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I grew tired of bad “Top 10 Linux distros in ${CURRENT_YEAR}” articles so I wrote one that I would consider useful myself when starting out.
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If they are willing and able to learn something with a radically different interface: Fedora.
If they aren’t: Linux Mint. There is nothing easier for a former windows user than Mint and it has a ton of built in tools for any kind of user. Not to mention forums support and massive package repos (+ built in flatpak).
Calling GNOME a radically different interface is kind of overstating it. It basically just replaces the taskbar/dock with the overview
Maybe overstating it some, but it requires a different way of thinking about the desktop to be used to its full potential.
I swear by Linux Mint - it’s easy to setup and it required basically no transition for me at all coming from windows to get used to the controls and layout, was very painless.
Fedora does have a KDE Spin, and it works well
You got the typical recommendations already, my advice would be to avoid most of the niche distros. I just don’t think they offer much over something that is more mainstream, especially for your first foray.
The first distro I ran for any significant length of time was Fedora.
Linux Mint for everyday users, Pop!OS for gamers, OpenSUSE or Manjaro for thechy people with already good windows skills.
Why not Ubuntu? I don’t trust Canonical. They’re a bussiness, and they made several questionable decisions in the past.
I agree except for Manjaro. EndeavourOS is a better Arch derivative I think. There are quite a few reasons but the one that bugs me the most is I’ve had things break because they hold back packages from upstream.
I agree, also the holding back of packages just for the sake of waiting probably doesn’t make it more stable, despite what the devs say; also having 300+ packages updated at the same time might make it worse for troubleshooting in case something goes wrong.
As someone who actually started with Manjaro back in 2020 before moving to EndeavourOS after 9 months, I would say that there is indeed a steeper learning curve as you don’t get for example a GUI package manager (Pamac is awful and even as a newbie I used it for maybe three days before I started to use the CLI, but a Linux beginner might want one) and the fact it is a true rolling release means you need to do some more research and maintenance, so I wouldn’t call Endeavour a distro for absolute beginners, unless one is determined to learn a lot about how a computer works… but again one shouldn’t probably use a rolling release then; Manjaro just tricks you to believe it is easier, but it probably is only if you don’t use the AUR.
Maybe Garuda is more beginner friendly than EndeavourOS while avoiding most of the problems Manjaro has? Although I’ve never used it as I don’t see any advantage over Endeavour, and I’m not a fan of excessive out of the box theming and Chaotic AUR enabled as default…
Garuda has a Lite edition that doesn’t include any of the theming, just vanilla KDE Plasma. It’s been my daily driver for a year or two now, I really like it. What sets it apart are the GUI tools for system maintenance and tweaking, in which it’d be easy to mess things up, but they make doing common changes and adjustments easy. I don’t know if that makes it good or bad for beginners, I guess it depends on the person.
now that arch has an actual install script, i’m not sure if there’s much reason to use an arch derivative instead of just using arch
A beginner wouldn’t want to use an install script. Unless it’s changed since i used it a few months ago it’s much less user friendly than a gui installer like the one ubuntu has
I disagree with both since it depends on how the user wishes to use the OS.
With Manjaro the package delay isn’t bad if you do not intend to use AUR. Out of the box its user friendly and has a GUI for everything I needed to configure when I was using it.
But if you need software only on AUR, which is a lot. Then yeah Manjaro is bad with dependencies and updates (broked my install because of it)
Meanwhile EvdeavourOS is too reliant on the terminal for me to call it beginner friendly. If it had the same level of GUIs for configurations and a Graphical Package installer available as an optional install then I’d give it another shot.
For me a beginner is someone who knows there way around a computer (won’t confuse a web broswer with a OS), but isn’t familiar with a terminal or command line. So the less an distro relies on the terminal for OS functionality (installing software, updating the OS, etc.) The more beginner friendly it is.
"Sigh*. I’ve been using Manjaro for two years now and I haven’t had problems. Everything always worked smoothly.
I don’t trust Canonical. They’re a bussiness
So are Linux Mint Ltd, System76, Manjaro GmbH, and SUSE S.A., btw.
I agree with you ‘questionable decisions’ remark but if you want to go to an option by an organization that’s not a business, you don’t have that many choices in the Linux mainstream.
Debian, perhaps?
Personally, I think Fedora is the best choice for beginners because of good corporate backing but if being run by a business is a no-go, Debian is probably the next best thing.
- Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, stating “Linux Mint stands on the shoulder of giants, it is based on Debian and Ubuntu.” on their homepage
- Pop!OS is owned by System76 which is a business
- OpenSUSE is owned by SUSE which is a quite profitable business
- Manjaro is owned by Manjaro GmbH & Co. KG to “… to effectively engage in commercial agreements, form partnerships, and offer professional services”.
You can dislike Canonical for whatever reasons, I would like to hear them. Saying “They are a business” is a bit disingenuous since all these distros have a business backing them and commerical interests in mind.
Fedora for coders
And Manjaro for no one. The distro is run by clowns
+1 for OpenSUSE, it’s a great semi-stable rolling release distro. However, I would avoid it for uses that require doing a bunch of stuff with networking because YAST messes that up a little.
Honestly I’ve been very satisified with ostree-based distros, specifically Fedora Kinoite (Silverblue for GNOME) and it’s very hard to fuck it up and it encourages flatpak usage.
Other than that, the recommendations on the article are pretty good.
I installed silverblue for my wife (not tech savy) and is worry free, super stable, auto updates, everything just works, is actually great
Agreed. Running Silverblue on all my systems. I don’t have any worries now. Wife likes it too.
Update your article to say Fedora Silverblue + flatpaks 😎
Ubuntu is the typical go-to.
Id recommend pop!_os personally.
Fedora is another great option.
The reality is, as a new Linux user, you’ll probably hop around quite a bit. I say go for it! Try out everything you want.
I really liked Crubchbang back in the day, but since it (and bunsen) have disappeared, after some distro hopping I settled on Lubuntu. It’s nice and simple like Gnome 2 or Windows xp. Nothing surprising, and nothing trying too hard. Very intuitive for long time GUI users like myself, with none of the stability issues that plagued actual GUIs from the past.
Oh man! I miss #! Something fierce. PopOS seems really nice, just a scrub over here on Ubuntu Mate LTS.
Ubuntu
Sidenote: I love the little arrows you had for links, how did you achieve that?
<a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian<sup>↗</sup></a>Thanks!
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They do not: Mint, while based on Ubuntu, is independent and takes its own decisions. For example, the current source of all the hatred against Canonical, their forced implementation of snaps, isn’t present on Mint.
Well, that depends which one you mean ;-) They’ve been extremely good about staying away from snaps, which is fantastic, and they never did the 'advertising banners in
apt updatenonsense. They changed to systemd as well, which was a controversy at the time, but most distros have done that now.
Stepping into the labyrinth of Linux distros, are we? It’s like choosing your first pet, and equally as exhilarating (and can be as much work for the first time owner).
I’d say, cozy up with Ubuntu ( a current daily Arch and openSUSE user myself).
Why, you ask? Let me paint you a picture.
Imagine Ubuntu as a Labrador - friendly, accommodating, and doesn’t chew up your furniture (or in this case, your patience).
First off, Ubuntu’s UI is intuitive and user-friendly. It’s like it holds your hand through the twilight zone of the terminal. Also, it’s well-documented, with a vibrant community ready to assist when you hit a snag. And here’s the cherry on top - it’s Debian-based. This means a massive software repository, making installations a breeze. So you can spend more time enjoying the Linux landscape, and less time wrestling with software dependencies.
So while it isn’t perfect (or everyones cup of tea), I still believe it provides th easiest out-of-the-box experience for new Linux users.
As you grow in confidence, feel free to explore the wilder breeds. 😉 Happy journey!
Manjaro, and I’m not joking. It has all of the advantages and disadvantages of Arch, but at the same time has a very user-friendly default configuration, and a GUI tool that lets you choose which kernel version to use (LTS, latest, real-time, etc).
Unlike most Arch-based distros, it’s not a bleeding-edge rolling release. It’s always behind Arch with a rapid point-release schedule, but that also means that each update gets tested and commented on by users (and I do encourage reading and contributing to the release forum thread - it is how I avoided the GRUB bug that killed many Arch installations).
