So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i’m so proud!)
Now i’ve used a little linux but i’ve always been a holdout. Won’t stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i’m not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we’re doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I’ve heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?
next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD’s so we can try and get everything ported over but i’m so busy with school right now i can’t quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.
Any help is appreciated, cheers!
Gentoo
I know, it sounds odd, but: Arch! Once my best friend wanted to try linux. So he asked me, which distro to use. I gave him an honest answer: “I use Arch. But for beginners I would recommend Mint.” He don’t gave a shit and installed Arch anyways 😅 - with success! That’s when I noticed, that the Arch Wiki is actually SO GOOD, that even a newbie can install Arch without any help. It’s just a bit more time expensive, compared to distros with an installer. However, there are some huge benefits, that made me switch to Arch:
- I used Ubuntu on my daily driver before. However “stable” packages means in this case “antique”. A 3 years old version of Sway isn’t more stable than the newest release version.
- I never survived a dist-upgrade. That’s why i prefer a roling release linux today.
- Your system is slim, because you only install what you really need. Also you know your system this way.
- Especially for gaming it’s good to have the newest kernel + drivers.
However, you should also notice the down sides. Sometimes an update breaks something. It doesn’t happens often, but it happens. A few years ago the bluetooth stack was broken, so i wasn’t able to use my headset during a meeting. However they released a fix like a few hours later, so I just needed to update. But still: That’s something to consider too.
When I switched a while back I somehow got my partner to switch with me. We’ve both been using Kubuntu. I had her try popos, and it was flippin terrible with her multiple monitors, and unfamiliar. If Kubuntu wasn’t already set up, I’d totally have her try Bazzite.
Mint
correct
What about Slackware? Not popular anymore?
Yep I don’t think it’s that popular anymore. I see Fedora or Pop-OS recommended a lot lately. And Mint.
It was just a just a joke. Slackware is a dinosaur.
This is the first I would suggest as well. As much as I like other distros, Mint has the appearance, capability, stability, and settings combination I would want as a new user
Specifically Linux Mint Debian Edition
Mint.
No war. I don’t use it, myself, but I’ve set up a couple family members and over þe past several years have gotten two tech support calls: one about connecting to a WiFi printer, which required only me telling þem how to get to system preferences; þe oþer because þey’d bought a new laptop which came wiþ Windows 11 and þey wanted help installing Linux (which þey were used to) on it instead.
Even as an EndeavourOS user, I concur: Mint. Why? Cinnamon is hands down the best desktop environment. Beginner friendly default without blasting features in one’s face with configs all over the place, yet intuitively customizable for experienced Linux users.
This means she will be able to freely use it without your help, but you will be able to easily fine tune it to her preferences as well.
⚜︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.
My last experience with Mint might’ve been 10 years ago. The outdated packages so common among Debian-based distros back then made me switch to something else. I don’t know what’s the current situation, though.
Three correct answers:
- Mint
- Fedora
- Pop
And a few incorrect answers:
- Ubuntu
- Arch
- Ubuntu again
- Really, don’t go with Ubuntu
Gentoo it is, then!
Ubuntu was really good when I was a kid. when I went to school like 10 years ago I had to have a windows computer for a while to run my school’s proprietary virtual clinical lab software and I was too busy studying and going to irl clinicals to worry about getting a dual boot running. I tried to go back once a few semesters in but it seemed really bloated compared to the Ubuntu I grew up with and I did mint for a bit but that computer kicked the bucket iirc and I didn’t have the time to set up another dual boot. Hubs is thinking we’re gonna have to switch soon and I’ve honestly been ready for a bit and think I’ll probably try mint again, but distrowatch says a lot of people are super into cachy so I was considering that. Will Probably still try mint first.
Yeah, I switched to Ubuntu in 2008, and it was great for years, but lately it’s just been so awful.
When I was a kid (15-ish years ago) my laptop’s hard drive crashed. The repair place told my dad that something broke and it’s not compatible with Windows so they installed Ubuntu. Barely noticed the difference.
Ubuntu has started going off the deep end. They’ve been heading in that direction for a while, but they recently (I guess like 5 years-ish ago) hit this corporatey, money-grabbing, mentality that’s so completely opposite of what made Linux great.
The feel I get about it is 10 years ago, tutorials were written using Ubuntu because it was an easy distro to use and was a great platform for beginners, so people used that as their platform to teach. Now it feels like tutorials are written using Ubuntu because they’re being sponsored to. A lot of how-tos I come accros have the same vibe as watching a video animation tutorial that uses adobe and oh gosh, it’s also sponsored by adobe. Or a networking tutorial sponsored by Cisco. I’ve actually started just looking to see if another distro is acknowledged before I actually see what they have to say.
There’s a very different feel if you’re trying to set something up and a website has “if you’re in this family of linux, here’s what you do, or if you’re in this one, do this” versus “so you want to set up x in linux? Here’s how you do it in Ubuntu”. It’s as if no other distro exists.
Anyway, ignoring that rant. Linux is super stable these days, you can take pretty much any distro and you’ll be fine. I tend to gravitate toward the base distros, like fedora, opensuse, and Debian over Rocky, mint, etc. I haven’t come across one in the past five years that gave me any trouble, except when it came to updated nvidia drivers and wayland. In which case some distros were behind a month or two on getting those updated.
On the flip side, I use Ubuntu and I’m very happy with it. I didn’t like Gnome so I realised I could easily switch to KDE Plasma. It’s still miles better than Windows. Although I did have issues once installing Selenium, turns out it didn’t play well with snap packages which I didn’t know were there (I was using apt-get install)
My advice would be to just give up on the dual boot (unless you still need it, and even then, maybe keep Windows on a different machine maybe?).
I think the best way to go is full Linux immersion.
You guys use Arch ??
They didn’t say beeteedubs so clearly not.
btw
Pop is such a cool project but it’s been kinda broken for me both times I’ve tried it, and then add to that what happened with Linus tech tips where him being dumb combined with pop having not fixed a major and obvious packaging issue that completely broke his system has kinda just left me with the impression they’re not super on top of the ball
I hope that’s changed, I want them to be successful, especially with cosmic
What about Ubuntu flavors? Or Debian?
While Mint is an Ubuntu-based distro, it tries to un-fuck the worst of Canonical. Other Ubuntu spins with a different desktop environment don’t do this, like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc. They end up as just Ubuntu on a different DE, with all the decisions made by canonical.
Base Debian might work, but afaik, is “not as beginner friendly” compared to Mint.
Two points: Mint has a Debian version (LMDE), but also base Debian, especially the KDE flavor, has made enormous gains in beginner friendliness.
Seconding LMDE. It’s Debian based rather than Ubuntu so no canonical to un-f. It’s my favorite distro. LMDE for desktop, vanilla Debian for servers.
Not for beginners.
Who even uses normal arch anymore.
All the cool kids use endeavour or cachy. Which is like calling Ubuntu, Debian.
Who even uses normal arch anymore.
Me, btw.
Nah all the cool kids are on Omarchy now.
Ah yes, arch but fascist.
pass
Cringe
Another incorrect answer: Manjaro
https://github.com/arindas/manjarno
If you want Arch but a bit easier, just install EndeavourOS.
Damn, I’m 2 months into my first Linux experience and went with Ubuntu Studio since I use my PC for freelance audio/music/art and it’s promoted as great for creatives. It took a lot of work to get my audio working without ALSA and more work to get smaller things working right. I’m concerned if I switch distros I’ll have to do it all again and I barely remember what I did to fix things haha. Think I’m stuck with Ubuntu. Didn’t realize it was so looked down on.
Ubuntu Studio is great, but absolutely not for beginners. Ubuntu Studio isn’t the same thing as Ubuntu, too. They change a lot from the base Ubuntu.
Oh ok, I didn’t know that. I thought it was just Ubuntu with pre installed programs and a low latency kernel. I’ve been enjoying the learning curve, even though it’s been frustrating at times I’ve learned so much in the last 2 months and love it haha
This is the best answer I’ve seen. But why aren’t more people recommending Pop Os! Pop Os is by far my favourite as a noob user. I’ve live booted all the popular distros and Pop Os has the nicest interface a everything works so smoothly.
Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.
If she’s a Windows refugee, Linux Mint.
If she’s a Mac refugee, fuck if I know.
If she’s a IBM OS/2 refugee, please let me know how to get the drugs she’s gotten. I want in.
Ubuntu for a Mac refugee. Definitely Mint for a Windows refugee.
I hate GNOME through and through, but it’s a very polished interface and resembles Mac in a lot of ways.
Ubuntu is heresy. Canonical hath turned against the users.
Also, I’m genuinely curious: why do you hate GNOME?
Nah, Ubuntu is perfect for a Mac user - they love the abusive, arbitrary decisions made by their OS designers lol
Yeah…
See, I used to like Ubuntu, but then Canonical had to ruin it for me by betraying the principles that Linux stands for.
Ubuntu is a shadow of its former self, and it saddens me. :(
I hate GNOME because it feels like an iPhone.
I don’t know much about what Ubuntu is doing but it surely can’t be that bad.
I hate GNOME because it feels like an iPhone.
That’s fair.
I don’t know much about what Ubuntu is doing but it surely can’t be that bad.
You would be surprised.
Oh, and I also hate that they’re actively undermining of theming.
That’s legit.
That sounds like a very specific user case, I’m using a laptop for teaching with a smallish screen so gnome actually improves my workflow and the visibility of the OS. I don’t need theming either. Gnome is really aimed at productivity imo.
I hate GNOME because it feels like an iPhone.
real
Ubuntu is gross, don’t recommend. It works until it doesn’t. Expect questions like “why doesn’t USB access work in chromium” and having to try to explain what snap is
GNOME is great for Mac refugees. Fedora might do.
popos for mac refugee? it’s very macky
You know, I can see that.
Still, mac users use macs because they just want the computer to work.
And the Cosmic DE is rather new so can be a bit buggy from time to time. It might look mac-friendly, but its stability is still largely untested so caution may be advised before recommending it in my opinion.
Mint is the best for most users. But if you want a Mac style, Elementary OS is the correct answer for MacOS users. Here’s my latest screenshot of it:
Tbf, my current laptop looks pretty similar, and I’m running Bazzite with KDE.
Lol Linux is awesome
Windows refugee: Linux Mint or Fedora KDE
Mac refugee: Linux Mint or Fedora KDE
PC gamer: Bazzite (or Linux Mint or Fedora KDE)
edit: fuck markdown, why do line breaks only work in pairs on lemmy, this is not a thing with markdown on discord so why here? it’s annoying
Discord does markdown differently than intended: it’s better for non-techies because hitting enter once is more intuitive than the alternative, but the standard way to insert line breaks in markdown is to type two spaces at the end of the line you want to break.
Like this
I seebut why is a singular enter character treated just like a space
look at the raw text of the comment, the above sentence’s “spaces” are line breaks
is there a use for this functionality?Spaces behave like this because markdown was designed to be like HTML but quicker to write and easier to read without formatting;
most web services that use markdown translate it to HTML rather than parsing it directly, and in HTML whitespaces are supposed to work like you demonstrated in your comment.The reason for this behavior in HTML is “because someone in the 90s said so”, I’m afraid.
If she’s a Mac refugee, fuck if I know.
She could consider Linux Mint with KDE Plasma. KDE Plasma feels very like modern Mac, only nicer, to me.
KDE is not a Mint supported DE and the KDE files are not in the Mint repos.
This can be made to work if you’re experienced but is definitely not a good idea for beginners. It will eventually break, and dependency hell is a thing.
For a KDE option suitable fir beginners, Fedora offers KDE as does Ubuntu, or there’s KDE Neon
Oh, that’s good to know! I’ve always installed KDE on Debian before, but I thought it was only because I just really liked Debian. Thanks!
if you’re doing kde then i think debian would make more sense (their netinstaller is very good)
Ooh that’s a good point. I mean, not Linux Mint because as thanksforallthefish said below it’s not a Mint-supported DE but I actually installed Arch (btw) with the KDE Plasma DE onto an old laptop I have and yeah it definitely gives early-2010s OS X vibes. :)
Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.
Is there a specific reason you are spamming the same single-line accusatory comment 7 times in this thread?
Combined with your account only being 10 days old if there’s not more substance to a spammed accusation like that I’ll just have to assume bad faith and block.
Fedora is pretty cool.
Linus Torvalds uses it, so you could say it’s the canonical distribution.
Well no, the Canonical distribution is Ubuntu.
/s
slow clap
They should change their name to Antitethical then.
Second on fedora, have been using it as a daily driver for over a year and ot has been pretty solid.
As a general rule of thumb, I usually recommend Linux Mint to beginners. The installation and update processes are easy and intuitive, and there is a ton of software available, as well as good support if you know how to do web searches properly. The main trick is to try and remember that a paradigm shift needs to happen here. Linux is not Windows. It doesn’t work like Windows, and it has different aims and priorities. She will also need to be prepared to learn a bit and be slightly more hands-on with her computing. The learning curve with Mint is comparatively gentle, but it does exist.
This is all very broad and general, but I hope it helps. Good luck to the both of you. I hope you are satisfied with whatever you decide on.
Popos 24 beta is dope if you like to live dangerously.
Holy shit voyager dude. Could I get a virtual autograph? Love your app!
Credited chocie if she has an nvidia GPU
Linux Mint is the windows 7 experience of linux. It gets out of the way so you can work. It also has the best in-OS help tools. It’s also a bit more conservative in terms of newest features, so it’s a lot more reliable.
If she does PC gaming, you might want to look at Bazzite rather than Mint. It’s a lot better equipped for non-technical people to start gaming. It’s basically a preconfigured Fedora linux, so it’s got a solid foundation. It’s also something called an immutable distro, which basically means it’s more difficult to break as the core OS is “read only” (to simplify).
In terms of migrating, best to avoid dual booting off a single disk. Microsoft keeps breaking Linux installs (probably on purpose). So best to install a second SSD.
Before you migrate, have her make a list of software she uses and the hardware she has. Best to post that on a forum like this to have more experienced people look for possible issues.
When it gets to migration day, if bitlocker is disabled, you can access your windows data from linux.
Also get her on Lemmy and asking questions directly. The best thing you can teach a low tech person is how to get help.
Bazzite is atomic, not immutable
Its both
It uses an atomic update system on an immutable base. They don’t refer to the same thing, but you sort of need the one when you use the other for it to make sense.
Those are different?
Don’t forget to grab protonup-qt so you can easily install proton GE which has better .net support so more games work.
Thx for the tip. I just got a 5x FPS boost in a very poorly optimized sim game “war at sea” thing was chugging along at 5-6 fps when lots of ships were on the screen. Was maxing out all 32 threads on my 5950x. Now it’s running a cool 20% utilization.
Ah nice, sometimes different versions work better. GE is a must have for .net heavy games.
Thx for the tip, will give it a try.
I got it from the protonup app that is pre installed.
Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.
I have the deepest respect for my trans siblings - after all, the very first woman and humanity’s saviour were both trans. However, I googled “Linux mint transphobia” and couldn’t find what you’re talking about. I’d like to take your accusation seriously, so could you provide a source, or if that’s not possible, your story?
I too am fascinated by this assertion.
Personally, I don’t think anyone new to Linux at this point, who isn’t tech-minded, should be pointed to an X11 environment. So until Mint devs have ported Muffin into a Wayland compositor, I wouldn’t recommend it. They’re used to a shiny experience visually, so I’d go with Plasma 6 running on Fedora or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
Wayland has way more compatibility issues especially with games or other Linux stuff lol
Yeah I think mint advice is extremely dated, Bazzite or base Fedora is the way to go
Just straight up Bazzite to be honest.
Fedora by itself is too Puritan for stuff not fully foss in their default repos
I second the atomic Fedora ones with Plasma. Very stable system, updates run automatically like she is used to, and the Bazaar software center is a great and well organized central repository for flatpaks.
Not a mint user myself, but I have helped a friend install it. The install script at the time would silently crash if it had issues with the network card name. Researching it I found that this had been reported 8 months before my friend ran into it, and a PR submitted, but was not even looked at for a month after. Sure, these are all (largely) unpaid volunteers, but if your objective is to be beginner friendly, stuff like that really shouldn’t be left sitting for so long.
Any of the large, easy to use distributions should work just fine. I’d recommend a popular distribution because it’ll be easier to get help online. So consider Mint, Fedora, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and maybe Pop!_OS.
I think the main consideration should be which DE (desktop environment) she’d like to use. IMO the main contenders would be:
- KDE - Very configurable, nice looking, a bit heavy.
- Gnome - Simple and very opinionated, so not very configurable, a bit heavy.
- Cinnamon - Should feel familiar to Windows users, a bit faster than KDE and Gnome.
- Cosmic - A middle ground between Gnome’s simplicity and KDE’s configurability, pretty fast.
- XFCE - Very fast and light-weight, fairly configurable, but not very flashy.
Based on which DE she prefers, I’d suggest getting a distribution that comes with said DE by default, for the best possible integration. How do you figure out which DE she likes best? Put Ventoy on a USB stick along with a few different Linux ISOs. Ventoy wil let you choose which one to boot from a menu. You could get the following ISOs:
- Fedora or Ubuntu with Gnome
- OpenSUSE with KDE
- Linux Mint with Cinnamon
- Pop!_OS with Cosmic
- Mint or Ubuntu with XFCE
Download an ISO for each, install Ventoy on a USB stick and copy the ISOs to the stick. Boot into each ISO and play around with the desktop for a bit. When she’s figured out which DE she prefers, install a distribution that comes with that desktop.
I’ve not noticed Cinnamon being any faster than KDE. I’d recommend KDE for someone coming from Windows.
I’m on KDE as a former Windows and Mint user and it’s really annoying. Especially the text editor Kate. All the hotkeys are different than Windows/Mint, there’s no notepad equivalent and only a notepad++ equivalent, the GNOME text editor doesn’t match the theming, and I had to settle on Mousepad for my replacement.
I had to do a lot of customization to get the system to behave like Windows, particularly the panel. Maybe with ZorinOS it’s better.
there’s no notepad equivalent and only a notepad++ equivalent
I believe you’re looking for KWrite.
Thank you, that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Wasn’t bundled with Kubuntu (or maybe it was but I uninstalled it because I thought it was Wordpad) and didn’t come up when searching for it in the Discover app, but after going to the official site and opening a link in the Discover app I got it installed. I then uninstalled it because uninstalling Kate does that.
Now to look up how to clean up the start menu so searching for a text editor doesn’t give me the uninstalled Mousepad or it’s separate settings app (I did it with a 5 second duckduckgo search).
Dunno if kubuntu comes with it, but do you have an app called “main menu”?
No, it doesn’t. I think I may have used a fork of that in Mint though and I had issues with it.
I mean from what you’re telling me I’d imagine cinnamon, but now that you mention It, wasn’t there a website dedicated to showing off the different desktop environments?
Cinnamon is a great choice. It’s the default on Linux Mint for good reason.
Not really possible, because how a desktop feels or what can be configured it’s hard to show on a website. Especially how you can visually adapt it. And what you can configure in general. Running it from a live USB takes like 5 minutes.
For example KDE is also very close to Windows, but can also be configured to behave more like a Mac. Visually most desktop environment can be themed. Cinnamon just got additions to be able to theme gnome apps globally I think? If you want to use a central dock like a Mac and have running apps at the top, that’s just a master of setting that up on KDE.
It was distrosea I was thinking of
For distros, not desktop environments. You can choose DEs for distros though. But there it is: https://distrosea.com/
Suggesting anything with gnome should come with a penalty of having to fist fight a Canadian goose and it’s henchswans.
Unfortunately, Linux Mint devs are transphobic.
I guess a good question would be what software you plan on using. If it’s something more reliant on frequent updates and feature releases like gaming, the choice would be a bit different compared to something like office work or common browsing, where stability would be prioritized (at the cost of slower updates).
Mint, for example, is a great jumping off point for Windows users because of the familiar User Interface and a focus on stability and lack of prior knowledge required - but it lags behind when it comes to cutting edge stuff for things like gaming.
Since Mrs. Erinaceus is considering switching, I was going to try and steer her towards Mint, but since she’s a gamer and I’m not (I know, boring) perhaps this would not be the best choice? Please tell me more.
Like 9limmer mentioned, Bazzite would be a good gaming focused choice for a beginner. There are alternatives like CatchyOS, but those are geared towards more experienced users.
Went with Bazzite for my main gaming rig almost a year ago. Really good all-round distro imo. Haven’t had an issue yet. NixOS for my other machines because it’s cool and I can have them fit for many purposes by just switching a single config file.
Nix is new to me, but what I’ve read seems like it’s very polarizing. Curious what kind of real world use makes it a good choice?
Curious what kind of real world use makes it a good choice?
It’s declarative. Everything is (usually) configured via Nix itself, without requiring manual steps of running additional commands. This ends up being pretty useful when you have a fleet of devices that you want to configure.
Changing config is atomic. If you end up breaking your system when trying to tweak it, you can boot into the previous generation and try again with different settings.
I just switched a couple months ago to Pop OS because it is supposed to be more up to date on Nvidia drivers and game stuff. I haven’t tested to many games yet but the couple I did worked fine. I was going to go with Mint originally but the gaming thing sold me on Pop. Its been pretty smooth but I would like more built in setting options for customizations.
Mint for Windows refugees
Fedora for Mac Refugees
My choice: Bazzite GNOME for Gamers, Children and Grandmas. It’s pretty, is damn indestructible and has a speedy app store with loads of cool free apps.
Bazzite is awesome, but I’d go with KDE over GNOME
KDE if you’re used to Windows, Gnome if you’re used to MacOS.
I’d say Mint or Fedora KDE for windows converts. They’re both good “just works” options, but KDE just by virtue of being more popular has excellent software and support that make it a great option.
Fedora w/ Gnome for Mac converts is a no brainer, and I’d add that you’re probably going to want the Dash2Dock Lite or Dash2Dock Animated extension for a Mac convert.
Fedora w/ Gnome for Mac converts is a no brainer
I use Mac (I’ll install Asahi Linux once it supports connecting a monitor) and hate GNOME and hate Aqua (the MacOS DE)
I personally prefer KDE
Fair. I think most people start with the assumption that users are coming from a workflow they preferred in the first place.
Out of curiosity, if you hate Aqua, why did you get a Mac? Is it an industry thing or a specific software?
My first pc was an ubuntu pc that i had for quite a while. As a teen I recieved this Macbook from my dad. My family is all Mac users rn. My dad is an IT guy and prefers FreeBSD over Linux for technical stuff such as servers, and Mac over Linux for personal computers. Now that I recently became a libre software fan, I used a Linux VM and found that KDE blows Aqua out of the water.
Bazzite keeps sounding better for her needs tbh
It’s truly a fantastic distro. Fedora atomic is very much an attempt at making Linux as easy and secure as Android. I recommend it for beginners and experts alike, truly awesome tech going on.
I’ve dabbled with a few different distros in VMs and laptops that I don’t use a whole lot over the years. I recently moved my main desktop to Bazzite and I love it. The built-in ‘ujust’ scripts, or whatever you call them, are fantastic. Setting up an 8bitdo pro 2 was a breeze. Getting new apps installed, even with distrobox, is really easy. I’m sold on ublue, probably going to move my work laptop to Aurora soon.
I’m not a child, gamer nor grandma but last time i tried mint a few years ago i literally cried, so it might be something for me
Mint is a good jumping off point
Zorin OS is better
Isn’t Zorin very out of date?
I’ll be honest I tried zorin and it looked too much like MacOS for my tastes
I think Zorin OS 18 based on Ubuntu 24.04
was released just few days ago?will be released tomorrow. Also Zorin OS uses heavily modified Gnome Wayland session which is by many standards more “modern” and “leading edge” than X11 Cinnamon session. The desktop environment is by far the most significant thing an average Joe user will be affected by. If their packages are bit older they won’t notice as much.
