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!

slacktoid,
@slacktoid@lemmy.ml avatar

Slackware. It just works. Even current is pretty stable

possiblylinux127,

I hope your joking

slacktoid,
@slacktoid@lemmy.ml avatar

Why would i be?

possiblylinux127,

Because Slackware is not user friendly at all. It doesn’t even come with a GUI for all critical functionality

slacktoid,
@slacktoid@lemmy.ml avatar

OP said they were not looking for Ubuntu or Arch derivatives, and that they were not afraid to get their hands dirty to figure things out. Slackware + Flatpaks can give a stable base while giving you up-to-date applications when SBo doesnt have the build files. This would give OP a system that just works OOTB. Tho it is KDE OOTB, one can put gnome or cinnamon on it.

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.

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.

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 …

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