Linux

Long time arch user, and I've recently switched to bazzite because maintaining an arch system reminds me too much of my actual job. Bazzite is great for daily use and has excellent support for gaming. I would recommend it as its update system makes it exceptionally hard to break your system and has built in stable rollbacks. As a new Linux user I would say just get stuck into either mint or bazzite. Try to learn more about how updating software works to decide between those, the, UI is entirely customizable and separate to the OS. The main Linux desktop UIs are gnome and KDE, both look nice and don't really need strong resources. KDE used to be really hungry but they've made it a lot leaner in recent years.

The “want to learn” is gonna carry a lot of weight here but I think and arch based distro like cachy works well for this. Cachy was my first distro and I really wanted to learn so it gave we a working starting place from where I could tinker and replace parts one at a time until they fit my liking. If I were to reinstall today I’d do plain arch since I know what I want and don’t need Cachy’s defaults anymore. Obviously everyone has their preferences but I think cachy is a really solid approachable distro for beginners, there’s a reason it just passed steamOS to claim the throne of most used distro on the steam hardware survey

My number one recommendation is Fedora. Extremely stable, popular (so there are lots of q&a online), easy on resources. If you go Debian please don't go Ubuntu, its buggy for some people (me included) and snaps are 💩. If you want Debian go Linux Mint, which is very beginner friendly.

Arch
(this is a joke, do not use Arch unless you crave pain)

I'd go for bazzite. Clean, stable, user-friendly, gamer-friendly.

Everyone has their preferences. That's why there isn't one answer. The problem is almost every distro compares themselves to Windows, and so they all have the same "pros" from that perspective. Personally I have 2 recommendations, and I'll tell you which ones and why:

1. Zorin: Makes a good mesh of familiarity and ease of use. They maintain a database of different apps and will automatically point you to the most appropriate option. They greatly simplify the process of installing and using WINE. I happen to just like GNOME (looks more modern than KDE), and I like their modified version of it. Comes with a lot of what I consider "obvious" tweaks "out of the box" so you don't have to figure out how to implement them. Their GNOME is also super outdated though, so some extensions don't work.

2. Bazzite: If you want a console/PC hybrid, this is probably the best way to get it. If you just want a desktop gaming PC you can get that also. Either way it comes with a lot of gaming utilities pre-installed. Best of all is their "Bazzite Portal" which makes a bunch of common apps and tweaks that are otherwise complicated to install, easy, with the click of a button. There's also an app for updates that upgrades everything all in one place, with the click of a button, and also will run automatically in the background if your system is idle.

But if you need support I hope you're comfortable using corporate shithole platforms like Github, Discord, and Reddit, because if you don't want to, they don't give a shit.

Linux Mint or Zorin OS

Vanilla Debian or LMDE. Caveats are:

1. that you dont intend to seriously game on it, and
2. have at least 8GB RAM (for a smooth GNOME desktop experience).

Use system packages as much as you can and only use Flatpaks if you need the latest and greatest of a certain app (example being the LibreOffice suite for better document compatibility).

Learn how to backup your system with Timeshift and your data with Pika. You'll have a really wonderful system that you can will serve you well and at the same time be a good base to improve your Linux knowledge.

This is what worked for me when I first started. My workstation still runs Debian many years. Its rock solid and I have no reason to change to anything else.

My only regret its that I didn't move to Linux sooner. God luck on your journey.

Wife of ten years, I stuck her on Ubuntu 16.04 back in the day. She ignored it and used a laptop. A few years later? Mint with Mate. She started on it long enough to set the background to the Windows 10 background, then went back to a Windows boot, since I dual booted. Last year, new computer, Fedora KDE, again dual booted. Haven't seen her in Windows yet. Me? I hop all over the place, but our HTPC and her laptop are now Fedora KDE.

start with debian if you want a stable release update style or arch if you want a rolling release update style

the vast majority of other distros are just nonsense stacked on top of one of those two

most of the big distros that isn't true for are corporate (open suse, fedora, etc.) and should be avoided unless you have a pressing and specific reason

save yourself a headache and just start with debian or arch. what you learn with one of those two will be the most transferrable and they both have huge (comparatively) communities with well developed resources for learning and troubleshooting.

Fir desktop use I personally think Fedora has the best balance between stability and being up-to-date, while staying fairly easy to use and with a large community. If the person wants something even harder to break and doesn't mind a bit of an extra learning curve, atomic variants like Silverblue are alo a nice pick. My cousin went for Silverblue and loved it.

If you want to learn Linux, install Gentoo. That'll give you a pretty good understanding of what's going on. It'll be an intense process though.

If you just want to install and use Linux, pick one of the usual suspects: Mint, Fedora, openSUSE Leap/Slowroll, whatever. If you come from Windows, picking KDE Plasma as your desktop environment (DE) is a good choice. Mint's Cinnamon should be good too. Picking a popular distro usually means troubleshooting is easier, since someone else out there most likely has the same issue you have, and documentation is more comprehensive.

Remember that many distros provide a live environment you can run from a USB stick. Try a couple with different DEs and see what fits your needs. Honestly, the distro doesn't matter that much, they all do the same thing, more or less. Maybe try to pick your DE first and then just go from there.

If you want a simple answer, pick Mint.

When friends or family ask me to install Linux for them, I always use PCLOS. Texstar, Bill Reynolds, runs a tight ship and everything is really stable. Linux with training wheels.

You seem to have already tried something and didn't liked it, what was it and why?

I feel most newcomers often overthink this question. You should pick something aimed at newcomers that's meant to be user friendly, that's the main idea behind most Ubuntu based distros, and why I have been recommending people to use Mint for almost two decades, and that's still my recommendation for new users.

There are lots of things to learn when migrating to Linux. The main one is to not expect it to be Windows. But most distros are essentially the same, their differences are mostly philosophical rather than technical, but philosophical differences can have technical impacts. For example, a distro with the philosophy that things need to be tested before given to users will have a smoother but outdated experience than one with the philosophy of latest is best, or for a more extreme example, a distro with the philosophy that your system should be declared as a configuration will require much more different kind of maintenance than one where it's more install things around to build your system.

Finally there's one thing that I think most new users don't realize, any distro can look like any other distro very easily. The difference between distros is not cosmetic, it's much more engrained into the core of how to use the distro, but most day-to-day stuff is identical. The graphical part of a Linux system is called a Desktop Environment (DE) or a Window Manager (WM), technically a DE is a full set of programs that includes a WM. I would strongly recommend you start with a DE, installing multiple DEs and playing around to figure out what you like is an excellent idea, personally I like Plasma even though I don't use it daily because I prefer tiling window managers (possibly not something to worry about now), but other people prefer Gnome, Cinnamon, etc, play around and figure out what you like, this will have a much larger impact in your experience than changing distro.

Sorry to say it, but if you've already found online opinions about what distros to use and what to avoid, you're just going to find the same thing here.

ZorinOS. Looks pretty and is easy to use for beginners.

Void.

Bazzite and Nobara for newbies. NixOS is my true overall recommendation but you have to be a masochist to get through the steep learning curve.

I'd probably just stick with Ubuntu for now and mess around with desktop environments. Personally, I don't like Gnome. KDE might be alright for a win 10 replacement. XFCE is windows xp like. The list goes on and on.

As long as everything works (WiFi, sound, etc) then you can use the UI and get use to CLI tools.

look for screenshots of the distros you see here and choose the interface that interests you the best. or look up which one they use. i'm serious.

I think the best approach is to completely step out of Windows. Don't use a desktop environment that is "Windows-esque". Choose something that feels completely off the rails but fun/interesting.

Arch seems intimidating? Try it out. Windows is all floating windows? Try tiling through hyprland. Don't like the look of base hyprland? Rice it with caelestia or noctalia shells. Find the quirkiness that feels too good to pass up.

I think their are many great options. But I do think a few shut be excluded at least in the beginning. Anything arch based I would not recommend you start on, Yes that includes CachyOS. They are great distros dont get me wrong. Also their is NixOS. And again a amazing distro but not something too start on. It is fundamentally so different then other distros it can be harder to fix issues if you are new.

Instead of giving you a "pick this" distro I will recommend you some flavors 😋. Most Ubuntu based distros are a good start as well as Fedora. Loads and loads of info online.

Maybe a odd choice but if I hat to recommend 1 distro. It is Opensuse Tumbleweed. She isn't the faster but she is a solid rolling release (so very updated) Distribution.

You mention hopping, but you don't say what you have already tried, what you dislike about them, and what you mainly want it for, or your hardware config.

Hopefully you have already settled on a Desktop Environment or WM) though?

• Ignore everyone who suggests ubuntu, mint, or debian; even though that will be many people (except for the debian suggestion, which is not a common suggestion, and it's bizarre that someone has already suggested that).

• Understand that most people will just suggest what they use, even if they have little experience with other distros, many of these people just went with what is marketed well, but they will often be adamant fans of it anyway.

• It's easier to remove ones that you do not like (for whatever reason), to reduce the options. That might be to do with: gui vs terminal focused, where they are from, their politics, commercialisation, their community attitude, ai, whatever. I would suggest trying to pick a base (arch, fedora, debian, ubuntu etc) and work from there. Something like the advanced search on https://distrowatch.com/ can help with that

When I was looking into replacing W10 on my old laptop around 5 years ago, everyone on Reddit said Linux Mint. I ignored them and tried lots of different distros. I finally tested Mint, it worked so I installed it. I've been using it ever since. For me, I have Nvidia GPUs so Mint gets the correct driver without any hassle. It does have options for customising, but it's minimal which to me is useful if you have work to do. I have a standard set-up for my Mint desktops. Upon initial installation, Mint actually looks basic, simple and, to be honest, outdated. There are enough options to modernise it!

The only other one I use is Kubuntu (on a Huawei Matebook 13 2019) and that's for KDE's better screen scaling on my 2K 3:2 screen.

They are both easy to set up and get running.

Honestly? Gentoo. It's got a steep learning curve, but the docs are great and after your first install, you'll know more about Linux than most users.