Linux is perfectly fine for GUI users. It’s really great for most common use cases. You might have issues with games (or so do I’ve heard), but I’m not a gamer and don’t know much about this… Steam has helped make games on Linux a lot better. I just play supertux or supertuxcart or mahjong once in a blue moon and am happy.
Most things work perfectly - stick to Ubuntu or Fedora or opensuse. Once you get the hang of things, things actually feel better on the Linux desktop:
much faster than Windows
no tracking
highly customizable
if you ever get into it, you can script your setup to be easily replicable across machines
Things that you’ll have to fight
fingerprint scanners - only a small subset work. My Dell latitude scanner works perfectly though.
some printers might need manual driver download/install
some software is only built for Windows (less and less of those these days, unless you’re doing something specialized)
Nah, I think if you used a distro like mint on most hardware your experience is completely reasonable.
I started playing around with Nixos (seasoned Linux user)… That’s a real hole though. Not hard. Just different. And weird. Very cool, but still quite a bit rough around the edges.
Edit: removed my own Linux background after realizing I didn’t know how to use the app, and responses were to top comment.
Ubuntu is a great suggestion for beginners- that’s what I install for friends and family as of now (I’m considering alternatives). I’m thinking about getting new folks on opensuse tumbleweed, but let’s see.
Complete agree: always mainstream distribution for new users - Fedora, opensuse tumbleweed, Ubuntu are all great choices.
Edit: I realized everyone was responding to top comment, removed long winded rambling about my personal Linux journey.
I 100% second note taking - my personal favorite is ObsidianMD.
I used Joplin for many months, with WebDAV (koofr)/e2e setup for sync, till I discovered ObsidianMD.
Now: all my notes are in markdown/plantuml/mermaid/Obsidian canvas/drawio, managed primarily by ObsidianMD, but occasionally on vscode for special use cases (plantuml diagram editing… vscode flow is better). I use obsidian git to sync to my git repo across my machines. Still love Joplin in a pinch (mobile app on occasion) though.