Nol 2
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2021
Thats really what it is. It was easy to setup (for linux, in the early 2000's) and you could get an install CD for free if you just filled out a webform. Ordered one myself, it was neat.
What is the best Linux Distro for a normal person?
- Thread starter Jacknife
- Start date
They’re all bad, Mint and Ubuntu are the least bad for normal, sane people.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2019
Can also vouch for Mint. I've had the same install for around a year and it hasn't shit itself.
If you want to dip your toes into memealism, Debian testing is the go to for advanced without taking a day to get the system running.
Funnily enough I've been using Artix on an Elitebook 8570p and it worked completely out of the box, WiFi included, which every other distro choked on. Artix has live+installer images for every DE under the sun (I can vouch for MATE.)
(Edit to avoid doubleposting.) Just learned that there are sites devoted to this very question: Distrochooser, whats supposed to be a Better Distrochooser (although I doubt that since it gave me a systemd distro despite selecting I don't want it on the questions), and LibreHunt (contrary to its name, it doesn't only include linux-libre distros.)
If you want to dip your toes into memealism, Debian testing is the go to for advanced without taking a day to get the system running.
Funnily enough I've been using Artix on an Elitebook 8570p and it worked completely out of the box, WiFi included, which every other distro choked on. Artix has live+installer images for every DE under the sun (I can vouch for MATE.)
(Edit to avoid doubleposting.) Just learned that there are sites devoted to this very question: Distrochooser, whats supposed to be a Better Distrochooser (although I doubt that since it gave me a systemd distro despite selecting I don't want it on the questions), and LibreHunt (contrary to its name, it doesn't only include linux-libre distros.)
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2020
If you're using stock Linux Mint (or anything else with Cinnamon) feel free to change the icon set and change the theme to "Faded Dream", it looks really nice.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2021
Mint was the only OS I have ever had that bricked itself after a update/upgrade, circa 2015. It was fully brokened. I like Ubuntu Mate, anything debian/ubuntu I would say is the best for a beginner because of the overwhelming support for it. The device I'm on right now is using Manjaro, I like being able to double click a file and have it all just work, .deb and apt are good at that, I don't want to spend most my day autistically tunnelling into a simple issue when I could be getting on with my life.
One example is that quite often Manjaro will hold back an update or doesn't update in a timely manner, ie discord will update and ask me if I want the .deb. or tar file or w/e, I usually just wait until someone updates the AUR package. Whereas I could fix it myself in two clicks if I was on my ubuntu mate box.
One example is that quite often Manjaro will hold back an update or doesn't update in a timely manner, ie discord will update and ask me if I want the .deb. or tar file or w/e, I usually just wait until someone updates the AUR package. Whereas I could fix it myself in two clicks if I was on my ubuntu mate box.
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2020
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2019
There is only one distribution I would recommend to a complete newbie. GENTOO!
Not because it's the best, but because I'm the worst!
Not because it's the best, but because I'm the worst!
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
There is only one distribution I would recommend to a complete newbie. GENTOO!
Not because it's the best, but because I'm the worst!
std::string
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 17, 2018
There's been some weird shit going on with Wayland + KWin + Firefox for a while.
If you can find anything throwing an error message and report it it'd be useful.
NoSpiceLife
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2019
MX Linux is the only way to go, I've said before I've been through a number of distros, some more than once, including arch.
MX Linux has the added bonus of being able to choose either init or systemd, init being the default.
They use default applications that are actually decent, and everything works out of the box.
It is based on debian stable, but also includes an MX test repo and the debian backport repo, as default repos in the package manager. It's very easy to add other repos and enable/disable them when needed.
There is a little issue that amd graphic card users (hand up) have, occasionally it drops off the amdgpu driver when upgrading the kernels, which leaves you with a black screen after upgrading. This has only happened 2-3 times in the 4? years I've been using it as my daily. Solution is to change the line in grub that forces amdgpu instead of radeon, back to radeon, get back in, install the driver you need, and change it back to amdgpu again.
Other than that, the only issues I've had have been completely my fault, because I like playing a little too much for my own good. It's easy to just reinstall, preserving the home partition (I have always used a separate home partition), and you are ready to go again.
MX Linux has the added bonus of being able to choose either init or systemd, init being the default.
They use default applications that are actually decent, and everything works out of the box.
It is based on debian stable, but also includes an MX test repo and the debian backport repo, as default repos in the package manager. It's very easy to add other repos and enable/disable them when needed.
There is a little issue that amd graphic card users (hand up) have, occasionally it drops off the amdgpu driver when upgrading the kernels, which leaves you with a black screen after upgrading. This has only happened 2-3 times in the 4? years I've been using it as my daily. Solution is to change the line in grub that forces amdgpu instead of radeon, back to radeon, get back in, install the driver you need, and change it back to amdgpu again.
Other than that, the only issues I've had have been completely my fault, because I like playing a little too much for my own good. It's easy to just reinstall, preserving the home partition (I have always used a separate home partition), and you are ready to go again.
El Goblina
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 14, 2019
>Go with X... X is based on Debian.
Skip X. Just go with Debian. What little less "noob-friendliness" it has will be offset by the fact that you're at the top of the ecosystem, so when weird errors come up, you're most likely to be able to find solutions. Meanwhile, because of all of the values of X, they all backport their bugfixes into Papa Debian. My one recommendation for Debian is to make sure that you add the non-free repo to your sources.list. You may want to go with the non-free installer iso as well, as driver/firmware support is better.
Arch is becoming what Debian used to be, in part thanks to SteamDeck. In theory, Arch is better, as the philosophy is to run with fewer modifications to the software stack. Practically, in 2022, Arch hasn't QUITE gotten there, IMO. But it's still another good option.
Don't worry so much about "noob friendly". For a "normal person" (ie. you can use a search engine and follow instructions), the things you learn while setting it up are important and valuable.
Understand that the fewer users a distro has, the harder getting support is going to be. That's why I recommend distros at the top of the ecosystem for "normal people".
Skip X. Just go with Debian. What little less "noob-friendliness" it has will be offset by the fact that you're at the top of the ecosystem, so when weird errors come up, you're most likely to be able to find solutions. Meanwhile, because of all of the values of X, they all backport their bugfixes into Papa Debian. My one recommendation for Debian is to make sure that you add the non-free repo to your sources.list. You may want to go with the non-free installer iso as well, as driver/firmware support is better.
Arch is becoming what Debian used to be, in part thanks to SteamDeck. In theory, Arch is better, as the philosophy is to run with fewer modifications to the software stack. Practically, in 2022, Arch hasn't QUITE gotten there, IMO. But it's still another good option.
Don't worry so much about "noob friendly". For a "normal person" (ie. you can use a search engine and follow instructions), the things you learn while setting it up are important and valuable.
Understand that the fewer users a distro has, the harder getting support is going to be. That's why I recommend distros at the top of the ecosystem for "normal people".
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2021
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2021
Not particularly a fan. The 22.04 update has been quite buggy. It's still the better of the Ubuntu derivatives since they also cut out the snap repositories. Pop is the redditnigger of distros since they have no official forum and instead use only reddit and discord.
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
PopOS seems to be tired of both GNOME and Ubuntu's issues to the point they are thinking of only one release a year. Expect a new desktop environment soon.