Fedora or Mint for noob?

A friend might let me install Linux on his secondary laptop he uses for university. He’s not a tinkerer and wants something that just works.

Linux Mint is known for being very user-friendly and stable. Also easy to get help online.

However, in my opinion Mint seems rather outdated, both with its Windows-like workflow, default icons and look and also Xorg. When I tried it I had some screen stuttering I couldn’t resolve, probably due to Xorg.

Instead, Fedora with GNOME is very elegant and always uses the newest technologies. It feels and looks actually nice and not outdated. But I’d have to install media codecs via terminal first which suggests that Fedora is for experienced users. Also university wifi eduroam doesn’t work on Fedora for me because legacy TLS connection is not supported in Fedora (at least I couldn’t get it to work). I’m at a different uni than him tho, so it might work there. In general, less help on the web for Fedora than Mint.

What do you think? (Btw, KDE is too convoluted in my opinion. Manjaro too, it breaks too often. I will not consider it.)

EDIT: From what I’ve gathered so far, I should probably install Mint. He can try Fedora with a live usb or on my laptop. If he prefers that then I can warn him that this may be less stable and ask what he wants.

I’ve only tried Ubuntu-based Mint, but LMDE is more future-proof so it will probably be that.

GnomeComedy,

Have them check with their University if they do any Linux support. If they do - use one of the distros they support so they might possibly have KB articles about accessing University recourses from Linux.

Source: am Linux admin at a University that writes such documentation. I have seen exactly the Eduroam issue you mention and came up with an Ubuntu workaround for example.

Censedpeak,
@Censedpeak@lemmy.ml avatar

Do mint, if you really wanna do fedora try Nobara

airikr, (edited )

Begin small, end big. That works for everything when learning something new. So, with that said, go for Linux Mint Cinnamon.

I begun my Linux journey with elementary OS which is more for macOS users. I was a Windows user so I switched to Linux Mint Cinnamon. After a few years of exploring and learning, I am now using EndeavourOS.

ParanoidFactoid,
@ParanoidFactoid@beehaw.org avatar

Go with an LTS version. Fedora is upgrades twice a year. Mint is just Ubuntu. I’d choose 22 04 Mint over Fedora for this reason. But Debian Stable is old yet tried and true. Plain Debian works.

KrapKake,

ZorinOS? I saw no talk of it here and I haven’t personally used it in a couple of years. It uses gnome and can be set to mimic the look of windows, mac, or just stock gnome. It looks super clean, modern and pro. It’s easy to use and based on ubuntu. It was a just works distro for me.

zorin.com/os/

MonkCanatella,

I love Fedora. I like it a lot more than Linux mint. More than either, I’ve really enjoyed PopOS. It went from a distro I wasn’t sure about to my favorite really quickly. Highly recommend it.

Pantherina,

deleted_by_author

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    possiblylinux127,

    Not a good recommendation

    snowcatridge10,

    Mint

    joel_feila,
    @joel_feila@lemmy.world avatar

    Keep in mind “it just works” also includes the windows like workflow.

    dadaredone,

    No questions it’s mint, it runs and looks very good.

    scytale,

    Mint is like 99% plug and play on most laptops, so I’d recommend they go that route.

    slowbyrne,
    @slowbyrne@beehaw.org avatar

    As a few have already mentioned, a Debian based distro is a good choice, and you Mentioned vanilla Ubuntu isn’t ideal do to prioritizing snaps, I would then suggest Pop!_OS or Mint. I like what System76 (Pop) is doing with their scheduler and the upcoming Cosmic DE (written in Rust and should see an alpha early next year).

    PseudoSpock,
    @PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    6 in one, half a dozen the other. Both are good.

    Skelectus,
    @Skelectus@suppo.fi avatar

    As a fedoraman myself, I think Pop!_OS is a great option.

    But are you doing this because your friend wants linux or because you want it? It’s okay to recommend it but don’t push it if they don’t need it.

    OscarRobin,

    I love Fedora but definitely Mint for a normie. Even then I question if you should install Linux at all since reliably being able to do what you need to do is priority one, especially for a student, and if he may be blocked in his work as a result I don’t think it’s a great idea.

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