Noooooob here: As title said - I don’t know what distro I should choose. My needs are student stuff like Libreoffice & Videoconferences but also creative things, photo-management and cutting videos. Does it matter at all? Do I have to check for every single program I use or is there a distro that is recommended?
I was planning on getting a Tuxedo with Tuxedo OS, but my neighbour recommended another “no os”-seller and now I’m not sure. I was opting for Tuxedo mainly because of the support since I’m leaving windows after many years^^
(Picture shows the lilac and blueish ports that we had for mouse and keyboard back “in my days” with the words “How old are you” - “Me:” on top - just because this community semmingly requires a picture added)
I’d use a major distro that’s been around a while. Avoids having them vanish.
Does it matter? Well, different package system. Some different conventions. Some different defaults. You can make an Arch Linux machine look identical to a Debian machine look identical to a Fedora machine if you want.
Tuxedo OS is Ubuntu LTS with some minor modifications and some drivers from Tuxedo pre-installed. I use a Tuxedo laptop running Debian just fine. You’re probably fine with Tuxedo OS if you’re happy with it.
Distros are like trying to find the right hat for yourself. At the end of the day, you just need to
poopput on a hat and see how it looks.I recommend something mainstream and kept relatively up to date since you’re trying out both Linux and a number of other open source apps at the same time.
I’d start with Manjaro, Debian, Fedora.
Be sure to try out some different desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, MATE, etc. The desktop environment you use will have a big impact on your overall experience of Linux.
Edit: I’d save pooping on a hat for when you’re comparing Windows versions.
At the end of the day, you just need to poop on a hat and see how it looks.
I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time!
What vendor did your neighbor recommend?
I do think getting a Tuxedo is a good choice, if you have the money for it. New users typically struggle either because they need programs that are only available on other OSs or because their hardware doesn’t work well with Linux. And getting a dedicated device for it, rules out the latter.
If you do go with Tuxedo OS (or another distribution with KDE Plasma as the desktop environment), then kind of the obvious, best-integrated choices are:
You can try these out on Windows or macOS, too.
I guess, it should also be said that you can try out Linux as well, without installing it on a piece of hardware (or making an expensive purchase).
Probably the easiest way is websites like https://distrosea.com/.Younglings.
The keyboard should be twice the size!
And that mouse port is all wrong, it should be 9 pins arranged in 2 layers…
What is this… “mouse” thing? The only user input device I’ve ever used was a keyboard.
use Bazzite, or any other distro that calls itself “immutable”. That’s Linux speak for “it just works, and you won’t be able to break it even if you try”. There are other immutable distros, but Bazzite is the one most likely to have everything you need out of the box.
Also, look at flathub.org and check if the software you need is on there. If it is, then congrats, you’re on the easy path. If not, you might need to use the command line to install what you need from another source.
I theoretically support the sentiment behind this advice, but I - a fairly experienced Linux user both at home and at work - tried Bazzite. I installed it, configured my accounts, ran a system update and rebooted. After a reboot, it was broken.
I’m sure I did something wrong there and likely the situation would have been recoverable, but I didn’t do anything complex, so I challenge the claim “you won’t be able to break it if you try.”
Otherwise it seemed like it would have been a positive experience.
I said you won’t be able to break it, but an update can. Bazzite is an open source project with limited resources, and shit happens from time to time.
However, in cases like that you can always fix it by either doing a rollback (one liner:
sudo rpm-ostree rollback), or by simply choosing the previous working version in grub while the machine is booting using the arrow keys.
I can second the recommendation.
Irun Bazzite on an HP Victus laptop and SteamOS on the SteamDeck.
Both are immutable, although based on different distros.
Sadly an update a few days ago broke the desktop mode on the SteamDeck: the whole desktop was unusable and it wasn’t even possible to properly shut the OS down. Gaming mode was working flawlessly at the same time - huzzah!
Gladly the last update fixed it again.
In all fairness I need to admit that I don’t run the most stable release channel, because I want to have encryption on my SteamDeck.
Bazzite has been running like a charm ever since I installed it.Seperating the OS from the apps by putting the apps in containers instead of having them install files resolves the issue of dependencies for good amongst introducing security benefits. And the OS won’t get borked by apps doing strange things or introducing dependencies that can’t be resolved easily.
Jk, I’m actually just serial port old.
One of my first mice was a 9-pin serial, with a DIN keyboard. PS/2 was such a game changer.
I love that the colors match (except for blue USB 3 and the yellow one that you can use to power stuff when the PC isn’t on)
I have a cutting board I made in shop class that is 43 years old.
It is older than I am 🫠
The Tuxedo option sounds reasonable to me. Personally I switched to Linux roughly half a year ago. Dual boot with both Linux Mint and Zorin. Main reason to choose for those, is perceived accessibility and convenience for people new to Linux. Useful website: https://distrochooser.de/
“How Are Old You” Don’t control the flow of time, sorry
I recently got a Tuxedo machine, and besides their US keyboard layout being weird (two \ keys, one of which should be part of left shift, and I turned it back that way using keyd), I really like it.
The OS is great because it’s (K)Ubuntu but with Snaps disabled by default. Most software I want that wasn’t already installed is available on Flathub through the same program (Discover) that can install from the traditional repository.
Ok since they are in germany and I am as well I hope they can get the german keyboard to work properly^^ Would you mind sharing which one u got?
Idk what “snaps” is - should I learn about it now or later?
TFW I still use PS/2
what does playstation 2 have to do with anything?? /s
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Me: Scoffs in AppleTalk.
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How does this compare to the Tolkien Ring Topology?
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A lot of the software you’ll find on Linux for your requirements are available for Windows too, so you can try them out before you switch, and make sure that they work for you first.
I don’t know much about video conferencing, but Libre Office is preinstalled on loads of distros. For photo management, you’ve got programs like Darktable and RawTherapee that work like Lightroom.
For videos, you can use OpenShot, Shotcut, and KDEnlive. They’re all good for the fairly basic tasks that I do, and from what I’ve read on here, for more advanced stuff too :)
You should choose a distro where you don’t have to do a lot by yourself, since you are new. Another Point is software availability. Since it seems you want to use some specific software, check if its available as a flatpak (in which case the distro doesn’t matter as long as the distro supports flatpak), or if it is directly available in the packages of the distro.
For concrete recommendations: as lembot_0004 said, debian and ubuntu are good general purpose starting points, but since ubunti updates some stuff a bit faste than debian and has a 3rd party driver installer, you might want to choose it if you have the need for it (for example if the current debian version does not support your graphics card yet).
I personally use linux mint, which looks more like windows on the desktop than debian or ubuntu.
Other people here have also recommended fedora, so if you want, you can check it out too.
