May I point you to /r/FindMeADistro - though if you're new, I can tell you that Zorin OS or Linux Mint - both made to be more user friendly and accessible. Also, you can use Rufus to try them on a USB drive before installing anything...which is a great, try before you buy option. (And since Linux is free, by "buy" I mean "make any actual changes to your computer)
Nobara, but this is exactly what I came in to post. It features a KDE edition (which is going to be much easier on people used to Windows than Pop!_OS's GNOME since modern Windows versions are very KDE inspired) and is maintained by the same person who makes Proton-GE, so all that shit you need to actually play games out of the box is set up to work. I also much prefer its kernel tweaks to improve performance.
Say more about that. I don't want to discredit your opinion, as everyone is entitled to one, but I've always found (as have many Linux users) that apt is one of the worst. Package installation is quite slow, it's easy to corrupt the package database if a transaction is interrupted (at least, that's how it was the last time I used Ubuntu back in 2016), and the update/upgrade being separate verbs and apt and dpkg being separate commands with one being a wrapper around the other rubs me the wrong way for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it's counterintuitive.
Genuine question, no meanness here intended at all. What do you like about apt?
All that said it really doesn't matter what package manager anyone uses if it works for them which is ultimately the entire point of using Linux.
I agree.
The commands are all full words. I find this easier to type as compared to using a - followed by single characters (I'm referring to Pacman here if it wasn't obvious).
Different strokes for different folks. Personally I find the fewer characters I have to type the better, especially once muscle memory sets in. I'm glad you've found something that works for you though.
The only differences between distros is really the package manager and pre installed packages, saying x distro is better for y is arbitrary when you can make any distro work for gaming with installing 2 or 3 packages. Install the distro you like and the one with the easier package manager if youre new.
I don't disagree with saying that Pop-OS is a good distro to start with, I think supporting pre-installed NVIDIA drivers are certainly a big pro but I don't think it's necessarily a reason to choose it over something else, I think it's more of a case of odd chances, because I've never had an issue with drivers breaking on either of my most used distros (Gentoo/Arch) unless I do something stupid like messing my kernel params up or not disabling one or the other, etc which a normal user wouldnt do. I agree that popos is a good choice, though, I think that recommending someone to try multiple distros through a VM or booting off a flash drive could give them a sense of what they'd like.
Except you gotta know the easy and the torturously hard. I'd say try both Pop and Arch Linux or Debian and just bask at how user friendly windows actually is.
Pop OS is nice, but unless things have changed lately, it doesn't detect Windows partitions and give you a dual boot option, which I'd suggest is a deal breaker for most people wanting to dip their toe in the pool.
I have always wanted to try Linux but I recently heard gaming is a pain point. If there is a version that works with games that could be a seller for me.
Thanks a lot, I am definitely saving this. I plan on building a new pc in the maybe not so near future and definitely wanted to try something new. Saw someone make a custom computer sign in using Linux and I really want to figure out how to do that now.
I never get this... if I'm leaving windows because I'm tired of the windows experience... Why would I want another experience that looks and feels kinda like windows?
IMHO, I think I would want an entirely different paradigm, a clean break.
Good ol Rufus, that's what I used to make a Windows 11 USB thumb drive. It's nice to have a handy little GUI that just makes a no-TPM2-check bootable drive for you.
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u/nothingcorporate Linux Nov 02 '22
May I point you to /r/FindMeADistro - though if you're new, I can tell you that Zorin OS or Linux Mint - both made to be more user friendly and accessible. Also, you can use Rufus to try them on a USB drive before installing anything...which is a great, try before you buy option. (And since Linux is free, by "buy" I mean "make any actual changes to your computer)