Pop!_OS is lovely and the people behind it helpful. Works so well on my System76 laptop (obviously).
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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I wish howtogeek would change back to their old ms paint logo.
As a noobie to Linux I have a question: I decided to try ubuntu (haven't yet) because of what I think is called the Gnome Desktop Environment, which from what I understand is what gives it all of those sleek animations and tab switcher and stuff. Am I correct about this? Or do all distros have this? I care a lot about aesthetics and stuff like that—the main reason I'm interested in Linux, other than learning about something new, is the idea of being able to fully customize the look and feel
Most distros will have it, you could install it on any distro with effort
Example of effort https://itsfoss.com/install-gnome-linux-mint/
https://www.gnome.org/getting-gnome/ Other distros with it
I use Endeavour and on install I just chose Gnome
You can stick with Ubuntu, it’s not really a big deal. Everyone will say what they use is best because eventually you will find what is best for you
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You will be able to get GNOME as the default desktop environment in many distributions and then install what extensions you want to change both appearance and function: https://extensions.gnome.org/
You can use a bunch of extensions to get the taskbar + app menu that Windows and KDE use:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/ , https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/ and https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/
Or make GNOME look more like macOS if thats your thing:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4994/dash2dock-lite/
Many users swear by GNOME's default work flow though, so might wanna give it a shot before changing it.
Installation of Debian 12, Desktop Environment choices
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Not the first time trying Linux, but the first time in the last 10 years since I tried it and I'm digging Mint. Still has problems with my Logitech steering wheel and Logitech mouse, but overall not bad.
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Recommending Pop_OS! to newbies
That might just be the quickest way to make someone hate Linux forever. The glitchiest, most troublesome install I've ever tried to do. In the end, after two days of work just to get the damn live image to boot, the only reason I kept going was probably sunken cost falacy.
Funny. The one time I installed it, I just stuck it on a usb, booted from it, started the installer, next, next, done.
I really didn't have much of a different experience between installing pop os Vs Ubuntu.
I guess some weird hardware thing that Pop OS doesn't provide for?
Yeah, maybe. My experience has been a multitude of hangs and flash drive rewrites. At first, I thought my flash drive might be bad, so I tried another and quickly determined that the other one was actually bad before going back to the first. Eventually, I ended up just unplugging everything out of desperation and for some reason that worked.
I'm actually still working on this as I type this, currently waiting on partition changes because, while I read that 500MiB is recommended for Pop's boot partition, the installer has told me that it's too small...
Since I'm still dealing with this, and given the issues I had booting the live disk, there's a good chance this won't even be useable in the end. I've used Ubuntu before, and it boots fine, but fuck if I want to deal with snap.
Edit: Went up to 750MB (yeah, MB not MiB here, easier to think about later). Still says it's too small. Sure wish I had some detailed documentation to work with here, instead of just "use Clean Install" in the official docs and a single Reddit comment saying "500MiB is good." That would the bee's damned knees.
Edit 2: Works fine once installed. The live disk just would not boot with anything else plugged in for some reason.
I think it requires 1GB and it's an incredibly recent requirement that that does not show up well in most search results. I had the same issue on a recent install and I had to go searching around the internet to figure out the actual size like you did lol.
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Y'all seriously overestimate thr average user:
Debian. It's simple, stable, minimal upkeep, rarely if ever has breaking changes, and all this out of the box.
Someone new doesn't need to be thrown in the deep end for their first foray into linux, they want an experience like windows or mac: simple interface, stable system, some potential for getting their hands dirty but not too much to worry about breaking
Debian is in many ways the "deep end". A big part of its development philosophy is prioritizing their weirdly rigid definition of Free Software and making it hard to install anything that doesn't fit that. I'm not saying it's not a good distro, but IDK if it's beginner friendly.
Debian is in many ways the “deep end”.
The first time I tried Debian was when I was new to Linux, on a laptop with both the Ethernet and Wi-Fi unsupported. On top of which, it had an nVidia GPU. It was hard.
Now I know much more about Linux and checked the Motherboard for Linux support before buying it. Debian works pretty well.
So, it's beginner friendly as long as someone helps you out with the installation after checking up on all the stuff you will need to run.
So, it's beginner friendly as long as someone helps you out with the installation after checking up on all the stuff you will need to run.
In other words, it's not beginner-friendly
I've only recently switched to Debian after a couple decades with Ubuntu (because snaps) and I had a few issues during installation.
The net install failed to configure my wifi so I had to download the DVD/CD install. That worked but then I had to manually nano several config files to fix about 5 broken things for some reason.
I installed it recently on a different system, and went with the Live option (gnome) and it installed 10x easier and smoother than Ubuntu. It installed in about 4 minutes (on a new/fast computer).
So I would say Debian Live is VERY beginner friendly, but the other install methods are all messed up for some reason. Ubuntu's default option is the Live option so I think that if Debian just kinda hid the other options on their website it would be 100% beginner friendly...
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One time the installer got stuck on my hardware. Never again. Debian deserves a lot of credit but personally I will not go near an OS unless I am certain in advance that the initial installation will go without a hitch.
Debian? First time i installed it wanted to use CD for packages instead of online. Don’t know why. Second time it didn’t have wireless drivers as these were non free.
It’s a great distro but not for newbies.
Fedora all the way!
Non-free-firmware is now handled automatically during installation as of the most recent Debian release, just FYI. For reference, see the note at the top of this wiki page: https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
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To add to that, there's so much "support" out there for Debian and by proxy Ubuntu. You can Google any error and you'll find the fix. That's what draws new people to them. Even my self even though I'm not new to the Linux ecosystem. Ubuntu makes a perfectly good and stable server operating system.
Normal users want that potential for getting their hands dirty to be zero at best
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