Hi all, thanks in advance for indulging a complete newbie! I'd like to try Linux on an 11-year-old MacBook Pro (gifted by a relative), but I don't know where to start. What distribution would you recommend based on my background?
-Coming from the Mac world; haven't used a PC/Windows since before the pandemic. I'd prefer something that feels similar to MacOS.
-Not a techie. I've forgotten everything (everything!) I ever learned about command line because I never ended up needing to use it, and I haven't had to debug anything in a long time.
-What I'll be using it for: accessing the internet, various kinds of creative projects that I'll probably try making with FOSS software (something I've only recently started to look into), and making another attempt at learning programming (my interest will probably peter out before I get anywhere with it, though, because that's what happened the last two times). Probably won't be gaming. I'd prefer having the option to use mainstream office software in case anything happens to my current computer, but I don't actually expect anything to happen to it in the next few years, so that's just a nice-to-have.
-Priorities: works on old Mac hardware, good for privacy, decent software availability, not buggy, ability to avoid generative AI (i.e., no repeat of Apple installing the Image Playground app on my computer along with a software update, without the ability to remove it.)
It seems like a lot of people recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint to beginners, but I'm seeing some people complaining that Ubuntu is has spyware(?) and forces things users don't want, and it seems like Linux Mint is usually recommended to people coming from Windows, so IDK if either of those make sense for me. Advice/recommendations appreciated!
Awesome! That's very promising. It looks like a lot of other people are recommending Fedora, too. I'll definitely check it out!
@butWhatIfiCan @homes I have used Debian distres like Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, PopOS osv. I have try tonuse Arch, Slackware,Suse, Open Suse - You name it - i have tryed The most Distros. Now i only use Fedora KDE!
Personally, I like gnome 50 myself, but I’m not using as a desktop. I’m currently using that 14-year-old iMac as a server, so my needs from the desktop experience are very very minimal.
I also really liked popos until cosmic. Not only do I not really like cosmic all that much, it clearly still and it’s beta days, and not really ready for mainstream use.
I also like fedora because it’s very very tidy under the hood compared to Debian based distros. Esp dnf vs apt.
Oh, OK. Very different use case!
If you're at the level of knowing all this stuff and also running your own server, and you're finding PopOS Cosmic to be still in its beta days, then it's probably not for someone like me. I don't really know what dnf vs. apt means yet (still just trying to wrap my head around what a package manager does). A lot of people keep recommending Gnome, though, so I'll probably still try that and maybe Fedora.
For someone just starting out, Fedora 44 Workstation with GNOME provides a slick, simple interface that’s very Mac-like out of the box. I highly recommend it for you as a starting distro