Pop os
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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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Agreed. Pop and mint have the easiest to use nvidia management. Fedora is prob next
100%
Pop os is my goto recommendation to anybody who is relatively new to linux as it handles a lot of things for you, and there’s guis to configure many of the things that one may want to configure, especially if you’re not quite ready to “live by the commandline”.
as others in this thread have mentioned, Linux Mint or Pop OS are the best for someone coming from Windows. both work really well out of the box. Linux Mint has a very Windows-like desktop, so it's often recommended to people coming from Windows; but if you want a more unique experience Pop OS is the way to go
EndeavorOS. It’s based on arch which has great nvidia driver packages and the arch wiki is amazing.
You can install pamac for a GUI for the package manager. Do yay to search for any package and install it; do yay (nothing else) to upgrade everything, and yay -Rcns to remove stuff and all their unused dependencies. I also recommend chaoticAUR
For the DE I recommend MATE but you can select any of the major ones in the installer
Get synapse for a spotlight-like search; it uses the alt+space keybind by default
I would probably suggest Mint. When I first started Linux, I was adept with computers, but I still struggled using Linux for the first time. I tried Fedora around 2015 as my first distro, and I really struggled to install it. So I started with Ubuntu. I spent time doing some courses for Linux, and it was quite a journey for me to figure out this new environment. Then I would distro hop so much because I was dissatisfied with missing packages and issues with my new laptop (which wasn't running well on many distributions because it required a newer kernel), and then I landed on Kubuntu for a little while. Then Manjaro, which I don't recommend anymore for these reasons (plus I had to reinstall Manjaro a few times when it broke, especially due to NVIDIA driver issues, but today that shouldn't be as much of a problem, I believe). I was able to install Manjaro with Manjaro Architect at one point, which made it easier for me to figure out how to install Arch Linux. I was breaking my Linux machine so much when I was using Ubuntu because I didn't understand what I was doing, thus it is difficult for me to recommend a Linux distro to a new user with full 100% certainty they would not break their system if they wanted to do some tinkering or try to do any niche thing like gaming. I know you want to leave Windows ASAP, but it may be easier to first run Linux in a virtual machine. It's going to take a while to figure it out, and a virtual machine will help make the journey less painful so you don't risk wiping your drive or having periods where you are stuck without a machine when you need to get work done and you are sitting in front of your computer for hours trying to install and configure Linux or figure out why you are booting into emergency mode. For a tip, I really recommend not installing everything you want under the sun. This was the reason for 90% of the time I broke my Linux installations. Install only a few packages at a time, and backup your data.
There is a new Arch-based distro in town that is meant to be user friendly, which is Crystal Linux, but I haven't used it myself nor do I know if this is good to recommend to absolutely new users. The reason why I mention it is because I have had a lot of trouble with other distributions, and while Arch would break on me once in a while (which at that point in my Linux journey, I could fix Arch without needing to reinstall the entire OS)--usually for a specific package or two--as a noobish user it was a better experience for me working with the pacman package manager and having access to the Arch User Repository. I also had a better time working with rolling release distributions. With Crystal Linux, it gives you the option to install the Nix package manager and comes with a nice pacman wrapper called Amethyst, but I would consider yay the best pacman/AUR wrapper, imo. I haven't tried Amethyst, though.
Here's a video on Crystal Linux by DistroTube: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Q_CXNtbsy74
Crystal Linux also has documentation on using a NVIDIA GPU with Wayland here: https://getcryst.al/site/docs/crystal-linux/nvidiawayland
Crystal Linux also uses the BTRFS filesystem utilizing snapshots with Timeshift, which if I had used this when I was first learning Linux, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Also, one last tip: when installing Linux or working with something you are unfamiliar with, take notes. It really helps to have something to look back at when you have to do the same task again and forgot the reason you did certain things.
Ubuntu is the most popular one, which is honestly probably the best rule-of-thumb to use when first starting out.
If you want primarily community-driven, Fedora is probably the most popular one.
Both are focused on being easy-to-use, though of course as with any change, there will be some learning to do with new UI paradigms.
Ubuntu.
Edit: I'd say Fedora is a close second, and go with Linux Mint if you want a bit more minimal