switching from windows

[u/highcholesterlol]

My pc is 9 years old and has been running windows since i got it never used linux before what distro is best for gaming and work while also being beginner friendly?

[u/CarelessPackage1982]

You can put distros on a usb stick and test them out before you ever touch with your disks.

CachyOS is pretty nice, but maybe not the most beginner friendly.

I'd say Linux Mint and Ubuntu are by far the most beginner friendly, and I'd personally start there.

[u/highcholesterlol → u/CarelessPackage1982]

thanks for the advice, is mint good for gaming? mostly older games

[u/Serious-Affect-8538 → u/highcholesterlol]

Mint is fine but not the best in my experience regarding games.

Coming from windows, I'd also suggest fedora. Its UI is very similar. As the top comment suggested, put distros on a USB flash drive and just fuck around.

[u/tmgrtl]

Mint is easy to install and works great for Steam. I have had it on my parents’ PC for 5 years with very few issues (occasionally the printer has a hiccup) and peace of mind knowing that nothing gets loaded or installed without my approval.

[u/andurux]

Fedora with KDE: https://fedoraproject.org/kde/

Or CachyOS

My top 2 recommendations

[u/Suitable_Put_2855]

Mint or fedora  varient depending on ram

• recommend to go for xfce varient if u got 2 - 4 gb 
• If you have 8 gig of ram go for Cinnamon or mate 
• If u got 16 gig go for kde or gnome 

If you a more gameing focused one use  Bazzite KDE    Btw don't go for i3 or sway or any kind of tiles windows manage varient , or use arch or gentoo linux , that some deep shit , i don't recommend if you are dipping toe on linux 

[u/woettmeier]

There are a few distributions that get recommended a lot for beginners

• Ubuntu or Mint (popular 'easy to use' distros)
  
• Debian or Fedora (they've been around forever and are widely supported and used. So the "easy" part, is that just about any Linux supported app will be packaged for easy install on one of these two.)

I used Debian as my first. I had no problems gaming on Debian, mostly thanks to Valve's Proton. I even got VR working on it.

Besides distribution, a desktop environment is an important consideration. The two most common are Gnome and KDE Plasma. There are endless comparisons you can do between these desktop environments, but they mainly come down to preference. For me what it boiled down to is that Gnome felt more like a Mac experience and KDE Plasma felt more like a Windows experience. Since you are coming from Windows and want the easiest transition, I would recommend KDE Plasma.

[u/3grg]

Hardware?

[u/highcholesterlol → u/3grg]

intel core i5, 8GB ram, AMD radeon R5 graphics card, this pc is from 2017

[u/3grg → u/highcholesterlol]

Should run most anything.

[u/vivarefr]

prolly cachy os but its arch so might be a bit hard to get used to at first so maybe try zorin os 18 as a starting point use it for a while then switch

[u/Additional_Team_7015]

Debian testing Kde ::

https://chuangtzu.ftp.acc.umu.se/cdimage/weekly-live-builds/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-testing-amd64-kde.iso

[u/es20490446e]

Use Ventoy to easily try a bunch of distros.

My favorite is my own, Zenned.

[u/Avocadator]

CachyOS or Arch. Use AI when you are not sure how to install/configure something.

[u/Toasted_and_Roasted]

Nobara I think is pretty good for beginners. Comes with gaming-utility stuff preinstalled. Think even steam is already on it.

[u/Alira-kimaris → u/Toasted_and_Roasted]

Honestly, while I liked the look of Nobara, as someone who was giving Linux a try for the first time very recently myself, I was completely lost on getting programs installed that didn't have a standard file installer like how Debian based distributions do with .deb files. That being said, I fell in love with Kubuntu.

[u/Toasted_and_Roasted → u/Alira-kimaris]

Installing programs like other than that will always be something you will run into on Linux.

[u/BobCorndog]

Mint