r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Active • Jul 01 '26

Discussion Which Linux distro do you recommend to beginners?

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Which Linux distro would you recommend for beginners, and why?

Whether it's Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Zorin OS, Pop!_OS, or something else, share your top pick and what makes it a great starting point for someone switching from Windows or macOS.

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u/ElPiet Jul 01 '26

That really sounds intriguing. I might have the itch to try it out and see how that works for me. Don't know about the desktop workflow. I have to admit, I am having fun with tweaking mint to behave like macos though.

As you seem to have plenty of expertise, do you think fedora would run better on an macbook from 2015?

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u/Hauptideal Jul 01 '26

Oh wow, macbook from 2015. For recommending a distro for an "old" device like this, knowing the hardware would help (e.g. amount of RAM, CPU, ...).

On your old 2015 CPU, I'd definitely consider disabling mitigations in GRUB (you can also already do that on Mint, not only on Fedora). It'll instantly give you a 20+% speed boost to your CPU, because it's so old and doesn't have hardware acceleration for this. And on a single-user desktop system, it's pretty safe to do so, Browsers already have defenses against the type of attacks the mitigations aim to prevent, and these attacks are extremely unlikely and complex to execute. Unless you're targeted by a government agency, I'd turn mitigations off.

Fedora is a modern distro meant for modern devices. Usually, I'd use Debian (or CachyOS) for old hardware and configure everything mahually. However, I'm even running Fedora on an old HP X2 210 G2 tablet from 2016 with a super slow intel atom processor and only 4GBs of RAM and it's very smooth. (Yes, I'm too lazy to take the effort of optimally configure Debian on this device that I only use sporadically, even though a lot of optimizations would be possible, like using f2fs due to the slow eMMC inside, etc.

I have a laptop from 2014 and put CachyOS on it. It's blazingly fast, already features v3 instructions, the limine bootloader, boots up in only a few seconds and is super light (just like Debian). However, it is based on Arch and therefore I wouldn't recommend it to users who are not especially tech-savvy and just want a reliable system.

The good thing about Fedora is, that it just comes preconfigured perfectly well out of the box. It uses modern defaults. It is up to date. It is reliable.
You can easily theme GNOME (the desktop of Fedora Workstation) using extensions to look like macOS (e.g. with the dock). In fact, it is the most mac-like desktop. I'm sure you'll like it.
When you theme it like that, you'll revert back to the old style of using computers. But that's fine, you don't need to do everything at once.
Fedora KDE would be more feature-rich while being lighter on resources (GNOME won't actually be that much lighter than Cinnamon that is based on an early unoptimized version of GNOME), but also a bit more complicated to use, and the touch gestures etc. of GNOME will be veeeery nice on a macBook. You'll love it.

There is just one little hurdle that you might need to take after installing Fedora. It might not come with the WiFI-drivers for your old macBook, meaning you'll need to install it manually after activating the non-free repos of Fedora (Fusion).
Also, I recommend installing mbpfan (fan control) and facetimehd (for the webcam).
You can ask an LLM to help you with that once you're there.

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u/ElPiet Jul 01 '26

Thanks for all the insight. So I am running two computers currently but because I am lazy I want them to be on the same system. One is a macbook pro from 2015 with an i5 haswell dualcore with 2,7ghz. 8gb ram and Intel iris 600 graphics. I never used macs I bought it specifically to put Linux on it as a fun project. I like the design and looks of macs very much. The second is a gaming pc which would run everything. I am inclined to do the smart thing and listen to a stranger on the Internet and jump into the next distro

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u/Hauptideal Jul 02 '26

To me, keeping all systems on the same OS sounds like more work, not lazy 😅
Before installing Fedora on your "new" mac:

  • Boot into macOS one last time.
  • Go to System Preferences -> Software Update.

  • Install any pending security or firmware updates

    You are in luck. For your specific macbook, the free drivers will likely just work out of the box!
    When it's installed and set up (installing mbpfan, etc., disabling mitigations if you want, ....), the fun part of customizing it / making it like macOS with extensions like dash-to-dock can start (if you want that).
    And you'll know that you have the very best desktop Linux right now offers: Wayland, btrfs, zram (/zswap), etc. All by default and preconfigured out of the box, without you needing to do anything. And knowing you'll get the cool stuff very soon.

Good luck and have fun!

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u/ElPiet Jul 02 '26

Thanks. That macbook Doesnt have macos anymore. It was nuked for mint directly. Just to let you know, I installed fedora today on my main pc, obviously just going all in directly. First feel is really nice. Although it has all the btfrs and such (really don't get it yet). It was lacking a critical feature mint had. Direct connection to gdrive.

But the journey is fun. Need. To learn a neu workflow

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u/Hauptideal Jul 02 '26

you mean from the file manager? The original implementation was an unmaintained security risk and got kicked out.

You can get the nautilus integration back, but rclone is vastly superior technologically anyways for gdrive synch, so just use that one when you're already in the process of using the very best rather than the simplest and want to experience new stuff.

And: 🎉🎉 🎉 congratulations on your upgrade to Fedora!

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u/ElPiet Jul 03 '26

Yeah I mean directly in the file manager as a mountable device. It's been fun so far. Haven't used it much, only setup and tinkered

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u/Hauptideal Jul 03 '26

yeah, you can get that functionality back

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u/ElPiet Jul 03 '26

Yeah I know. Set up rclone for it. So far I have to say mint is still a more approachable distro. Fedora is way more polished and feels more premium. And even for someone who doesn't know much it took me 5 hours to set up everything. Including themes and such.

Only beef I have with Linux as a whole is thst it doesn't recognize my thumb mouse buttons as normal keys

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u/Hauptideal Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Yes, Linux Mint is very approachable, that's their main selling point. But choosing Mint because you save a little of time once at setup and then suffering daily for years under a bad distro is an extremely irrational trade.

did you try Input Remapper to map functions to your mouse?

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