I used Ubuntu once a few years ago but had compatability issues so I went back to windows. Not a great programmer but I’d like to learn. I’m not looking to do much gaming beyond DOOM2 and factorio. Mostly looking for privacy and a way to get back into programming (I have this pipe dream of learning Assembly). I’m not to particular on UI, I can use whatever.
Edit: https://distrochooser.de for anyone who stumbles upon this post with the same question
‘it came to me in a dream’ has got to be a pretty unique reason for switching to Linux
I kept closing tabs and they kept reopening with ads. It must be a sign.
sounds pretty realistic to me tbh
😂 I’ve done weirder things based off dreams. I’d say this is reasonable
Are you sure that was a dream?
Are we sure this isn’t a dream?
I get my news from the only reliable source and I recommend going with MX Linux.
Anytime someone new ask for recommendation, I’d give Linux Mint.
also this, start small with mint, and you can test other distros that people show here
also, start with dual boot/VM, it’s a different OS, keep windows there for when you need it
Yes! It’s good to start with something that’s beginner friendly to maintain sanity and good expectation.
A lot of potential novices would be repulsed if the first tutorial they’d see requires extensive use of command line.
You don’t need to be a programmer to use Linux. I’d probably recommend you go with something like mint. Avoid things like Arch or Gentoo or NixOS for now as they involve a lot more manual configuration and it’s probably best to understand the landscape of things first.
I recognize that, having used Linux almost exclusively for 20 years, my perspective on these things is not objective. EndeavourOS seems pretty new-user-friendly, though, doesn’t it?
Could be, but I don’t know anything about it! Of course there are distributions based on Arch (like SteamOS) and Gentoo (like ChromeOS) that can be perfectly usable for beginners to the Linux world. In general, though, I’d probably recommend using something common, and not using a rolling release distro as a beginner.
Realistically, though, the distro probably doesn’t matter too much for a first install, as long as you pick one where you get a reasonably well featured desktop environment out of the box. Beyond that the biggest difference between most distros is the package repository and package manager… You’ll probably pick up pretty quickly that you need to use dnf or yum or whatever on something like Fedora vs the apt suite on something like mint. It’s also kind of a time honoured tradition to do some distro hopping when dipping your toes in Linux, which I think is a good idea because you’ll learn about some of the different things that are available :). It’s not even too big of a deal if you preserve your home partition between installs (have a backup if you mess this up, though).
I’ve been in Unix land pretty much my whole life and I’ve been on Gentoo and NixOS for a long time so I’m not totally up to date on the beginner friendly distros either haha. Frankly, as long as you pick something with a short and simple install process (which most distros have) you’ll be fine in my opinion.
I’m running Endeavour right now o a desktop, bit mostly for the simplified install. After trying one of the GTK desktops for a few minutes, I realized I hate anything that isn’t a tiling WM. I was pretty sure, though, that I saw a GUI tool for updating and installing software, but I’ve gotten a lot of replies saying EndeavourOS is still heavily terminal dependent. So, there that is.
I think you were mainly addressing OP and not me, though.
Yes. Assuming they aren’t terrified of the command line. It’s actually quite easy. Updating everything on the system just requires you to open a terminal and type in “yay”. As far as Arch goes it is one of the simpler ones.
I thought Endeavour had a GUI system update tool. Is there no GUI software catalog?
I think you can install the arch gui. I’ve never done it myself. By default Endeavor OS is designed to be easily administered from a simple command line.
Endeavour is very terminal centric. I’d recommend first something with an app gui
I wouldn’t say so - it requires terminal use.
What was your dream about windows?
I was trying to run some weird nonsensical dream program for a work presentation and it kept opening M$Edge to show me ads. Every time I closed a window, two more would open. Eventually I was fired because “real dudes use arch”. Then I woke up.
@PRUSSIA_x86 @BananaTrifleViolin damn, your dream really went full “I use arch btw”
For real though, that sounds like a much better future than an OS from a company named after Elon’s dick
that’s a rare insult
@nothendev yeah, could’ve used some more cooking. I didn’t get to a decent medium there
This is hilarious and awesome. Your dream is literally 90s malware and being fired for not being enough of a nerd.
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Windows is a nightmare.
Many people have asked me this (I’m the certified neighborhood tech guy :P), I always recommend Linux Mint, with the Cinnamon desktop environment, or KDE. Ubuntu used to be the best one and it’s still very good, but pretty heavy on hardware and they keep adding frustrating features nobody asked for.
Please please please, at the start, stay away from Arch and it’s derivatives. I daily Gentoo, but you need a decent knowledge of Linux to use both. If you need help, post to the Linux community or DM me :)
Clear vote for Fedora,
You didn’t give much info to go on, so maybe try Distrochooser. Honestly, most distros should work out fine. If you like Ubuntu, maybe try Mint.
Thanks! What kind of info would be helpful?
Well, some specs as to what kind of hardware you have, and what kind of software you intend to use (browsing, gaming, editing, what ever). Maybe a word on what kind of desktop experience you are looking for (Windows, Mac, something else). Do you absolutely need the latest versions of software. Tell us what you need from your OS.
I’ll update the post body. I’m not looking to do much gaming beyond DOOM2 and factorio. Mostly looking for privacy and a way to get back into programming (I have this pipe dream of learning Assembly). I’m not to particular on UI, I can use whatever.
I’d recommend against Ubuntu. It uses snaps and it’ll teach you that the hard way eventually by having very weird issues.
Mint is based on ubuntu but says no to snaps, so that’s a good place to start.
What about PopOS? Is it any good? Seems nice.
It’s plenty good out of the box, it was my first distro and I had a great time with it. But after learning more about what I like about a distro I ended up changing. But I’m glad it was my first 😉
Niice! What did you like about it and what did you switch to. I’m on Ubuntu LTS right now. I just worry about driver issues, as everything I have hooked up seems to just work.
As it was my first distro I felt that most things just worked out of the box, compared to what I have learned and experienced on other distro. It has good Nvidia support which is why I chose it. I only switched as I want to distro hop to find what I like the best and to learn 🙌
Considering PopOS is well maintained and supported by System76 I wouldn’t worry about driver issues.
Yeah, they seem neat. I just have a display link USB video card that support is tricky for.
Really recommend mint, or ubuntu. Please for the love of god stay away from arch and all of it’s derivatives, or at least try Ubuntu/Mint first. Also do NOT use manjaro it sucks, it is not maintained well at all
I feel so alone in my love for Manjaro :[
Why do you love Manjaro? /genq
It’s easy to use, just works, and I like some of the tools it comes with like the graphics driver manager and the kernel manager. It also has a ton of packages, and gets new software quickly as it’s based on Arch. I’ve read all the old anti-manjaro posts / essays, but for my use case, it was solid for years and none of the common complaints affected me. When I first switched to Linux full time, it’s what I used and I never regretted the decision. I have since switched to EndeavourOS, just to be certain about AUR compatibility, but even so, I didn’t have any issues there on Manjaro. It’s still installed on my partner’s computer, and Pamac let’s them run updates without learning commands (which they would forget, because they’re not on the computer often).
Thanks!
You’re welcome! I hope it was useful.
I tried this for the hell of it and it suggested almost every distro I have ever tried, close enough to the order of how long I have used each. Didn’t suggest kinoite and similar which I have some variant of on all my old people’s computers and several of my own.
Dog I just told it I wanna game and have game Dev supported distro. Guess what? OpenSUSE, Zorin, and every flavor of Ubuntu. I was assuming it would tell me Fedora/Nobara, Ubuntu, and Debian Stable.
You can game on OpenSuse… never tried Zorin, and every flavor of Ubuntu is good for gaming (or has been in my experience 🤷 ).
Weird, it’s telling me to get OpenSuse and in never heard of it!
It’s also a way to discover distros :) Depends on what you entered, but OpenSuse isn’t a bad distro, that’s for sure.
Pop os
Seconded. PopOS doesn’t get enough love. For a drop-in desktop it’s pretty great. I totally get why other distros have some weirdness around closed source and binaries and things. However, the average person just coming from Windows doesn’t care, so just make it easy to install Steam and whatever else they want without making them go through extra steps.
Do yourself a favor and just go with Debian Stable
Wanted to write the same. Normaly I would suggest Mint, but OP sounds like they are ready to learn and endure some things to end up very happy with Debian, the mother of all distros.
I know of Arch wiki, but are there wiki’s explaining easier distros? I’m on Nobara, because I want to game, but perhaps I could be learning to configure and install some of these tools to be able to one day use any distro for whatever I wanna do?
When I started with Debian I found everything I wanted to know with Duckduckgo… “Linux Debian how to…” without exception. And sometimes even the Archwiki helped me. You don’t need a single place with all the knowledge, you just have to practice how to break down your questions into easy to answer bits. Doesn’t matter which distro you use.
stuff like askubuntu exists
Mint is currently my recommendation for Windows refugees and has been for a while.
- Cinnamon desktop environment works like Windows’ UX
- Ubuntu-based, so you’ll find help online for basically anything
- Not just Ubuntu; follows more popular, community decisions rather than Canonical’s (e.g. things like Flatpak instead of Snap) which will help you in the long run since you’ll be using what everyone else is using
- Ubuntu-based, so Debian-based, so pretty stable with lots of available software (even outside of Flatpak)
- Significant amount of work put into UX with less you have to do
If you’re not worried about high-performance gaming, you’ll be fine with whatever. For developers, any Linux distro is gonna be leagues better than what you’re used to on Windows. For Assembly, NASM + VS Code will be great.
I used to think this was sound advice but I’m on KDE Plasma and it’s almost exactly like windows but with the Alt-F2 search menu, stay on top is installed by default. I don’t know all the desktop environment options but it sounds like there’s more reasonable options.
I highly recommend ZorinOS for newbies.
Alternatively: openSUSE (if you don’t like terminals), Fedora (required some customization via terminal for me), endeavourOS (just works, arch-based, but the install didn’t work on my old PC for some reason).
I recommend KDE over Gnome for the desktop environment.
Seconding KDE. Imo new users will avoid a lot of frustration with Plasma.
I actually found Plasma as a new user very frustrating, but you can customize it into perfection without needing any extras and it generally just works. Gnome you need to download extra stuff to customize and it frequently doesn’t work, because their corpo hates people adjusting stuff for themselves, for whatever reason.
I can see that too. For me, coming to GNU/Linux as a windows power user, with Gnome, I just felt so limited and unempowered. Switching to Plasma helped me feel in control of my machine.
My vote is for mint. If you’ve been a long time windows user it should be the easiest one to get used to. PopOS is also newbie friendly if you’re not into the feel of Mint for whatever reason.
My biggest recommendation though is to spend some time with a few different OS’s and try setting things up different ways. Like if you start with Mint, try something new a month or two later. It’s a good way to get used to the way linux OS’s work under the hood.
I’m not a programmer at all, but if you have some background with computers and are willing to sink some time into learning and setting up a new system you’ll be fine.
