Any distro I should use?
Use Linux Mint until you know enough to decide for yourself which other distro fits your use case better.
I’ve been thinking about mint for some time
Thinking of using Linux mint, anything else?
Mint is my favourite beginner distro, can’t really go wrong with it. What’s your main use for your PC (gaming, office, development etc.)? There are some distros that are more well suited for certain tasks.
LMDE is also good, just a different version of Mint. Basically works the same.
I’m currently daily driving LMDE after some time. For OP it probably won’t matter so choosing main line mint might be better.
Linux Mint all the way.
I’ve never used it but that should be fine
Linux mint
fun fact: my first experience of Linux was actually in Ubuntu (in a emulator ofc), and yes Im thinking of using mint
Also try LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). I think it’s their best flavor actually, but not enough people know about it and usually only try the regular Mint.
oooh I’ll definitely try that first
can recommend mint too after using it for nearly half a year now, without issues
Curious, why not Ubuntu? Doesn’t it have more support forums and generally more popular?
Almost all of those support forms are from way back when Ubuntu was user friendly and community driven. However they are no longer serving the community and shouldn’t be considered user friendly like it was previously.
Anyway almost all of the Ubuntu specific stuff will work on Linux mint as its Ubuntu based.
I recommend first switching Windows-only software to crossplatform software so you won’t have to get used to another operating system and different software at the same time.
For example: LibreOffice, Firefox, etc
Mint is my recommendation, having using it myself for many years now.
If you have a Nvidia GPU, a case could be made for POP! due to the built in drivers, but installing Nvidia drivers is rather painless in Mint.
Then do it? It’s a free operating system – just download whatever distro pleases you, give it a spin, see what happens.
I would but I am pretty worried about my files being lost, plus I’m waiting until I get a better device
From personal experience: if you’re trying to dual-boot with Windows, I recommend using completely separate drives (rather than separate partitions). Windows is very shitty about overwriting your Linux boot partitions when it updates. Having a separate drive isn’t fool-proof, but it helps.
I haven’t needed Windows in >10 years though, so maybe it’s not as shitty about that, but I recommend caution.
I’m on a single ssd dual boot setup with encryption (LUKS for Linux / Bitlocker for Windows) for over 2 years. Never had any problems.
I used this guide back then. Hope it’ll help you op.
I would do this if I knew how to install separate drives, and if my main PC wasn’t a laptop
Maybe invest in an external drive you can copy important files to. Dual booting is usually issue free but it’s always possible to have data loss in general. Data loss, especially data that is personally important to you is a tragedy.
you can install seperate drives on a laptop and dualboot, I know it because I did it before
TELL ME ASAP, I’ll try to find the specs of my laptop, PLEASE TELL ME
Back in the late 1900s, you could open a laptop and remove a hard drive with only a #2 phillips screw driver. So I think they mean that. Physically remove your Windows drive, install a fresh drive, install/play/learn Linux. With your Windows drive disconnected, you can do ANYTHING in Linux without fear of losing any data on that other drive.
Frustrated and just “need to work”? Reverse the process back to the Windows drive.
Feeling a little more confident and want to access your files on the Windows drive? Get a SATA-USB adapter. No need to go all enclosure just yet as that just adds steps when you need the Windows setup.
Comfortable in Linux? Copy your important data over to the Linux system, format the original drive, NOW put it in an enclosure for a handy backup drive.
Feeling confident in your newfound prowess? Connect that external drive to a Raspberry Pi and turn the Pi into a basic NAS, maybe drop a little VPN on it, and now you can access that device/drive from anywhere. At the very least, you now have a place to backup important data in case the laptop falls into a volcano. Hell, now you’ve got a reason to subscribe to SelfHosted & HomeLab.
Reference: 1998-2001 I ran a “dual boot” using removable hard drive bays on a full tower system. As noted above, Windows can sometimes mess up what makes your dual boot possible.
Currently running Mint on an older HP Envy AMD laptop to get back into the Linux swing. Win10 is my daily driver on the desktop from that need of things to work. When you’re fixing other people’s/company’s computers all day, the last thing you want to do is work on your own computer. That and a lack of real gaming support/documentation forever ago is what pushed me back to Windows. The old argument of “Linux is free” wasn’t too heavy a talking point when MS kept giving me free licenses to stick with what I was more comfortable with. Win11 reminds me of Win8, reminds me of WinME, and the cycle of MS dysfunction continues. I want off the ride.
With Gaming as viable as it is on Linux, plus much nicer tools for VMs (AND Docker exists now), I’ve got about year to convert my daily driver desktop (2025 end of Win10).
Oh and I did try to put Arch on that laptop. It was overwritten by Mint as soon as it booted up without a GUI. Now, might of been my fault for using a “base image” or something, but again I need it to just work without spending what limited time I have trying to make it work. But hey, at least folks aren’t trying to get you to install Slackware from 3.5" floppies.
depends onthd laptop mine wasas sjmplle as opening it and puting another ssd inside. tell me what laptop us it
speaking of Linux, I was supposed to upgrade to Linux when I got my new laptop, but forgot about it, sorry!
Yeah, I’m getting sick of these recommend-a-distro threads
Try it with a Live USB stick. And maybe don’t listen to the people recommending Ubuntu. It’s somewhat okay, but they regularly do annoying business decisions that affect their users. I’d rather start with Mint or something.
There are many other websites dedicated to this question:
thats sounds nice, I’ll test it with my Chromebook first (after upgrading my specs ofc)
For the love of god and all that is holy just use mint cinnamon it’s the easies most stable with little learning curve ever. High performance great for work gaming browsing whatever lol. If you can use windows 7/10 you can use mint cinnamon
I’ll add that to my VM list!
LMDE Mint cinnamon plain old mint Pop OS Ubuntu
Planning to finally boot up my VM after procrastinating, anything else?
I’ve been using Mint for quite a while now on a spare machine and it’s the first linux strain that has me not giving up in frustration. I can definitely recommend.
I’d go for Linux Mint/Fedora Linux.
Another thing, I would’ve play with it first on a VM, like VirtualBox.
I wouldn’t immediately wipe Windows if I were you. I’d do dualboot with Windows.
Then, when you’re ready, stay with dualboot system or go full neckbeard /j
I’m actually thinking of dualboot on windows, gonna mess around to a VM!
You can also run many distros “live” from the install media without installing anything, to get a feel for them and to check that mosts things work (network, sound, movies etc.) You can make a bootable stick and choose the live option when it boots.
Why don’t you try becoming comfortable with Linux while using it in a Virtual Machine? I tried different distros too, and then I decided which one was the best for me.
We can’t really suggest you one, if we don’t know what you are going to use it for.
You may want to do some research, because different distros have different purposes (gaming, privacy, programming, easy to use etc etc).
Let us know, what your use cases will be?
guess I’m booting up my VM again!!
https://distrochooser.de/ is a great tool that help to understand what the different distros can do.
Also, you should probably know that selecting a distro is more about selecting the underlying OS and less about the UI (DE). Most distros support the top 5 Desktop Environments (DE for short). And selecting a DE can be just as important.
Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are great options
First time? Use Ubuntu. Not only is it easy to use and a good UX overall, most tutorials assume a Ubuntu based distro (there are differences between distros that can be…hard to translate over). That’s going to be really useful when you’re looking up how to do stuff
Another vote for Ubuntu.
I tried it as my first Linux distro about 5 years ago. There was some learning curve, but I really enjoyed it.
I’ve been using it for 5 years now. I’m glad I switched from windows!
thanks!!!
Parent comment is right. The body of documentation generated for Ubuntu by the community is an enormous asset. It’s one of the important side effects of it being the most used distro.
Parent comment is wrong. The default UX used in Ubuntu may actually be confusing for newbies, as it’s quite different compared to Windows. Just check some screenshots or videos and you can see for yourself. I’d instead recommend going for a distro which uses a more familiar UX (ie the Desktop Environment).
Perhaps a distro which uses KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE or LXQt by default (these are “desktop environments” (DE) - which is a collection of the desktop shell components (eg start menu, taskbar, dock etc) plus default applications that go with it eg the file manager, document viewer etc). A desktop environment like the ones I mentioned above, in their default settings, should be familiar to most Windows users. Now whilst you can install any DE on any distro, it can be a daunting task for newbies, plus, the settings might not be optimal for you. So it’s better to go with a distro that comes with such easy-to-use DEs by default. Examples of such distros include Linux Mint and Zorin. These, by default, should look quite familiar to you, and should be even more easier to use than Ubuntu.
Both Mint and Zorin are based on Ubuntu, so most of the documentation for Ubuntu should be relevant to Mint and Zorin as well. But if you’re not sure, just include quotes for your distro when you’re doing a web search, eg
how do I do this in Linux "Mint"will ensure you’ll only get results with “Mint” in the page.deleted by creator
The default UX used in Ubuntu may actually be confusing for newbies, as it’s quite different compared to Windows.
It’s not that different, dude, and it’s not like they don’t give you a tutorial on first boot either.
Perhaps a distro which uses KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE or LXQt by default.
Gauge your audience dude. A Linux newbie will not know wtf anything you just named is. (For any other newbies reading, these are all ‘desktop environments’ - essentially collections of programs that make up a user interface)
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Side dock, top panel, lack of a “start” menu are already three immediately visible differences, and you claim it’s not that different?
The side dock is a taskbar except on the left hand side. Big whoop. Top panel is basically the system tray as seen on Windows, with all functionality fairly obvious just by looking at it, and there is infact a start button where you can type in the program name you’re looking for, just like most people do in Windows. Not exactly MacOS levels of relearning.
Which is EXACTLY why I mentioned them, so that they can Google it.
Or…you can explain what you are talking about. Like I did for you. Sending newbies off on wild Google chases is not helpful.
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Why not?
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The people that shat themselves over Windows 8 probably aren’t the kind of people to experiment with a new OS.
well I did watch a video about desktop environment, I believe it was a tierlist video tho
I do need to be fair though… The ones the other person mentioned, they are infact more ‘windows-like’ than Ubuntu’s default. It isn’t hard to learn Ubuntu’s setup by any means but it is something to learn.
This is not 2005 when the vast majority’s experience with interactive UX on a screen was Windows. People today operate Android, iOS much more so than Windows. Thus they are able to grok multiple OS chrome paradigms without much difficulty. And then the OS chrome is rather simple and therefore learning it doesn’t cost much or yield significant benefits should you have gotten that knowledge for free. Therefore the argument for choosing an OS based on its chrome is as shallow as the chrome itself. The difficult stuff is things not working due to defects (bugs), finding solutions and implementing them and that’s where the OS choice yields the highest benefit. On that front few options beat Ubuntu LTS other than perhaps Debian, but Debian isn’t novice-friendly.
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OP, I have an entire guide for Linux/Windows computing, having been a couple decades old user of Windows. I am using Linux for the past 6+ years, and am using Debian as of now.
Start with Ubuntu LTS. Your priority is being able to search your solutions easily on AskUbuntu, StackOverflow or similar websites within the first few search results, and NOT needing to interact with and/or get harassed by the toxic evangelists in Linux community. I assume you already got a taste of that evangelism with the comments here.
Also, it is essential to require optimal corporate and community software support, and maximum stability/compatibility with WINE, without your system breaking upon automatic/random updates. This lessens the need for you to go around scrambling on the internet for solutions. Make sure to utilise whatever you need, Snaps, AppImages, regardless of what people say, to make your Linux life easier.
mega thanks!!
Mint is the most mentioned choice and an extremely great beginner distro with an huge community.
ZorinOS will get a big update very soon and is also a very good choice. It was my first distro, especially because it looks very modern and pleasing.
If you’re a tiny bit more advanced and get the basics, then you might take a look at the immutable Fedora variants like Silverblue.
They have many advantages compared to traditional distros like the two mentioned above, but atomic Linux is a relatively new concept. I also find them easier to understand and use, and, imo, they’re even more user friendly, but not as refined.
Mint
