Which Linux Distro should I choose?

[PalowPower]

Hey there,

I want to use Linux on my Office PC but don't know which distro I should choose. I just don't want to use Windows for work anymore. I started with Programming (Java and JavaScript) and need my Office PC just for Programming and "normal" work like for school.

 

I thought debian would be a good start since I heared a lot of people saying it would be a good distro. But I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking you guys for help and recommendations.

 

Thx.

[The L2d]

I know everyone hates Ubuntu because it's considered a beginner distro or whatever. But honestly Ubuntu is great, the GUI is clean there's a large user base that will be able to help you find an answer to fix your problem! I use it on my laptop for school all the time. 

[mich_gg_win]

Manjaro KDE
Fedora Workstation
Garuda Linux
Linux Lite
Solus OS
Pop! OS
 

[RONOTHAN##]

Anything in the Debian branch is great and where you probably should be for a new-to-Linux user as long as you aren't using super new hardware (like, don't think about going vanilla Debian if you're on Alder Lake unless you want to put in effort installing a new kernel). Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Pop_OS!, etc. are all great. Pop_OS! you can probably get by using with anything but Alder lake, but if you do have something really new you should be going for a different distro. It's as well documented as they come so finding solutions to issues is the easiest among any distro, and it's usually setup about as well as you need for most work. 

 

Fedora Workstation is very solid, it's probably the most stable distro I've used, and as long as you don't have a Nvidia GPU everything is very easy to get setup and/or just works without any setup. Fedora isn't necessarily the best distro for a complete noob because the documentation surrounding it is a bit higher level than something like Ubuntu, but if you know a bit about Linux it's an amazing distro to use. It's a static release so it's very stable yet it still gets fairly frequent updates. 

 

If you're using new hardware and a Nvidia GPU, go OpenSUSE. It's out of the box configuration is probably the best out of any distro I've tried, it's very easy to get Nvidia drivers and everything installed, and they have a rolling release version if you need the most up to date software while still being pretty stable (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is probably the most stable rolling release distro out there). YAST is amazing, Snapper is amazing, it's pretty snappy, and zypper is very nice. The only thing that's a bit hit or miss is software support, but there are still ways of getting everything to work on it with a little bit of effort.

[Ultraforce]

6 hours ago, PalowPower said:

Hey there,

I want to use Linux on my Office PC but don't know which distro I should choose. I just don't want to use Windows for work anymore. I started with Programming (Java and JavaScript) and need my Office PC just for Programming and "normal" work like for school.

 

I thought debian would be a good start since I heared a lot of people saying it would be a good distro. But I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking you guys for help and recommendations.

 

Thx.

While I've not used it before I've heard Debian by itself is a bit hard to get into and if you want something that is likely going to just work for school, programming and workstation you don't want to use Debian itself but something inspired by Debian.

Linux Mint is one that Luke found worked well for a while.

 

For me personally I've liked the little I've done with something called Kubuntu which is Ubuntu where the desktop looks more like Windows 10 which is what I'm familiar with.

Because I'm not super familiar with some Linux stuff I also decided to take some stuff from Kubuntu Focus specifically. So it installs automatically some programs and has a quick way to install some apps, some of which are by default not available on the App store on Ubuntu.

 

I think it's not a bad choice if you like aspects of windows like there being a start menu and what not but want to go away from it and quickly be able to go to programming.

[wamred]

10 hours ago, PalowPower said:

Hey there,

I want to use Linux on my Office PC but don't know which distro I should choose. I just don't want to use Windows for work anymore. I started with Programming (Java and JavaScript) and need my Office PC just for Programming and "normal" work like for school.

 

I thought debian would be a good start since I heared a lot of people saying it would be a good distro. But I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking you guys for help and recommendations.

 

Thx.

Personally Fedora is my go to, that is if you can deal with DNF.

[RollyShed]

10 hours ago, PalowPower said:

I want to use Linux on my Office PC but don't know which distro I should choose. I just don't want to use Windows for work anymore. I started with Programming (Java and JavaScript) and need my Office PC just for Programming and "normal" work like for school.

Linux Mint Cinnamon.

 

By default -

Documents, spreadsheets and databases - LibreOffice

Firefox with additional browsers available.

Thunderbird for email if wanted.

Sound and video viewing

 

Additional apps for picture editing, recording and sound editing. Video viewing and additional editing available.

Programming in a text editor? Use Text Editor

 

What else do you want or need to do?

[swarfendor437]

I used to be a moderator for Zorin OS - they have just released the Educational version (Zorin OS 16). It's the closest lookalike to Windows 7 in terms of appearance.

I wrote the unofficial manual for Zorin OS 15 Core - get the unofficial manual from here:

pdf version

https://ecloud.global/s/JXeM682da9MxDA2

odt version (for LibreOffice)

https://ecloud.global/s/pqgHxDf6WgcSTJf

There's been a few changes in 16 but this should give you an insight as to what the Core version has to offer.

There used to be Python as an option for programming - not sure if that got updated for the Education version (16)

Zorin 15 is good until April Next year as it is based on Ubuntu 18.04.

I also wrote the unofficial manual for Zorin 12 based on Ubuntu 16.04 which had 30,000 + downloads. I also translated using Google docs into French, German, Italian and Greek.

A kind Zorin forum member from Argentina wrote the Spanish version of the Unofficial Manual for Zorin 12.

The forum has lots of good support. I still drop in from time to time.

Get the education .iso from here:

https://zorin.com/os/education/

It has applications or pre-school up to tertiary education levels.

Personally, now I prefer Devuan 4.0 ('chimaera') You can try the live version from here:

https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/devuan_chimaera/desktop-live/

If that mirror does not work for you choose one of those closest to where you live:

https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan#https-mirrors

One of the few distributions that still supports 32-bit.

 

[PalowPower]

17 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Anything in the Debian branch is great and where you probably should be for a new-to-Linux user as long as you aren't using super new hardware (like, don't think about going vanilla Debian if you're on Alder Lake unless you want to put in effort installing a new kernel). Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Pop_OS!, etc. are all great. Pop_OS! you can probably get by using with anything but Alder lake, but if you do have something really new you should be going for a different distro. It's as well documented as they come so finding solutions to issues is the easiest among any distro, and it's usually setup about as well as you need for most work. 

 

Fedora Workstation is very solid, it's probably the most stable distro I've used, and as long as you don't have a Nvidia GPU everything is very easy to get setup and/or just works without any setup. Fedora isn't necessarily the best distro for a complete noob because the documentation surrounding it is a bit higher level than something like Ubuntu, but if you know a bit about Linux it's an amazing distro to use. It's a static release so it's very stable yet it still gets fairly frequent updates. 

 

If you're using new hardware and a Nvidia GPU, go OpenSUSE. It's out of the box configuration is probably the best out of any distro I've tried, it's very easy to get Nvidia drivers and everything installed, and they have a rolling release version if you need the most up to date software while still being pretty stable (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is probably the most stable rolling release distro out there). YAST is amazing, Snapper is amazing, it's pretty snappy, and zypper is very nice. The only thing that's a bit hit or miss is software support, but there are still ways of getting everything to work on it with a little bit of effort.

Thanks for the detailed Answer. So my Current specs are ok I guess (R5 5600X, 16GB Ram and a GTX 1050 Ti).Which Distro would you recommend with this Hardware?

Edit: Also a friend of mine recommended me Arch Linux. Never heared of that. What about it?

[Ultraforce]

1 hour ago, PalowPower said:

Thanks for the detailed Answer. So my Current specs are ok I guess (R5 5600X, 16GB Ram and a GTX 1050 Ti).Which Distro would you recommend with this Hardware?

Edit: Also a friend of mine recommended me Arch Linux. Never heared of that. What about it?

Given your specs I would at least say that you can run any distro and the really bigger deciding factor would be what you want your desktop to look like

Arch Linux is a distrobution that kind of like Debian is it's own branch. It's most well known for by default being a bit more complicated to install and being best suited for those running the latest technology and for people want a high level of customization. It's really not recommended to be used by people who are brand new to Linux.

 

There's a website called Distrochooser which might help a bit it's a list of questions to try and get an idea of what would be a good choice of a distrobution for you.

For almost all distros you can always try out by downloading the .iso and running them on Virtual Box to help get a basic idea of what the out of the box experience is, I know personally trying out arch on virtual box helped me understand that I would want to not be manually setting up arch if I were to ever use it.

Again, I personally recommend the Kubuntu Focus suite for running linux as being convenient but Manjaro is a more beginner friendly distrobution that utilizes the Arch Linux branch, it's the distrobution Linus used for most of his Linux challenge.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, PalowPower said:

Thanks for the detailed Answer. So my Current specs are ok I guess (R5 5600X, 16GB Ram and a GTX 1050 Ti).Which Distro would you recommend with this Hardware?

Anything is fine to use with it. I'd avoid vanilla Debian because Nvidia drivers are a nightmare, but that's about it. Go for something like Mint, Ubuntu, Pop_OS!, etc. and enjoy. 

 

2 hours ago, PalowPower said:

Edit: Also a friend of mine recommended me Arch Linux. Never heared of that. What about it?

Don't. It's more for advanced users. Arch is known for having the most up to date software out there, so if you need your versions to be bleeding edge or you have very new hardware, using Arch is the easiest way to get it working reliably. The problem with Arch and why I say don't is because it's bleeding edge, it can break on you with updates and it's very hard to fix without knowing some knowledge of the Linux terminal under your belt already. Plus, the people who use Arch expect you to pretty much know at least somewhat what you're doing when you try to fix something, and noobs are usually laughed out of the Arch forums. 

 

Also, mainline Arch is an entirely command line installation, so installing Arch is not exactly easy. It's a meme that for the Linux users who wanna say they're better than you without directly saying they're better than you will say "I run Arch btw". Once you have some Linux experience, yeah try Arch, it's a good learning experience, just know that if you try it now it'll be a trial by fire. 

[jde3]

My advice stick to the major distros. Specially if you want to program. You are most likely to find these in business. Get in there and lean how they work at a deep level. If you learn these you'll be in a good place.

 

Ubuntu (Easy)

CentOS/RedHat is sort of in a weird place atm so instead do OpenSuSE (Intermediate)

Gentoo lot of appliances are Gentoo based or Alpine based (Hard)

FreeBSD (Hard)

 

If you just want to mess around use whatever, but if you want to make money, learn the above.

[zestyB]

Ubuntu is great and unless you're setting up a few dozen or hundred computers it is becoming a popular corporate alternative to big names like redhat/centos as the defacto linux distro for companies. 

[MrXeno]

I would suggest ubuntu and its flavors because they just work. I personally use ubuntu stock (I changed the version of Gnome they provide with a newer version because I can. No other reason lol)

If you want a windows like feel. Then Kubuntu would be perfect for you.

 

I don't recommend Manjaro as they do break it and have DDOS the AUR 3 times at this point.....

The many issue with Manjaro is still there questionable past and well how they handle Arch itself. So I would recommend Ubuntu and there official flavors. It works day in and day out

[Mii Cube]

On 2/15/2022 at 7:27 PM, PalowPower said:

Hey there,

I want to use Linux on my Office PC but don't know which distro I should choose. I just don't want to use Windows for work anymore. I started with Programming (Java and JavaScript) and need my Office PC just for Programming and "normal" work like for school.

 

I thought debian would be a good start since I heared a lot of people saying it would be a good distro. But I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking you guys for help and recommendations.

 

Thx.

Fedora