Thinking about making the big switch – recommend me a distro!

Hey all, I’ve been thinking about making the jump from Windows to Linux as my daily-driver and I’ve been struggling on what distro to use.

On my laptop I’ve been using Fedora’s KDE Spin for a bit but I can’t say I really like KDE all that much. I took that Distrochooser test and 9/10 of the suggestions were all Ubuntu-based or Arch-based for some reason lol.

I would prefer a distro that “just works” but I’m not scared of having to troubleshoot or fix things. I guess I’m just looking to see what everyone else uses and what you all recommend. Thanks!

yum13241,

openSUSE Tumbleweed. Or EndeavorOS if you want to join the Arch side.

Sanguine,

Endeavor OS. Its an excellent arch based system and people REALLY over emphasize how tricky arch is. Its not difficult, its not just for power users, and the rolling release means you have access to updates faster than other distros…this is particularly nice for gaming as you’ll also get updates to graphics drivers sooner.

spittingimage,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

Linux Mint is my daily driver. I enjoy tinkering, but I also want a distro that doesn’t need it when I get home from work and just want a vodka tonic and some memes.

arthur,

Linux Mint. Works well and it’s friendly.

MiddledAgedGuy,

Stick with your distro and try Gnome. Fedora is pretty high up there on the “just works” category.

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Anything except Ubuntu and it’s direct downstreams

Fedora for my pick.

LibreFish, (edited )

If it’s KDE that’s causing issues you should just be able to install a second desktop environment and try that out.

Otherwise, Debian stable is good. Can also testing or unstable if you want newer packages. Debian “just works” if you’re not on day 1 hardware, don’t have Nvidia graphics, and can troubleshoot the occasional issue that any Linux distro will bring.

bloodfart,

Debian stable.

I’m sure someone will link you the install media…

helenslunch, (edited )
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I would prefer a distro that “just works”

Barking up the wrong tree. Most people around here will lie and tell you that it does. It doesn’t. None of them do.

Linux Mint is the most common recommendation. I’ll recommend Debian.

Para_lyzed,

My personal recommendation is Fedora, but the community recommendation will likely be Linux Mint, which is also a perfectly good recommendation. Either of them are “just works” distros. I prefer the update cycle of Fedora, and would certainly want to distance myself from Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives (even Mint), and Debian’s update cycle is painfully slow. Fedora manages what is seemingly a perfect balance of quick and stable updates.

Fedora comes with Gnome by default, but it has spins for other DEs like KDE Plasma if that’s more of your thing (I’ll be switching to Plasma when Fedora 40 releases with Plasma 6).

Ramin_HAL9001, (edited )

Distros that just work (although YMMV): Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS with the default desktop environments. I have been using Ubuntu and Fedora both (on different computers) for over 15 years now they each always get the WiFi and BlueTooth drivers right, neither ever has trouble with audio or video, they really just work, and they both are pretty well up-to-date with the latest stable versions of the biggest Linux apps in their repositories.

I have been thinking of switching my Ubuntu computers over to Mint (Xfce edition, though Cinnamon isn’t bad), which uses the same base operating system package set as Ubuntu, but its ownership model is more collective and community-oriented. Fedora is also collectively owned, while Pop!_OS and Ubuntu are owned and operated by for-profit businesses – that doesn’t make them bad, it just might be something to consider.

Also, if you don’t mind a shameless plug, I wrote a blog post on how to choose a Linux distro, so feel free to read if it pleases you.

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

what about regular fedora on gnome?

Cwilliams, (edited )

Options:

  • Linux Mint (Awesome first distro, but more out of date)
  • Pop!_OS (Great for gaming, based on Ubuntu)
  • Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite (Maybe later if your interested in immutability)
  • EndeavorOS (Maybe later once you understand the value of the AUR, more bleeding edge)

Don’t use:

  • Ubuntu (bloat, snaps)
  • Manjaro (Don’t get me started…)
jlow,

Im pretty happy with KDE Fedora (though constant updates make me anxious something breaks every reboot, lol) but if I had to change I would probably check out LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Ed). I’m not really a fan of Cinnamon/Mate but I’d give it another go …

dessalines, (edited )

EndeavourOS is an arch-based distro that “just works”. I put it on a new machine recently, and the installer manages to let you pick a desktop environment, and still manages to be user friendly.

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