The shift to SaaS and Windows 11 updates means you no longer own your software. Here is how free software tools can help you reclaim control.
The shift to SaaS and Windows 11 updates means you no longer own your software. Here is how free software tools can help you reclaim control.
C’mon, microsoft. What are you DOING with your life???
I’m no linux apologist. I BARELY understand what I’m doing. If ANY task needs terminal, then that task just isn’t going to happen for me.
All that said, it’s time to switch to linux. And for anyone asking where they should start with all these distros…Mint. If you’ve never used linux before, start with Mint.
Now I’m a bit of a hypocrite for saying that, because I’m on Zorin. There’s nothing wrong with Zorin. It is perfectly fine as a starter distro if you’re coming from Windows. It’s almost equal to Zorin in usability. Mint has one edge that cannot be overlooked for newbies.
Userbase.
EVERYONE uses Mint, which means there’s going to be a broader range of support. There are times I wish I had started with Mint. But I chose Zorin when I was new, and now my heels are dug in.
That being said, YOU should use Mint.
Ugh…I can’t believe this is where we are in this world. Where I have to reccomend linux, while still not knowing what the hell I’m doing.
Anyways…use linux. Fuck microsoft. It’s the only way to take back OUR hardware. They want to go full greed mode? I’m now using software which they don’t make a dime on, and never can. As much as I hate the structure, I can’t say anything negative involving bloat, or spyware, or anything else that I classify as “modern day bullshit”.
sigh Just use linux.
Microsoft is truly the most mind bogglingly stupid company of all time. How can an establishment be SO incredibly incompetent?
I mean with every day passing there’s less and less desktop users anyway. Most teenagers know significantly less about windows than you know about Linux. They’re on iOS and android.
As an admin i see it as an opportunity to switch to Linux but the boomers are refusing to let go of microslop office so it’s a bit of a fight still.
The gaming PC sector is just fine however
Yeah, I’m about 40 and I don’t know any retired gamers yet
I’m in my 20’s and every one of my friends has a gaming pc
I love mint, but much prefer LMDE over the Ubuntu based one.
Do more people use Mint than Ubuntu these days? I’ve been on Arch for a decade now so I don’t know the popularity of distros as well as I used to.
I don’t know but it seems that Mint is pretty popular: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity
Anyway, Mint is the closest to Windows 3.1/98/2000 by its simplicity. It shows windows, you can move your files and run applications, it’s all I need.
Sounds good enough for average people. 👌
Arch at around #15 btw. I would have expected it to be a little bit more popular than some of the other ones on this list but I guess I don’t know what the metric is based on here. Downloads?
Page hits. Good ‘ol clicks baby.
Arch, 150 million page visits, 0 installs.
Debian, 1 page visit, 1 install.
Arch more popular than Debian. 😎
Could you imagine?
Yeah Mint is pretty good for a “starter” Linux OS. This is subjective, but of all the Desktop OSs, I found myself fixing shit in terminal and nailing down obscure issues a lot less often in Mint than other distros. Also, whenever a friend/family member came to me with a very old and “broken” laptop that needed saving that’s what I’d throw on there. Modern Windows is way too much for the 4GB RAM dual core or whatever bullshit on those old machines. The only complaints I ever got out of them were that they couldn’t run .exes and had to use LibreOffice instead of desktop Office apps, but that’s about it. No crashes outside of legitimate equipment failure.
I ran it on my personal machines before I got more comfortable. Now my ideal setup is KDE/Debian though playing around with cachyOS in VMs has been pretty fun.
I switched from popos to manjaro and later mainline arch about a year ago for the AUR. It’s a lot more streamlined then all the terminal stuff needed to install third party software on Ubuntu
I remember mucking about with all these custom PPAs when on Ubuntu. The AUR is a dream compared to that. I even made my own packages because it’s so simple and well-documented.
And while at that, I recomend regular Mint (which is based on Ubuntu).
There is Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), but I have found it harder to use (while I can manage, I’m not that experienced with Linux to bother to troubleshoot and solve it [at least at the time], but I think it was dependency, incompatibility, or driver issues).
Plus, the main Mint version is still the Ubuntu based one, LMDE is kinda a side project and usually isn’t as up-to-date, as far as I know.
LMDE would indeed be a bad recommendation for a newbie. Regular Mint benefits from Ubuntus better hardware support, GUIs for drivers/updates, PPA support and if you have AMD graphics it’s not a newbie nightmare to get the most up to date Mesa.
I would argue for Ubuntu because a lot of libraries and schools have used Ubuntu as an alternative operating system in the past, at least in the school district I went to, so the early connection/familiarity is already there.
What’s the difference between Zorin and mint? I’m on zorin right now to get my feet wet on linux. I am not a terminal user as I’m not technical.
They are very similar, main difference I can think of is that Mint uses the Cinnamon desktop environment while Zorin use Gnome. Cinnamon offers more customization by default while Gnome needs extensions, Zorin has several extensions included so that’s good for new users.
There is also cachyos, they are sooooooo smooth on kde plasma desktop environment.
As an arch user this is a terrible suggestion. CachyOS is a distro for enthusiasts who are ok with dealing with the Arch way of doing things. This is a distro that no beginner should be using unless they are prepared to learn how to use the terminal and learn how Linux works. Anyone else is likely to be scared away because it is “too difficult”.
OP is right, just use Mint.
If you can use a program like Octopi I think Cachy is just as friendly as any distro. Certainly moreso than any debian derivative.
And its bleeding edge enough to make a great gaming OS
I never denied Mint. definitely recommend it too. Although for gaming I had a lot of issues. I am definitelt not an expert by any means, so I would also put my hat in to say cachyos with kde plasma as the desktop environment is pretty beginner friendly. I understand the arch way is difficult, but in my ignorant (as I dont know linux terminal talk too well) perspective, i think kde plasma on cachyos is a good option to look into at the least. ‘A terrible suggestion’ feels a slight stretch. It isn’t too complicated, im saying this as a beginner
If you’re a Linux KDE gaming newbie, Bazzite is a good choice.
They have really polished the immutable Linux thing, and it is honestly the smoothest Linux experience I’ve ever had.
CachyOS (and Garuda, and Manjaro, and EndeavourOS) are fairly user-friendly at first, but then something bad happens and you’re on your own with Arch. It’s like walking on a spring meadow and then the hungry bear comes out. Very unexpected and very troublesome.
Still, I hope it works good for you. But, same as other commenter, I would absolutely not recommend CachyOS for Linux beginners. More often than not, it doesn’t end well.
Mullvadvpn is my vpn of choice. Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora are the recommended distros if using Mullvad.
Mint isn’t for everyone. A lot of picking a distro, at least for me, is will it work with the services I want to use.
To use mullvad on mint, download the .deb file. Double click on it. Click ok to installing it.
Done.
Edit (Download it off mullvad website if not clear)
You don’t actually need the official Mullvad program either, although there’s nothing wrong with it.
I prefer to just load the wireguard config directly with network manager (or whatever your distro uses).