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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: 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?
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.
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!
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