Just wondering as ive been told many os’s online and then told to not use certain one aswell, i feel confused on what linux os to try someday. i come from windows 10 and i always find i need windows on atleast 1 device, and put linux on the “outdated” devices, but i keep hoping around, i cant seem to make up my mind.
Ubuntu or Mint is quite okay, I have used both of them in the past and set it up for a friend with little money, little time, and very little PC expertise. Worked perfectly for them for over 10 years without a problem.
Today, if you can get a little help with setting up, I’d recommend Debian stable with either GNOME or KDE. It is more stable and has longer and better long term security support, which did become more important.
Also, it is now easy to set up with disk encryption, which matters for keeping private data secure on Laptops which can get lost or stolen.
People keep saying Mint, and now that it runs on Wayland at least they will be able to watch a movie without screen tearing. But I do feel like KDE Plasma is a much better first impression, since it doesn’t look like a desktop from 2013 (no offense), and has so many customization options that showcase the freedom of a linix desktop.
So for gamers, Bazzite, otherwise Fedora KDE or something
What’s so new about Plasma’s desktop paradigm? I would expect that about GNOME’s, but Plasma’s? It’s a polished and consistent UI, that it is.
Also, customization in Plasma is overwhelming, and I know KDE since version 2.
To friends I usually recommend the distro I run myself, as I’m most familiar with it and troubleshoot it the best.
If it’s someone who won’t get constant tech support from me, I’d probably go with Mint.
As a power user Ubuntu sucks, but if you’ve never used Linux before it could also be a good starter distro. The vast amount of tutorials online are made for Ubuntu.
On older PCs use Linux mint but I don’t recommend it on newer PCs I have saw a lot of problems with them
Debian based systems for systems you need more stable. Generally not a big concern for me unless you are setting up servers or really depend on specific software.
I wouldn’t recommended Ubuntu, I would recommend something like mint if you’re going that route. But Ubuntu is a safe feeling first choice and i get why people chose it. If you google a problem and just add the word Ubuntu generally speaking the google result or even googles ai summary has got you covered pretty good.
If you are more into gaming I would suggest something like bazzite, cachyos. Often they handle drivers for you super easily and comes with things like game scope too. Often you want more bleeding edge operating systems for gaming/newer hardware as updates seem to happen more frequently and with more noticeable improvements in the past 5 years.
If you just need a basic computer the choice doesn’t really matter all that much its just kind of what looks good to you. You said its just for older computers so something like mint would be a fine choice in this scenario.
Generally speaking you are either picking a arch based system or a Debian based system. And all the distros are kind of the same, they just give you preinstalled software, technically you can pick any and get the features you wanted yourself.
Hopefully I didn’t confuse you more or give you too much decision paralysis.
Debian with MATE desktop: Learn it, Use it, Love it.
I think the best approach is to completely step out of Windows. Don’t use a desktop environment that is “Windows-esque”. Choose something that feels completely off the rails but fun/interesting.
Arch seems intimidating? Try it out. Windows is all floating windows? Try tiling through hyprland. Don’t like the look of base hyprland? Rice it with caelestia or noctalia shells. Find the quirkiness that feels too good to pass up.
Some people actually want their computer to just work, without having too much of a faff. For people like that something like Mint is a great option. If you have a lot of time and see mucking about with the computer as a hobby, installing Arch etc. can be fun. But for the rest of us it’s just not a sensible use of our time.
This has been an argument I’ve seen multiple times and I’ve never understood it. What specifically is taking more time to setup or configuration on Arch than on Mint?
Between archinstall and the Mint installer it’s going through the exact same steps and questions. I’ve never seen an installation of Arch not “just work”. Genuinely curious about this.
I think this is terrible advice lol. I switched to Kubuntu from Windows a while back and it’s been great. I even tried a Gnome based DE and hated it. Kubuntu just works. It was familiar then and continues to be familiar and practical.
To be fair, it’s not Kubuntu that’s familiar, it’s KDE that’s familiar.
You can include KDE Plasma in your base install of Arch the same as Kubuntu.
For sure, I was mostly balking at suggesting people new to Linux use weird DEs. I feel like starting with KDE is the way to go.
I’d say Mint as many others. But any major distro (except Arch) would do the trick if you’re willing to learn.
If you’re willing to learn arch will (probably) work too
The learning curve is steep and the terminal reliance is too much for people who are not used to it. Once you get used to the terminal then… yes
Hannah Montana Linux
Red Star OS
I started my wife on fedora about 10 years ago, and my kids have grown up using fedora
Anything but Ubuntu, honestly. I have a few friends who chose Ubuntu as their first distro and after using it for a couple of weeks went back to Windows. Some of them still refuse to give Linux a second chance.
I’m really curious why though. Was it raw Ubuntu with the default Gnome based DE or Kubuntu? I started with Manjaro and went back to windows a while back. Now I’m on Kubuntu and loving it. I think the main difference is that there’s so much more support and whatnot with Ubuntu.
There are 3 answers and only 3 answers:
- New and casual users: Mint.
- Gamers: Bazzite.
- Power users: just try a bunch and see which one(s) you like, you people are exactly why there’s are so many distros.
Long time arch user, and I’ve recently switched to bazzite because maintaining an arch system reminds me too much of my actual job. Bazzite is great for daily use and has excellent support for gaming. I would recommend it as its update system makes it exceptionally hard to break your system and has built in stable rollbacks. As a new Linux user I would say just get stuck into either mint or bazzite. Try to learn more about how updating software works to decide between those, the, UI is entirely customizable and separate to the OS. The main Linux desktop UIs are gnome and KDE, both look nice and don’t really need strong resources. KDE used to be really hungry but they’ve made it a lot leaner in recent years.
Bazzite for people new to computers in general. CachyOS for long time Windows users.
I know people that have been using Windows for like 10 years and still don’t know how to navigate directories. I think that people using Arch-based distros need to be a little tech savvy to be comfortable.
