Whom also likes to game every now and then ;)
Edit: Thank you all for your input and suggestions! Linux Mint shall be my next OS! Though, I think I’ll give Pop!OS a look-see as well.
Linux Mint
Debian Edition*
+1
I personally started by playing around with Ubuntu, but it just didn’t feel intuitive coming from windows.
Went over to Mint, and was very happy,especially with drivers and gaming. I even fully removed my windows installation during this period. Having gained a better understanding of Linux, I have now moved on again.
The only real drawback of Mint is not natively supporting KDE Plasma (as they did before). And yes, you can just install it yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend a beginner who barely knows how to install Linux to attempt such an endevour.
One word of advice to OP: don’t wait till you can’t use Windows anymore. Start by dual booting and getting a hang of Linux, but with windows at the ready for any tasks you cannot yet do/feel comfortable doing on Linux. As you get a better hold of Linux, you should naturally begin to use Windows less.
The worst thing someone can do, is to jump OS without any backup or safety net. Learning to use Windows took a long time, getting a hang of new concepts and getting used to an alien environment. Now, already having a hang of “computers” (Windows), we have digital needs and expectations (E-Mail, gaming, etc.) which will need fulfilling, but many seem to forget that a different OS means different ways of doing our daily tasks and different challenges to handle.
And yes, “different”, because Windows definitely also comes with it’s own unique challenges, you just don’t see them as much when having gotten used to them.
One word of advice to OP: don’t wait till you can’t use Windows anymore. Start by dual booting and getting a hang of Linux, but with windows at the ready for any tasks you cannot yet do/feel comfortable doing on Linux. As you get a better hold of Linux, you should naturally begin to use Windows less.
Good advice here OP.
Fedora’s my favorite. It’s also the most secure without going straight to QubesOS, which is not beginner friendly.
Like most others have stated here, I’ll also add my recommendations for Linux Mint.
I have helped most of my family, relatives and several friends move and familiarize themselves with Linux Mint, especially those that do almost everything within the web browser (shopping/email/Facebook/youtube/travel reservation/etc…). Since I already was their goto tech support, I showed them around on Linux Mint and they pretty easily got going as everything was intuitively similar to Windows. All was point and click (after my initial setup with their network, peripherals, printer and some basic automatic updates configuration), no terminal voodoo magic for them.
For the younger ones I typically set them up with Pop!OS and Steam and they are ready to jump without me having to explain much. Sometimes, I had to install and help setup a server (Minecraft) so they can play with their friends.
Personally, I use a mix of LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), Alpine Linux, TrueNAS Scale, OPNsense and VMware ESXi/Workstation/vSphere for virtual machines.
Mind you, I would not recommend VMware as I am currently evaluating my transition options toward XCP-ng with Xen Orchestra or LXD/Incus or something else entirely.
l’d say Linux Mint or Fedora as a distro.
And as a desktop environment (which I think will influence your Linux experience far more than the distro pick) I’d pick KDE or Cinnamon or if you want to go old school XFCE (which is little easier on the resources) (all three stick to a more traditional desktop paradigm, so the switch from windows wont be as awkward)
luckily you can switch the DE pretty easy. you can just install them on your distro of choice and use them side by side if you’d like to try them out (generally speaking, you can choose which DE session you want to use on your login screen)
I’ll second Mint. It’s got a similar layout to Windows, so eases you in, and everything just works.
You always start with Linux Mint. This is the way.
Following is a good resource for a distro decision https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop/ If you ever want to know more about something like firewall, bkuetooth, etc. use wiki.archlinux.org/ but only use arch if you want a very steep learning curve.
It doesn’t matter too much which distro you choose. It’s all linux.
- Install graphical apps via flatpak (stay away from snaps)
- Install graphical apps via distrobox (may want to do this later when you are confident enough with linux)
Linux Mint, 100%. Most of your configuration will have a GUI and their flagship Cinnamon desktop is made to look similar to Windows 7.
Mint cinnamon (Victoria 21.2)
Very beginner friendly and has a big community, most stuff works out of the box, steam is recommended heavily as it has a build in compatibility layer (Proton) if you want to check your favorite games check out at https://protondb.com/
Only notable thing is that MS office isn’t working on Linux unless the web app is used (wich isn’t a problem unless you are required by work/school to use it)
Mint is my go-to linux newbie distro suggestion.
You should try Linux Mint. It’s a good distribution for new Linux users. It’s easy to understand, has a good community with plenty of solutions for all types of problems and it is not too specific.
Gaming with Steam on Linux works without any major issues except when it comes to games that intentionally made run on Windows only due to their DRM. I suggest using the Flatpak variant of Steam so you won’t clutter your system with too many weird dependencies.
please please please avoid an LTS (long term support) distro for desktop use, especially if gaming. this includes Linux mint which is based on Ubuntu LTS. the packages are painfully old and cause problems playing the latest games, particularly where they don’t work out of the box with lutris/proton/wine etc. LTS is great for servers and workstations but not end users
experienced users can make any distro work including LTS but it’s extra overhead for new folks
OP, this is terrible advice. Do not follow! Unless you run into a problem with Ubuntu LTS or distro based on it that you and the community cannot solve and it’s due to the LTS, stick with LTS. The vast majority of users are on LTS which is why there are tested solutions for most common problems you might run into. LTS releases last for many years so once you solve a problem, it’s likely you won’t have to solve it again for a long time, unless you decide to make your life more interesting by upgrading or changing the OS. Non-LTS releases last for 9 months or so, then you’re thrust onto a new set of changes and bugs that may or may not hit you, with much fewer comrades to test them and find solutions for. As a new user, if you’re going with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based OS, stick to LTS. You’ll have enough hurdles to cross getting acquainted with the OS itself.
