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.
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.
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!
My recommendation is to avoid any overly bleeding edge distro while starting out, as when things will inevitably break you won’t have much knowlege on how to fix the issue, and googling it may not always give you an answer.
Very beginner friendly and has a big community, most stuff works out of the box, steam is recommended heavily as it has a build in compatibility layer (Proton) if you want to check your favorite games check out at protondb.com
Only notable thing is that MS office isn’t working on Linux unless the web app is used (wich isn’t a problem unless you are required by work/school to use it)
You should try Linux Mint. It’s a good distribution for new Linux users. It’s easy to understand, has a good community with plenty of solutions for all types of problems and it is not too specific.
Gaming with Steam on Linux works without any major issues except when it comes to games that intentionally made run on Windows only due to their DRM. I suggest using the Flatpak variant of Steam so you won’t clutter your system with too many weird dependencies.
Some Flatpak apps don’t have the proper permissions or they can be quite restrictive especially when it cames to file access.
For example; it’s not possible to upload files using Discord from the user home (except a few specified folders). This could be solved with a XDG portal, but most apps don’t bother implementing that.
I’d second Mint as well (I’ve used it for many years now). Out of interest, what games are you thinking of? Most of them should work out of the box, but with some there can be issues especially with multiplayer ones.
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