Finally making the transition from Windows to a Linux. I’m pretty sure it’s been asked several times but which Linux OS would you recommend a beginner to use? I’ve seen Ubuntu and Mint as a good start. Not looking to do much. Game here and there (not too worried about Linux compatibility), streaming, editing videos. If I break any rules. I’m sorry.
Aurora, it’s the desktop version of massively popular Bazzite (which targets gaming). That means you’ll find tons of up to date tutorials online (Bazzite tutorials are usually applicable unless they are about the few features Bazzite and Aurora diverge specifically).
I explicitly advise against Ubuntu and Mint for the reasons I outlined here. Ubuntu and Mint have the added downside that almost none of the guides you’ll find about SteamOS will work: Different desktop, different philosophy.
People need to realize that since the success of Steam Deck the “old classics” of newbie recommendations are out of the window and what helps these users the most is a Linux distribution as close as possible to SteamOS but SteamOS is not available for random PCs, so Bazzite/Aurora are currently the way to go. Personally I like Fedora KDE but I shifted my stance since the linked post and trying out Aurora.
Immutable distros aren’t really that great yet due to the way they force certain things down one’s throat. I’d say I’d recommend one if I were in a mental asylum for a long time, but that’s just me.
Wow, that seems like a rather hostile take on the matter if I’ve ever seen one. But I feel like you might be conflating stuff OR hurt yourself while trying to force your way on an “immutable” distro.
After learning the ropes on how to install and manage software, there’s not really much to Bazzite. Unless you somehow happen to be dealing with one of the ever-so-rare-becoming edge-cases it can’t deal with.
My stepfather had a bad experience with one of them, and I think he’s currently using Fedora (with Wayland), but that’s at least better than whatever that distro was (I think it might have been Bluefin or something like that, a Fedora Immutable derivative).
That’s why I’m currently against immutable distros as of right now.
Interesting. Thanks for the clarification! It would have been even more helpful if you could recall more details about the bad experience. Thanks in advance!
Bazzite is great on desktop, it’s just more gaming focused than Aurora
Bazzite is great on desktop
Absolutely but people not interested in autolaunching Steam and other preinstalled launchers can use Aurora which is just the workstation flavor by the same people.
it doesn’t auto launch anything on desktop
it doesn’t auto launch anything on desktop
I installed Bazzite just last weekend and I was definitively greeted by a Steam client login window right after logging into SDDM. No idea what you’re talking about.
i have to click the steam icon to launch steam
i have no idea what you’re doing wrong on your desktop
Yeah my Bazzite definitely doesn’t auto launch Steam. I think that might be an option during setup?
Been using it for over a year now. Never auto launched into Steam once.
Yeah my Bazzite definitely doesn’t auto launch Steam. I think that might be an option during setup?
I installed it in a VM and after installation Steam launched. Didn’t check if that persists after several reboots. Why would I?
Then I tried Aurora and with the exception of a Terminal app in Plasma’s quick launch panel and no gaming launchers installed, it’s pretty much the same thing, so might just as well recommend Aurora instead of Bazzite if the person in question doesn’t care much about gaming. It’s the workstation variant of Universal Blue.
I don’t know, bud, I’m just saying that it is not the default and has not happened to me once in the past year, and one or two fresh installs.
It’s literally just KDE
see? another person has the same result
you just got ratioed!
i tell you what bazzite does do. it installs a bunch of DE extensions that are not useful. they are very easy to disable
You really hate Bazzite, huh? Almost seems like it’s your job.
Mint loaded Steam via the package manager and it worked out of the box for me. There have been some games I had to try different versions of Proton with, but I have never found that to be not true for some games.
Just FYI in case you don’t know - SteamOS has changed and is now based on Arch, which means Bazzite is still fundamentally different.
I personally went with Garuda Linux for two reasons:
- SteamOS is Arch based (so is Garuda)
- When researching issues, 80% of the time you’ll end up on the Arch Wiki anyway. Might as well use the actual thing.
Bazzite is probably easier to use for newbies (immutable, relatively stable update windows), but in terms of “I found a guide for SteamOS online on how to get game X working”, Garuda will be much better. Also, Garuda devs included their Rani app, which helps the user take care of the OS, handling a lot of the maintenance.
Just FYI in case you don’t know - SteamOS has changed and is now based on Arch, which means Bazzite is still fundamentally different.
Both are immutable distributions, meaning software installation via Flatpak and Distrobox is exactly the same.
System-level differences are mostly irrelevant which is a fundamentally different approach from Ubuntu, Mint, etc. where users are expected to juggle with PPAs to get newer drivers on their ancient Ubuntu LTS base.
It’s been asked a million times, and it’ll be answered every time, and the answers will mostly be “Mint, Fedora, FedoraKDE, and if you wanna game Bazzite.”
The real advice that gets posted less, regardless of distro:
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Back up your important files to an external drive, often. It’s entirely possible you’ll fuck up an install beyond repair (or beyond what you know how to do at the time) and you end up reinstalling. If you can just put your important files back and be up and running, nothing of value is lost.
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Don’t be scared of the terminal, it’s incredibly useful. Look up a few YT vids like “bash basics” or “linux terminal for beginners” or something and follow along like it’s a class, you’ll soon be comfortable enough to use it when you need it, and you will, and you may come to love it. It’s not as bad as windows cmd! Be careful when using sudo or su, that’s when you could really screw up the system (but mostly it’ll be fine just be careful.
And most importantly, have fun!
Here’s an absolute classic unix koan about the terminal:
One evening, Master Foo and Nubi attended a gathering of programmers who had met to learn from each other. One of the programmers asked Nubi to what school he and his master belonged. Upon being told they were followers of the Great Way of Unix, the programmer grew scornful.
“The command-line tools of Unix are crude and backward,” he scoffed. “Modern, properly designed operating systems do everything through a graphical user interface.”
Master Foo said nothing, but pointed at the moon. A nearby dog began to bark at the master’s hand.
“I don’t understand you!” said the programmer.
Master Foo remained silent, and pointed at an image of the Buddha. Then he pointed at a window.
“What are you trying to tell me?” asked the programmer.
Master Foo pointed at the programmer’s head. Then he pointed at a rock.
“Why can’t you make yourself clear?” demanded the programmer.
Master Foo frowned thoughtfully, tapped the programmer twice on the nose, and dropped him in a nearby trashcan.
As the programmer was attempting to extricate himself from the garbage, the dog wandered over and piddled on him.
At that moment, the programmer achieved enlightenment
Source: https://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/gui-programmer.html
I need Peter Griffin to explain this one
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So I use zorin and I feel its the best for typical windows users and anyone who just wants to install and get to immediately using thier pc. So basically its the lazy distro. Lot of software out of box including wine with play on linux so right after installation you could run or install windows programs if you wanted to (I would check out linux alternatives first). That being said my personal opinion if someone wants to run games is to dual boot a gaming distro or install a gaming distro and use it as your main one. Further I don’t recommend dual booting windows. If someone wants to keep windows around my sugestion, if they have it, is to install linux on your last older laptop. Anyone who had a machine that did not outright die and upgraded in the last ten years will be pleasantly surprised how well linux runs on older hardware compared to windows on newer. Once you have weaned yourself 100% off windows and realize how useless it is then install on the current laptop. Given if you don’t still have your older one then by all mean dual boot. I initially did that but have reversed the setup and now have linux on my better laptop as I was so annoyed with windows wasting the good one.
It’s hilarious that there were a bunch of articles recently about “omg, so many Zorin downloads!” Then the only person I’ve ever seen even mention it gets downvoted. Makes me think it was just some astro turf campaign.
oh it certainly was some sort of astroturf. Previous to that my comments I felt like I was the only one who would mention it. Seems like the thing with zorin 8 being spammed has had a sorta streisand effect but I still like it. Also someone keeps commenting all the versions cost money so there is a kind of reverse astro turf going as well. Its kinda funny given its an irish company and with the popularity of european things. Its just the way things are.
Idk why nobody knew about it until recently, ime (and I’ve never used Zorin), I feel like even before the recent (likely paid advertising) campaign I still saw it almost once or twice per thread, usually something like “I’d go mint, unless you need cutting edge then Fedora, or if you really need it to look like windows then there is Zorin,” some saying “I haven’t used it but I hear it’s windows like” and stuff. I’ve seen stuff like that consistently for the last 4 or 5 years since I switched and I was the one asking distro advice and being told mint, fedora, zorin, or pop. It has never been the top answer but it was always there, lurking in the shadows.
yeah I likely did not read through and thought I was the only one back then.
As someone who’s been using Linux for around 12 years now, I just came back to Mint a while ago and it’s a good choice for close to everyone I reckon.
I used pretty much all the major distros and some niche ones as well, but in the end I want a PC that does PC things without having to fuck around all the time. Mint does exactly that, it just works.
That being said, feel free to mess around with live USBs, try some distros on an old laptop etc, it’s good fun and you might find something you really like.
The thing about Linux is the back and front are separated, and you can customize the ux like crazy. So as you try stuff, pay more attention to package manager, how easy things are in terminal, compatibility, etc.
Try some shit.
Bazzite if you want gaming working well without adding packages manually.
Aurora is the desktop/workstation version of Bazzite, btw.
mint
Mint 100% to start with, install Nvidia drivers if you have an Nvidia graphics card. Install and run a game though Steam or whatever and if all the hardware works and you can get the refresh rate you want you’re good to go.
If not, install Fedora KDE and do the same.
If you still have issues on Fedora make another post here with some hardware details and say what you tried.
Just a question: why fedora KDE? I’ve used fedora for a few years but always with gnome. Really liked it. What would be the advantage with KDE? Or what actually is the difference ?
The defaults are more similar to Windows, Gnome is really good too, more aesthetically pleasing also IMO.
Thanks! Yeah I prefer the gnome one. I think it’s heavier resource-wise but for people expecting an OS to look “like an OS” (people who prefer not to use a terminal) it’s great. I think I’ve used KDE Like 10 years ago but I am not sure if it was KDE.
Yeah, in general Gnome feels more like an entry point for Mac users and the default experience is super polished. KDE has made massive stability improvements and they don’t do the whole fiasco that 4.0 was anymore. I really like that it’s more oriented towards people who like a lot of settings to play with and you can pretty much make your own desktop UI without installing a bunch of less supported extensions.
I currently jammed everything into a small bar at the top with a global menu, tasks, system tray, clock and quick notes, set up shortcuts for loads of stuff and removed the title bar. My screen space probably is the biggest I’ve seen and I feel like other people are in toolbar hell, lol.
the difference is really just having kde desktop, which some prefer over gnome
ZorinOS is doing awesome for begginers, LinuxMint is also a reliable option that might makes you learn more about GNU/Linux OSes
Everyone has their own preferences, many of the loudest pretend Linux is sport betting, it’s not.
What you care about is:
- how well does it support your hardware
- how well does it support your use case
- how open is the community around the distro to new users
The core OS’s have pretty good support and open minded communities.
Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint
Then you have distros that try to cater more to specific needs, like Bazzite focuses on steam and video drivers staying 100% ready out of the box. That’s not to say that current Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu and Mint can’t install and just work, but it’s not their primary focus.
Debian was old and rigid about non-free software Ubuntu forked and allowed free, and their community blossomed. Ubuntu made marketing decisions with Amazon and some other stuff that wierded people out Mint formed the community started heading over there. Ubuntu tried to start doing snap package manager which people hated, so Mint got stronger. Debian finally said ohh fine you can have non-free software, no mint and Debian are both strong and well liked with pretty good support and communities. Fedora is from the old Redhat lineage and is a strong contender with an ancient community and lots of support. Mint, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu still all have strong communities and lots of support. They’re a great place to start. Bazzite is a Fedora port that focuses on Gaming and Video driver support.
There is some stink in the air about Fedora dropping 32 bit support, if that happens Both Fedora and Bazzite will have a very hard time supporting games. As long as Fedora keeps 32 bit support, Bazzite is the best for getting your games running out of the box.Video editing can be challenging. Divinci Resolve is pretty good, but the free version has harsh limits. KDEnlive is free and ok, but it really lacks authoring features.
Watching streams is easy
Streaming live video is messier. OBS still works a treat, but you don’t have Nvidia background removal, and most of the other removal options in Linux are anemic.
OpenSUSE, Fedora, maybe Ubuntu. I’d avoid immutable style distros like bazzite. They make things easier at the beginning but have other downsides where “normal” solutions need additional steps.
I recommend Zorin. It helps you to find the best way to install the apps you need. It also includes a WINE integration that greatly simplifies the process of using Windows apps on Linux. It’s built on Ubuntu, meaning it’s stable, has wide hardware compatibility, will run pretty much anything that works on Linux, and all the Ubuntu commands will work on it. It looks a lot nicer than Mint (Cinnamon). And supports lots of super useful trackpad gestures for laptops. It includes a version of Brave out of the box, stripped of all their BS.
What version of Yad does Zorin come with? SteamTinkerTools was the whole reason I swapped from Mint to SteamOS/Arch
I don’t know what any of that is, sorry.
Yad is a dependency for Steam Tinker Tools.
STT is a plugin that allows a bunch of tweaks for games, including Mod Organizer support.
Mint is fine, Ubuntu sucks ass, don’t use that. Zorin OS is also fine.
editing videos
What program will you use?
I have heard that DaVinci resolve is very hard to set up. as for Kdenlive, I have used it few times, and it felt very clunky.
I would go with mint if you have older hardware and bazzite if you have new hardware (especially nvidia graphics card). If you really want windows-like layout check zorin OS.
for actuall advice: I would try a bunch of them and stick with one where video editing works.
I have heard that DaVinci resolve is very hard to set up.
On Bazzite (and probably the other ublue distros as well), you can run
ujust install-resolveon the terminal, and that’s it, you’re good to goAnd it works great when installed that way.
Besides almost everything availiable to try on Windows before the switch, I’ve seen Nobara writing on their page about their media-focus, mentioning DaVinci Resolve workarounds from out of the box. I’ve not tried it yet.
Honestly, whatever you go with, you should make sure it has KDE plasma, it has a graphical interface that more closely resembles Windows and can function as training wheels until you better familiarize yourseld with the terminal. If you’re looking at Ubuntu, just be aware that you will likely find it irritating once you start understanding how the system works as it forces its own package manager, snap, which introduces a slew of difficulties in acclamaiting to the Linux ecosystem. However, snap does make installation easier for newcomers who may not understand how to identify dependencies for a given package they wish to install. With all of this in mind, Kubuntu is a really good option for first-timers as its a flavour of Ubuntu that comes with KDE Plasma out of the box.
