Personally I would recommend Fedora, most distros people have recommended here works.
I had less issues installing Fedora on a new laptop than I did with the win11 and win10 attempts, I'm never switching back to windows
this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
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The process for installation is more or less the same for all of them.
Linux Mint and PopOS are the "go to" suggestions. I really don't like the way either of them look. I'm partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.
Bazzite comes with most of the stuff you will want pre-loaded, and also the cool Steam Deck Gamescope interface. It's the only one I've used with seamless background updates like you might be accustomed to on Android or iOS. That's my recommendation.
Currently using Bazzite as my main OS on my laptop, and it works pretty good, the ostree setup has prevented me from manually installing several things though :/
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Mint or Zorin
Debian all day...
All these shiny new distros promising to make things easier and better... But nothing is easier and better than 30 years of rock solid stability and support.
Depending on how new the laptop is, it might not work on debian stable. Check your compatibility
From personal experience with a new laptop, the intel meteor lake platform didnt work well with debian stable
I'm very impressed by the work by the Elementary OS team. Linux is a beast to figure out, and while I've used Linux for 30 years, I remember how frustrating getting started was. I use Pop!_OS on my desktop machines today and Debian or Ubuntu for other machines and I've used dozens of desktops, but Elementary really does just work (and also also happens to be Debian / Ubuntu based).
It has the easiest install process, trouble free device support, and it starts you with guardrails that keep from breaking things, but can be turned off as you figure it out. Very Mac inspired experience, so not completely intuitive from Windows, but the reality of Linux is that you are going to change distros over time, or even use multiple as each do a better job at dealing with niche requirements. Certaintly not the one size that fits no one that is the current Windows 11 debacle.
Edit: Wine math last night, it was summer of 1994 so 30 years, not 35 😅. It was on my new AMD 486DX4/100 with VLB and getting X to work was no picnic. A friend gave me the CD ROMs so at least I wasn't using dialup to download it.
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Thanks for the input ya nerds. Much love from the geek side of lemmy. I'll be taking the advice of poking around with multiple distros before committing to one, because it sounds a whole lot less painful than I was imagining.
Quick question though, what the hell is a gnome? Or a KDE for that matter?
About Gnome and KDE, they are simply different Desktop Enviroments (DE).On Linux, DE's are a software category, much like how browsers are a category with many different alternatives (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, ...) on Linux we got DE's such as: Gnome (a more tablet-like DE. You either love it or hate it) KDE Plasma (by default it's windows-like, but it is very customizeable but can be kinda overwhelming to some) Cinnamon (the one that comes with Mint, very simple, very light, very user friendly and has a familiar layout for Windows users) And many more, Cosmic, Pantheon, XFCE, Sway and so on...
I discovered Ventoy a week ago and ~~it's fucking amazing. So much time and hassle saved.~~ it seemed amazing, but I had no idea about the security concerns others have pointed out. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
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Desktop Environments (DE), or the Graphical User Interface (GUI) you use with it. Essentially you can choose the graphics set and layout of your computer. The underlying functionality of your computer doesn't change too much, but how things get displayed does. Ubuntu by default uses GNOME. but you can install Kubuntu instead of or alongside it and use the KDE environment. I used to have both installed and just chose which one I wanted to use at the login screen. Eventually I moved to the i3 environment as well and would switch to that sometimes because it could be fun to play with. If you're new to this and use Ubuntu I'd just start with that (GNOME) and then you can branch out from there when you feel ready. KDE runs a bit more efficiently but looks a bit simpler, last I used it.
Gnome and KDE are two different "desktop environments". Each distro has a default desktop environment (DE for short), but it's like a regular application that you can swap out for a different one that does the same thing. The DE is (roughly, I think) the graphical interface to the operating system. So it can feel like the DE is the operating system (especially on Windows or Mac, which don't have options to change the DE).
Most Linux distros, and certainly all of the beginner friendly ones, make it relatively easy to switch to a different DE. (Or, so I've heard. I've been using Linux as my daily driver for I've a decade, and I barely understand what's involve in installing a new DE.)
GNOME and KDE are different desktop environments. Basically they are the software that provides you a graphical user interface. Gnome is more simple, but KDE is more customizable and windows-like. There are more options to choose from than these 2
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Mint, Fedora
Run KDE if you consistently game, otherwise Gnome is good since you can leave every setting after setup with it
What advantage does KDE have over Mint for gaming?
Oh, it's not kde, it's gnome
Gnome compositor can have issues with some games, most notable for me was TF2 and TF2 Classic
The first time in installed mint I ruined the partitions on my laptop. But that was on me.
Look at screenshots of default interfaces and pick your fave bug distro. Can't go wrong with fedora, Ubuntu, mint, pop_os etc. mint would be good since you have a friend who uses it. When you want to know how to do something you can ask.
I run arch btw
TuxedoOS has been seamless, runs KDE, and all updates are checked for compatibility
Linux Mint. I'm a pretty hardcore Linux person, used a dozen different distros, Mint is by far the closest I've experienced to #JustWorks.
It's reliable and simple enough that earlier this year I switched my tech-illiterate parents from Windows to Mint. Works great for them so far.
Yeah Mint being the "Just works" distro is why I use it these days. Debian is best for servers/low maintenance systems, Mint is best for desktops IMHO.
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Pop!_OS is neat. I've been running it on my desktop and laptop for over a year now. I like that it doesn't look like Windows and has enough difference to it to not be a macOS clone either. Plus I think System76 is doing some great things with hardware design.
Pop_os is the best
I've never noticed any hate for Mint, it seems to be a pretty good option. It'll easily run on anything that was able to run Windows 10 (probably 8 too) and the default desktop environment Cinnamon is easy to navigate if you're coming from Windows. Even if you have some obscure piece of hardware with Mint being based on Ubuntu there's probably a tutorial you can follow to get it working.
I can’t disagree with mint being a good distribution, because it is.
I personally think for someone just starting out in Linux that an immutable distribution like fedora silverblue (gnome) or kinoite (kde) is the safest route to take. They’re difficult to break. I personally use bazzite on my framework laptop and it’s basically hassle free. Not for everyone, but they work well.
I opened this thread to type out this exact comment but somehow you typed up the exact same thing before me?
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Any Debian/Ubuntu or fedora based distro will do you fine. I personally ran PopOS when I built my computer earlier this year and didn't have any issues with it
Install a few and see which one you like the most. You can install several distros at the same time and they'll all appear in the boot menu. When I was deciding which distro to use on my laptop, I was dual booting Debian and Fedora, with one /home partition shared between both of them.
Mint and Fedora are good choices IMO. Everyone is different though :)
Some caveats, though: To share the same home folder safely, it's best to use the same desktop environment on both distros. Debian paired with Fedora makes it difficult to match the release numbers of the desktops, though, and there might be discrepancies with respect to user config files in the home folder, when you're trying to configure features in Fedora that aren't yet available in Debian.
Also the system folder setup (locations of libraries and include files) is different between the two, so if there's anything in the home folder that's linked against libraries in one distro, it won't work in the other. Especially if you're going to compile anything in the home folder -- including stuff that package managers of scripting languages like lua and python themselves compile -- that could lead to major heaadaches.
Good points. I was using KDE with both and didn't have any issues (even though Debian's version of KDE was older) but that might not work in all scenarios.
I don't have compiled things in the home folder - they go in either /usr/local/bin or /opt.
I'll drop this: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-linux-distros It's written by an actual journo and not a bunch of nerds in nerdville!
Getting into Linux is a bit like Windows back in the day - interesting and a lot of fun ... and rather nerdy. My first Windows version was 1.0 and my last was 7. Mind you I do run a MS Silver Partner and worry about a lot of Windows servers and desktops but my daily driver is Linux.
Mint is a great choice, even though it isn't mentioned in the article I linked because you get a great community, which is pretty important. Its basically Ubuntu and therefore Debian too, so a lot of howtos will work.
I personally rock Kubuntu but I have a requirement for enterprisey stuff - ESET and Veeam and AD integration and all that. I also get Secure Boot out of the box and not all Linux distros work with that.
Your smart new laptop will have Secure Boot enabled so you will have to deal with that if you deploy a distro that doesn't. So with say Arch, you will need to turn it off or learn how to sign your kernels etc and that is not a beginner topic! I suggest you turn off Secure Boot if your chosen distro doesn't support it, rather than insisting on it. Its a nice to have but not the most important security feature ever.
You might want to show a bit of ankle and try out a few to start with. Most distros have a live CD that you can boot and try out first. I suggest trying out Mint, Ubuntu and Kubuntu. That gets you three modern interfaces to play with.
If you are into gaming then it kooks like Pop!OS would be a good place to start instead.
There is no real best option - it's what suits you and you have choice.
TBH Ubuntu, or if you have an older/lower spec machine xubuntu
I'm going to go out on a limb and say fedora silverblue or bazzite
Basic user? Use flat packs and enjoy easy graphics support, as well as all of the windows compatibility for gaming
Advanced user? Learn to do things in pods/containers or distrobox, it's easy even if the quick start docs aren't great (I can find my cheat sheets if anyone is going down that road)
Pro: most stuff just works, and it's harder to config yourself into a corner you have to research your way out of
Cons: normal Linux install guides need to be modified a bit, it's not hard but you do have to learn how to do it
Debian is one of my favorites and one of the easiest to use if you are new. i haven't tried mint but they are very similar.
Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or one of the offshoots like Mint or Pop.
As long as you don't go too far into the weeds with Arch, Silverblue or NixOS, You're probably going to have a pretty decent experience, as long as you don't dig too far under the hood too early most things that you're going to want to try are just going to work out of the gate.
FedoraKDE, or Mint.
Either way you'll probably be able to search and find answers to your problems (and answers for ubuntu may work), and with mint you know your friend can possibly help if need be, and they work well.
Linux mint (Cinnamon is my fav). You can never go wrong.
Maybe
It's hilarious how uncool it is to suggest Ubuntu but it often just works, including very recent hardware if it's from Canonical partners like Lenovo or Dell. And the kerfuffle about things like snaps are way overblown.
Especially because it's to a newbie, who stands to benefit the most from using an OS with more user share and more available online resources.
you're right, but the issues with ubuntu crop up later, when you have to update or after you install enough incompatible stuff that it breaks your system. which is a shame bc ubuntu is the most user friendly distro there is imo
I don't recognize this myself. I've never had trouble with incompatibilities or degradation etc.,
Especially these days my OS can remain very vanilla, as many complex things can be containerized. E.g. I run syncthing and an nfs server and sometimes torrenting over vpn, through docker-compose; I'd never install all that on the host with all the extensive dependencies. Same with some heavyweight apps like darktable - spin them up from Flatpak.
Ubuntu does it very well with minimal fuss. I see little to dislike.
my last personal anectode with ubuntu is this: my company decided to setup our office as a remote-onsite hybrid workplace, so our working machines were moved to a rack elsewhere to be accessed remotely and the local machines were supposed to act as basically dumb terminals that can be used interchangeably by us
we develop on rhel, but since the local machines are just to access our dev machines remotely, support decided to install ubuntu because it "just works". turns out, since ubuntu does a lot of stuff its own way for no good reason, it broke under our network configuration (it's complicated) and no snap application could run -- so, no slack or firefox. not a great scenario for a workplace. in the end we decided to replace ubuntu by rhel and no longer had any issues
you're right that ubuntu might work flawlessly for you and that it might never break. but, it also might break in unexpected ways. i cannot reliably recommend ubuntu to a beginner because this risk might forever put someone off of linux
is it user friendly if it's so prone to breakage?
i mean... when it doesn't break, it works better than anything else. 5-minute installs, supports a ton of configurations and peripherals out of the box, makes gnome a little more usable, etc, etc
...but it breaks, eventually
Is it though? I've found it rock solid for years on end - been using it for 14 years, and Debian before that.
i mean idk, i was just asking about what that other poster was saying. i fuckin' hate ubuntu for other reasons and i generally don't speak on it in the negative or positive in threads like this. i only chimed in because what was being said struck me as odd. "it's the most user friendly distro there is, it just breaks a lot"
it made me wonder what user friendly meant to this other user. i wanted to hear their perspective because i thought i could learn something, especially as i help my mom, an inexperienced linux user, use linux on an old laptop for the first time
More specifically Ubuntu LTS, since interim releases are now expectedly beta quality and require upgrades a few months after release. Ubuntu LTS, enable unattended upgrades, register and activate Ubuntu Pro for them and you won't have to touch it for the lifetime of the hardware.
Fedora tends to "just work" too. Some manufacturers that support Ubuntu also support Fedora for customers that need a "RedHat-ish" distro instead of a "Debian-ish" one.
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