So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i’m so proud!)
Now i’ve used a little linux but i’ve always been a holdout. Won’t stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i’m not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we’re doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I’ve heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?
next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD’s so we can try and get everything ported over but i’m so busy with school right now i can’t quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.
Any help is appreciated, cheers!
I guess a good question would be what software you plan on using. If it’s something more reliant on frequent updates and feature releases like gaming, the choice would be a bit different compared to something like office work or common browsing, where stability would be prioritized (at the cost of slower updates).
Mint, for example, is a great jumping off point for Windows users because of the familiar User Interface and a focus on stability and lack of prior knowledge required - but it lags behind when it comes to cutting edge stuff for things like gaming.
Since Mrs. Erinaceus is considering switching, I was going to try and steer her towards Mint, but since she’s a gamer and I’m not (I know, boring) perhaps this would not be the best choice? Please tell me more.
Like 9limmer mentioned, Bazzite would be a good gaming focused choice for a beginner. There are alternatives like CatchyOS, but those are geared towards more experienced users.
I just switched a couple months ago to Pop OS because it is supposed to be more up to date on Nvidia drivers and game stuff. I haven’t tested to many games yet but the couple I did worked fine. I was going to go with Mint originally but the gaming thing sold me on Pop. Its been pretty smooth but I would like more built in setting options for customizations.
Show her some pictures or videos of DEs and see what she likes. If she’s someone who likes to make it look the way she wants, she might get a bit more out of KDE than Cinnamon for example.
A lot of folks recommending Mint Cinnamon. I agree, that’s a great choice, one of my favorites. If for some reason there are technical problems, you might also try something with KDE, like Kubuntu or Fedora KDE. Also windows-like, even more mainstream than Cinnamon, faster to adopt new shit like Wayland.
Well quite obvious: as the name “Debian” was coined to celebrate the union between Debra and Ian, makes it a de facto choice! ;)
They split up :-(
I think Ian later died
The one she likes… How about listening to her needs, and then show here some examples, and let her choose?
I’d present her with Mint and Ubuntu - and then what you know is her “style”…
Fedora because it just works.
Come on gang! We all know the real answer is Hannah Montana!
This really depends on her hardware specs and what applications she needs to use.
Without knowing any of that, I would suggest Linux Mint. It is desktop user focussed and a good general OS. It includes drivers and common software in their version of an app store.
Debian is my distro of choice, but is not ideal for a new Linux user.
I would suggest checking what apps she needs and making sure they are available on Linux, or that a close equivalent is. Any apps that will be replaced, try the replacement out on Windows first if available. For example Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape, or MS Office to Libre Office.
For data transfer:
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As others have said. Backup the current computer fully. This in probably best done on an external hard drive. Make sure you know how to reinstall windows and restore from the backup.
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Copy all her data onto a different external hard drive. This is not the backup. It is a separate drive.
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Make sure all the data is actually on the external hard drive and readable from a different machine. Ideally boot from a Lunx live USB and check that the data can be accessed from the external drive.
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Install her distro of choice.
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Copy her data from the external HDD to her user account’s home folder of newly installed Linux.
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While I’m here, I might as well figure out one for me, I usually stick to gaming and graphic design programs since I’m an artist. but honestly I do anything under the Sun and whatever my whims fancy so flexibility is a must
To add one more thing about Bazzite Gnome, as suggested above/below: next to it looking like Fedora, it comes with a thing built in called Distrobox, which is a way of quickly running different mini versions of Linux within Bazzite. This means you can run little Ubuntu/Mint/Fedora/Arch installations and use their package managers. If an app is missing on Bazzite, start up distrobox and install it there instead. It even works for GUI apps.
(This is more of a pro feature though- you don’t explicitly need it, but it gives you massive flexibility, which is normally hidden away.)
I have been thinking this for a while too and it’s a toss up between Fedora and Debian for a regular user and if you are gaming then something like PopOS or Bazzite I would want someone non-techy using something that is not a rolling release distro like Arch.
Fedora. I would not have said that two years, but I am blown away by how easy and up to date it is.
And I am normally an Arch person.
I also supprised myself a few years back when I ditched Arch Linux (after 10 years) for Fedora! I now use Fedora Silverblue, but would also reccomend having a look at the uBlue variants for different flavoring.
Yeah I ran it up on distrosea and was surprised how intuitive it already looked
KDE works perfectly on the KDE version which is official now. Updates are straight forward, lots of software available.
Linux Mint is the windows 7 experience of linux. It gets out of the way so you can work. It also has the best in-OS help tools. It’s also a bit more conservative in terms of newest features, so it’s a lot more reliable.
If she does PC gaming, you might want to look at Bazzite rather than Mint. It’s a lot better equipped for non-technical people to start gaming. It’s basically a preconfigured Fedora linux, so it’s got a solid foundation. It’s also something called an immutable distro, which basically means it’s more difficult to break as the core OS is “read only” (to simplify).
In terms of migrating, best to avoid dual booting off a single disk. Microsoft keeps breaking Linux installs (probably on purpose). So best to install a second SSD.
Before you migrate, have her make a list of software she uses and the hardware she has. Best to post that on a forum like this to have more experienced people look for possible issues.
When it gets to migration day, if bitlocker is disabled, you can access your windows data from linux.
Also get her on Lemmy and asking questions directly. The best thing you can teach a low tech person is how to get help.
Bazzite is atomic, not immutable
Its both
It uses an atomic update system on an immutable base. They don’t refer to the same thing, but you sort of need the one when you use the other for it to make sense.
Those are different?
Don’t forget to grab protonup-qt so you can easily install proton GE which has better .net support so more games work.
Thx for the tip. I just got a 5x FPS boost in a very poorly optimized sim game “war at sea” thing was chugging along at 5-6 fps when lots of ships were on the screen. Was maxing out all 32 threads on my 5950x. Now it’s running a cool 20% utilization.
Ah nice, sometimes different versions work better. GE is a must have for .net heavy games.
Thx for the tip, will give it a try.
I got it from the protonup app that is pre installed.
Bazzite
omnixy, a NixOS fork of omarchy (which aims to serve the best defaults) that isn’t maintained by a fascist
Debian + KDE
Why did it take so much scrolling to get to the right answer
The right answer is,
Debian if they just use web browsers and basic office apps.
Fedora if they use do the same but also use recent hardware that needs a newer kernel
Bazzite if they are a casual gamer and you want to make sure her sims still work easily
Cachy if she’s a nerd and plays a lot of higher end games.
All with kde of course
If you’re using that currently, do you notice that on a fresh reboot, if you sit at the desktop and just wiggle the mouse for a while, or keep creating selection boxes with your mouse, KDE will freeze for a random amount of time?
