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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 £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!
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.
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.
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