I’ve been having a big think over Linux distros. See, I’ve been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems. Whenever the topic of a Windows refugee-friendly OS came up, I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it’s the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.
I always follow that up with a comment about how you don’t have to stick with Linux Mint if you don’t want to. You can do what I did, which is to dip your toe into the Linux distro water and find something that suits you better. But if I’m setting up Linux Mint as “my first Linux distro,” why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?
mint (or cinnamon specifically if you want to be annoying) by default has the equivalent to the start menu in the bottom left, exactly where it is on windows. the taskbar is along the bottom like it is on windows. the taskbar (on the surface) functions like it does on windows. the application menu is similar enough to windows that windows people can find where things are easily, because they are where they expect them to be. the default file browser looks and behaves (on the surface) like windows explorer.