Any suggestion?
After years of using Linux and recommending it to advanced and casual users alike, the safest option was Linux Mint. Similar interface to Windows, works great out of the box, and has enough GUI menus so that you rarely have to mess with the terminal. 100% recommend it over Ubuntu and PopOS.
Fedora gnome is great if you have laptop or some sort of track-pad setup. The ergonomics of Gnome’s gestures is out of this world. It is absurdly smooth and very nice to use. Fedora is also a future-oriented distro that adapts to the future without compromising on stability so you are always on the latest kernel, Gnome version, etc…
Second on Fedora. It ships pretty bleeding edge software, is very well integrated, has timely updates (new release every 9 months). I’ve set up family and coworkers with it and its kept them going for years with next to no problems. If you install it yourself, you probably want to add the RPM Fusion repository for proprietary video drivers and media codecs.
I use Gentoo personally, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have an insatiable compulsion to tinker with things.
ZorinOS and PopOS are made specifically for casual users new to Linux and are both pretty good.
Linux Mint is also a great choice but because it’s a very stable distro, its software can be outdated.
Fedora Workstation is also one of the most liked distros. I haven’t personally used it but it looks great.
Honestly all those distros have a lot in common so it really comes down to personal preference.
Thanks.
been meaning to try out both Zorin and Pop, have only really just gotten into Linux and probably want to move over
Zorin is seriously great for anyone who just wants to get their work done in Linux.
casual/general user here, definitely linux mint. been using for 3 years, it’s stable and works great out of the box, never had any compatibility issues. it has a pretty good community and plenty of resources if you happen to come across any.
Might be dead now due to the recent drama, but elementaryOS was genuinely pretty and easy to use.
What was the recent drama? Can you get me up to speed with a few sentences or links? Thanks. (You do based work btw, we appreciate it comrade)
It’s pretty well covered here: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/elementary-os-is-imploding?s=r (https://archive.ph/vNEY2)
Basically, the money is running low, and Cassidy decided he’d rather go get a full-time job elsewhere than stay in the situation. Danielle believed that meant that the company would be able to buy the shares Cassidy held back from Cassidy. Cassidy didn’t believe that’s how it should be; he wanted to keep his shares. Danielle didn’t like that, so the two parties proceeded to argue about it (which Danielle would subsequently take to Twitter).
At this point lawyers are involved.
When a distro is company backed and the company is eating itself, it’s probably time to move on.
Thanks for the summary. I don’t think a project like that will just die because it has many backers and fans. Hopefully. Although I don’t use it nor do I like it, I don’t want to see it gone. I also would advise to be very vigilant with anything that Lunduke says though, since he is very bias and disrespectful to people with different ideals.
I only linked a Lunduke article because it included all of the tweets and was easy to find quickly, and his editorial on it was limited and avoidable while still getting the main information.
Fedora is my pick for beginners:
- It has lots of packages available, like ubuntu you can find .rpm available online pretty easy
- It has a good out of the box experience, not overly customised so you get to do that yourself (if you want, its not necessary)
- Its got a graphical installer, however its not the best installer. Still way better installation experience than arch or gentoo though for example
- Its got up to date software
Seconded on Fedora
I’ve heard some good things about Fedora. Its cutting edge enough to support all new hardware you wanna throw at it.
Fedora is nice for casual users unless their system requires non-free drivers, which is not unlikely.
Linux Mint. Eventually most end up distro hopping anyway and you will end up trying many anyway, making the original question quickly irrelevant.
For casual users I would suggest Pop!_OS or Linux Mint.
A distro for casual users would include lots of pre-existing (possibly opinionated) configuration, graphical tools for config, a graphical installer with automatic partitioning, and ready-made package managers. It minimises interaction with a terminal as much as possible. It is still very useful to get comfortable with interacting with a terminal, understanding the file system structure of Linux, and getting your head around the standard userland tools (GNU Coreutils, your package manager, and your init system which is probably systemd) - but you should be able to avoid this for now with distros like Pop!_OS or Linux Mint, and even when you do become comfortable with these things they are both still excellent distros.
Fedora is excellent but I wouldn’t call it a casual/beginner distro. Ubuntu is tricky because it is fairly easy to use, but the direction the distro has gone is concerning (others may disagree but going all-in on Snap was a dumb idea). I can’t think of any other obviously casual distros with a huge base.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen Manjaro or Arco on this list
No need to deal with repos, you choose the LTS kernel for a stable build, and it works out of the box with all the bloat you could need
True. My recommendation of Linux Mint of more for beginners. But for Causal users I guess Manjaro is my default recommendation.
+1 to PopOS being easy to install and use. It has LUKS by default for disk encryption as well.
OpenSuse Tumbleweed might be worth a look. It’s a “stable” rolling release, so it’s always up to date. I’ve been looking at it, but haven’t run it.
Fedora Silverblue has an immutable root and relies on snapshots on updates. The snapshots should make rolling back easy if anything gets sideways. I customize lots of things about the base OS, so I end up running regular Fedora. Next time I buy a laptop, I’ll try committing to Silverblue.
Also, there’s a standard Linux distro???
Tumbleweed is a fantastic distro and, in fact, the distro that made me settle in, stoping the distrohop. However, we must recognize that the openSuse way is a little different from many other distros, and the packaging options while vast, require more steps to get to than debian or arch, for example. New users might be thrown off by more commands needing sudo (to manager printers for example) or the codecs installation ( which is so easy that is almost a no braine, but still).
Overall openSuse became my favourite distro. My install of tumbleweed is now going for 3 years of everyday use, from gaming to image editing, all this without having the patented MS Windows bit rot. In all this time, only once I needed to do a rollback on a update. It is stable as a rock.
Would I recommend it to someone totally new? It’s hard to. The specifics of openSuse sometimes create some barries to new users. The file system (btrfs, by default), the codecs, the extra safe sudo policy, etc…
Now would I recommend it for a better acquainted linux user? Abso-fucking-lutely, best rolling realease you can find. Updates are relatively bleeding edge, and stable. And even if they aren’t, just roll back and go on with your day.
For casual users, I recommend Ubuntu or derivatives. Get acquainted and jump to arch in a few years.
Ubuntu has turned bothersome as of late so i Wouldn’t really recommend it but i do recommend most derivatives
TBH, I’ve had less trouble with manjaro than any other distro
I’ve been using Arch Linux for 10 years now, once you get over the learning curve it is easy. And there are tools like ALMA with preset files to ease that learning curve (you can test pre-built installations on a LiveUSB)!
There’s also the nuclear option of using a full installer like EndeavourOS, but I’d avoid that if you can.
Why would you avoid distros like endeavouros?
Stuff like this - https://github.com/r-darwish/alma/issues/81
Small changes in the repos or kernel images used that end up causing issues for Arch tooling.
Yeah arch is one of the best, but the learning curve is something most people just dont care for and it can discourage new users who struggle with it. Its best to start of with something easier and then go for arch if you want to later, unless you want to learn and challenge your self a little, its not hard its just a barrier that most dont want or need.
EndeavourOS is great because it has the installer and all the benefits of arch, i see no reason to discourage it
I contributed a bit to ALMA, and one issue with the Arch derivatives is stuff like this - https://github.com/r-darwish/alma/issues/81
Where the repo definitions or different kernel images, etc. can cause issues for pacstrap and so on.
Arch is cool but not a casual distro. I’ve been using Slackware as my daily driver for ages but I wouldn’t suggest it to a new user looking for something to cut their teeth on, or for someone who doesn’t want to spent a little bit of time configuring their host. Full installers are nice (even Arch has one now), nothing wrong with them if you want to use them and are happy with defaults.
I don’t think it is good for “casual” users
