I had a dream about windows and have decided to setup Linux on my laptop. What distro should I use?

I used Ubuntu once a few years ago but had compatability issues so I went back to windows. Not a great programmer but I’d like to learn. I’m not looking to do much gaming beyond DOOM2 and factorio. Mostly looking for privacy and a way to get back into programming (I have this pipe dream of learning Assembly). I’m not to particular on UI, I can use whatever.

Edit: distrochooser.de for anyone who stumbles upon this post with the same question

explodicle,

In case no one else mentioned it: prboom for Doom 2

raptir,

Why prboom? Chocolate for a vanilla experience, gzdoom for an enhanced experience.

Prboom was last updated 15 years ago. Prboom+ is… fine, but I’m not sure why you would recommend it over chocolatedoom or gzdoom.

explodicle,

Because I just realized the last time I looked into this was 15 years ago 😭

raptir,

Hah! Fair enough. Anyway, check out the two I recommended if you want to try something different!

ultrasquid,
@ultrasquid@sopuli.xyz avatar

Suggestions: Linux Mint: this is the most popular recommendation for new users. Its nice and stable, uses a familiar Windows-like layout, and should just work out of the box. Pop_OS!: this one is another popular option, which uses a layout similar to MacOS and has lots of features such as window tiling. It does use older package and isn’t often updated, however. Zorin OS: this one is pretty similar to Linux Mint. It also offers some additional desktop layouts, but some of these are paid, so if you want an entirely free experience, this is not the best option.

Suggestions for if you enjoy suffering: Arch Linux: Requires manual installation. You have to download and configure all the things yourself. Good option for advanced users who want complete control over their system and all packages installed on it. Otherwise, stay away. Arch-based distros (Endeavour, Garuda, etc): Far simpler to install, but will likely require regular maintainance, due to frequent updates.

BananaTrifleViolin,

What was your dream about windows?

vettnerk,

Sounds like a nightmare

banazir,
@banazir@lemmy.ml avatar

Windows is a nightmare.

PRUSSIA_x86, (edited )

I was trying to run some weird nonsensical dream program for a work presentation and it kept opening M$Edge to show me ads. Every time I closed a window, two more would open. Eventually I was fired because “real dudes use arch”. Then I woke up.

littletranspunk,
@littletranspunk@kolektiva.social avatar

@PRUSSIA_x86 @BananaTrifleViolin damn, your dream really went full "I use arch btw"

For real though, that sounds like a much better future than an OS from a company named after Elon's dick

nothendev,

that’s a rare insult

littletranspunk,
@littletranspunk@kolektiva.social avatar

@nothendev yeah, could've used some more cooking. I didn't get to a decent medium there

Grass,

This is hilarious and awesome. Your dream is literally 90s malware and being fired for not being enough of a nerd.

garam,
@garam@lemmy.my.id avatar

Fedora is great with gnome for beginer and don’t get in way to much like Ubuntu when used daily

terminhell,

Fedora has been great. I will admit though, that gnome without extensions or tweaks for a desktop isn’t the most fluid UI. Works better for tablet/laptops though.

I prefer kde for desktop. I’m also looking forward to the big xfce update that supports Wayland.

garam,
@garam@lemmy.my.id avatar

There are Fedora with KDE and it’s much more bleeding edge than any other distro.

terminhell,

Indeed, I’m aware of the kde spin. I forgot to include them together I guess. I had used kde on my desktop for a while.

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

/me stares with one eyebrow up at this comment from EndeavourOS… (Fedora would be easier to set-up for someone new to Linux, though.)

PseudoSpock,
@PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Going from Windows to Gnome is pretty jarring change, as much as going from Windows to Mac. Something with Cinnamon, KDE, or MATE would be a much easier transition to start with.

nottheengineer,

I’d recommend against Ubuntu. It uses snaps and it’ll teach you that the hard way eventually by having very weird issues.

Mint is based on ubuntu but says no to snaps, so that’s a good place to start.

jelloeater85,
@jelloeater85@lemmy.world avatar

What about PopOS? Is it any good? Seems nice.

Fjor,

It’s plenty good out of the box, it was my first distro and I had a great time with it. But after learning more about what I like about a distro I ended up changing. But I’m glad it was my first 😉

jelloeater85,
@jelloeater85@lemmy.world avatar

Niice! What did you like about it and what did you switch to. I’m on Ubuntu LTS right now. I just worry about driver issues, as everything I have hooked up seems to just work.

Fjor,

As it was my first distro I felt that most things just worked out of the box, compared to what I have learned and experienced on other distro. It has good Nvidia support which is why I chose it. I only switched as I want to distro hop to find what I like the best and to learn 🙌

Considering PopOS is well maintained and supported by System76 I wouldn’t worry about driver issues.

jelloeater85,
@jelloeater85@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, they seem neat. I just have a display link USB video card that support is tricky for.

hackris,

Many people have asked me this (I’m the certified neighborhood tech guy :P), I always recommend Linux Mint, with the Cinnamon desktop environment, or KDE. Ubuntu used to be the best one and it’s still very good, but pretty heavy on hardware and they keep adding frustrating features nobody asked for.

Please please please, at the start, stay away from Arch and it’s derivatives. I daily Gentoo, but you need a decent knowledge of Linux to use both. If you need help, post to the Linux community or DM me :)

CodeGameEat,

Since you’re just starting out, I would probably recommend mint. I think it’s the most stable of the “mainstream” distros and you’ll have less frustrations. If you want to have a great experience with managing packages, I think installing and using the nix package manager is the best way to manage packages on any distros (and who knows, maybe in a year or 2 you’ll want to try nixOs!)

Moobythegoldensock,

Any general purpose distro will work well for you. As others have said, Ubuntu and Mint are the standard recommendations.

Jumuta,

Just use Ubuntu/Mint, because that’s what everyone uses and has the most support forums.

Hairyblue,
@Hairyblue@kbin.social avatar

I use my PC for gaming. Ubuntu works well for me with my new hardware: Intel 13gen, Nvidia 3080, Steam.

rastilin,

nixOS , because it's a completely atomic distribution, like a docker container OS style. You define the state of the system in a configuration file, which can even control the kernel, and you can switch to an older configuration file in any reboot. It's more of a pain than the others, but it works ok out of the box and when you fix something it stays fixed so you'll never end up in a situation where something breaks and you can't fix it.

Also, all the packages bring their own versions of their own libraries and directly link to them so they'll never break during upgrades, but conversely a lot of Linux installers that try to link to system libraries won't work.

Klaymore,
@Klaymore@sh.itjust.works avatar

I love NixOS but it can be quite difficult to learn, so learning both linux and nixos at once would be pretty difficult. It’d probably be easier for them to use some normal distro while they figure out how linux works and then switch to NixOS later.

NathanUp,
@NathanUp@lemmy.ml avatar

Maybe Fedora Kinoite instead?

rastilin,

That's fair. nixOS can be savage. But I think it's also helpful for a beginner since you can't break it. A beginner is much more likely to break their system than an expert.

CodeGameEat,

NixOs is so much fun (it is my main distro rn) but I would never recommend it to someone who is just switching from windows for the first time. Any more mainstream distro would be better, but I would still recommend using the nix package manager because it’s just so good

Aatube,
@Aatube@kbin.social avatar

EndeavuorOS. It's a seamless base configuration of Arch which has a wonderful wiki that has a ton of stuff to tell you.

You can install pamac for a GUI for the package manager. Do yay <packagename> to search for any package and install it; do yay (nothing else) to upgrade everything, and yay -Rcns <packagename> to remove stuff and all their unused dependencies. I also recommend chaoticAUR

For the DE I recommend MATE but you can select any of the major ones in the installer. For me Steam didn't work when xdg-portal-gnome was installed though and firefox-like apps booted real slow, so you may or may not want to try GNOME.

Get synapse for a spotlight-like search; it uses the alt+space keybind by default

NathanUp,
@NathanUp@lemmy.ml avatar

I’m an EndeavourOS user and I love it, but I wouldn’t call it beginner friendly

Holzkohlen,
@Holzkohlen@feddit.de avatar

Linux Mint or Garuda Linux

pastermil,

Anytime someone new ask for recommendation, I’d give Linux Mint.

Vilian,

also this, start small with mint, and you can test other distros that people show here

also, start with dual boot/VM, it’s a different OS, keep windows there for when you need it

pastermil,

Yes! It’s good to start with something that’s beginner friendly to maintain sanity and good expectation.

A lot of potential novices would be repulsed if the first tutorial they’d see requires extensive use of command line.

Fizz,
@Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

Pop os

psivchaz,

Seconded. PopOS doesn’t get enough love. For a drop-in desktop it’s pretty great. I totally get why other distros have some weirdness around closed source and binaries and things. However, the average person just coming from Windows doesn’t care, so just make it easy to install Steam and whatever else they want without making them go through extra steps.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • [email protected]
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • oklahoma
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • SuperSentai
  • feritale
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines
    •