Thx in advice.
linux mint
More specifically, Linux Mint Debian Edition. Canonical has been very weird, I would get the debian based branch
Seconded. I’ve been using it for years because it just works, but if I want to try to
break shitdo things myself I can.Thirded. It just works. Even deployed to elderly relatives with wifi printers with no issues.
I researched this question for a laptop to sell on eBay. I tried Pop OS and Mint and choose Mint.
It seems that Mint may be the most popular distro for older Linux laptops sold on eBay.
That’s exactly what I did with my old Core2Duo laptop because I couldn’t in good conscience sell it with factory-loaded Win-Vista LOL.
If somebody with knowhow gets it, they can put whatever they want on it. If someone without? They get a solid OS that gets security updates. Win-win.
The one and only objectively best answer, imo.
Mint, it just works.
EndeavorOs, just works, like Mint, but Arch Based so much better
Well, I just use arch, btw. 💁🏻♀️
Not exactly the hassle free experience op is looking for
Yea, that is why I recommended Mint in top comment.
With the statement about Arch I wanted to say, that I have no experience with endeavourOS 😂😅
Edit after reading endeavourOS web page: what is even the difference between endeavourOS vs. Installing arch using the archinstall python script and using yay as package manager?
Only the installation is harder for Arch, EndeavorOS is easier to use then Mint, and installation is same thanks to the gui installer.
The difference between Arch with archinstall vs Endeavor is still the ease of installation.
So, the only difference to arch is, that you have a gui for installation? In that case, I like archinstall script more. Mostly because I think it’s faster.
What you think and what is the reality to casual users are two different things
Could you explain a bit about what makes it better?
Until it doesn’t lol
Pop_OS or Linux Mint. Both just work. The Atomic idea is nice, but still too soon for complete beginners or the lazy (not a pejorative).
My vote is Linux Mint. I had installed it on a family members laptop and have been going strong for years without fault.
What do you think of Ubuntu compared to Mint?
I came here to +1 Mint
I’ve installed it on 3 laptops for different family groups and had 0 problems with either the laptops or the family using them
To clarify that - with Ubuntu the UI was just a tiny step too different (than Win XP) for them to feel comfortable using… with Mint, no problems.
The laptops vary, but 1 is ~12 yr old, another is new (well, 3 yr old now), but Mint was installed to dual-boot Win 10 when new.
I use Arch btw
I think Ubuntu is a solid contender for sure. I had a couple bad experiences with some updates (nothing significant) which didn’t really inspire confidence for me to be able to set it up once and never need any real maintenance on my behalf.
Don’t get me wrong, if I was using the laptop and it had Ubuntu I’d be ok with it because I’m comfortable with Linux. But for a set and (mostly) forget install, I chose Mint.
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Linux Mint. It’s THE best distro hands down. Those who know, know.
Thx mate 👍👍
Thx cinammon 👍👍
Thx honey 👍👍
Everytime I want a distro that just works I just roll with Linux Mint.
Being one of the most popular distro if something goes wrong is really easy to find how to fix it .
Fedora
Fedora requires adding rpm-fusion to enable proprietary apps like Steam or hardware acceleration for codecs like h264. It’s a great distro besides that, and I sincerely hope they’ll just accept the legal risk like Ubuntu does.
It’s super straightforward to enable, it prompts you to at start up. I think so anyway.
Yeah I agree they should just accept the risk
except with nvidia. gets stuck on black screen and did not understand the instructions i found in the interwebs.
Damn that sucks. Had lots of good luck with fedora, but I’ve never had Nvidia
Linux Mint Cinnamon
Linux mint cinnamon simplex users unite!
I love how simple it is to install and use.
I really wanted to like Mint cinnamon but it didn’t like my dual screen+built in screen on my pc case.
It would try and smush the display for the pc case screen into the monitor displays pushing everything over and making mouse clicks widely inaccurate (the click was half a screens away from the actual cursor).
Only ever had that issue on Mint
Mint, it’s not the shiniest toy but it really does just work
If you have Nvidia, pop os has all that built in. My go-to is usually popos, or mint
What do you think about Ubuntu over Mint?
Mint is Ubuntu without snaps.
👍👍
I have an Nvidia GPU and have had a few issues with crashes on Mint even after manually installing the latest drivers. Is PopOS noticeably more stable? Have you by chance played Helldivers on it?
Also it seems like it’s pretty tightly coupled with Gnome and tweaks, is it still adventageous if you use, say, KDE?
I didn’t play helldiver’s, but other games were stable on pop os.
Ubuntu or Linux Mint
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Do live images not exist anymore? Pick a distro, burn an iso to a USB drive and boot it. See if you like it.
You’re just going to get a bunch of personal preferences with such an open ended question.
And for 100% of distros someone will come and say: “except for this where you gotta do this and that but then it works fine”.
That’s the problem I’m looking for something it just works, stable WO errors with updates and simple, just to get things done and not messing entire weeks fixing and searching solutions online for something what didn’t work correctly.
That’s just the nature of linux though. Most common distros run without issue. But people have such a wide variety of hardware and software needs that someone somewhere will tell you they had issues with that distro.
Much easier to boot them and get a feel for the one you like, you are not likely to have an issue, and if you do it will take minutes to fix on a common distro.
What are you trying to build? A work laptop that you’re going to take on trips, a gaming computer, a server? Something else?
For you, what is too much hassle? Are you a new Linux user or an experienced user with no spare time? What are you accustomed to doing when you install an operating system and what do you expect to be preinstalled?
What is your favorite colour?
Experienced Linux user, but I was just wondering what people think about this, I believe I’m going for Ubuntu, I’m not exactly the kind of guy who will fall on malware anyway, I need something pretty easy to use, configure and working stable WO errors, as my experience I’m tired and have no time to fix shitty OS things.
I will use it as desktop in a NucBox.
Ubuntu isn’t my favorite, but I used xubuntu for many years. A lot of noise gets thrown around about Snaps, but from an end-user perspective they tend to work fine unless you have very low system constraints. Better than adding a half-dozen repositories that may or may not be around for long. A lot of developers work to make sure that their software runs well in Ubuntu and the LTS releases tend to be a good long-term option if you don’t want any significant changes for a long time.
Even with their regular releases, I daisy-chained upgrades on an old Core2 laptop for something like seven years without any major (computer becomes a paperweight) issues. Sometimes (like with Snaps) Ubuntu insists on going its own way, which can result in errors/shitty OS things that don’t pop up in other distributions. I’ve had to deal with some minor issues with Ubuntu over the years (broken repositories, upgrades causing hiccups, falling back to older kernels temporarily), but I think that you’ll get issues like that regardless of what distro you pick.
Pop os or Mint
Pop!_OS or Fedora
Fedora oddly doesn’t ship LTS kernels if you are looking for more stability
They test and maintain their own kernel tree instead. I find this advantageous for Workstation use which tends to be on newer hardware than servers.
Despite this Fedora is the furthest distro from unstable that I have experienced, which is why I recommend it as a “no frills” option.
I would not recommend Fedora or Pop for servers.
Maybe in some scenarios, but if you need any out-of-tree kernel modules, these can sometimes fail to stay current & lag enough behind that many setups might wish that they were indeed on an LTS kernel for support.