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So i was surprised today when my fiancee told me she was thinking about switching over to linux. Surprised because she is absolutely not technically minded, but also because she was weary about having Microsoft AI slop forced on her PC every update. ( i'm so proud!)

Now i've used a little linux but i've always been a holdout. Won't stop me from moving someone else over but i have too much going on in my setup to deal with that right now. So i'm not super versed but i was able to give her the basic rundown of what distros are, concerns when switching, what may and may not be available, shes still on board so we're doing this! Knowing her she would like to not have to transition too much, whats something fairly hands off and easy to learn. I've heard some good things about mint from hanging around you nerds the past few years but also some not so good things, any suggestions?

next concern is what kind of transfer process is this going to be? i have some spare HDD's so we can try and get everything ported over but i'm so busy with school right now i can't quite allocate the time to really deep dive this.

Any help is appreciated, cheers!

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 80 points 1 month ago

Three correct answers:

  • Mint
  • Fedora
  • Pop

And a few incorrect answers:

  • Ubuntu
  • Arch
  • Ubuntu again
  • Really, don’t go with Ubuntu
[-] SanctimoniousApe@lemmy.myserv.one 37 points 1 month ago

Gentoo it is, then!

[-] ethaver@kbin.earth 8 points 1 month ago

Ubuntu was really good when I was a kid. when I went to school like 10 years ago I had to have a windows computer for a while to run my school's proprietary virtual clinical lab software and I was too busy studying and going to irl clinicals to worry about getting a dual boot running. I tried to go back once a few semesters in but it seemed really bloated compared to the Ubuntu I grew up with and I did mint for a bit but that computer kicked the bucket iirc and I didn't have the time to set up another dual boot. Hubs is thinking we're gonna have to switch soon and I've honestly been ready for a bit and think I'll probably try mint again, but distrowatch says a lot of people are super into cachy so I was considering that. Will Probably still try mint first.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I switched to Ubuntu in 2008, and it was great for years, but lately it’s just been so awful.

[-] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

When I was a kid (15-ish years ago) my laptop's hard drive crashed. The repair place told my dad that something broke and it's not compatible with Windows so they installed Ubuntu. Barely noticed the difference.

[-] prole 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My advice would be to just give up on the dual boot (unless you still need it, and even then, maybe keep Windows on a different machine maybe?).

I think the best way to go is full Linux immersion.

[-] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Who even uses normal arch anymore.

All the cool kids use endeavour or cachy. Which is like calling Ubuntu, Debian.

[-] Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago

Who even uses normal arch anymore.

Me, btw.

[-] that_one_guy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Nah all the cool kids are on Omarchy now.

[-] axum 4 points 1 month ago

Ah yes, arch but fascist.

pass

[-] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Another incorrect answer: Manjaro

https://github.com/arindas/manjarno

If you want Arch but a bit easier, just install EndeavourOS.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

What about Ubuntu flavors? Or Debian?

[-] deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 6 points 1 month ago

While Mint is an Ubuntu-based distro, it tries to un-fuck the worst of Canonical. Other Ubuntu spins with a different desktop environment don't do this, like Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc. They end up as just Ubuntu on a different DE, with all the decisions made by canonical.

Base Debian might work, but afaik, is "not as beginner friendly" compared to Mint.

[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Two points: Mint has a Debian version (LMDE), but also base Debian, especially the KDE flavor, has made enormous gains in beginner friendliness.

[-] 4grams@awful.systems 1 points 1 month ago

Seconding LMDE. It’s Debian based rather than Ubuntu so no canonical to un-f. It’s my favorite distro. LMDE for desktop, vanilla Debian for servers.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Not for beginners.

[-] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

Damn, I'm 2 months into my first Linux experience and went with Ubuntu Studio since I use my PC for freelance audio/music/art and it's promoted as great for creatives. It took a lot of work to get my audio working without ALSA and more work to get smaller things working right. I'm concerned if I switch distros I'll have to do it all again and I barely remember what I did to fix things haha. Think I'm stuck with Ubuntu. Didn't realize it was so looked down on.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Ubuntu Studio is great, but absolutely not for beginners. Ubuntu Studio isn’t the same thing as Ubuntu, too. They change a lot from the base Ubuntu.

[-] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Oh ok, I didn't know that. I thought it was just Ubuntu with pre installed programs and a low latency kernel. I've been enjoying the learning curve, even though it's been frustrating at times I've learned so much in the last 2 months and love it haha

[-] observes_depths@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

This is the best answer I've seen. But why aren't more people recommending Pop Os! Pop Os is by far my favourite as a noob user. I've live booted all the popular distros and Pop Os has the nicest interface a everything works so smoothly.

[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Pop is such a cool project but it's been kinda broken for me both times I've tried it, and then add to that what happened with Linus tech tips where him being dumb combined with pop having not fixed a major and obvious packaging issue that completely broke his system has kinda just left me with the impression they're not super on top of the ball

I hope that's changed, I want them to be successful, especially with cosmic

this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
155 points (100.0% liked)

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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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