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!
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Mint Cinamon.
«Everybody» gave me the same advice.
Good luck!
I second this, Ubuntu gnome feels more like Mac UI in my opinion.
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Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are the most recommended beginner friendly distros that “just work” in my experience. That being said, before you install, you can try out the look and feel here: https://distrosea.com/
Imo Mint is the gold standard for a Distro that just works and meets the needs of most people.
Compared to other debian based distros, right?
I mean, just in general.
Besides Fedora (maybe) I’m not sure other non-deb distros really are recommended for new users.
Besides that, like it or not, nowadays most software is distributed as deb files (until Flatpak fixes it). Using something not debian based requires learning how to port .deb files or use manual dependency resolution for tarballs.
In times of distrobox, package manager and repositories do not matter anymore.
What would you suggest is a better distro for a new Linux user? I’ve found Mint to be great out of the box, and only needs minor tweaks if you want the Microsoft fonts, for example.
Pop OS is the best, from System 76.
Seconded
Nothing wrong with Fedora Gnome. I’ve been using it for several months (well ok technically Nobara but I decided to try vanilla Fedora recently and it’s about the same). Prior to that I had been using Mint / Cinnamon for a decade and it’s a good choice too.
But truth be told the Gnome simplicity / minimalism has been growing on me. I wished it were more customizable but whatever.
Fedora is a very very mainstream distro, too, so help is easy to find if anything goes haywire.
PS: nobara is great for gaming but the big gotcha for me was that updating from the shell prompt requires a somewhat involved set of commands. If you use a simple dnf update you’ll break something like I did. Which is why I decided to give Fedora another go. If you choose Nobara, just use the (slow) GUI updater.
The other commenter who mentioned installing and using Gnome tweaks, etc. nailed it. Do that. :)
I highly recommend Fedora (just the regular Gnome version). I used to be all Ubuntu, but they’ve shoved snaps down everyone’s throats to the point that I simply cannot recommend it to anyone, especially newcomers.
Fedora has been working really well for me. You’ll probably want to play around with Gnome Tweaks to get the maximize and minimize buttons back, and install the Gnome extension “AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support” from the Gnome Extensions website. Those I would consider the essential post install steps.
After that you’ll have a rock-solid and enjoyable setup.
Pretty much anything Fedora is easy as pie.
I had to bail from Fedora when they pulled the video codecs from RPM. It may be fixed, but the threat of pulling a tool from the repository still lingers in my mind.
The video codecs are in rpmfusion, which is available as a checkbox called “Third Party Repositories” in the setup wizard.
There was an issue in the past where the regular mesa-* packages and the mesa-*-freeworld were out of sync which resulted in no longer working DEs for many people if they updated at the wrong time.
Is this still an issue?
(I went back to the regular drivers since I mostly use VP8/9 anyway)
I have never had that issue. I’ve been on Fedora for a year, so it’s not been an issue since at least then.
Ah, they were being pulled from RPM fusion at one point if I recall. It didn’t go through, but the fact that it was even being discussed told me all I needed to know.
These posts are beyond repetitive at this point.
Stop reading them, then. You’re doing this to yourself.
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 :)
Stick with Fedora, but give a shot to the Atomic variants (Silverblue, Kinoite, etc.) You can always switch DEs back and forth with one command. Even if you don’t stay with Fedora, it will help a lot for you to find the desktop environment that fits your workflow best (although I do recommend sticking with Fedora)
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.
I’m also a big fan of Mint for this, but also Fedora Kinoite. I can’t say I used Kinoite extensively, but I can say the bit I used it was far more stable than any other distro I used (and the backups-for-free approach really helped my anxiety lol)
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.
Linux Mint. Works well and it’s friendly.
Stick with your distro and try Gnome. Fedora is pretty high up there on the “just works” category.
How much does it pay to promote IBM products with convoluted software as that is really linux?
Since I am financially strained I might consider, with a very heavy ethical objection counteracting my need for cash.
The lawyers it takes to call this crap Open and Free System must have become millionaires by now.
I knew about Redhat’s recent bad behavior, I somehow missed that IBM owns Redhat. So TIL.
I dropped Fedora in light of recent news but I’m not OP. They can decide for themselves on that. If OP or anyone is interested in learning more, a search for RHEL source paywall will get you there.
It is not personal it is counter propaganda, linux = fedora = ubuntu = systemd = debian = mint …
No real options there, just an alternative MSwin
There is also the propaganda that says Linux is Plasma or Gnome …
There is much much more that doesn’t get corporate promotion and people rarely ever hear about it.
That’s fair. It’s good to educate on these things.
Since you want a just works deal, I’d go with a ublue based immutable distro, my favorite is Bazzite. You can pick between KDE and Gnome, and change between them cleanly at any point. User apps auto update in the background, your system also updates while it’s running and you only need to reboot to apply. If anything ever goes wrong, you have painless rollbacks. All that with up-to-date fedora packages and kernel.
I’ve been running it on my deck for a while now and it’s never let me down so far, really pleasant experience. It generally keeps out of your way and takes care of the chores while still allowing you to mess around if you want.
I second bazzite. Been running it on my gaming laptop for a few months now and loving it. My main desktop is running Garuda Linux, which I also absolutely love but I was weary of a rolling release arch based distro on my laptop which isn’t on and running 24/7 - tried manjaro on my laptop previously and it was broken more often than not. (although I am learning that is likely more a manjaro problem than an “arch-based” problem, it gave me a reason to try bazzite)
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.
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.
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 !
