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.**
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 😉
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.
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.
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.
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