Thinking about making the big switch – recommend me a distro!
Hey all, I've been thinking about making the jump from Windows to Linux as my daily-driver and I've been struggling on what distro to use.
On my laptop I've been using Fedora's KDE Spin for a bit but I can't say I really like KDE all that much. I took that Distrochooser test and 9/10 of the suggestions were all Ubuntu-based or Arch-based for some reason lol.
I would prefer a distro that "just works" but I'm not scared of having to troubleshoot or fix things. I guess I'm just looking to see what everyone else uses and what you all recommend. Thanks!
Mint Cinamon.
«Everybody» gave me the same advice.
Good luck!
I second this, Ubuntu gnome feels more like Mac UI in my opinion.
Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are the most recommended beginner friendly distros that "just work" in my experience. That being said, before you install, you can try out the look and feel here: https://distrosea.com/
Imo Mint is the gold standard for a Distro that just works and meets the needs of most people.
Compared to other debian based distros, right?
What would you suggest is a better distro for a new Linux user? I've found Mint to be great out of the box, and only needs minor tweaks if you want the Microsoft fonts, for example.
I mean, just in general.
Besides Fedora (maybe) I'm not sure other non-deb distros really are recommended for new users.
Besides that, like it or not, nowadays most software is distributed as deb files (until Flatpak fixes it). Using something not debian based requires learning how to port .deb files or use manual dependency resolution for tarballs.
In times of distrobox, package manager and repositories do not matter anymore.
Pop OS is the best, from System 76.
https://pop.system76.com/
Seconded
Hanna Montana Linux
Obvious answer, everyone should start here!
Can’t even get the ISO anymore. 😭
What? Nooooooooo!
To be fair, you can probably find it on Archive.org. Would be kinda neat if somebody made MaymayOS that just had theme packs for the other meme distros to keep them alive.
Gonna have to switch to AmogOS or Uwuntu then…
Nothing wrong with Fedora Gnome. I've been using it for several months (well ok technically Nobara but I decided to try vanilla Fedora recently and it's about the same). Prior to that I had been using Mint / Cinnamon for a decade and it's a good choice too.
But truth be told the Gnome simplicity / minimalism has been growing on me. I wished it were more customizable but whatever.
Fedora is a very very mainstream distro, too, so help is easy to find if anything goes haywire.
PS: nobara is great for gaming but the big gotcha for me was that updating from the shell prompt requires a somewhat involved set of commands. If you use a simple dnf update you'll break something like I did. Which is why I decided to give Fedora another go. If you choose Nobara, just use the (slow) GUI updater.
The other commenter who mentioned installing and using Gnome tweaks, etc. nailed it. Do that. :)
I highly recommend Fedora (just the regular Gnome version). I used to be all Ubuntu, but they’ve shoved snaps down everyone’s throats to the point that I simply cannot recommend it to anyone, especially newcomers.
Fedora has been working really well for me. You’ll probably want to play around with Gnome Tweaks to get the maximize and minimize buttons back, and install the Gnome extension “AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support” from the Gnome Extensions website. Those I would consider the essential post install steps.
After that you’ll have a rock-solid and enjoyable setup.
Pretty much anything Fedora is easy as pie.
I had to bail from Fedora when they pulled the video codecs from RPM. It may be fixed, but the threat of pulling a tool from the repository still lingers in my mind.
The video codecs are in rpmfusion, which is available as a checkbox called “Third Party Repositories” in the setup wizard.
There was an issue in the past where the regular mesa-* packages and the mesa-*-freeworld were out of sync which resulted in no longer working DEs for many people if they updated at the wrong time.
Is this still an issue?
(I went back to the regular drivers since I mostly use VP8/9 anyway)
I have never had that issue. I’ve been on Fedora for a year, so it’s not been an issue since at least then.
Ah, they were being pulled from RPM fusion at one point if I recall. It didn't go through, but the fact that it was even being discussed told me all I needed to know.
These posts are beyond repetitive at this point.
Stop reading them, then. You're doing this to yourself.
As someone on the edge of making the change myself, I have been enjoying these posts because I have been getting to learn some of the different distros and there pros and cons. Lemmy isn't insanely active right now, so you get a different group of perspectives with each iteration of the question.
Maybe once lemmy gets bigger we can break off these sorts of questions into their own catalog but for now I think they are doing more good than harm here.
Just my two cents tho, obviously you have the right to disagree :)
Linux Mint is my daily driver. I enjoy tinkering, but I also want a distro that doesn't need it when I get home from work and just want a vodka tonic and some memes.
I'm also a big fan of Mint for this, but also Fedora Kinoite. I can't say I used Kinoite extensively, but I can say the bit I used it was far more stable than any other distro I used (and the backups-for-free approach really helped my anxiety lol)
Stick with Fedora, but give a shot to the Atomic variants (Silverblue, Kinoite, etc.) You can always switch DEs back and forth with one command. Even if you don't stay with Fedora, it will help a lot for you to find the desktop environment that fits your workflow best (although I do recommend sticking with Fedora)
Linux Mint. Works well and it's friendly.
Distros that just work (although YMMV): Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS with the default desktop environments. I have been using Ubuntu and Fedora both (on different computers) for over 15 years now they each always get the WiFi and BlueTooth drivers right, neither ever has trouble with audio or video, they really just work, and they both are pretty well up-to-date with the latest stable versions of the biggest Linux apps in their repositories.
I have been thinking of switching my Ubuntu computers over to Mint (Xfce edition, though Cinnamon isn't bad), which uses the same base operating system package set as Ubuntu, but its ownership model is more collective and community-oriented. Fedora is also collectively owned, while Pop!_OS and Ubuntu are owned and operated by for-profit businesses -- that doesn't make them bad, it just might be something to consider.
Also, if you don't mind a shameless plug, I wrote a blog post on how to choose a Linux distro, so feel free to read if it pleases you.
EndeavourOS is an arch-based distro that "just works". I put it on a new machine recently, and the installer manages to let you pick a desktop environment, and still manages to be user friendly.
Since you want a just works deal, I'd go with a ublue based immutable distro, my favorite is Bazzite. You can pick between KDE and Gnome, and change between them cleanly at any point. User apps auto update in the background, your system also updates while it's running and you only need to reboot to apply. If anything ever goes wrong, you have painless rollbacks. All that with up-to-date fedora packages and kernel.
I've been running it on my deck for a while now and it's never let me down so far, really pleasant experience. It generally keeps out of your way and takes care of the chores while still allowing you to mess around if you want.
I second bazzite. Been running it on my gaming laptop for a few months now and loving it. My main desktop is running Garuda Linux, which I also absolutely love but I was weary of a rolling release arch based distro on my laptop which isn't on and running 24/7 - tried manjaro on my laptop previously and it was broken more often than not. (although I am learning that is likely more a manjaro problem than an "arch-based" problem, it gave me a reason to try bazzite)
Stick with your distro and try Gnome. Fedora is pretty high up there on the "just works" category.
How much does it pay to promote IBM products with convoluted software as that is really linux?
Since I am financially strained I might consider, with a very heavy ethical objection counteracting my need for cash.
The lawyers it takes to call this crap Open and Free System must have become millionaires by now.
@MiddledAgedGuy @Canadian_Cabinet
I knew about Redhat's recent bad behavior, I somehow missed that IBM owns Redhat. So TIL.
I dropped Fedora in light of recent news but I'm not OP. They can decide for themselves on that. If OP or anyone is interested in learning more, a search for RHEL source paywall will get you there.
It is not personal it is counter propaganda, linux = fedora = ubuntu = systemd = debian = mint ....
No real options there, just an alternative MSwin
There is also the propaganda that says Linux is Plasma or Gnome ...
There is much much more that doesn't get corporate promotion and people rarely ever hear about it.
@MiddledAgedGuy
That's fair. It's good to educate on these things.
Endeavor OS. Its an excellent arch based system and people REALLY over emphasize how tricky arch is. Its not difficult, its not just for power users, and the rolling release means you have access to updates faster than other distros..this is particularly nice for gaming as you'll also get updates to graphics drivers sooner.
So I could recommend a distro, as you asked (which would be Ubuntu) but instead I believe what's better is making the switch... small!
In practice that means safety net and familiarity all around :
this way you should find YOUR distribution in no time and you won't be afraid of messing up!
Honestly it's a fun adventure. I've been learning Linux and CLI tools decades ago and I'm still learning to this day so do not assume there is one solution you can find today and move, it's a process, a long one, but a really empowering one IMHO.
That's the spirit 🫶.
That's really what I'm doing on my debian server where I host my docker containers.
I don't care if I brick my system while playing arround because every day at 00:00 a crontab job dumps all my database and saves all my docker volumes and docker-compose to an external HD and saves most important dotfiles and wireguard configuration.
Back Up and running in 30 min !
2 years in, still going strong and learning everyday something new, keeping everything I learn in a markdown file.
Wild ride, sometimes alot of frustration, but what an empowering experience !
MX Linux, Linux Mint, Endeavour OS
I second EndeavourOS. My first distro and it's been a great experience. I've felt no desire to switch.
Steam/games have worked great.
Yeah but its a rolling release distro so I wouldn't recommend it to a user that is not conscious of updating the system regularly
Fair enough... It's been nearly a month since I commented here so I don't remember the exact situation, but if having a lot of updates was an issue, then yeah maybe not EndeavourOS. There may be LTS versions, but since it's based on Arch, I'm not sure. I personally don't mind it, and have yet to have a single issue with an update "breaking" something (though I have Timeshift set up to take a snapshot before updating just in case), but I guess
I could see someone being annoyed by having the little thing pop-up to tell you how many things you could update, but I kind of like it I think. It kinda feels like I'm very slowly, incrementally, making my laptop better, albeit usually in ways I can't even perceive at the time.
But hey, everyone has their preferences. That's why there's a billion distros to choose from.
Mx linux is cool.
And Debian
For something that "just works" and feels quite like home, without being KDE, I'd recommend Zorin.
It's stable, beautiful to look at and works as expected. I'd not recommend Arch-based distros to begin (but if you want to go the troubleshooting and fixing things way, that would be choice #1).
Unpopular : I'd not recommend mint.
I'm curious, why would you not recommend Mint?
Maybe it is me but Cinnamon, while being very user friendly, feels limited. I feel that when you want to start tweaking, the options are not there yet.
Oh I see, so it's more about the DE, thanks for clarifying.
I just switched from windows to Linux a few months ago. I just picked opensuse tumbleweed KDE at random and it just works. Idk anything about Linux so maybe give that a try and see if it works for you as well.
I swapped last summer and landed on Pop!_OS after trying a few different options. If you game, Nobara is a great choice too. Other ones I considered were Mint, Ubuntu and SUSE Tumbleweed.
I would highly recommend trying them all with the live disk thingy. Mint didn't even work at all on my computer for some unknown reason, which was rather surprising considering how often it's recommended. It kept freezing right when the GUI logged in. So yeah, try em out for a little bit just to make sure there aren't any weird incompatibilities.
IF you want Steam, THEN please consider every variant in the official Ubuntu family.
Steam-support told me in their system, iirc in early 2023, that they ONLY support the Ubuntu family ( directly ).
As Linus Torvalds noted, it isn't possible to release software that is going to work on all distros.
Even glibc has been broken by one, in that talk of his, and it wasn't a niche distro, either, iirc.
Pick which subset you CAN afford to support, and do not add to that subset until you're rolling in money, from your linux-customerbase.
( slight sarcasm on the last line, but business is business: destroying-resources costs, and if there is no benefit, it isn't sane to continue doing it. )
Decide which capabilities/functions/apps you NEED, and then don't even consider distros that break your required-set on you.
_ /\ _
This post is making it seem like they will have problems with steam on other distros which simply isn't true.
Wasn't there just a post about the snap version of steam having major issues recently?
Valve chose an arch based distro for the steam deck. Read into that what you will.
openSUSE Tumbleweed. Or EndeavorOS if you want to join the Arch side.
If you like Arch-based, there's Manjaro and EndeavourOS.
EndeavourOS is a pretty decent setup, it has been working well for me so far, and I prefer Arch-based distros because of how quickly Linux has been moving.
Manjaro have let their SSL cert problem happen twice since I've been in the loop, and they were unintentionally DDOSing the AUR for a while.
Yes. I know Manjaro got bad press several times, about their SSL cert and about firing their treasurer but as a Linux distribution Manjaro is pretty decent for the average user, in my opinion.
SSL cert expiring stopped access to updates. That's not just bad press, that's poor form overall, especially for an Arch-based distro. Even worse, this happened while certbot exists, so there's no excuse. It tells me they are less reliable as a distro, especially to have let it happen twice.
EndeavourOS, yes. Manjaro, no.
I like fedora but I'm really loving opensuse tumbleweed on both my desktop and laptop. I have Nvidia rtx cards and support is just a few mouse clicks post-image. I get better FPS now than I did in Windows 11.
Adding that zorin was great as well but it's Debian-based so driver support was behind enough that some games wouldn't launch for me.
My personal recommendation is Fedora, but the community recommendation will likely be Linux Mint, which is also a perfectly good recommendation. Either of them are "just works" distros. I prefer the update cycle of Fedora, and would certainly want to distance myself from Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives (even Mint), and Debian's update cycle is painfully slow. Fedora manages what is seemingly a perfect balance of quick and stable updates.
Fedora comes with Gnome by default, but it has spins for other DEs like KDE Plasma if that's more of your thing (I'll be switching to Plasma when Fedora 40 releases with Plasma 6).
If it's KDE that's causing issues you should just be able to install a second desktop environment and try that out.
Otherwise, Debian stable is good. Can also testing or unstable if you want newer packages. Debian "just works" if you're not on day 1 hardware, don't have Nvidia graphics, and can troubleshoot the occasional issue that any Linux distro will bring.
Im pretty happy with KDE Fedora (though constant updates make me anxious something breaks every reboot, lol) but if I had to change I would probably check out LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Ed). I'm not really a fan of Cinnamon/Mate but I'd give it another go ...
@Canadian_Cabinet www.tromjaro.com/ - you can try our distro. Based on Manjaro it has all you need to just use it. Enabled the Chaotic AUR repos, flatpaks, and our repo, thus you can find any linux app via one single place. Click and install. Plus we have a list of some 700 curated apps on our website www.tromjaro.com/apps/ - apps that are trade-free. Meaning no BS, no freemiums, no limitations, purely free apps.
We made TROMjaro back in 2018 and kept it up to date since, plus developed our own tools like a Layout and Theme Switcher. See the homepage to get a more detailed idea about it.
That's all! :)
You could try fedora sway or gnome spins
Anything except Ubuntu and it's direct downstreams
Fedora for my pick.
Options:
Don't use:
What do you mean by immutability?
My explanation won't do it justice, but Jorge Castro had a great video on it. I highly recommend watching it if you're interested in immutability
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
great video
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I like Garuda. I use the dragonized theme and it makes it look similar to mac OS. IMO it’s as easy to use as any other justworks distro but is far prettier
Debian stable.
I’m sure someone will link you the install media…
what about regular fedora on gnome?
Universal Blue might be what you're looking for. It's a Fedora-based distribution based on ostree (same stuff for Silverblue/Kinoite). It has the leading edge system components of Fedora with the reliability of flatpak and ostree updates. I truly consider ostree to be the future of the Linux desktop.
Slackware. It just works. Even current is pretty stable
I hope your joking
Why would i be?
Because Slackware is not user friendly at all. It doesn't even come with a GUI for all critical functionality
@Canadian_Cabinet @possiblylinux127 @slacktoid Keep in mind that not all users are the same. For example, maybe some people find firewall configuration expressed as text in a file clearer than a GUI. My grandmother loves her iPad. I love my OpenBSD laptop. I find the iPad relatively user unfriendly - “I can barely see or control what my own machine is doing!” - but my grandmother would find my OpenBSD laptop very user unfriendly too - ”How do I see my family photos?”
OP said they were not looking for Ubuntu or Arch derivatives, and that they were not afraid to get their hands dirty to figure things out. Slackware + Flatpaks can give a stable base while giving you up-to-date applications when SBo doesnt have the build files. This would give OP a system that just works OOTB. Tho it is KDE OOTB, one can put gnome or cinnamon on it.
None of those people have a slightest clue. Your options really are: ubuntu vanilla and maybe pop os.
Everything else will very quickly require you to read through some obscure docs and bash your head against the terminal.
Vanilla Ubuntu, not kubuntu/xubuntu/whateverbuntu is the only polished and documented distro. After a year or two of that you'll be ready to consider this "what distro" question.
Ubuntu vanilla LTS
Without the first sentence, this could have been one of the top comments
Go with EndeavourOS. It won’t “just work”, but it will be the best compromise between confusing abstraction and low level frustrations.
Fedora is good but it abstracts a little too much away, this is great when you understand how software works, but it’s very confusing when you’re new to Linux and programming.
Arch is good, but you won’t be able to hid the ground running, you’d have to sacrifice a weekend to learn.
Go:
Ghost BSD
Void
Gentoo
Tinkering with those in that order, after about 6 months, you’ll start to feel at home.
Also, if it’s just the DE, install sway / i3 and try that for a week. If you liked that it’s on literally every Linux distribution, even the BSDs.
Barking up the wrong tree. Most people around here will lie and tell you that it does. It doesn't. None of them do.
Linux Mint is the most common recommendation. I'll recommend Debian.
deleted, sorry to offend so many.
I would highly recommend against Manjaro... While Manjaro is Arch based, I would recommend against using AUR packages with Manjaro even though it is Arch based. Getting packages from AUR often times ends up breaking Manjaro. Dependencies conflicting when using AUR with Manjaro is one of the biggest reasons I would avoid it.
Manjaro doesn’t even think it’s Arch anymore…
I tried Manjaro, but quickly switched back to Arch. I thought Manjaro would be a "Simplified Arch Experience with KDE" and man oh man, was I in for a "treat"
I do not recommend Manjaro over Arch, and I do not recommend Manjaro at all.
If you want a simplified Arch experience you might wanna try EndeavourOS
Heard good things, but after Manjaro, I decided I don't need it simplified and that I'll just learn!
I think it's one of the more unreliable myself...
OP, 5 minutes of research on Manjaro will give you a very different impression of how easy or reliable it is.
Manjaro is literally less stable than Arch
I used to daily drive Manjaro, but it has a nasty habit of breaking after updates. Especially with anything from AUR installed.
damn all i did was state my experience. i didnt mean to catch all this shit. seems some take this all to serious. peace bitches.