Need linux distro recommendations

[Cyracus]

Planning to switch my htpc to linux, and if/when gaming is better switch my main pc over. I've used ubuntu in the past, tried mint and red hat but don't recall how I felt about them. Just looking for suggestions for good linux distros, similar layout to windows is a plus, and the command line isn't exactly my friend so any that do well at keeping one from having to go into it are good too.

Also saw someone mention running windows as a kvm to game on earlier, but my history with VMs tells me that wouldn't work out so well, but it's been a few years, is it a viable option?

[RobFRaschke]

I like Arch based just because I've been using it off and on for a long time, so if you want a more familiar gui experience, Manjaro is actually really good.

[Woldraxe]

This is going to be a can of worms you really don't want to open.

If you're looking for mainstream Linux, I highly recommend you stick to the tried and tested Ubuntu or Mint distro (Debian). I personally use CentOS (RedHat) for my "daily needs", academically at least; Windows 10 for any gaming needs; KALI Linux for Pen Testing, both academically and personally. If you're looking to play video games, you may try using Steam OS? You are able to use a work around to install Debian based applications. (See Reddit.)

[jpenguin]

Do you have any idea what DE you want?  I like fedora, spins are available with most major DE's; very up-to-date distribution. OPENSUSE Leap is a good choice too, not as cutting edge.

[Cyracus]

4 minutes ago, Woldraxe said:

This is going to be a can of worms you really don't want to open.

I think I do, better to do my testing now and find one I like now so when I switch my main pc to linux I'm already familiar with it

1 minute ago, jpenguin said:

Do you have any idea what DE you want?  I like fedora, spins are available with most major DE's; very up-to-date distribution. OPENSUSE Leap is a good choice too, not as cutting edge.

I don't, are they set within the distros, or is it possible to change between them? I was too busy struggling to not break everything the last time I used linux to learn all the fun stuff

[jpenguin]

It it possible, but not recommended to switch DE's in an install. KDE and Cinnamon are the most traditional; KDE being slightly more resource heavy.  Gecko Linux is opensuse with cinnamon

OpenMandriva has a nice kde setup as well, & you can use the mageia net installer to select almost any desktop

Opensuse has a large userbase though, fedora's is close in size

[wasab]

Mint if you want fast. Ubuntu if you want best consumer experiences. 

[captain_aggravated]

If you want a Windows-lke desktop experience, probably not mainline Ubuntu.  Gnome is a lot closer to MacOS than Windows.  Mint Cinnamon edition and Kubuntu are more Windows 7 like, Ubuntu Mate or Xubuntu will feel a bit more "classic" than that.

 

My usual advice, don't get married to your first distro.  They're free, download a bunch of them and try them out.

[Don Vielenio]

Maybe Ubuntu Budgie is something for you, it still has a classical menu and also has a nice dock for quick access.
 

[gimpinthesink]

Yeah I'd was going to say Ubuntu Budgie. It think it has more of a macOS feel to it than gnome has. But if you want a windows feel I think that Cinnamon is more like that.

[Cyracus]

15 hours ago, captain_aggravated said:

My usual advice, don't get married to your first distro.  They're free, download a bunch of them and try them out.

The first time I did it I was stuck on hard drives. Now I have a dedicated OS nvme drive and storage drives so that's the plan

[Nettly_]

How about this, do not ask. You pick for you!
Why do I have to say this? Well because Linux is all about freedom and you just have to pick something right for YOU. Not what we think, what you think. Got it?

[duckyand]

I'd say Solus instead of Ubuntu Budgie. The desktop seems to be more stable and snappy. While the repositories are smaller, they have stuff that's confirmed working and includes common software like Discord and Steam. Also, no fiddling with PPAs for latest graphics drivers.

[Breadpudding]

Since nobody has mentioned this yet, there's a site that asks you questions and recommends distributions to you: https://distrochooser.de/en.

[Cyracus]

8 hours ago, Breadpudding said:

Since nobody has mentioned this yet, there's a site that asks you questions and recommends distributions to you: https://distrochooser.de/en.

Thank you, I'm gonna bookmark that so I can direct people there in the future

[Cyracus]

On 4/23/2019 at 7:09 PM, SafyreLyons-5LT said:

How about this, do not ask. You pick for you!
Why do I have to say this? Well because Linux is all about freedom and you just have to pick something right for YOU. Not what we think, what you think. Got it? 

I asked for recommendations, I never asked anyone to tell me what to use. But thanks for the condescending drivel

[Shura]

If you are willing to put some time to set it up, I would recommend Arch + XFCE. I run it on my HTPC, it's set it open Kodi at startup and then I have Kodi set it launch other things like Firefox or Youtube through Ice from Kodi.  The best part is that it only uses 294mb before Kodi starts. It's very light and with XFCE+ Arc Theme, it's very clean.

 

I find other distros to be unnecessarily bloated, Manjaro + XFCE uses 760+mb at start and Mint mate was around 700+ too. Arch takes a bit of learning to install but the experience is very good. Also once you have a desktop environment installed, Install the LTS kernal, that way you won;t have to worry about breakage as much.

[ljlangley13]

I just switched to Manjaro and have been liking it a lot. It's super easy to use for the most part

[Den15]

A very hard question you ask.

 

You'd be better off by watching videos and ressearching about the important things.

 

Search on how to install the software you generally use and you'll see which one could fill your expectations.

 

Ressearch about DE's, since they really change the UX. As far as I know Ubuntu uses GNOME, so does Pop!_OS and ElementaryOS, which are based on Ubuntu.

 

Manjaro has a lot of DE's but what kept me away from it was the "rolling release" stuff, I don't want it downloading things all the time.

 

Right now I'm running Pop!_OS on my home rig, nothing to complain so far, the GUIs are so beautiful.

 

But if you're really afraid of the terminal... I guess you shouldn't be using linux, since the installers are not the most recommended way...

 

What made you consider turning to linux?

[Cyracus]

8 hours ago, Den15 said:

But if you're really afraid of the terminal... I guess you shouldn't be using linux, since the installers are not the most recommended way...

 

What made you consider turning to linux?

I know, I use the terminal as I must, but pretty much anything without good directions is liable to go wrong

 

Mainly I just want a good alternative to Windows in case I ever need to get away from Microsoft, but I was also tired of the watermark in win10 and didn't want to buy a license key or hack it out.

[Den15]

14 hours ago, Cyracus said:

I know, I use the terminal as I must, but pretty much anything without good directions is liable to go wrong

 

Mainly I just want a good alternative to Windows in case I ever need to get away from Microsoft, but I was also tired of the watermark in win10 and didn't want to buy a license key or hack it out.

Here in my BR HUEHUEHUEHE lands the cheapest license for w10 home 64bit was around 500 BRL, would be like 130 USD. Considering the minimum wage here is 1.000 BRL(250 USD) that is a lot.

 

I bought a ssd and did not want to pay for w10 and then started ressearching about linux... now... the more I know the more I love it. The level of control and freedom you get is amazing, specially to someone on a IT college graduation as I am.

 

At my job I have to use w10 (non-it related stuff), so I modded it to look a bit like Pop!_OS cause I'm in love with it

 

And games are not something I care much these days, only coding