Best distro to start with

Hi!

I’m a long time Mac user, but I want to set up a laptop or mini desktop (something not too old but powerful enough for image editing, really just for photography workflow), and try a Linux distro with FOSS tools for this purpose. I’m done with Adobe.

I’d like to scale one day to having a NAS of some kind.

I’ve experimented with Ubuntu before but it felt a little noddy, I just didn’t like it. Any recommendations? I’d like something with a decent community that would tolerate my noob questions.

Many thanks.

Lantern,

What desktop environment were you running? I usually recommend GNOME to people who just want an OOB experience and KDE to people who want to invest into a more personal experience.

foofiepie,

I don’t actually know. It was Unity I think, whatever that is. Felt a bit, um, amateur and not very polished. Best way I can describe from what I remember.

I will be seriously researching every response here. Very grateful for the help.

Lantern,

Unity was abandoned for a few years by Ubuntu, so I’d assume it’s behind most other DEs in terms of development. Most of what users experience in a distribution is the DE, so using a bad one can ruin it.

foofiepie,

Makes sense and stacks up against my experience of it as seeming unfinished.

Is it Gnome / KDE as standard or are there other environments available?

Lantern,

Those are the two most popular DEs. There’s also MATE, LXQT, Cinnamon, XFCE, and Pantheon, but I have no experience with those.

Additionally, some users opt to use window managers in lieu of a DE, so thats also an option.

kier,

gnome is hell for people coming from windows though

Lantern,

That’s really only true of some users. Most people now are used to at least 2 OSs. GNOME acts a bit more like a mobile OS in my opinion, and KDE behaves more like a desktop OS. Ultimately if you’re moving to linux of your own volition, you’re usually going to be more tech friendly than anyone staying on windows.

To be honest, I personally disliked GNOME, but not because it didn’t match Windows. It just didn’t have the level of customization and accessibility that I expected from linux.

foofiepie,

I hate Windows with an unbridled passion. I’m forced to use it lately for work and it absolutely sucks (Win 10 anyway).

Sentau,

OP’s a long time Mac user. I don’t think he will have issues with gnome. Hell he might find it more familiar than kde

kier,

Oh, in that case, absolutely.

justjeepin,

Yep, as a Mac user for 34 years, KDE is too Windows-like and Gnome felt pretty similar to Mac.

CaptObvious,

Linux Mint. It’s a great intro to Linux. When you’ve got your feet under you — which won’t take long coming from Mac — try Debian or another distro to find the perfect fit.

BackOnMyBS,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world avatar

Second Linux Mint. I’ve tried a bunch of distros and DE for about a decade, and have always returned to Linux Mint. It’s intuitive, the installer is easy, and the OS just works.

foofiepie,

I’ve heard about Mint and it seems to have a good rep. My tech lead at work recommends it. I’ll look into all of these.

Dummy question but, I assume the commands/syntax across Mac terminal and whatever the bash/shell equivalent are similar/same?

BackOnMyBS,
@BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know anything about Mac, but hopefully someone else can provide a helpful response.

BURN,

Fairly close. Basic operation will still be the same, there may be specific commands that don’t work, but in most places they’re called out

kier,

Seems pretty good, except for the lack of a good DE.

CaptObvious,

I like Cinnamon, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It is a pretty stable distro, though, and the DEs available are good for learning Linux.

be_gt,

I’m currently very happy with Solus. Give it a try

knusprig,

Have a look at popOS or elementary, both were really low maintenance for me and offer great workflow tools.

foofiepie,

I’ve had a look through system76’ site and pop looks interesting, def a contender. Their hardware is a tad pricy. I assume like most of this the hardware is something to research carefully if you choose a distro first, compatibility, drivers, support etc.

It’s a bit of an experiment for me so I won’t be dropping a grand on some HW.

knusprig,

Yeah, I’m using the distro on a thinkpad yoga.

justjeepin,

Just use an old PC or laptop if you have one. If not install VirtualBox and give the different distros a try. It’ll run slower than if it was on actual hardware but it’ll let you try the OSes until you find something that you like.

Moobythegoldensock,

Any general purpose distro, really. If you don’t like Ubuntu, maybe you’d like Mint or Fedora?

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