Finally making the transition from Windows to a Linux. I’m pretty sure it’s been asked several times but which Linux OS would you recommend a beginner to use? I’ve seen Ubuntu and Mint as a good start. Not looking to do much. Game here and there (not too worried about Linux compatibility), streaming, editing videos. If I break any rules. I’m sorry.
Linux is linux. In the end it’s more your personal taste with just a little sprinkle of use case that decides.
The main differences are:
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Update speed: How quickly are the repositories getting updates. That’s a spectrum between getting cutting edge version in days or weeks or having things unchaged for up to several years. Or in other worlds you will see more bugs in freshly released software, but also bugfixes often within days. Compared to getting new feature only after years, but rarely any bugs (the very few ones that slip through… well, you will get the fix in a few years). That’s also where use case plays a bigger role. If you use very new hardware and want software that uses their newest features, a rather stale slow updating distro might not be the right fit for you.
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Update scheme: Fixed vs. continues release. Continues releases are slowly but constantly changing over time but once installed they can basically used forever. While fixed releases are mostly just shipping critical bugfixes and security patches and doing everything else in big release steps (think in terms of Windows upgrades here: You mostly have the same thing for years but at a certain point there is a newer version that might bring changes in defaults, new pre-installed software, UI changes etc. and after a couple of years you lose support if you don’t do that step).
Also more depending on your personal taste and habits:
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How much are you willing or interested in tinkering? Basically all distros give you access to all software. But what is pre-installed changes, both in what is provided by default and also how much software is there already. For example do you want stuff for video editing set up already or don’t you care as you will test out all the options available anyway?
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The same is true the basic desktop environment. Gnome and KDE are the two big ones (with some more oftens based or forked from those two). And it mostly a difference of “here is our environment exactly as we think it’s best with very little customisation” (Gnome - also the one with most forks, by people who did not agree with the Gnome devs vision) and “have fun customising” (KDE). Is customising stuff to your liking your thing? Or do don’t care and also prefer something as close to what you are used to on Windows? Again: Distros have all the options available. But some have one environment or the other pre-installed. Or they come in different flavors from the beginning. If customisation isn’t your cup of tea the decision on a certain distro matters much more.
Other considerations:
- Immutable distros are more on the newer end of things. They are basically designed more like for example Android. There is a base system that rarely changes and allows basically a “reset ot factory settings”, with updates and additionally installed software provided as incremental changes and/or highly containerised. That has benefits (you can revert screw ups easily) but also drawbacks (decades of available linux instructions are now worthless until you really understand where that regular config file you can’t edit anymore is now located in some separate container only used by one specific piece of software - and most people that google for such solutions don’t). Again this is mostly decided by habits. Are you expecting to tinker with your system or do you just want something that works on its own that neither you or an upgrade cannot possibly break. In the latter case an immutable distro can be the thing for you. And as always… you have all the options and you can also setup most other distros with extensive systems of “save points” to revert problematic changes anyway.
Things to not consider:
- ignore the answers speaking about “it provides WINE for running windows stuff” or “it comes with NVIDIA drivers” because they basically all do (minus the already mentioned combination of running cutting edge hardware with very slow updating distros - that’s not a good idea). At the worst it usually requires clicking some “Yes, I don’t insist on open source stuff exclusively but will also to use proprietary drivers if available” checkbox in the installer.
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Aurora, it’s the desktop version of massively popular Bazzite (which targets gaming). That means you’ll find tons of up to date tutorials online (Bazzite tutorials are usually applicable unless they are about the few features Bazzite and Aurora diverge specifically).
I explicitly advise against Ubuntu and Mint for the reasons I outlined here. Ubuntu and Mint have the added downside that almost none of the guides you’ll find about SteamOS will work: Different desktop, different philosophy.
People need to realize that since the success of Steam Deck the “old classics” of newbie recommendations are out of the window and what helps these users the most is a Linux distribution as close as possible to SteamOS but SteamOS is not available for random PCs, so Bazzite/Aurora are currently the way to go. Personally I like Fedora KDE but I shifted my stance since the linked post and trying out Aurora.
Bazzite is great on desktop, it’s just more gaming focused than Aurora
Bazzite is great on desktop
Absolutely but people not interested in autolaunching Steam and other preinstalled launchers can use Aurora which is just the workstation flavor by the same people.
it doesn’t auto launch anything on desktop
it doesn’t auto launch anything on desktop
I installed Bazzite just last weekend and I was definitively greeted by a Steam client login window right after logging into SDDM. No idea what you’re talking about.
Yeah my Bazzite definitely doesn’t auto launch Steam. I think that might be an option during setup?
Been using it for over a year now. Never auto launched into Steam once.
Yeah my Bazzite definitely doesn’t auto launch Steam. I think that might be an option during setup?
I installed it in a VM and after installation Steam launched. Didn’t check if that persists after several reboots. Why would I?
Then I tried Aurora and with the exception of a Terminal app in Plasma’s quick launch panel and no gaming launchers installed, it’s pretty much the same thing, so might just as well recommend Aurora instead of Bazzite if the person in question doesn’t care much about gaming. It’s the workstation variant of Universal Blue.
I don’t know, bud, I’m just saying that it is not the default and has not happened to me once in the past year, and one or two fresh installs.
It’s literally just KDE
Mint loaded Steam via the package manager and it worked out of the box for me. There have been some games I had to try different versions of Proton with, but I have never found that to be not true for some games.
Immutable distros aren’t really that great yet due to the way they force certain things down one’s throat. I’d say I’d recommend one if I were in a mental asylum for a long time, but that’s just me.
Wow, that seems like a rather hostile take on the matter if I’ve ever seen one. But I feel like you might be conflating stuff OR hurt yourself while trying to force your way on an “immutable” distro.
After learning the ropes on how to install and manage software, there’s not really much to Bazzite. Unless you somehow happen to be dealing with one of the ever-so-rare-becoming edge-cases it can’t deal with.
My stepfather had a bad experience with one of them, and I think he’s currently using Fedora (with Wayland), but that’s at least better than whatever that distro was (I think it might have been Bluefin or something like that, a Fedora Immutable derivative).
That’s why I’m currently against immutable distros as of right now.
Interesting. Thanks for the clarification! It would have been even more helpful if you could recall more details about the bad experience. Thanks in advance!
Just FYI in case you don’t know - SteamOS has changed and is now based on Arch, which means Bazzite is still fundamentally different.
I personally went with Garuda Linux for two reasons:
- SteamOS is Arch based (so is Garuda)
- When researching issues, 80% of the time you’ll end up on the Arch Wiki anyway. Might as well use the actual thing.
Bazzite is probably easier to use for newbies (immutable, relatively stable update windows), but in terms of “I found a guide for SteamOS online on how to get game X working”, Garuda will be much better. Also, Garuda devs included their Rani app, which helps the user take care of the OS, handling a lot of the maintenance.
Just FYI in case you don’t know - SteamOS has changed and is now based on Arch, which means Bazzite is still fundamentally different.
Both are immutable distributions, meaning software installation via Flatpak and Distrobox is exactly the same.
System-level differences are mostly irrelevant which is a fundamentally different approach from Ubuntu, Mint, etc. where users are expected to juggle with PPAs to get newer drivers on their ancient Ubuntu LTS base.
It’s been asked a million times, and it’ll be answered every time, and the answers will mostly be “Mint, Fedora, FedoraKDE, and if you wanna game Bazzite.”
The real advice that gets posted less, regardless of distro:
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Back up your important files to an external drive, often. It’s entirely possible you’ll fuck up an install beyond repair (or beyond what you know how to do at the time) and you end up reinstalling. If you can just put your important files back and be up and running, nothing of value is lost.
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Don’t be scared of the terminal, it’s incredibly useful. Look up a few YT vids like “bash basics” or “linux terminal for beginners” or something and follow along like it’s a class, you’ll soon be comfortable enough to use it when you need it, and you will, and you may come to love it. It’s not as bad as windows cmd! Be careful when using sudo or su, that’s when you could really screw up the system (but mostly it’ll be fine just be careful.
And most importantly, have fun!
Here’s an absolute classic unix koan about the terminal:
One evening, Master Foo and Nubi attended a gathering of programmers who had met to learn from each other. One of the programmers asked Nubi to what school he and his master belonged. Upon being told they were followers of the Great Way of Unix, the programmer grew scornful.
“The command-line tools of Unix are crude and backward,” he scoffed. “Modern, properly designed operating systems do everything through a graphical user interface.”
Master Foo said nothing, but pointed at the moon. A nearby dog began to bark at the master’s hand.
“I don’t understand you!” said the programmer.
Master Foo remained silent, and pointed at an image of the Buddha. Then he pointed at a window.
“What are you trying to tell me?” asked the programmer.
Master Foo pointed at the programmer’s head. Then he pointed at a rock.
“Why can’t you make yourself clear?” demanded the programmer.
Master Foo frowned thoughtfully, tapped the programmer twice on the nose, and dropped him in a nearby trashcan.
As the programmer was attempting to extricate himself from the garbage, the dog wandered over and piddled on him.
At that moment, the programmer achieved enlightenment
Source: https://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/gui-programmer.html
I need Peter Griffin to explain this one
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The thing about Linux is the back and front are separated, and you can customize the ux like crazy. So as you try stuff, pay more attention to package manager, how easy things are in terminal, compatibility, etc.
Try some shit.
Go with Mint until you learn more about how Linux filesystems work and then you can go wherever you feel comfortable. Mint just has a really easy install.
What is there to learn about Linux filesystems? How is it different from a Windows filesystem, from the perspective of an average user?
Lesson one: files Lesson two: folders Here’s your diploma.
You will probably come across having to fiddle with rights, which isn’t really a thing on Windows
I use Arch BTW. Haven’t had to fiddle with rights in the last 10 years.
I’ve had to do it a bit on Mint. I have a couple of programs that only come as AppImages and need to be redownloaded everytime there is an uppdate, which means I have to set the rights again. It’s also been a thing when setting up qbittorrent and jellyfin.
Mount points instead of drives
“What’s a mount point? I just click on the disk icon on my desktop, it shows up when I plug in the USB thingy.”
- Average user
Linux filesystems exam time:
section A basics
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what does CoW stand for?
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evaluate through pros and cons which you personally would pick: Btrfs, ZFS, F2FS, bcachefs, OverlayFS, aufs, Nilfs2, JFFS2, UBIFS
section B btefs
- what exactly happens when running this command, including how qgroups, compression, and recursion interact?
btrfs balance start -dusage=5 -musage=20 -c zstd \ --bg /srv/vms && \ btrfs qgroup limit 50G /srv/vms/guests/win10- explain the effect of the following command on device allocation, RAID reshaping, and metadsta distribution:
btrfs device add -f /dev/nvme2n1 /home && \ btrfs balance start -mconvert=raid1 -dconvert=raid1 -sconvert=dup /home- describe what this snapshotting pipeline does, including send stream structure, parent selection, and how receive-side overwrites are handled:
btrfs subvolume snapshot -r /opt/app /opt/.snaps/auto-$(date +%s) && \ btrfs send -c -p /opt/.snaps/last-full \ /opt/.snaps/auto-$(date +%s) \ | ssh backup 'btrfs receive -f /backup/opt/incoming'- what actions occur on the filesystem when this defrag call is executed, especially regarding extent sharing and how compression interacts?
btrfs filesystem defrag -r -v -czstd:15 \ /var/lib/docker/overlay2- analyze subvolume management sequence, including how default-subvolume selection influences mount behavior:
btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/root/@old && \ btrfs subvolume snapshot -r /mnt/root/@clean /mnt/root/@ && \ btrfs subvolume set-default 256 /mnt/root
section C zfs
[…]
/s
Answer for all questions: the average user doesn’t care, won’t run any of those, won’t know what fs is on their system because they will choose the default what the installer suggests. Same as they have no idea about all the ntfs or exfat details of their windows system.
That’s for sysadmins.
These days I don’t even care what fs I use, I just let the distro choose its default, I simply make sure encryption is enabled.
It’s really touching that you consider me to be a sysadmin, because I use Linux and know how my fs works. I’m actually kinda proud of myself. My arch install has been working for many years.
Are you saying that you use arch btw?
I use arch btw. Do you also use arch btw?
I used to use arch btw, but then I grew old and moved to Fedora. Then I saw the light and installed Bazzite on everything, even my coffe machine. It’s got RGB now.
You should install Bazzite, save your soul.
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Arch Linux
Yeah I said it. I never used Mint or Ubuntu, I jumped straight into Arch and then Gentoo and it’s completely possible
If you stick to beginner friendly distros, you’ll never really learn Linux because they don’t challenge you. Just keep Windows on another drive as a reliable backup OS until you figure things out in Linux
Mint or Fedora. You’ll get tons of responses, and none of them are wrong, because no one can tell you what’s best for you, but those are the most popular choices among newbies, and they are very user friendly and approachable.
The best advice I can give you is try a bunch of different ones and see which one you like best. They’re free and easy to reinstall if you end up liking one over another.
Best of luck and I hope you find one that you truly love. :)
I started and ended with mint. Donknow about video editing, but it just worked. It’s like everything windows p should have been. No bs, easy interface, easy to fix. Do it
editing videos
What program will you use?
I have heard that DaVinci resolve is very hard to set up. as for Kdenlive, I have used it few times, and it felt very clunky.
I would go with mint if you have older hardware and bazzite if you have new hardware (especially nvidia graphics card). If you really want windows-like layout check zorin OS.
for actuall advice: I would try a bunch of them and stick with one where video editing works.
I have heard that DaVinci resolve is very hard to set up.
On Bazzite (and probably the other ublue distros as well), you can run
ujust install-resolveon the terminal, and that’s it, you’re good to goAnd it works great when installed that way.
Besides almost everything availiable to try on Windows before the switch, I’ve seen Nobara writing on their page about their media-focus, mentioning DaVinci Resolve workarounds from out of the box. I’ve not tried it yet.
Ubuntu
Mint but only bevase thays what i did 2 did two years aho and had no issues.
I habe since changed to LMDE bevase why use Mint which is based on Ubuntu whic nis based on Debian, just cut oit the middle.man…plenty of supoort in their forums as well for the few issues I had.
PopOs and Zorin I’ve also seen mentioned
LMDE does seem to have keyboard issues though it seems.
This question is probably as old as Linux itself. While many (me included) do not like Ubuntu anymore, I still think its a good operating system for newcomers to Linux. Not at last because of the community it has. Ubuntu is only by those dislike who are long enough in this game. There are also different variants with different user interfaces and such (like Kubuntu).
The community has been the secret sauce for me.
So I use zorin and I feel its the best for typical windows users and anyone who just wants to install and get to immediately using thier pc. So basically its the lazy distro. Lot of software out of box including wine with play on linux so right after installation you could run or install windows programs if you wanted to (I would check out linux alternatives first). That being said my personal opinion if someone wants to run games is to dual boot a gaming distro or install a gaming distro and use it as your main one. Further I don’t recommend dual booting windows. If someone wants to keep windows around my sugestion, if they have it, is to install linux on your last older laptop. Anyone who had a machine that did not outright die and upgraded in the last ten years will be pleasantly surprised how well linux runs on older hardware compared to windows on newer. Once you have weaned yourself 100% off windows and realize how useless it is then install on the current laptop. Given if you don’t still have your older one then by all mean dual boot. I initially did that but have reversed the setup and now have linux on my better laptop as I was so annoyed with windows wasting the good one.
It’s hilarious that there were a bunch of articles recently about “omg, so many Zorin downloads!” Then the only person I’ve ever seen even mention it gets downvoted. Makes me think it was just some astro turf campaign.
oh it certainly was some sort of astroturf. Previous to that my comments I felt like I was the only one who would mention it. Seems like the thing with zorin 8 being spammed has had a sorta streisand effect but I still like it. Also someone keeps commenting all the versions cost money so there is a kind of reverse astro turf going as well. Its kinda funny given its an irish company and with the popularity of european things. Its just the way things are.
Idk why nobody knew about it until recently, ime (and I’ve never used Zorin), I feel like even before the recent (likely paid advertising) campaign I still saw it almost once or twice per thread, usually something like “I’d go mint, unless you need cutting edge then Fedora, or if you really need it to look like windows then there is Zorin,” some saying “I haven’t used it but I hear it’s windows like” and stuff. I’ve seen stuff like that consistently for the last 4 or 5 years since I switched and I was the one asking distro advice and being told mint, fedora, zorin, or pop. It has never been the top answer but it was always there, lurking in the shadows.
yeah I likely did not read through and thought I was the only one back then.
Btw you can load them to a USB and try out without installing if picking one is kinda hard tho remember performance will depend on USB quality.
Bazzite if you want gaming working well without adding packages manually.
Aurora is the desktop/workstation version of Bazzite, btw.
I recommend Zorin. It helps you to find the best way to install the apps you need. It also includes a WINE integration that greatly simplifies the process of using Windows apps on Linux. It’s built on Ubuntu, meaning it’s stable, has wide hardware compatibility, will run pretty much anything that works on Linux, and all the Ubuntu commands will work on it. It looks a lot nicer than Mint (Cinnamon). And supports lots of super useful trackpad gestures for laptops. It includes a version of Brave out of the box, stripped of all their BS.
What version of Yad does Zorin come with? SteamTinkerTools was the whole reason I swapped from Mint to SteamOS/Arch
I don’t know what any of that is, sorry.
Yad is a dependency for Steam Tinker Tools.
STT is a plugin that allows a bunch of tweaks for games, including Mod Organizer support.
