Don’t wait. Experiment now in a VM to learn the basics.
Or alternatively, make a live USB and boot it natively.
MintLinux and Pop!OS are normally the two front-runners for new users. Basically, if you use Steam and you don’t play online-only games with bad implementations of anti-cheat software, you are good to game on either.
Make a USB that you can “live boot” from, so you can test out how they work with your hardware. Generally spearking, Mint works better with AMD, and Pop! works better with Nvidea.
Here’s the official basic guide for Mint:
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/And here’s the official basic guide for Pop!:
https://support.system76.com/articles/install-pop/Do Pop!_OS AND Linux Mint have KDE Plasma variants, for newcomers who don’t know how to swap desktop environments?
I don’t think they do. But once you’ve already started looking into swapping the desktop environment from whichever is the default, I don’t think you can call yourself a newcomer anymore.
Well, yes, that’s why I asked. Some newcomers to linux find Plasma more familiar than GNOME et al. Having it preinstalled can help them get comfortable faster, with less effort.
Wanting a windows-like environment makes sense. It’s not specifically Plasma, but Mint has Cinamon which is very Windows-like.
Linux Mint
Agree. There’s some nice familiarity there for the converted.
Please see username
Justu Semint?
Ju Stusem Int
I think it’s French.
Sorry. Now my breath is fresh, which version of Linux should I use?
“Tips Fedora”
Redhat linux, got it. lol.
+2
Seconded. It was the first Linux that “just worked” for me, and has done so across 4 different machines now.
I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago, had used RHEL and Ubuntu before, my only complaint is that the task bar editor is kind of clunky.
Aside from that, solid OS (and there is no real need to edit the task bar, unless you are my kind of weirdo).
I recommend Mint to newer people. For folks like you who want that level of customization which is totally cool btw, I would just suggest a distro that empowers that like arch.
Basically, you should choose your distro according to the available UIs (DesktopEnvironments) as well as the philosophy and back-end configuration of the distribution.
UI (desktop environments):
- KDE (Windows like)
- Gnome (MacOS like)
- XFCE (very barebones, windows like)
- Cinnamon (also windows like)
- CosmicDE (comming soon, mix of KDE and Gnome)
Distros:- Fedora: very stable yet a very progressive philosophy (usually implement major changes first). Comes in Gnome, KDE and other variants (spins)
- PopOS!: “Just works” distro, great for NVidia cards. Currently still using Gnome but will soon switch to CosmicDE.
- ArcoLinux: If you want something beginner-friendly but want to be able to change everything later. Extremely flexible, comes in many flavours like Gnome, KDE, …
Nobara is Fedora with some additions that make it easier for new users to stay in point and click mode and have more things working out of the box…
not here to recommend a specific distro, I’m sure your experience will largely be familiar between the popular recommendations here.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised at just how good gaming on Linux is right now. You’ll probably find that contemporary AAA titles perfom better than on win10/11.
I find that Linux is the best place to play older windows games. You don’t get fucked over by annoying exclusive fullscreen behaviour messing with your desktop when you tab out, for example.
Shit really just works. It’s a great time.
Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. It’s designed to make the transition easy. The menus and taskbar are all in the same place as you’d expect them on Windows. There’s the usual set of documents/pictures/downloads folders. The interface is good-looking and polished like you’re used to, too.
Ubuntu or one of its derivatives like Mint or PopOS.
Fedora is pretty good too but is a little more cutting edge, essentially a beta test for Red Hat Enterprise Linuxs new features. Good stuff, is what I use, but also occasionally breaks things and requires some insight into linux. Still pretty polished and user friendly tho.
Play with Fedora or Ubuntu for a while and then explore other distros.
ZorinOS. My elderly parents have been using it for years without any issues, so I can guarantee you that it’s very noob-friendly.
However, if you’d like to game, I’d recommend using either Pop!_OS or Nobara instead. I’d recommend giving them all a try regardless, just create a bootable USB using Ventoy and chuck all the ISOs you wish to try.
The standard recs are Pop, Mint, Ubuntu, or Fedora. All great choices.
I’ll just add the option of jumping straight into the deep end and installing Arch. It’s not my distro of choice (I run Debian) but you will learn a lot by installing and running it.
That’s how I did it. But be careful: It won’t be pleasant at first and very time intensive!
Why wait?
I’d start with Pop!OS or Linux Mint. They both are beginner friendly.
Especially Pop runs well with NVIDIA GPUs. AMD is no problem on either.
I personally think that Pop has the best out of the box, everything is just running, experience.
Fedora. In my personal experience it has been much more sane and stable compared to ubuntu or tumbleweed, and my friends have preferred it over arch or kde neon, often for stability. The packages are up to date, games work great (even on nvidia) and it runs great on laptop
I’ve also heard good things about Pop!_os and mint, but I haven’t used either
I also love that they don’t seem to do much customization on the desktop environment, just a clean, default Gnome (which admittedly might not be ideal for many people due to some…questionable UX decisions).
I’d suggest Debian Stable with KDE Plasma.
Debian is the grandparent of most distros today, instructions for it are everywhere, and it’s got a large userbase.
First of all I recommand that no matter what distribution you get, that you should get one that has KDE as desktop environment as it looks mostly like windows and that would make it easy for you to get used to it.
As for what distro to use well that depends. While searching for info on how to do things when I first went to Linux most posts that I found were for Ubuntu.
Which was annoying as I did not want Ubuntu and I was using Mangaro and later went to Arch.
Manjaro is based on Arch so you can use documentați and forum answers from both Manjaro and Arch. Also Arch has very good documentation but it’s a little too technical for someone that just started using Linux and might confuse you more then answer your questions.
My recomandation would be Manjaro but Ubuntu seems to be easier to find info for!
I also recommend to use ChatGPT or better yet the edge specific ChatGPT(as it is connected to the internet) for answer to problems you have encountered. It’s not perfect but it’s very helpful.
