vodkasolution,

Ubuntu or Mint (Ubuntu based) are the clear winners, I see recently a mild return to Fedora and OpenSuse but I wouldn’t start with them

meekah,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

Why not? I’ve been using nobara KDE (fedora based) for the past weeks now (just a few weeks of pop os before) and I’m perfectly happy.

Tibert,

Well fedora isn’t really a beginner friendly distro. The community is much smaller, and there is a lot more outdated or bad advice circulating when searching an issue.

When I installed fedora on my laptop some months ago, I wanted to switch the ffmpeg install and get codecs installed. Even fedora’s documentation was outdated.

Only by searching and digging in some websites I found a command I had to do to make it world, in order to switch the ffmpeg version away from the open fedora version…

meekah,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

I see, that makes sense. thanks!

polygon6121,

I am a experienced Linux user and I just use Ubuntu. Community support is good and it just works and gets out of your way, with that said I probably fiddle more with it than I realise… Depending on the system you install it on there is also a possibility that the hardware is tested and supported by the manufacturer. In my case I use it on a Thinkpad p52 workstation and a Dell XPS 13, both of which was/is sold with Ubuntu versions. And if you don’t like it just distrohop and go crazy, it can honestly be a lot of fun and a learning experience in itself Edit: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Long Term Support)

AnonStoleMyPants,

Honestly, just go with Ubuntu. If there are any problems you can very easily find answers. Second option would be the get something Ubuntu based, like Mint and Pop OS. Being based in it basically means they take Ubuntu and modify a bit to their liking but at the core they’re Ubuntu, meaning that almost everything you find for Ubuntu will work for them.

You can always switch later to something else if you feel like it.

1stTime4MeInMCU,

Unless you want to f around just install Ubuntu and be done with it

  • an arch user btw
netchami,

Linux Mint is awesome for beginners.

AceQuorthon,

Pop_OS!

DirigibleProtein,

Fedora, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu are all good for beginners.

assplode,

I had a great experience with Ubuntu as a Linux first timer. Still using it 5 years later!

Ayhem,

Opensuse for peace of mind ( + its kinda very stable arch experience ) , or as always for new linux users go with linux mint

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

As long as it’s tumbleweed.

Non rolling release distros are completely inappropriate for desktop use

qaz,

Non rolling release distros are completely inappropriate for desktop use

Why exactly? Because you need to manually upgrade to newer versions?

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

Yes. It makes sense on production servers because you have staging envs to test upgrades. All it does on a desktop is make you use old versions of tools until one day you have a massive update to new old versions of tools, which is way more likely to break shit than doing small, consistent upgrades

qaz,

I completely agree, it seems ridiculous to have to reinstall, manually edit sources or have a large number of programs break on you to stay up to date. It’s one of the things Windows does better. I’m personally considering switching to OpenSUSE Slowroll when it leaves beta testing.

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

Fwiw arch is great. As long as you regularly update, it’s never an issue.

And they now have an archinstall script on the live image. It’s not a GUI, but it’s a very simple cli app to set up your complete install.

qaz,

But why would I choose Arch over something like Fedora?

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

Well for one, fedora comes with gnome. So that’s already a reason not to. Also afaik fedora isn’t actually a true rolling release.

Also pacman is the best and the arch repos are amazing, augmented with the AUR

qaz,

Well for one, fedora comes with gnome.

There are spins with various DE’s: KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE+Compiz, i3, LXQt, LXDE, SOAS, Phosh (Phone Shell), Sway, Budgie. You aren’t supposed to able to change or install multiple DE’s though as far as I know, but that isn’t a problem for me because I always use KDE.

Also afaik fedora isn’t actually a true rolling release.

That’s true, the updates are a bit slower. But I actually prefer that, that’s why I’m interested in slowroll.

Also pacman is the best and the arch repos are amazing, augmented with the AUR

I have heard a lot of good things about the AUR. I’m currently using a combination of zypper packages, nix packages, Flatpak apps and opi and using a single method would be preferable (system packages and flatpak would be fine too).

Fal,
@Fal@yiffit.net avatar

But I actually prefer that, that’s why I’m interested in slowroll.

IMO that’s a mistake. Especially for kde, and especially wayland. KDE moves very quick. If you’re not on a distro that has the latest stable packages at any time you’re missing out. I hear people on linux bitch about kde only to realize they’re on some LTS distro running kde 5.24 or something.

And staying on old versions of stuff is stupid. Do you have a staging environment that you test upgrades? Because if not, all you’re doing is pushing off changes until you have to dump a huge amount of them at once, which is WAY more likely to break stuff in ways that will be extremely hard to figure out, instead of incremental upgrades.

I have heard a lot of good things about the AUR. I’m currently using a combination of zypper packages, nix packages, Flatpak apps and opi and using a single method would be preferable (system packages and flatpak would be fine too).

I haven’t used nix stuff, but the AUR and the official repos are why arch is so great. Basically everything you could possibly want is in there, and kept up to date. When I have to use other distros I think it’s totally absurd how many applications want you to install ppas, or curl custom scripts and pipe them to bash, it’s absurd. Totally a step backwards in linux.

MagneticFusion,

If this is your first time using Linux, just use Linux Mint. Stable, popular, good package support, etc. Once u feel more ready you can dip your hands in other distros.

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