Which Linux distribution should I choose - been using Windows my whole life!

[Archguy]

Hey!

I really wanted to try linux distribution , since Microsoft is ending the support for Windows 10

 

Pc Specs

Z690 AORUS ELITE AX

i9-12900KF

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

 

General use

Gaming - Steam, Epic games, Origin. I play multi-player and offline games

Some docs editing with Word and Excel

Using Brave as main browser

 

I don't have a problem using a terminal, but for some stuff I tend to like GUI more

 

Please let me know what distro should I choose as a beginner

[ToboRobot]

Most of them are free, so you can just download a few of them and try them out and see what you like.

Picking a common distro like Ubuntu is helpful because of the number of people using it and asking questions online leads to a lot of support.  But PopOS, Mint or Fedora may also be good for you.

But pick one, and test it out, and go from there.

[WereCat]

I've been using Fedora since April and I'm really happy with it. 

 

The only main thing you WILL run into is the codecs which you'll have to install to play videos and music but other than that it should be a smooth sailing for the most part. 

 

You'll need to follow these steps for codecs

https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Multimedia

[BoomerDutch]

You're gamer and you want easy I would use bazzite which is gaming distro designed for gaming and is build on fedora.

 

Or as this forum and popularity on distrowatch use mint.

 

Don't worry about missing brave, on the brave website they provide instructions on installing brave browser.

Or easy method flatpak once installed(if it's not installed yet) you can go to flathub and find brave and click install.

 

Feel free to @ me for more questions.

[UnawareBlaire]

Bazzite 1000%

[YamiYukiSenpai]

Can't go wrong with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distros.  Kubuntu has always been my favorite official flavor.

 

Pop!_OS is an excellent option as it's maintained by a company selling hardware (System76).  Although, I'd wait on that since they're working on their latest COSMIC desktop with their 24.04 alpha.

I got a cousin who recently switched and is enjoying Linux Mint, so that could be an option for you.

 

I'm personally on Tuxedo OS, which is Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE Plasma desktop environment. Just like Pop!_OS, it's maintained by a company that sells hardware (Tuxedo Computers).  Kubuntu maybe my favorite flavor, but Tuxedo OS is my favorite derivative.

[Rilu]

I've been really enjoying Linux mint these last few days. Trying to go for a month to see how i like it.

Bottles has been a god send for getting certain Windows applications like WoW and Eve online running smoothly. I havent felt like i've needed to switch back to Windows for anything just yet.

[RollyShed]

Two mentions of Mint there. I've only installed it on 50+ laptops and about the same number of desktops.

I've only used it for the past decade(?), 2 decades(?) and my partner has used it since MS destroyed her desktop back in 2018.

There is also a very good and helpful discussion forum for Mint.

[Archguy]

On 12/14/2024 at 6:52 PM, ToboRobot said:

Most of them are free, so you can just download a few of them and try them out and see what you like.

Picking a common distro like Ubuntu is helpful because of the number of people using it and asking questions online leads to a lot of support.  But PopOS, Mint or Fedora may also be good for you.

But pick one, and test it out, and go from there.

 

On 12/14/2024 at 8:06 PM, WereCat said:

I've been using Fedora since April and I'm really happy with it. 

 

The only main thing you WILL run into is the codecs which you'll have to install to play videos and music but other than that it should be a smooth sailing for the most part. 

 

You'll need to follow these steps for codecs

https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Multimedia

 

On 12/14/2024 at 8:24 PM, BoomerDutch said:

You're gamer and you want easy I would use bazzite which is gaming distro designed for gaming and is build on fedora.

 

Or as this forum and popularity on distrowatch use mint.

 

Don't worry about missing brave, on the brave website they provide instructions on installing brave browser.

Or easy method flatpak once installed(if it's not installed yet) you can go to flathub and find brave and click install.

 

Feel free to @ me for more questions.

 

On 12/15/2024 at 6:23 AM, UnawareBlaire said:

Bazzite 1000%

 

On 12/15/2024 at 6:27 PM, YamiYukiSenpai said:

Can't go wrong with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distros.  Kubuntu has always been my favorite official flavor.

 

Pop!_OS is an excellent option as it's maintained by a company selling hardware (System76).  Although, I'd wait on that since they're working on their latest COSMIC desktop with their 24.04 alpha.

I got a cousin who recently switched and is enjoying Linux Mint, so that could be an option for you.

 

I'm personally on Tuxedo OS, which is Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE Plasma desktop environment. Just like Pop!_OS, it's maintained by a company that sells hardware (Tuxedo Computers).  Kubuntu maybe my favorite flavor, but Tuxedo OS is my favorite derivative.

 

17 hours ago, Rilu said:

I've been really enjoying Linux mint these last few days. Trying to go for a month to see how i like it.

Bottles has been a god send for getting certain Windows applications like WoW and Eve online running smoothly. I havent felt like i've needed to switch back to Windows for anything just yet.

 

10 hours ago, RollyShed said:

Two mentions of Mint there. I've only installed it on 50+ laptops and about the same number of desktops.

I've only used it for the past decade(?), 2 decades(?) and my partner has used it since MS destroyed her desktop back in 2018.

There is also a very good and helpful discussion forum for Mint.

I recently heard about CachyOS (distribution built on Arch Linux), which supposed to be optimized for gaming.

Does any of you heard / used this OS? is it any good?

 

One thing that bums me out about it, is that you have to disable secure boot..

[WereCat]

7 minutes ago, Archguy said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently heard about CachyOS (distribution built on Arch Linux), which supposed to be optimized for gaming.

Does any of you heard / used this OS? is it any good?

 

One thing that bums me out about it, is that you have to disable secure boot..

No clue. What makes it optimized for gaming? I use regular Fedora and my gaming is fine.

[RollyShed]

17 minutes ago, Archguy said:

One thing that bums me out about it, is that you have to disable secure boot..

So?

Yes, very important for Windows and all of its problems but no reason to have it enabled for Linux that I've found.

Note the number I've been involved with and the length of time and I've never had a problem with disabling Secure Boot.

[kaiju_wars]

Bazzite as it's basically knock off Steam OS, but it's based on Fedora instead of Arch Linux.

But for the most community support, I'd have to say Ubuntu or Mint.  Any issues that you'd run into, someone would have a fix for it. 

[Archguy]

14 minutes ago, WereCat said:

No clue. What makes it optimized for gaming? I use regular Fedora and my gaming is fine.

I saw a comparison video, that tested a lot of Linux distro's in regards to gaming, and CachyOS was the best one (according to the reviewer)

3 minutes ago, RollyShed said:

So?

Yes, very important for Windows and all of its problems but no reason to have it enabled for Linux that I've found.

Note the number I've been involved with and the length of time and I've never had a problem with disabling Secure Boot.

Have you heard about "Bootkitty"? it's a UEFI bootkit, targeting Linux systems, discovered in November 2024 and designed to disable the Linux kernel's signature verification feature and preload unknown ELF binaries during system startup, it primarily targets certain Ubuntu versions. in order to protect yourself from such threats, it's essential to ensure UEFI secure boot is enabled..

1 minute ago, kaiju_wars said:

Bazzite as it's basically knock off Steam OS, but it's based on Fedora instead of Arch Linux.

But for the most community support, I'd have to say Ubuntu or Mint.  Any issues that you'd run into, someone would have a fix for it. 

I agree that the more popular a distro is, the greater the community support it receives

[ToboRobot]

35 minutes ago, Archguy said:

I agree that the more popular a distro is, the greater the community support it receives

there is a reason why ubuntu is popular, and its because its popular.

 

niche distros may lack support, but the cost is a download and some time, so its easy to test a few 

[WereCat]

48 minutes ago, Archguy said:

I saw a comparison video, that tested a lot of Linux distro's in regards to gaming, and CachyOS was the best one (according to the reviewer)

Tested what? Performance? Features? Out of the box experience? This is all so vague...

[BoomerDutch]

1 hour ago, Archguy said:

I recently heard about CachyOS (distribution built on Arch Linux), which supposed to be optimized for gaming.

Does any of you heard / used this OS? is it any good?

 

One thing that bums me out about it, is that you have to disable secure boot..

I've have heard cachyOS and it would be good choice but not entirely sure if it's good for beginners. Because I've haven't fully experienced the os yet.

 

Yeah it is basically prebuild arch and i do recommend it if you don't mind terminal if you do need it.

 

1 hour ago, RollyShed said:

So?

Yes, very important for Windows and all of its problems but no reason to have it enabled for Linux that I've found.

Note the number I've been involved with and the length of time and I've never had a problem with disabling Secure Boot.

It is recommended to have secure boot on barebones systems only exception is virtual machines.

[Archguy]

4 hours ago, WereCat said:

Tested what? Performance? Features? Out of the box experience? This is all so vague...

Generally he tested Out of the box performance for gaming, without any tweaks + his personal opinion

[Archguy]

3 hours ago, BoomerDutch said:

but not entirely sure if it's good for beginners

From what I saw, the setup / installing this distro is a breeze - GUI only (^_^) with a lot of options out of the box to choose from.

[YamiYukiSenpai]

On 12/23/2024 at 4:02 AM, Archguy said:

I recently heard about CachyOS (distribution built on Arch Linux), which supposed to be optimized for gaming.

Does any of you heard / used this OS? is it any good?

I have heard of it, but never tried it.  I may give it a shot on my VM with GPU passthrough

 

It's not usually recommended to start off with an Arch base for beginners, unless you're willing to dive closer to the deep end.  Ubuntu or Fedora is much more preferable.

 

Valve's an exception to the rule since it's an immutable OS.  Same goes for other OS's that are immutable.  I personally never had the chance to try out one, but I've been relying a lot on Snaps and Flatpaks on my own Tuxedo OS gaming PC, Pop!_OS laptop, & Steam Deck that I'm sorta doing it already.