Hey, so my friend asked me which distro i can recommend for him. He basically used Windows his whole life. The recent developments of Microsoft though seems to worry him, so he want to give Linux a try.
I myself use Linux since around one year, so i’m definitely far from being an expert and i don’t really feel i have enough expertise to give him an appropriate answer. I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and love it, but i suppose it’s not a good distro for him since he is not that tech affine and i suppose getting used to the terminal is a bit much too ask and could scare him away from the Linux experience.
So what im looking for is a distro, that is easy to use (for beginners & non techies; also not a rolling release) but is also good for Gaming (NVIDIA) and lightly everyday stuff. He uses his computer only for free time, not for his work.
I hope some people here have some helpful recommendations. I was thinking of maybe recommend Mint or Ubuntu, but i only used Ubuntu for a few days and don’t really know much about it.
I suppose PopOS is the best call for him
Thanks for the suggestion. Is it possible to avoid the console on PopOS? Can you setup everything by UI?
Yes. With PopOs you can do pretty much everything by UI
System76 is a laptop manufacturer that uses its own system, called PopOS. So they’re aiming to be totally user friendly with the distro
For gaming, yes. 100% GUI. Not even codecs or the like.
Walk him through the GNOME paradigm, it could be a let down or a game changer it depends on their needs.
As other’s have suggested, PopOS is pretty good. I would also consider Nobara as well. It’s based on Fedora with plenty of tweaks that makes it much better for gaming. It also has the ability to quickly install NVIDIA drivers. after the first login.
Pop os is great for gaming and it comes with nvidia drivers installed
I’m sure you’ll get 20 different recommendations, but if you’d like another one, I’d agree with your original suggestion of Linux Mint.
For someone who’s familiar with Windows, they should be able to pick up and use it immediately, it uses the easy to understand traditional desktop visual language, menu bar etc.
As an Ubuntu based OS, you’re giving yourself access to a lot of very user friendly forums etc - the vast majority of what applies to Ubuntu applies to Mint. It’s currently very well supported based on its popularity.
I only steer away from Ubuntu itself because of the newer versions using non-traditional (perhaps Mac-like?) desktop visual language, and problems with Snaps (fonts, external drives, USB pens, cameras, printers etc not being visible).
Nvidia drivers are sorted during the install. You could happily use it for years without touching the terminal, as long as your install runs smoothly in the first place (wifi/touchpad/sleep etc) - though that should apply to any distro really.
Basically it should work, should be safe and comfortable, should be easy.
He’ll have a significantly easier time if he works with the idea that “Games = Steam. No other shop/launcher exists” (same for any distro).
I sometimes offer a little informal tech support to older/less computery people near where I live - Mint tends to be easily picked up and understood, and for most of them, it’s now a yearly check-up rather than a weekly panic :)
Thanks for your great answer. Seems this could be a fitting distro, i will keep mint in mind :)
Bear in mind that most of what is written above also applies to PopOS - except for the desktop environment being Gnome 3’s “Mac-like” rather than Cinnamon’s “Windows-Like”. There’s a few cool little adjustments to both, but this preference may have the biggest impact.
You can always test a “Live USB” of both, which allows you to load the OS directly from a USB stick, without installing anything - to test which seems right (and the same applies to any other distro anyone mentions in the thread). I’m pretty sure a ten minute test of each would give a sufficient amount of “Hmm, that’s cool” / “Huh, that’s weird” to help things along :)
Personally I would recommend Linux Mint. It’s based on Ubuntu so any issues should be easy to find and fix online. It’s very similar in terms of the actual desktop to Windows instead of being completely different like Pop!OS. You should also be able to completely avoid the command line as well though I do encourage you to have your friend learn at least some of the basics so he at least knows how to use it.
I’ve used Mint Cinnamon as recently as a few months ago for a machine with a 3060Ti. The experience was great. Pop!_OS also touts native NVIDIA support, as others have mentioned, but I have less experience with it.
Seconding mint. Been using it on my gaming PCs since 2015 or so, including my brand new one.
Pop!_OS seems like it would suit this use case. Especially since I hear that a recent update to the pop shop has made it much more responsive. Also it has nvidia drivers pre-installed and you can update the nvidia drivers through the pop shop. Literally everything can be done through with a GUI
I’m not really in the know myself, but I’ve recently seen EndeavourOS recommend over PopOS due to faster driver updates.
You can install pamac for a GUI for the package manager. Do
yayto search for any package and install it; doyay(nothing else) to upgrade everything, andyay -Rcnsto remove stuff and all their unused dependencies. I also recommend chaoticAURFor the DE I recommend MATE but you can select any of the major ones in the installer
Get synapse for a spotlight-like search; it uses the alt+space keybind by default
The arch wiki is amazing
I am in love with my GARUDA <3
I was looking for a distro too and I got recommended Pop OS a lot so you might ask your friend to give that a try.
I use Garuda and it is great. Lots of DEs to choose from and it’s super easy. It is rolling release mind you, but the most beginner friendly one there is. It’s also gaming focused and it got a lot of different additional little applications specifically so you don’t have to use the terminal. My favorite distro for gaming and also my favorite distro period. I am using it for 1-2 months now for work and gaming :)
Other than that Mint is a great choice too.
I’ve been using Opensuse Tumbleweed. Cs2 is running great on it
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My SO enjoys Zorin. Based on Ubuntu (like pop os) but had built in themes that makes the desktop environment easily customizable.
They found it easy to use and set up.
Zorin right now is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and GNOME 3.36, which are pretty much dated. If his friend has a gaming rig, it would be better to look for a more up to date distro
I was more going for ease of use. If you are playing the latest and greatest then I agree you’d probably want Arch based or at the minimum Fedora based distributions. However if you are playing some more stable games, or I do titles and Ubuntu is fine. The updates will come.
I do not recommend Linux for any Windows gaming.
But do you recommend Linux for Linux gaming?
Begrudgingly, sure. :)
It destroys any incentive for game houses to develop native Linux versions of their games, leaving Linux gaming in an permanent almost as good state, and prevents integrations with chat apps and so on. Why promote a poorer experience for users?
Not that they have much incentive in the first place. As history has shown, developers are quite happy NOT to make Linux ports at all. The market just isn’t big enough to care.
Which is also fine. None is better than tainting your Linux system with Windows software.
@PseudoSpock Because I don’t want to use Windows
Then please don’t ask for help from anywhere outside of Steam support, and certainly never blame Linux for any issues you come up against with your non-native game(s). If you face any issues with your Windows game on Linux, that is not Linux’s fault or problem.
While you’re not completely incorrect about it not being Linux’s fault, trying to gatekeep “anywhere outside of Steam support” is just as unhelpful as game developers not focusing on Linux.
Does that same logic extend to not-Steam’s ProtonDB, a 3rd party website for tracking how well games play on Linux using Proton?
@PseudoSpock I don’t blame Linux, I blame the game developers for not making linux versions of their games. Valve, Steam, Proton and the Steam deck are improving things for gaming on linux. Yes, I’d rather have native games, but it’s still better than nothing. I’m not gonna play HL2 till the end of time or tux racer because nobody wants to make native games for Linux.
If Valve can invent a bandaid solution to get people gaming on linux, it will increase linux market share and developers might see a reason to make games for it.
