hey nerds, I’m getting myself a new personal laptop as a treat, but I very much do not want windows 11 shitting it up. Is there a linux distro with caveman-compatible instructions for installation and use? I want to think about my OS as little as possible while actually using it.

I’ve got one friend who uses mint, but I’ve also seen memes dunking on it so who knows. I actually really only know what I’ve seen from you all shitposting in other communities

  • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I always recommend to beginners ElementaryOS. The name being coincidental. It is a relatively simple looking but very very elegant and polished interface. Give it a try.

  • deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de
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    3 hours ago

    I’ve got one friend who uses mint, but I’ve also seen memes dunking on it so who knows. I actually really only know what I’ve seen from you all shitposting in other communities

    Every distro gets shit on in memes, because each distro does things its own way that some don’t agree with. As a new user, most of that doesn’t matter much, the biggest changes between distros are how stuff works in the background. What matters more is your choice of Desktop Environment (DE). Essentially “the coat of paint on top”. Most distros offer a couple different options when downloading the ISO, or when installing it.

    I’d reccomend starting out by trying GNOME and KDE Plasma (if they’re easily available for your distro), with GNOME being slightly more macOS-like, and KDE being somewhat similar in feel to Windows. Those are “the big two” DEs, but there’s plenty of other options available if you don’t like them.

    As for distros, whatever works for you is the option you should go with. There’s only two distros I recommend against using, Ubuntu (/ close derivatives) and Manjaro. Ubuntu is becoming extremely corporate, going against the “spirit” of a Linux distro. There’s “Ubuntu Pro”, a subscription for security updates, and “snap”, an “alternative to” flatpak that forces you on Ubuntu managed repositories, along with many other issues. Manjaro is often marketed as “an easy Arch-based distro”, but is in fact only very loosely derived from Arch. This combined with Manjaro team’s inability to maintain the distro properly, causes nothing but issues.

    As for every other distro, if it’s being updated, and it works for you, then it’s a great option. Because that second one is very personal, there is no “single best Linux distro”. I would personally suggest to check out Mint and Fedora, those are often great options.

    As someone else mentioned, with a “new laptop”, hardware compatibility may be an issue. Most distros allow you to try them off the USB before installing, that’s probably a good idea.

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    Ubuntu. There are mixes of it but out of the box Ubuntu is about as straightforward a dist to install as possible and it is well supported.

    That said “new laptop” and Linux are not always a match made in heaven. You might try it from a boot stick and confirm that things like the GPU, touch screen, touchpad, fingerprint reader, USB C / Lightning all work properly.

    • deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de
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      4 hours ago

      Ubuntu is horrible these days, including most derivatives that change nothing but the DE. If you want Ubuntu, use Mint instead. There’s plenty of other options available, like Fedora, Pop!_OS, etc.

      As for testing, most distribution installers allow you to try them without installing first. No need to set up anything separate for that.

      • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Well, except that they have consistently been the one that has and installs proper drivers for a variety of hardware I’ve used it with. Many - many test units over the years with either brand new or older and obscure hardware that not a single distro I could find recognized, nearly every time it was Ubuntu that came through for me. Including my current laptop. I have been aware of the progression toward a corporate type atmosphere with them, though, and I don’t like it. I’m thinking about seeing if plain ol’ raw Debian now has the proper drivers because if it does, I may replace my Kubuntu with it. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve delivered when all others failed.

  • Integrate777@discuss.online
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    5 hours ago

    Go ahead with mint. It’s the only distro I know with a fully featured setup wizard that holds your hand through the entire process. I am confident anyone who has used computers can use it.

    But honestly, most modern distros are about as difficult as picking up an iOS/android phone for the first time. There are different ways of doing things, but they’re still phones and can’t be too different anyway. Same with mint, it’s just a computer, it isn’t all that different.

  • penguin202124 (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    Fedora KDE. It’s easy to setup, modern, customizable and fast. Second would be Mint, it’s only flaws is that it ships an older kernel (might be a pain) and uses X11 (insecure).

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    Mint is one of the best bets for beginners, it’s very similar to windows 10 UI wise by default and generally very user friendly

  • syaochan@feddit.it
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    8 hours ago

    Go with Mint, it’s my daily drive on both my laptop and HTPC. If you choose the regular edition Ubuntu based you have also hardware enablement (hwe) kernels which could be useful on newer hardware.

  • Mixel@szmer.info
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    8 hours ago

    https://ultramarine-linux.org/ Linux ultramarine is based on very popular fedora distro. Let me quote some fedi post:

    1. Just like Microsoft Windows, you do not need to configure your firmware, drivers, media codecs, and sources. That is already taken care of for you.

    2. Just like Windows, you can have automatic update, update notifications, or choose not to update. By default, update notifications is the default, allowing you to choose when and what to update. And you can update with a click of a button (point and click), just like Microsoft Update.

    3. Installing, updating, and removing apps through the app store is point and click easy.

    4. Go ahead and download an RPM setup file, and double-click to install, just like you would a Windows setup file. Updating and removing that program, can also be done through the app store, which doubles as the app manager.

    5. Point and click settings. No matter if you want to add users, manage a VPN, add a printer, etc… etc… A simple-to-use control panel is what is offered.

    6. Friendly support - Based on Fedora Linux, means you have 20+ years of documentation, live help, support forums, and chat groups, both from Fedora and Ultramarine. Source: https://kitty.social/notes/a12bji4hf8zb0332

  • Lotsen@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 hours ago

    You can go with mint. It’s a solid choice. I prefer opensuse tumbleweed since I find it easier to work with. It also has a great selection of desktop enviroments witch is the thing you interact with and what you use to manage your open programs. If you want something like modern windows you can go with KDE or cinnamon and if you want something more minimal and windoes XP like you can use xfce.

  • smiletolerantly@awful.systems
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    9 hours ago

    Generally I agree with everyone else, Linux Mint is great.

    However, if you really want to not worry at all, you could just buy a laptop from e.g. Tuxedo or System76. They come with Linux preinstalled (I think in the case of Tuxedo at least, you even have a choice of which Linux Distro?), and are guaranteed to have no hardware “difficulties” with Linux, i.e. even if you put another distro on it, you won’t encounter driver issues.

    (Those have become very rare anyways, but do put a damper on the “Firsttime Linux Experience” if you do encounter them…)

    • Lotsen@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 hours ago

      You can also buy from novacustoms and get Linux installed and you get to have coreboot as the bios

    • nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br
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      2 hours ago

      So far, people are being pretty reasonable. Most are recommending mint, ubuntu or similars, and no one recommended arch to someone with basic linux/computing skills. I have to say I’m impressed. Restored my faith in the community.

  • Fashim@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Personally I would recommend Fedora, most distros people have recommended here works.

    I had less issues installing Fedora on a new laptop than I did with the win11 and win10 attempts, I’m never switching back to windows

  • Ulrich@feddit.org
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    12 hours ago

    The process for installation is more or less the same for all of them.

    Linux Mint and PopOS are the “go to” suggestions. I really don’t like the way either of them look. I’m partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.

    Bazzite comes with most of the stuff you will want pre-loaded, and also the cool Steam Deck Gamescope interface. It’s the only one I’ve used with seamless background updates like you might be accustomed to on Android or iOS. That’s my recommendation.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      I’m partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.

      At that point just get a Mac. Gnome has the same “we know better than you do. If you want to do something outside of our extremely specific use cases, you’re using it wrong and should figure something else out” mentality that Apple does.

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        3 hours ago

        At that point just get a Mac.

        There are lots and lots of reasons not to do that that in sure you already know but are determined to be an asshole regardless.

        Gnome has the same “we know better than you do

        Never seen it.

      • merci3@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Except on Linux you’re not obligated to use GNOME, with it being simply a choice between many, and that just so happens to fit into it’s users specific needs. It sure has it’s issue like any DE has, and if it bothers you then you’re completely free to use whatever else you want, that’s the beauty of open source.

    • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      Currently using Bazzite as my main OS on my laptop, and it works pretty good, the ostree setup has prevented me from manually installing several things though :/

      • darreninthenet@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 hours ago

        What’s this ostree setup thing please? Was thinking of trying Bazzite but am not yet a super experienced user so trying to understand any issues beforehand…