probably more help online for any issues you run into.

You always start with Linux Mint. This is the way.

Handles graphics drivers, printer drivers, looks like a windows without the influence of advertisers, what I consider a consistent theme, and best of all it is mind numbingly boring. Prepare yourself for the heart pounding activity of predictable updates, uncomplicated booting, running familiar applications, doing work, being productive, not even actively thinking about your OS.

Mint is my go-to linux newbie distro suggestion.

Linux veteran of 20+ years here. I use Mint on my desktop.

Because we too appreciate things working out of the box.

Oh definitely. I've been using linux on and off for..a long time. "Stuff just works" is a great thing for a daily driver (mine is xubuntu). I save the tinkering for machines I don't need to use constantly.

Pop!OS. It is maintained by a company called System76 who make Linux computers. You might think about getting one if you want a new computer. Support the cause!

I will second Pop!OS. I have it installed on my gaming desktop and have been very satisfied with its stability and ability to play every game I’ve wanted to. Between Steams Proton layer and Wine (with the wineglass GUI) there is nothing I want for right now.

(I do run an AMD card, YMMV with an Nvidia one as I cannot speak to experience with that).

I do use Mint for my laptop/daily driver outside of gaming and love that as well. In my mind the two distributions fit the use cases well.

What makes Pop!OS better for gaming? I run Void and have no issues running most games.

Ease of installation would be a huge one. Pop was run the installer from USB and go. After it was online there was just installing steam and whatever games I wanted. I have not dug further into void or what its capable of. I wanted as little fiddling as possible. To me the interface felt good out of the box.

I mainly sought out Pop!OS after reading about people's experience with it and gaming and liked what I heard. I jumped directly from windows 11 to Pop. If void works for you, that's awesome. This was my "how do I get it running now without messing around" moment. I really just wanted to game, immediately after install. Later on I started to fiddle with things.

Pretty happy with my Lemur Pro, 3.5 years in. I just replaced the battery, which was fairly painless. Also had to replace the wireless radio, which was as easy as popping in a new one. I wasn't happy that it failed, but apparently that's industry wide, not just these laptops. Replacement was like $35. Other than that I've only had cosmetic issues, like the System76 sticker came off, which I don't care about.

You should try Linux Mint. It's a good distribution for new Linux users. It's easy to understand, has a good community with plenty of solutions for all types of problems and it is not too specific.

Gaming with Steam on Linux works without any major issues except when it comes to games that intentionally made run on Windows only due to their DRM. I suggest using the Flatpak variant of Steam so you won't clutter your system with too many weird dependencies.

I don't know about flatpak. I have a high tolerance for annoyance but configuring flatpak permissions right was annoying.

I just installed it and never changed any permissions. Maybe you confuse it with AppImage?

Some Flatpak apps don’t have the proper permissions or they can be quite restrictive especially when it cames to file access.

For example; it’s not possible to upload files using Discord from the user home (except a few specified folders). This could be solved with a XDG portal, but most apps don’t bother implementing that.

Yeah that is annoying. I get that problem with Cryptomator

I'll second Mint. It's got a similar layout to Windows, so eases you in, and everything just works.

l'd say Linux Mint or Fedora as a distro.

And as a desktop environment (which I think will influence your Linux experience far more than the distro pick) I'd pick KDE or Cinnamon or if you want to go old school XFCE (which is little easier on the resources) (all three stick to a more traditional desktop paradigm, so the switch from windows wont be as awkward)

luckily you can switch the DE pretty easy. you can just install them on your distro of choice and use them side by side if you'd like to try them out (generally speaking, you can choose which DE session you want to use on your login screen)

luckily you can switch the DE pretty easy

Yes XFCE ftw, until you install some application and it brings half of GNOME with it :)

That's how dependencies work. Same is true for when you install your first KDE app.

Thankfully disk space is cheap. Think of all the GBs saved by not using Windows.

Yes but this a problem, you get very fragmented systems, tons of wasted space and resources (because your CPU/RAM will pay as well) and even worse you create a situation where developing Linux desktop apps isn't just attractive to anyone.

Just to prove this point I'm sure you've noticed that the largest growth in Linux "desktop" apps (be it single developer apps or more "professional" stuff) was around the time Java desktop app became popular and then later on with Electron because at that point those packing solutions were dealing with the Linux DE mess (the constant updates and breaking of things) behind the scenes and the developers only had to add a very few checks into their code to handle all Linux systems.

What I'm saying is that by have all that DE choice and constant fuckery we're making our lives worse in the sense that nobody same wants to develop to such platform thus getting less software and making Linux less of an alternative. Until we don't get a single DE with a single solid and well designed theme, UI library, developer friendly frameworks and whatnot Linux won't be getting any meaningful traction among regular people and professional developers.

GNOME and their large backing was a way to fix this mess and make all other DEs fade away but then their purist vision and CSS themes got in the way of optimizing the DE for the mass market and take over everything as they should have had.

The DE that will take Linux to succeed in the desktop doesn’t need themes, customization and all the personalization that would make it really hard to create. Hell it don't need to be much, it can even be a simple 1:1 copy of the macOS desktop experience (and keep it updated) and it will likely become very popular in no time and send GNOME, KDE and others into oblivion.

Like most others have stated here, I'll also add my recommendations for Linux Mint.

I have helped most of my family, relatives and several friends move and familiarize themselves with Linux Mint, especially those that do almost everything within the web browser (shopping/email/Facebook/youtube/travel reservation/etc…). Since I already was their goto tech support, I showed them around on Linux Mint and they pretty easily got going as everything was intuitively similar to Windows. All was point and click (after my initial setup with their network, peripherals, printer and some basic automatic updates configuration), no terminal voodoo magic for them.

For the younger ones I typically set them up with Pop!OS and Steam and they are ready to jump without me having to explain much. Sometimes, I had to install and help setup a server (Minecraft) so they can play with their friends.

Personally, I use a mix of LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), Alpine Linux, TrueNAS Scale, OPNsense and VMware ESXi/Workstation/vSphere for virtual machines.

Mind you, I would not recommend VMware as I am currently evaluating my transition options toward XCP-ng with Xen Orchestra or LXD/Incus or something else entirely.

U should try KVM for virtualization, more specifically virtmanager.

Linux Mint is definitely the right choice here in my opinion. I installed it for my parent's on their older laptop when they were having issues running windows. They were blown away by how fast it was and how they could do all of their usual tasks (i.e browsing, financing, basic games, etc.). It will be a great first experience for you!

Personally I use Debian stable but I'd recommend starting with Ubuntu if you are new. I'm using linux fulltime since 2008 if that makes any difference.

The reason is you are guaranteed to find support for a program if there is a linux version.

Most of the instructions online have specific Ubuntu instructions.

The default install is quite user friendly.

You will have access to more packages than many other linux distros. You still have flatpak too if your desired package is not in the Ubuntu repository ( or snap store).

You can always pick a different one later once you have some experience under your belt.

Doing this you will be able to become familiar with APT the Debian package manager. Used in Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Raspbian and other Debian derivatives.

Getting the concepts here you can then just learn the differences if you switch distro such to an RPM (Different package format) based distro such as fedora.

In short use Ubuntu for now. Experiment and read up about it so you can build your knowledge. We are a community that like to share and learn. Also as a general rule backup your files before you install it and after you have set it up how you want. You can easily just copy the whole home directory for this πŸ˜‰

The distro doesnt matter but it should not get in your way. They can all be made to look and act the same for the most part. The focus should be on knowledge. Linux is like digital Lego you can pick and choose the parts you like and layer them together.

Nearly all Ubuntu instructions also apply to Debian.
Flatpak is no longer default on Ubuntu since they see it as competition.
As of Debian Bookworm, nonfree firmware is available on the installation media and no further steps are involved.

Ubuntu used to be the most friendly beginner experience. I'm not sure if it has any advantage over Debian today.

Great advice substantiated by clear reasoning. I second it. More specifically, grab Ubuntu LTS. Going with an Ubuntu LTS based distro might present some extra challenges but it would probably be fine too.

Ubuntu is great for the reasons outlined and it provides an obvious path to Debian, should you want to move away from it in the future.

And it's 2024 which means a new LTS version will drop around the April/May timeframe.

totally agree. the latest ubuntu is great and can be cusomtised as much as you want after installation when you've got used to linux

Pop OS, it's just brilliant.

What about the fact that it's based on Ubuntu, can you still install programs packaged as flatpaks ?

I'd recommend POP!_OS. Very easy to install and use and most games I've tried to play work without any problems.

The only thing I would maybe hesitate about with POP! OS is the big upcoming switch to the COSMIC desktop, which is is brand-new and a bit untested. But also System76 are a really solid company and seem to know what they're doing so it'll probably be fine.

Even so, changing desktops in Pop! is pretty easy. I generally recommend new users watch a few videos on different Desktops and consider what would work best for them. It also really shows you the level of customization you're going to get.

Definitely Linux Mint. Literally the best out there whether new to Linux or an advanced user.

Why wait? Jump now.

I highly recommend dual booting because there will be times when you get fed up with the penguin's bullshit.

Also Linux Mint is a great recommendation, but I have to recommend the Debian edition.

Fedora with KDE

Advantages:

  • Most software has a version for it, this is not the case for e.g. OpenSUSE. The software is also usually quite new (unlike Debian).
  • You can boot into older system versions if an update failed so you’re never stuck with a broken system.
  • It doesn’t push snaps down your throat unlike Ubuntu and comes with Flatpak by default.
  • A very customizable interface that is quite similar to Windows 7/10 by default with tons of useful features.
  • Not a point release like Debian that requires a certain level of manual migration to upgrade to a newer version.

Downsides:

  • Slightly less popular than Debian-based distro’s and thus has less info on it online.
  • Rolling release so you will have to update very often.

Linux Mint is mentioned a lot in this thread, but it’s one of the few distro’s I’ve never used before so I won’t advise in favor of it.

One plus for fedora, or more of a minus for debian-based distros, is that fedora with its short release cycle is closer to how windows does updates. There's no release cycle for almost all software on windows, and so the years long release cycle weirds many people out.

I went with Fedora when switching almost a month ago now, and I've been having issues with some games not working as expected, and also had trouble getting NVIDIA drivers to work correctly (which I've already solved, I hope). (And some applications weren't working at all, such as Unity)

What would you consider as major advantages of Fedora, in addition to what you mentioned? So far, I usually couldn't find a Fedora-specific version of the applications I wanted, unlike for other more well-known distributions. I do work as a programmer, which was also why I choose Fedora - I really like their Fedora Toolbox, but I would like to game regurarly on my PC and so far, it seems that Fedora doesn't really handle it too well. Will I have similar issues on other distros, or will switching to something like Pop!OS be worth the time?

EDIT: Just found out about Nobara, I guess I'll give that one a try.

Quick question, did you use Wayland or Xorg/X11? Nvidia drivers + KDE + Wayland is a combination that is known to cause issues.

I'll comment and agree with most of the people who have already commented who recommend Linux Mint. It's very good for beginners. Alternatively, you can also take a quiz found at distrochooser.de to get an idea of which distros may be right for you.

Linux Mint, 100%. Most of your configuration will have a GUI and their flagship Cinnamon desktop is made to look similar to Windows 7.

You have a lot of options

-Linux Mint: the default choice, nothing wrong with it, however not the best when it comes to gaming or if you have multiple monitors with different resolutions and refresh rates.

-ZorinOS: Looks good, but can take some time to get used to it and doesn't have the multi monitor issues of Linux mint, however it is on the heavier side of Linux distros.

-Fedora/Nobara: the 2 are basically the same with one another, but nobara is more gaming-focused. They will also take some time to get used to how they work, but are in my experience generally snappier and more responsive.

No matter which distro you choose, remember, don't think of Linux the same way you think of windows, think of it as desktop android, as in you download stuff from the distro's app store and not off of the internet, unless necessary.

-Linux Mint: [...] not the best [...] if you have multiple monitors with different resolutions and refresh rates.

I'm thinking of installing Mint (Debian Edition) on a 2013 MacBook Pro with an even older external monitor connected through DisplayPort, while using the internal Retina as the secondary monitor.

Do you think it'd be a safer bet to go with a different distro with better multi-monitor compatibilities, or do you think I'll be good using this hardware+software combo?

Any related advice will be appreciated!

Don't get me wrong, it will work, you might just have issues like screen tearing and choppy animations...

I'd personally go with fedora on a laptop, especially for a Mac user as it's default desktop experience is kinda similar to MacOS, and you get 1:1 touchpad gestures.

Just FYI, you could also switch to Windows 10 IoT LTSC for longer support (2029 IG)

Fedora’s my favorite. It’s also the most secure without going straight to QubesOS, which is not beginner friendly.

Just switched to Fedora after bouncing between Ubuntu and Manjaro. Really digging Fedora and kicking myself for waiting so long to try it out.

I'll second the Pop!_OS recommendation that others have been posting. Don't get me wrong, Linux Mint is great, though I personally prefer Linux Mint Debian Edition over the Ubuntu-based one, but I think Pop!_OS is just as easy to use while presenting a different look & feel. Pop tends to support newer hardware as well: despite being stuck on an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS base until Cosmic is finished, System76 releases new kernels to support the hardware they sell. They're currently running kernel version 6.6.6, as opposed to Ubuntu's 6.2.0 (I think -- that's what server's on, at least).

I gave my wife, who "hates computers," a laptop running Pop!_OS when her Windows 10 one failed and, apart from the standard new PC complaints, I haven't heard anything Linux-specific. She runs two businesses on the thing; the only changes I made to the standard Pop!_OS software were to replace LibreOffice with OnlyOffice, and to replace Geary with Thunderbird.

Personally, I think your choice of desktop environment have more impact to your day-to-day experience than your distro choice. If you feel at home with windows-like UI, try KDE Plasma. If you like minimalistic mac-like interface, then try Gnome.

I'm a Linux mint user for my main system and am no beginner. As others have said, it's friendly to both beginners and advanced users, it's good to see you've made that choice.

That being said, don't stop there. Whether it's in a virtual machine or some old laptop, also try one of the "from scratch" systems. I went with Gentoo and that is the root of where a ton of my Linux knowledge started. It's my favorite distro simply because it has that history for me. You'll find everyone has their own favorites for their own reasons, so be sure to explore and find the one that you enjoy and helps you learn.

How do you survive on in Debian/Ubuntu flavor? Whenever I would need a software that was not in the repo. Have to put PPA in place to get it. To many times it would then not install becuase of package conflicts. I have up and switched to arch based distro and between primary repo nd AUR I havent looked back and been very stable.

Rarely do I find software I need that's not in the repo, but when I do, I just dusky build it myself. Not at my machine now, but I think I only have one PPA that's not default added. In the other cases where I don't want to build the app, it tends to be in Flatpak too.

That being said, although Mint is technically based on Ubuntu, it really doesn't feel like it at all. I personally can't stand Ubuntu, but again all personal opinions. If Debian-based systems didn't work for you and an arch based distro did, then go with it. Everyone's needs are their own and that's why we have so many choices :D

I'd second Mint as well (I've used it for many years now). Out of interest, what games are you thinking of? Most of them should work out of the box, but with some there can be issues especially with multiplayer ones.

Another day another switching post. We need a new community for these posts.

This community is easier to find and has people who can actually answer it

If we want people switching then we should be open to it in all of our communities

Its good to have the community filled with active threads.

Or just pin a post. That is, after all, what the feature is for.

This is not distro specific advice but: when starting out you can use a virtual machine like VMware to test drive Linux without having to repartition your drive. VMware is free for individual non commercial use.

I would unironically recommend arch to anyone who has a large steam library, and id recommend KDE Plasma as the desktop. Valve uses Arch as a base, and KDE as their desktop mode environment, so a lot of games on steam are tested in this environment via proton.

I would not recommend it to newcomers to start with, but as a "learn about linux and work your way towards arch" type of ordeal. Arch would be the endgoal, not the starting line.

You need to first understand what kind of interaction you expect with your OS. For this, you can start by considering what you use your OS for and currently what you do for your OS. e.g. Before I jumped to Linux, I was just starting to learn PowerShell on Win, because I saw a lot of places in my system where I wanted to use it. I felt consistently dissatisfied with the lack of things I could just tell the system to do, making me go to scripting. This way, I knew I won't have a problem with putting time into something that takes a lot of configuring. But since I was still new and wanted an easy start, I went with Manjaro KDE. It was based on Arch, but had a system of differed updates, giving me a feel of it being easier. Plus, it had a lot of customisations out of the box, some of which, I learnt from, when making my own configurations for EndeavourOS. EndeavourOS considers itself to be more terminal oriented, and it is possible to easily get a full-fledged tty system, just by selecting it in the installer. I chose KDE because I like changing the Appearance a lot, but you might want to look at other DEs depending upon your expectations.

Ubuntu has been shifting a lot to snaps, so if you want your computer to be snappy (the literal meaning), you might want to avoid it (ironically). But at the same time, if you want less configuration requirements and want to keep most of your exp outside the terminal, on top of finding it easier to install software from vendors' websites, you can consider it. If you are fine with putting in the minimal amount of brain usage it takes to understand the installation instructions of the website - and by that I mean, read the heading telling you which distro the copy-paste text is meant for (I know ppl too lazy to do that and trying paste an apt command into Red Hat) - I suggest Fedora/Linux Mint and a slew of others.

DE = Desktop Environment apt = Package Manager (kinda like an app store on terminal) used for Ubuntu

P.S.: If you choose an Arch-based distro, make sure you keep a backup OS that is in the Debian/Fedora tree. I keep a Debian KDE, mainly for older linux games, which ask for packages that have been long removed from Arch, but it is useful in case you break something. That way you won't have to wait for the time it takes to make a Live USB and can just restart.

And all this comes down to the fact that you should either Install Uwuntu(if you're a femboy) or Hanna Montana Linux(If you aren't a femboy)

I'm already starting to migrate my small office. Two PCs done, a handful of others to go. I have probably three that I'll run Windows 11 for software compatibility, and another three Mac's for different software.

Who remembers "Windows 10 will be our last operating system'?" I remember. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck Macs too though.

Start looking at the desktop environments and use a virtual machine/live usb to try them out. For something similar to Windows I'd recommend KDE plasma or Cinnamon, both can be tried out using KDE Neon or Linux Mint.

Mate, why wait?,

Run to Linux, don't just run from Windows.

Yes Linux Mint. You CAN migrate later to other distros without losing your data so feel free to test others out later when you feel ready and know more about them.

What I suggest is to Nobara for gaming or Linux mint. Most distros are the same but depends on what comes preinstalled.

I went with Pop!_OS because it was one of the least Windows-like DEs. Which is what I wanted after getting so damn sick of their garbage. Kinda macOS though with the dock and all. I dig it.

Plus they are working on COSMIC which looks SAF. That's honestly the only thing that has kept me from distro hopping.

I can recommend Mint, it's fantasically easy and stable, but take a look at https://distrochooser.de

This website is a true Linux experience. Can't click on Start on mobile because the language selector overlaps the button.

Got curious as to what it would recommend me .. first choice...

Arch.

They've got me in a box here - I haven't switched from arch in like 3-4 years now. In fact my configuration is mostly stagnant. I just use Pacman/yay to keep it mostly up to date. But otherwise it's a complete mess.

Well, when you're an experienced Linux user it's kind of predictable what effect each answer will have on the outcome.

I love btw how Arch, a supposedly brittle and unstable distro, is one of the few that you can actually run for this long without ever reinstalling, on desktop at least. Not having to worry about LTS releases, end of life etc because you essentially always automatically have the latest version is so great.

Nobara if you game.

I game, like a lot, and if windows beats me one more time i swear I'll leave them for good. Is there a list of supported games? I just hit their site and only saw an nvidia gpx drivers too, did i simple miss the AMD stuff?

Intel and AMD drivers are part of the Linux kernel so you never need to think about drivers.
Check out https://www.protondb.com/ for something of a list of supported games, but generally most games just work (in Steam, go to Settings, Compatibility, and check the box for applying Proton on all games in library and not just the officially supported ones).
ProtonDB isn't a complete list, but if you do struggle with getting a game to work, chances are somebody has posted a string you can paste into Steam to make the game magically work.

to add on to this, generally the only games that have issues are games with pretty serious anti cheat, and even many of those will still work. protondb will reflect this of course, but if you already know you mostly only play single player or cooperative titles, you can save a lot of time looking through your library

I second this. Everything you need for gaming preinstalled

And it's fine as a daily driver, as well. I moved off Manjaro so I miss the AUR, and have considered adding Distrobox to get that back.

I never heard of Distrobox until now. It seems really cool. What's the cause for hesitation? Unreasonably resource intensive?

I'm not sure I trust it to have everything to be fully integrated. I guess it's just one more level of troubleshooting then.

If you don't like Valorant or play cs2 on like faceit or another private league

The premise was that OP wants to swap to linux for gaming. So I recommended the best linux gaming distro.

I appreciate what glorious eggroll does. And I've had no issues with the few games I've played on Steam.

I've been running Nobara for several months and it has been very stable though I find it is lacking a little polish around the edges in some areas. Kind of like how Mint was when I first started about 10y ago.

I'm trying out Fedora now for a while. On kernel 6.5. I was on 6.1 in Nobara. I have one game that's crashing now (it wasn't crashing in Nobara .. go figure). So I may have to go back to Nobara or try to figure out what they did with Nobara vs Fedora that would help.

When Mint gets to kernel 6.x some day, I might jump back. (5.19 doesn't support my GPU). Overall Mint became very polished. I hardly ever ran into weird issues. Although I do remember feeling Cinnamon blew up every so often.

Everyone has different opinions. In the end the different versions, or distributions, are basically the same.

It starts with the Linux vernal, that as far as I know, handles communication with the hardware, and things like directories, storage, users, permissions. On top of that, every distribution creator puts a destropenvioment, like gnome or KDE (plasma?). Gnome is kinda like Mac is, KDE can be what ever you want, very customizable.

Than there is the package manager. Fedora for example uses yum or dnf (dnf is the new version I think) and Ubuntu uses apt. The package manager is like your app store, that you access over the command line. It is managed by the owners and ist mostly safe to download anything. (Installing Spotify would by 'sudo apt/dnf install spotify'. So pretty easy to use.

On top of that the distribution has preinstalled programs, like the browser, writing tools, and some useful apps

That is basically the only difference between distros. You can even get different spins of a distro. If you like fedora, get it with the KDE desktro envioment. It's all the same basically.

So put something on a usb drive and boot from that, try it out for a few minutes and than look at others. There are also websites that allow you to boot into different distros.

If you like something, just install it, maybe as a Dualboot first next to windows (best is on a different drive) and just try it out. If you don't like it, just jump to another one.

Linux can be a little bit pain sometimes, but in my opinion it's worth to invest the time. Have fun!

Before you leave W10, install it in a VM or dual boot so you can test it/get used to the interface

What games do you play?

Start today. Download VirtualBox (or equivalent software) and if you make a mistake, you can just nuke the OS and start over without risk.

Food for thought: you should start getting familiar with Linux, either with Virtualbox/VMware, or dual booting right now. When the time comes and Win10 reaches EOL, you know you will find reasons to just go with the flow and stay with Microsoft.

As for what flavor? There are a few that come to mind as "windowy": Zorin, Mint, and the anything that uses KDE Plasma. Personally, I prefer Pop!_OS because I use MacOS as well and prefer that feel to windows a bit more, and System76 has done a fantastic job of making a polished product.

That's what I did, anyway. The mental load of still having windows to fall back on if I couldn't do something helped make the anxiety lighter and also helped me be motivated to try new things out. I couldn't imagine having to learn something with a gun to my head!

You should try a bunch and see what you really like! The beauty of Linux is there's so much out there that you'll almost definitely find one that gels with you.

A good place to start is Linux mint! The best way I can describe it is a blend of all the best parts of windows 7, 10 and 11 with very few of the downsides. You'll almost definitely settle in quickly and you might never want to switch as it's very full featured, snappy and well put together. It was designed for people wanting that Linux experience while still feeling familiar to windows users.

Another one to try if you love customisability is ZorinOS. There's a free and paid tier, both of which are excellent with the free tier offering layouts for old and new windows and Mac like experience and the paid tier (only around Β£30 for a lifetime licence) has layouts and customisability for absolutely everything else and extra tools and options for those that want more of that!

My recommendation is to avoid any overly bleeding edge distro while starting out, as when things will inevitably break you won't have much knowlege on how to fix the issue, and googling it may not always give you an answer.

I think it depends on what you are looking for. While Linux Mint is a safe option, it does have some drawbacks... well it's more drawbacks from Ubuntu but as Linux Mint is based off of it, it's also impacted. Primarily the fact that Ubuntu packages are terribly out of date. Thankfully mint makes adding PPA's painless, but for apps that don't have a PPA it's a pain to install them from scratch like Mangohud. It's not impossible, but there is an expect level of Linux knowledge which is required before going in.

Another option is Manjaro. You will hear the litany of endless criticism about it from the community, some of it is valid. But for the most part, while it's not as nice as Linux Mint, I think the OS will get you to the point where you can start using your machine faster. Mostly thanks to Arch's rolling release, as well as the AUR for filling the gap between official packages and flatpaks.

I was using Manjaro for the longest time, but switched to Mint due to a freak bootloader accident. I prefer Manjaro in terms of how well it handled Games and Windows software due to it's association with Arch. But I like how well Mint manages my laptop's battery and performance or lack thereof due to it's pitiful cooler.

They can go for LMDE to avoid the Ubuntu stuff.

Its more of a LTS vs Rolling release model. Though I agree LMDE is a good option.

Yep, depending on what you do the outdated Ubuntu packages can be a real pain. I'm going to switch from Linux mint sometime soon* for that reason.

* sometime soon, aka when I finally put in the time and figure out how to install arch

Keep in mind they have zero Linux experience so I doubt they'll be needing packages that are too obscure for mint, and I wouldn't recommend trying to run windows software in Linux to a novice.

While I agree, the issue is, that they'll want to. Thankfully Valve is handling games well enough right now that it's a non problem. Regardless which distro you are on.

Yeah, my advice for a novice is just stick with steam Linux games to start. There are plenty of options.

Half the fun of switching to Linux is exploring all of the different flavours to find what you like best.

TIL Win10 is the modern-day XP. And Win11 is the modern-day Vista.

Heh the comparison also holds if you use 10=Windows 7 and 11=Windows 8

Or 10=Windows 98 and 11=Windows ME

Pop OS is great because of up to date kernel and drivers, and they even have a specific version created for nvidia gpus, on disadvantage is that gnome version is a bit old, but its very stable at least

I recently went over to fedora. Love it so far. Really stable and also newer packages than e.g. linux mint.

Linux Mint is great, I used it as a daily driver in college on an old IBM T42, however, modern Linux on a modern PC -- Debian/Ubuntu with KDE.

Basically, Kubuntu.

Kubuntu gets you off the ground running with Debian core, KDE Plasma, which is familiar to the Windows workflow and all the compatibility of Debian/Ubuntu. Steam and Proton work FLAWLESSLY via Vulkan API. Zero loss of performance.

If you want to spend a ton of time relearning an OS/tinkering however, get some flavor of Arch.

The AUR is crazy, it's like a huge software library and the Wiki is expansive, BUT, you will be relearning absolutely everything.

Sorry other Linux people, I'm a jaded lifelong Windows user, who unironically uses Kubuntu and Artix on seperate machines.

I'd recommend Zorin. It has a UI similar to windows, easy to get into, great defaults, and being based on Ubuntu, most help on the internet will work just fine

Most here will recommend Linux Mint and it's what I use now after trying many different versions over the years. There's a simplicity to Mint that just works especially well for those just surfing and doing office tasks. I've given away old work laptops with just mint installed as most people just need a web browser and it works great for that.

MS office can be used in your web browser or you can switch to Libre Office which should open most of your office files.

If you have a old laptop or computer I recommend trying to install Mint there first to try it out. It's pretty easy to start out there first before trying dual boot. You might be surprised at how quick your older laptop works with Mint in the process.

I use dual boot on my machines but most of the use these days is to get to a web browser so I find I rarely boot into windows now.

You will find Firefox is the default web browser but you can add Chrome to Mint if that's your browser of choice.

Many will say what about the privacy issues with Chrome but many still use it. I've switched back to Firefox myself and I like it better for my Android phone.

Good luck on your journey!

Ubuntu, mint, fedora, Manjaro are all pretty much in the same class, and it's largely irrelevant which you pick. They're all supported, have decent UI for most of what you want to do, and have good documentation for how to do it.

It's not too difficult to change distros without having to move all your data once you're switched, so it doesn't matter too much, and you'll probably try a couple before finding the one with the best menus for you.

I would recommend endeavor over manjaro. Manjaro has issues with the aur.

And I’d recommended if either of these are your first foray into linux, then dual boot with a windows install still functioning (because a noobie will break arch once or twice)

Manjaro has issues with the aur.

Not this again. Please stop parroting this, it's ridiculous and it only says "I don't know how AUR works".

I started of on Linux Mint, had a couple of niggles with it so I thought 'let's be a spoony and get Ubuntu.' Got on pretty well with Ubuntu but there were a few minor things about Gnome I didn't like. I'm now on Kubuntu and it's the Goldilocks zone for me. It's been about 18 months now since I abandoned Windows 7.

I'm impressed there isn't yet anyone who's suggesting arch btw and dead serious about it.

But Pop!_OS without a doubt.

I mean, Arch is not newbie-friendly. Some derivate distros try to make it more user-friendly but it's still Arch and they're only increasing the convenience. It's still not something you should jump into as a beginner.

Arch might actually be a great start if you had prior experience in Linux and want to learn more about it. For example, if you are in computer science and you are doing systems programming you probably have used Linux at the command line, Arch might be a great way to continue working on similar projects.

Mint is what I have used to introduce people to Linux and so far only good responses. I also recommend Debian and Debian derivatives.

I believe the biggest difference between Linux distributions for beginners will be the DE (desktop environment), you can change it in any distro you choose, but usually there is a DE that is optimized or customized as standard for each distribution. Some DE are very different from the Windows interface. I highly recommend using Cinnamon, Mate or KDE, the transition from Windows to Linux will be smoother in my opinion. The DE also includes a suite of applications such as an office suite, browser, administrative and customizable tools, which will also impact your experience. As other said before Linux Mint is a great option, it is stable and friendly. There is LMDE which is Mint with Debian under the hood instead of Ubuntu if you care about use a non-enterprise based distro, but that is another discussion.

I’d say go with kde as you DE. Personally I like opensuse tumbleweed.

Opensuse gives a lot of β€žwindows likeβ€œ features like control panel etc.

Zorin is designed with windows users in mind. It's very polished and it helped me make the transition.

you've got a lot of answers, but as someone who started playing around with Linux recently I would say it's probably better to start familiarizing yourself with some command line operations in windows now.

Do some things like, use the terminal to search for and open programs you need, delete files, even write some basic text documents.

yes, you'll have to do some googling to work out how to do these things (and why it didn't work) - and now you're on the path to linux!

Maybe you'll even find a way to install a command line browser to look up the answers.

The Windows command line is nothing like the Linux one. It's much less pleasant to use too.

I dont know OPs history. I grew up trying to play Theme Park from the command line in DOS without knowing what "IRQ" meant before google even existed to look it up.

If you've only ever used GUIs, even knowing

 cd ..
 ls

might be very alien.

Maybe you're right, the jump from pure GUI to the Windows CLI is probably a much bigger paradigm shift than between these two CLIs. I was mostly worried about OP getting discouraged from ever dabbling in CLI due to the Windows one being terrible.

Good point. All GUIs and CLIs (usually, for consumers/slightly above average users) are complimentary rather than exclusive, worth mentioning I guess that you can use both on pretty much any system (although I pretty much only ever use caffeinate -d on Mac)

Nvidia or AMD? If Nvidia I would especially suggest pop_OS, but really, either way that distro is great.

If history repeats itself Windows 10 is not going to die until the next good Windows floods the market

Im going to try out Nobara when they move to plasma 6 and also EndeavourOS. One of those will suit my needs for gaming.

please please please avoid an LTS (long term support) distro for desktop use, especially if gaming. this includes Linux mint which is based on Ubuntu LTS. the packages are painfully old and cause problems playing the latest games, particularly where they don't work out of the box with lutris/proton/wine etc. LTS is great for servers and workstations but not end users

experienced users can make any distro work including LTS but it's extra overhead for new folks

OP, this is terrible advice. Do not follow! Unless you run into a problem with Ubuntu LTS or distro based on it that you and the community cannot solve and it's due to the LTS, stick with LTS. The vast majority of users are on LTS which is why there are tested solutions for most common problems you might run into. LTS releases last for many years so once you solve a problem, it's likely you won't have to solve it again for a long time, unless you decide to make your life more interesting by upgrading or changing the OS. Non-LTS releases last for 9 months or so, then you're thrust onto a new set of changes and bugs that may or may not hit you, with much fewer comrades to test them and find solutions for. As a new user, if you're going with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based OS, stick to LTS. You'll have enough hurdles to cross getting acquainted with the OS itself.

my lug tries to help people trying to run lutris on old LTS versions and for one example we ended up having to tell them to use some .deb for lutris since ubuntu shipped a broken lutris version for a year or whatever users should always be able to depend on their package manager alone instead of side loading content. even had instances of their version of wget or curl being incompatible with winetricks and gitlab and githubs apis

Being able to always rely on the package manager alone, in other words on the built-in repos alone, has never been achievable on a stable system. You have to throw stability out of the window to allow for that to happen. There are huge downsides to that, especially for new users who have no clue how to isolate and work around defects. That's why sideloading content via third party repos or individual debs has always been a part of the reality of Debian-based OSes. As a result, most open source communities and proprietary vendors provide one or the other.

It's not about Laptop vs worksation. It's about how new is the Hardware compared to the Linux Kernel shipping with the LTS distribution. If your hardware is older than the kernel, you will most likely not have any problems. For example, let's say you use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which ships with Kernel 5.17 releaed in may 2022, if your computer is made of parts released in 2021, no problem.

Depends. Whatever choice you pick - go with Plasma (KDE) desktop. Most of below choices have alternative desktop flavors that offer Plasma instead of Gnome.

If your goal is to play games - something like Bazzite might work.

If your goal is to have a desktop experience with some gaming, something like NobaraOS or PopOS would work.

If your goal is only desktop experience - ubuntu will work.

If your goal is to learn and have super awesome Linux desktop - Arch Linux.

Personally I am in Arch Linux for the past decade. Tried many different ones and Arch Linux is the only one that simply "just works" for me. Not suitable for beginners.

If you're a gamer, I recommend Pop!_OS. Everything works out of the box, plus extra compatibility for Nvidia cards. It took me a second to get used to the UI, but now I can't go back.

Most of the top answers are good so I will emphasize something that others have mentioned as well, which is that one of the lovely things about Linux is that your GUI, your window manager or desktop environment (different things I know, don't @ me) is up to you.

My personal favorite is xfce, but obviously a lot of people like KDE, Cinnamon, and Mate (mah-tay). There's of course a whole world of options beyond those, when you're choosing a distribution, go to the distro's website, and look at the screenshots. If they have different versions for different desktop environments or window managers, look at all the screenshots. Try to pick one that has a look and layout that looks comfortable to you.

Also backup your home directory. And remember you can always distro hop.

You can always start sooner and dual boot on Linux Mint to get familiar test your usecases. I have been dual booting and haven't logged into Windows in over 6 months. Gaming is pretty good for many games on Linux.

It's probably been said, but Ubuntu or one of its variants is really the easiest way to go. Canonical has devoted a great deal of effort to making things easy and intuitive, and a complete novice should be able to get a fully functional system set up within 15 minutes.

I use Fedora Silverblue personally (feels rock-solid and borderline impossible to mess up), but you might want to get more familiar with the basics before getting into immutable distros. I'd echo what everyone else is saying and do Linux Mint first

Relax, Microsoft will eventually fix Windows 11, release a decent Windows 12 or extend the support for Windows 10 for so long you won't be needing Linux anytime soon. :P

My recommendation goes for Debian and install all your software using Flatpak. This way you can get a rock solid OS and all the latest software. Ubuntu might be interesting as it is mostly beginner friendly and has a more cohesive all-in-one solution ou of the box.

Fedora Silverblue if your wanting security and a "it just works" experience.

Linux Mint Debian Edition if you want stability and a traditional/familiar environment.

Vanilla OS Orchid should be a nice in-between once it releases.

You know, as much as people here say they aren't happy with it, I haven't seen any specific complaints that detail the problems. What bad change does windows 11 even make from windows 10?

Not saying I don't see problems with windows, there are... A lot. But what are the new problems with windows 11?

Edit: to the people downvoting as if you disagree with me: I'm literally asking a question because I don't know much about windows 11. I am not trying to make any kind of statement for or against windows 11, I just don't know what the current flavor of bullshit is and wanted to.

What bad change does windows 11 even make from windows 10?

The primordial one, u need a Microsoft account to even be able to install.

The next, all the ui changes wich prioritizes "looks" over being useable.

All the new extra telemetry, etc, etc, etc.

Literally the only annoyance I had with it initially was that I preferred my taskbar at the top of the screen, and you can't move it, at least not without janky registry hacks, on Windows 11.

I've since gotten over it, because for me and the vast majority of people, it's functionally identical in almost all cases.

The only other thing I can think of that's still a rare annoyance is that sometimes, completely at random, Windows Explorer, if you've just left a window open in the background for a while, will just rip focus from whatever other thing you were doing.

Yes, they're trying to shoehorn their copilot AI thing into the UX, but that was so easy to disable and forget that I refuse to call it a real problem, myself.

Who**

Ubuntu, mint, pop os, and Manjaro are all good options IMO for new new people

version 6.6.10 is not bad, working great for me

Zero experience = ignore standard Distributions

Fedora Kinoite from ublue.it

So much stability and reliability, while modern packages. Just using Debian or Mint (Ubuntu LTS with an outdated Desktop and opinionated theming) is not a solution for a good experience, as you need updates.

Btw I broke every other Distro before, so I ended up on Fedora Kinoite

I plan to do the same. Since all I do on my PC is play Steam games, I was thinking of going to SteamOS. No idea if that's even a good idea though.

Its not advised to install steam os on non steamdeck devices. Pop os, nobara and Garuda I believe come configured for gaming out of the box and are pretty uptodate.