Should all new Linux users get through 10 distros and years of trial and error, before settling for one they like the most?
Imagine you want to leave MS and windows behind and are greeted by comments of your caliber. Then please provide an alternative starting point, elaborate, be helpful.
I find that’s very unhelpful to potential Linux converts. They will quickly find out that there are infinite flavors of Linux, become overwhelmed, and give up.
When you are introducing newcomers to Linux, it’s best to make specific suggestions.
Try just telling someone that they need to switch to Linux with no other details. They’ll either get confused/overwhelmed by choice, or possibly choose one that isn’t user friendly and hate it.
People have to start somewhere, and I see no issue with recommending user friendly distros to get them going.
I sometimes feel like bare-metalling FreeDOS. Except that and modern laptops, ha-ha, shouldn’t work too well, but at the same time Lenovo even sold some with it pre-installed.
Would just play X-Wing and TIE Fighter and WarCraft II, edit simple text documents, smile at how right it’d feel.
This place is constantly shilling Linux, decrying LLMs, and downvoting anything that doesn’t fit the status quo.
Don’t get me wrong I like this place on the whole, but I’ve just come to realise nobody here actually wants to engage with anybody different and just dog piles.
I think the people here is not “only pro-Linux” but pro-OS-freedom. I guess most off us wouldn’t find a problem if someone changes Windows or MacOS for *BSD, Haiku or any other free OS.
About LLM, the problem is not the tool but the use the big businesses are using it for. Because the target is not having humans working there and do everything with LLM and androids so they don’t have to “spend money” on wages.
Don’t get me wrong I like this place on the whole, but I’ve just come to realise nobody here actually wants to engage with anybody different and just dog piles.
We are the left wing version of r/conservative.
So brave of you to stand up to left wing people dismantling your arguments!
…but yes people aren’t interested in your desire to “both sides” reality by dropping out necessary context until the picture looks like two sides having a friendly disagreement… because the reality is conservatives WANT to hurt us and for some reason people are mad about that here.
It’s not on the list, but I’ve been rocking the same KDE fedora installation through about ten version upgrades. Once you dial in your settings and software choices, it’s fairly solid.
The only issue I can recall was some weirdness with steam’s dependencies blocking my last version upgrade, but it was easily bypassed.
I started with pop os 5 years ago and haven’t found a reason to change. I’m not hugely techy and just wanted something to play games on. Had very few issues overall.
Works great with steam. I went back on my ethics and played wow classic for a while though and battle.net was a little tricky for me to get going. But yeah steam works perfectly.
Pop!_OS is my top recommendation for Windows expats, followed by Mint (Cinnamon Edition), and then Bazzite (KDE Plasma desktop). Bazzite is so, so, so good, but it has some unique features that make it a little more frustrating for Windows power users who are new to Linux. But honestly they are all good. Pick one, and if you aren’t vibing with it, try something else.
Also, keep in mind that “distro” and “desktop environment (DTE)” are two different things. Sometimes a distro has a default DTE and sometimes it gives you a choice. The DTE makes the biggest difference to your experience. There are many different DTEs, but the two biggest are GNOME (MacOS-like and moderately customizable) and KDE Plasma (Windows-like by default, but very customizable).
I cannot recommend Bazzite. It’s an atomic distribution, which is pioneer tech that tries to make some things better but in effect makes a lot of things more difficult. FWIW, I’ve been using Linux for 20+ years.
Ubuntu is fine. I do understand the hate, though. Snap is contentious for very good reasons, Canonical makes major decisions by fiat rather than listening to the community (see Snap again), and they have corporate motives that are often at odds with the spirit and desires of the greater FOSS community (like forking upstream projects instead of contributing).
Mint is still based on Ubuntu, for example, but I feel it’s a more ethical suggestion than Ubuntu itself.
There has never been a better time to switch to Mint, Pop_OS, or Bazzite.
You could just say Linux, lol.
We gotta stop upvoting distro-shilling.
They are probably the best distros for newcomers. I think its an absolutely valid comment.
Right and people that don’t know which distros to use will get lost
How are you supposed to get new people in without advising?
I feel bad for the people that get herded by shills.
Should all new Linux users get through 10 distros and years of trial and error, before settling for one they like the most?
Imagine you want to leave MS and windows behind and are greeted by comments of your caliber. Then please provide an alternative starting point, elaborate, be helpful.
This is just passive aggressive my dude.
🥱
Maybe when you’re older you’ll understand.
If you go through your entire life without getting it, then that’s sad.
At this point I expect the latter to occur.
Keep your secrets sensei. You get no more attention from me. Happy gatekeeping, or trolling or whatever this supposed to be.
Thank god.
Switching OS requires proper DD anyway. What’s wrong with giving people ideas to start their journey?
Because you people don’t actually care about helping others, just shilling what you personally like.
Do you really think a good idea is letting a newcomer try Gentoo?
The shilling has ideological and logical underpinnings though…
Sure if you don’t care about privacy, security and autonomy, this shilling is whatever.
But for anyone freedom enjoyer, it will resonate. That’s target.
Do you expect fedi crowd to be shilling corporate parasite solutions?
If so, what’s your logic and ideology for that?
Are you ok?
Make sure to report me to reddit for a mental health check dear
So I know for sure I hit the G spot 🐸
Can you expand on that thought?
And yet here you are on Lemmy, I assume out of your own volition and independent thought
🥱
Yeah, but which one? There are hundreds of distros. There’s nothing wrong giving some pointers to begginers out there.
I find that’s very unhelpful to potential Linux converts. They will quickly find out that there are infinite flavors of Linux, become overwhelmed, and give up.
When you are introducing newcomers to Linux, it’s best to make specific suggestions.
GNU / Linux :)
Or GNU plus Linux, as I’ve recently taken to calling it
Try just telling someone that they need to switch to Linux with no other details. They’ll either get confused/overwhelmed by choice, or possibly choose one that isn’t user friendly and hate it.
People have to start somewhere, and I see no issue with recommending user friendly distros to get them going.
Yeah, went Mint 18 months ago. Started at MSDOS in the 1990s, ended at W10.
I sometimes feel like bare-metalling FreeDOS. Except that and modern laptops, ha-ha, shouldn’t work too well, but at the same time Lenovo even sold some with it pre-installed.
Would just play X-Wing and TIE Fighter and WarCraft II, edit simple text documents, smile at how right it’d feel.
Get WordStar
Did you see that e-mail?
“Nope!”
Well done!
I am sure the people who just lost their job will be super happy about that.
This place is constantly shilling Linux, decrying LLMs, and downvoting anything that doesn’t fit the status quo.
Don’t get me wrong I like this place on the whole, but I’ve just come to realise nobody here actually wants to engage with anybody different and just dog piles.
We are the left wing version of r/conservative.
I think the people here is not “only pro-Linux” but pro-OS-freedom. I guess most off us wouldn’t find a problem if someone changes Windows or MacOS for *BSD, Haiku or any other free OS.
About LLM, the problem is not the tool but the use the big businesses are using it for. Because the target is not having humans working there and do everything with LLM and androids so they don’t have to “spend money” on wages.
So brave of you to stand up to left wing people dismantling your arguments!
…but yes people aren’t interested in your desire to “both sides” reality by dropping out necessary context until the picture looks like two sides having a friendly disagreement… because the reality is conservatives WANT to hurt us and for some reason people are mad about that here.
Already on the way babayyy. Ubuntu gang here we gooooo I know, i know. There are other popular distros but I wanted to start there
Ubuntu is great for begginers, go for it
Ubuntu is perfectly valid, feels very mac os
Way to go!
I will be looking into these, thanks for sharing! Any top recommendations from the three??
It’s not on the list, but I’ve been rocking the same KDE fedora installation through about ten version upgrades. Once you dial in your settings and software choices, it’s fairly solid.
The only issue I can recall was some weirdness with steam’s dependencies blocking my last version upgrade, but it was easily bypassed.
Stay away from HP. Secureboot will re-enable itself whenever it wants, and the kernel panic is scary if you don’t realize that’s what’s happening.
Also…
Oh if your looking for a distro? Mint is a great entry point (and even can support crusty old graybeards as well).
I started with pop os 5 years ago and haven’t found a reason to change. I’m not hugely techy and just wanted something to play games on. Had very few issues overall.
Sorry to sound absolutely dumb, but does it work well with things like steam?
I primarily only use Adobe (learning Affinity) and Steam. I’m a pretty basic bitch ngl lmao! Pop_OS looks CLEAN on their website
Works great with steam. I went back on my ethics and played wow classic for a while though and battle.net was a little tricky for me to get going. But yeah steam works perfectly.
Every issue I’ve had has been easily fixable with searching and following instructions. There’s not been many issues, and I can do it anyone can.
Pop!_OS is my top recommendation for Windows expats, followed by Mint (Cinnamon Edition), and then Bazzite (KDE Plasma desktop). Bazzite is so, so, so good, but it has some unique features that make it a little more frustrating for Windows power users who are new to Linux. But honestly they are all good. Pick one, and if you aren’t vibing with it, try something else.
Also, keep in mind that “distro” and “desktop environment (DTE)” are two different things. Sometimes a distro has a default DTE and sometimes it gives you a choice. The DTE makes the biggest difference to your experience. There are many different DTEs, but the two biggest are GNOME (MacOS-like and moderately customizable) and KDE Plasma (Windows-like by default, but very customizable).
I recommend Mint. It’s super easy to install and maintain. And very easy to use.
I cannot recommend Bazzite. It’s an atomic distribution, which is pioneer tech that tries to make some things better but in effect makes a lot of things more difficult. FWIW, I’ve been using Linux for 20+ years.
Just go with regular Fedora KDE Desktop. https://fedoraproject.org/kde/
I see that Fedora uses Btrfs, so it should be able to take file system snapshots, which are sort of an alternative to the immutable thing, isn’t it?
Yes, but not really. It can be convenient. Just remember it takes more space so provision accordingly for /.
Of course we need three flavor so we don’t have a single majority and each of them have their own nuisance. Same as JavaScript libraries.
openSUSE is also pretty great, and doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
There really is a Linux for everyone.
But not Ubuntu. We don’t like Ubuntu here, I feel like
Ubuntu is fine. I do understand the hate, though. Snap is contentious for very good reasons, Canonical makes major decisions by fiat rather than listening to the community (see Snap again), and they have corporate motives that are often at odds with the spirit and desires of the greater FOSS community (like forking upstream projects instead of contributing).
Mint is still based on Ubuntu, for example, but I feel it’s a more ethical suggestion than Ubuntu itself.