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: https://distrochooser.de for anyone who stumbles upon this post with the same question
‘it came to me in a dream’ has got to be a pretty unique reason for switching to Linux
I get my news from the only reliable source and I recommend going with MX Linux.
Clear vote for Fedora,
Anytime someone new ask for recommendation, I’d give Linux Mint.
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
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.
Do yourself a favor and just go with Debian Stable
Wanted to write the same. Normaly I would suggest Mint, but OP sounds like they are ready to learn and endure some things to end up very happy with Debian, the mother of all distros.
I know of Arch wiki, but are there wiki’s explaining easier distros? I’m on Nobara, because I want to game, but perhaps I could be learning to configure and install some of these tools to be able to one day use any distro for whatever I wanna do?
When I started with Debian I found everything I wanted to know with Duckduckgo… “Linux Debian how to…” without exception. And sometimes even the Archwiki helped me. You don’t need a single place with all the knowledge, you just have to practice how to break down your questions into easy to answer bits. Doesn’t matter which distro you use.
stuff like askubuntu exists
My vote is for mint. If you’ve been a long time windows user it should be the easiest one to get used to. PopOS is also newbie friendly if you’re not into the feel of Mint for whatever reason.
My biggest recommendation though is to spend some time with a few different OS’s and try setting things up different ways. Like if you start with Mint, try something new a month or two later. It’s a good way to get used to the way linux OS’s work under the hood.
I’m not a programmer at all, but if you have some background with computers and are willing to sink some time into learning and setting up a new system you’ll be fine.
Mint is currently my recommendation for Windows refugees and has been for a while.
- Cinnamon desktop environment works like Windows’ UX
- Ubuntu-based, so you’ll find help online for basically anything
- Not just Ubuntu; follows more popular, community decisions rather than Canonical’s (e.g. things like Flatpak instead of Snap) which will help you in the long run since you’ll be using what everyone else is using
- Ubuntu-based, so Debian-based, so pretty stable with lots of available software (even outside of Flatpak)
- Significant amount of work put into UX with less you have to do
If you’re not worried about high-performance gaming, you’ll be fine with whatever. For developers, any Linux distro is gonna be leagues better than what you’re used to on Windows. For Assembly, NASM + VS Code will be great.
I used to think this was sound advice but I’m on KDE Plasma and it’s almost exactly like windows but with the Alt-F2 search menu, stay on top is installed by default. I don’t know all the desktop environment options but it sounds like there’s more reasonable options.
Linux Mint
Weird, it’s telling me to get OpenSuse and in never heard of it!
It’s also a way to discover distros :) Depends on what you entered, but OpenSuse isn’t a bad distro, that’s for sure.
I tried this for the hell of it and it suggested almost every distro I have ever tried, close enough to the order of how long I have used each. Didn’t suggest kinoite and similar which I have some variant of on all my old people’s computers and several of my own.
Dog I just told it I wanna game and have game Dev supported distro. Guess what? OpenSUSE, Zorin, and every flavor of Ubuntu. I was assuming it would tell me Fedora/Nobara, Ubuntu, and Debian Stable.
You can game on OpenSuse… never tried Zorin, and every flavor of Ubuntu is good for gaming (or has been in my experience 🤷 ).
What was your dream about windows?
deleted by creator
Windows is a nightmare.
Do you got NVIDIA?
Linux mint hands down
I swapped from windows to Opensuse Tumbleweed recently. Seems like a really nice distro. Frequent updates and easy rollbacks if something breaks. Luckily I haven’t had to use that feature yet but it’s nice knowing I have it. Yast is also great for changing system settings with a gui instead of using konsole for all that.
Counter Strike 2 and WoW have been running great.
Whatever distro looks good to you is a good place to start. Think of distros as default configurations, you can basically change most stuff whenever you want.
Avoid Arch, just in case.
Screw you, Arch is great. It’s not for everybody, but if you want to know how your system is set up, decide what’s running on it, and don’t mind researching and maintaining your software, it’s lovely.
Sincerely, I use Arch BTW
I use Arch too, friend.
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 :)
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.
