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!

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.

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 …

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  • Linux Mint (Awesome first distro, but more out of date)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…)
WeLoveCastingSpellz,

what about regular fedora on gnome?

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.

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).

Falcon,

Go with EndeavourOS. It won’t “just work”, but it will be the best compromise between confusing abstraction and low level frustrations.

Fedora is good but it abstracts a little too much away, this is great when you understand how software works, but it’s very confusing when you’re new to Linux and programming.

Arch is good, but you won’t be able to hid the ground running, you’d have to sacrifice a weekend to learn.

Go:

  1. [Optional] Fedora
  2. Endeavour
  3. Arch
  4. Learning
  • Ghost BSD
  • Void
  • Gentoo

Tinkering with those in that order, after about 6 months, you’ll start to feel at home.

Falcon,

Also, if it’s just the DE, install sway / i3 and try that for a week. If you liked that it’s on literally every Linux distribution, even the BSDs.

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.

bloodfart,

Debian stable.

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

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.

const_void,

These posts are beyond repetitive at this point.

spittingimage,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

Stop reading them, then. You’re doing this to yourself.

danieljoeblack,

As someone on the edge of making the change myself, I have been enjoying these posts because I have been getting to learn some of the different distros and there pros and cons. Lemmy isn’t insanely active right now, so you get a different group of perspectives with each iteration of the question.

Maybe once lemmy gets bigger we can break off these sorts of questions into their own catalog but for now I think they are doing more good than harm here.

Just my two cents tho, obviously you have the right to disagree :)

geoma,

MX Linux, Linux Mint, Endeavour OS

geoma,

And Debian

prole, (edited )

I second EndeavourOS. My first distro and it’s been a great experience. I’ve felt no desire to switch.

Steam/games have worked great.

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Anything except Ubuntu and it’s direct downstreams

Fedora for my pick.

utopiah,

So I could recommend a distro, as you asked (which would be Ubuntu) but instead I believe what’s better is making the switch… small!

In practice that means safety net and familiarity all around :

  • backup your data
  • backup your data… and not, that’s not a mistake, truly do it, now. Before you try something new, and scary. In fact… don’t touch your computer, get another one, a cheap one like a RPi4 or a relatively old laptop that a colleague hasn’t used for years.
  • copy, don’t move, your data to whatever distribution you picked
  • ideally have a dedicated hard drive in there for JUST the data, NOT the OS
  • play… have fun, truly. Try to use YOUR data, I mean the copy you have now that you don’t even care if you lose, and try to use them with the stock software that comes with your distribution, e.g OpenOffice or Blender or Kdenlive, or whatever you are into
  • delete it all! Don’t be afraid, you can do it, you have copies anyway
  • do it, again, again, keep a logbook or wiki or .doc file where you write down what you learn
  • rinse and repeat

this way you should find YOUR distribution in no time and you won’t be afraid of messing up!

Honestly it’s a fun adventure. I’ve been learning Linux and CLI tools decades ago and I’m still learning to this day so do not assume there is one solution you can find today and move, it’s a process, a long one, but a really empowering one IMHO.

N0x0n, (edited )

That’s the spirit 🫶.

That’s really what I’m doing on my debian server where I host my docker containers.

I don’t care if I brick my system while playing arround because every day at 00:00 a crontab job dumps all my database and saves all my docker volumes and docker-compose to an external HD and saves most important dotfiles and wireguard configuration.

Back Up and running in 30 min !

2 years in, still going strong and learning everyday something new, keeping everything I learn in a markdown file.

  • Personal CA with self-signed certificate by an intermediate CA chain
  • Wireguard tunnel routing all my devices traffic to protonVPN
  • Alot of docker stuff
  • Alot of networking stuff (DNS, cryptography…)
  • LVM, bash…
  • …

Wild ride, sometimes alot of frustration, but what an empowering experience !

Paragone,

IF you want Steam, THEN please consider every variant in the official Ubuntu family.

Steam-support told me in their system, iirc in early 2023, that they ONLY support the Ubuntu family ( directly ).

As Linus Torvalds noted, it isn’t possible to release software that is going to work on all distros.

Even glibc has been broken by one, in that talk of his, and it wasn’t a niche distro, either, iirc.

Pick which subset you CAN afford to support, and do not add to that subset until you’re rolling in money, from your linux-customerbase.

( slight sarcasm on the last line, but business is business: destroying-resources costs, and if there is no benefit, it isn’t sane to continue doing it. )

Decide which capabilities/functions/apps you NEED, and then don’t even consider distros that break your required-set on you.

_ /\ _

Sanguine,

This post is making it seem like they will have problems with steam on other distros which simply isn’t true.

Wasn’t there just a post about the snap version of steam having major issues recently?

Valve chose an arch based distro for the steam deck. Read into that what you will.

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